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Good Rate, Bad Rate: The Standard or Cooper Square For Labor Day?
[It's baaaacck! Welcome once again to our Good Rate/Bad Rate feature where we look at hotel prices in the same city and decide which one most deserves your hard-earned benjamins. Torn between two hotels? Send 'em to us and we'll help you pick the right one. Rates quoted here were captured on September 1, 2009 and are subject to change. Enjoy.]
If you're anything like us (and our mother), you will wait until the very last possible minute to book your flights for your vacation. Hotel rooms come much, much later in the planning process--often the night before. So it's no surprise that you find yourself trying to book some lodgings for an impromptu Labor Day getaway to NYC.
But why come to New York to shack up in a big-box hotel in Times Square? No, you need to experience what everyone is talking/Facebooking/Twittering about. That's why this week's match-up is The Standard Hotel vs. Cooper Square Hotel.
Tags: Hotel Delays / Hotel News / Tri-Pack Hotel / Budget Hotels / Bad Rate / Hotel Opening Rates / → All Tags
We Can Stop Stalking the Tri-Pack For a While
We've had our eye on the Manhattan Tri-Pack hotel for a while now, waiting rather impatiently for the budget hotel threesome — a Hampton Inn, a Candlewood Suites and a Holiday Express in a single structure — to open. Yes, we know it's just three budget hotel brands we've been to before — but the building is so cool! And it's another hotel in New York — no, three other hotels in New York.
But it's delayed. And an anonymous tipster answered our call for hot gossip yesterday and sent us this:
The real story is that [the developer] has a buyer trying to close who is unable to secure the necessary financing. He has financial pressures and can't put any more money into the project right now - especially as opening the hotel will require working capital to carry for several months. In this market he can't expect to be profitable right away as if it were 2007. He is working to help the buyer get the financing but it is very difficult in this market, especially for such a large transaction (same buyer is buying all three hotels).
Another victim of the economy. Sigh. Our advice: don't make a rezzie at these hotels just yet — heck, right now you can score a room at the Cooper Square or the SoHo Grand for under $200 on Quikbook right now. And those? Yeah, those are open.
Tags: Hotel Delays / Hotel News / Tri-Pack Hotel / Budget Hotels / Bad Rate / Hotel Opening Rates / → All Tags
Manhattan Tri-Pack Update: Shady Opening Dates, Steep Rates
Well, then. Last we checked, things seemed to be coming along nicely for two of the three hotels in Manhattan's 39th Street Times Square Tri-Pack development (the Candlewood Suites, Hampton Inn and Holiday Inn Express going up in a single structure in Manhattan). But maybe we spoke too soon.
The Holiday Inn Express — whose progress was far behind the other two hotels in the building when we stalked the place a couple weeks ago — is taking bookings online before the other two. Its website says it will be taking reservations starting June 1st, but we were unable to book online — and the direct line to the hotel has been "temporarily disconnected."
Tags: Bad Rate / Viva Vegas / Hotel Deals / → All Tags
Hard Rock Offering $59 Rooms That You Can't Book
It's no secret that room rates have been dropping in Las Vegas these days. Gone are the $299 room rates of 2006. Almost every hotel is offering rooms near the $100 mark or less and the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino is no exception.
The hotel has recently been hyping its $59 Winter Special. The only problem is when you go online to book, there are no rooms available for $59 in January, February or March. The closest you get to that is $63 for tonight and tomorrow. The rest of the weekeday rates hover around the $103.20 mark. Some weekends (which the deal is not valid for) even peak at $299 a night again.
And that's not all. The Hard Rock charges a $7 per room, per night resort fee which is charged when you arrive at the hotel. Boooo.
If your heart is set on the Hard Rock, pop on over to Expedia (or another booking engine) where we found a room rate of $69 a night during next week. We also found a room at the Flamingo for $50 next week. And if you're looking for a really cheeeaaap weekday rate, the Stratosphere does have rooms open for $25 a night.
[Photo: Somewhat Frank]
Tags: Inauguration Hotels / Bad Rate / Washington D.C. Hotels / → All Tags
You'd Better Find a Couch to Sleep on for Inauguration
Well, it's official: the situation with hotels in D.C. for inauguration has gotten out of control. Nevermind the absurd packages and the rush of bookings and concern about availability — according to the Washington Post, hotels in the D.C. area have almost no room left for the January 20th festivities by now, and the ones that do have some beds available are selling them for a fortune to the tune of $800 - $1,000 per night. Yes, it would be appropriate to abandon all hope now.
But it gets worse: apparently, some hotels are screwing over guests who already have reservations in place (and have held those reservations for many, many weeks now), surprising them by jacking up prices or demanding full payments in advance.
Tags: Bad Rate / Sydney Hotels / New Years Eve 2009 Hotels / → All Tags
Shangri-La Sydney Not Worth Double Price for NYE
We wanted to complain about the overpriced rate for New Year's Eve at the otherwise above-average Shangri-La Hotel in Sydney but obviously there are enough people out there with cash, because it's sold out. Or let's imagine instead, that pre-economic crash, cashed-up Aussies booked this rooms and are now regretting paying up.
The Shangri-La's special New Year's Eve rate was going from A$650 ($420) a night and up, with a three-night minimum stay and full payment required in advance. Rooms with fireworks and harbor views would have gone for much more than that. Yet for nights around New Year's which are still available, you can get single nights from A$275 ($180) (we found one on December 27), yep--less than half the price.
Paying a ton of cash for New Year's Eve is often not worth it, especially in Sydney--if you really want to experience it, you want to spend the balmy summer evening out with the crowds at Sydney Harbour soaking up that fireworks atmosphere.
Much more appropriate for economic crisis mode, we recommend not even booking a hotel for New Year's Eve in Sydney--check out cheaply on the 31st and then celebrate properly before crashing back into a hotel on January 1. If more people did that instead of buying up big at places like the Shangri-La, the hotels would have to start offering reasonable rates again over New Year.
[Photo: ciarao]
Tags: Labor Day Hotels / San Diego Hotels / Four Points Hotels / Good Rate / Bad Rate / → All Tags
Labor Day Hotels :: Good Rate, Bad Rate For the Four Points San Diego
Those of us who live in Southern California have beaches all year-round to visit so there's never any big rush to the beach over Labor Day Weekend. However, we love three-day weekends so we can be even more laid-back than we normally are Monday through Friday.
And San Diego is a perfect road trip destination in SoCal.
TravelZoo is offering rates at the Four Points San Diego for $130 a night. They are even saying it's $130 off the hotel's regular rate of $250. Sounds good right? But we found an even better rate via the hotel's website. Like, we know!
Tags: Bad Rate / Budget Hotels / Hotels-Near-Times-Square / Manhattan Hotels / → All Tags
Hotels Near Times Square :: RoomMate Grace is Kind of an Expensive Broad
RoomMate Grace Hotel, formerly the Hotel QT, had rooms going for $349 a night on Quikbook for Monday July 21st. Unless, they combined their notoriously small rooms into spacious suites, this is a totally bad rate.
Keep in mind that a "Petite" room is one of the smallest rooms in the hotel, starting at 170-sq.ft. We think it was probably an F Type room under the old QT system.
Granted, it's not a "Quad Bunk" but still for just $10 less we could have a real room at the Benjamin Hotel, scene of the Top Chef filming and complete with anti-insomnia weapons.
Tags: Hard Rock Hotels / Bad Rate / Viva Vegas / → All Tags
Bad Rate :: $919.00 for One Night at the Hard Rock Las Vegas
So we were cruising around the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino's website today, trying find out what dates their "Great Summer Rates Starting at $69" were in effect (June 30th, it turns out).
Imagine our surprise when we saw the rates for June 19th: $919 for a standard king room. Holy crap.
We're all about blowing our money in Vegas, but we prefer to spend our hard-earned dollars on cocktails and slots. [SLOTS, people. Get your minds out of the gutter.]
Tags: Bad Rate / Chicago Hotels / Hotel Indigo / Hotel Packages / Mother's Day Hotels / → All Tags
Bad Rate :: Hotel Indigo Chicago Downtown for Mother's Day
[Ed. Note: Welcome to our Good Rate/Bad Rate feature where we look at hotel prices in the same city and decide which one most deserves your hard-earned benjamins. Rates quoted here were captured on April 28, 2008 and are subject to change. Enjoy.]
We went looking at boutique hotels in Chicago to answer a question. How bad would the damage be if a husband wanted to take the mother of his children away for the weekend? We pulled up the nights of May 9 and 10 and came out better than expected, with nightly rates under $200 before taxes at Hotel Sax, Raffaello Hotel, Kimpton's Hotel Monaco, and W Chicago City Center.
So why is a standard at the sorta-hip 3.5-star corporate boutique chain Hotel Indigo nearly $600 (with taxes) for the entire weekend? (Not per night.) That's more than the Good Rate at Affinia Chicago, without the junior suite, the Asti Spumanti, and the edible chocolate body frosting.
They are offering an "Indigo Indulge" package pictured here, but to call it underwhelming would be too kind. For an extra $20 a night you get a dessert to split and some Starbucks coffee. Couldn't we just buy that ourselves for, oh I don't know, $20?!
Tags: Easter Hotels / Hotel Deals / Good Rate / Bad Rate / → All Tags
San Fran Hotels Get Cheap for the Easter Bunny
So Easter weekend is upon us and if you are looking for a last-minute getaway, fake that you're Catholic and that you need to take off Good Friday for an Easter Vigil and head to San Francisco.
We looked at rates on Expedia.com for Friday to Monday and rates are looking very do-able. Unlike say Miami which is in the midst of a Spring Break/Holiday weekend double-whammy where beachfront hotels are starting at around $550 a night and airport hotels are hovering in the $200 a night range.
The Clift Hotel, which had a very scary incident earlier this month, is going for $150 a night. Since the place got so much bad press about guest safety, we're willing to bet that they are doing all that they can to turn this around. Still, we say women shouldn't travel alone here.
More Bunny-Friendly Hotel Rates after the jump.
Tags: Bad Rate / New York City Hotels / Hotel Hell / St. Patrick's Day Hotels / → All Tags
Bad Rate:: Santa Patrick's Easter Semana Break at Hotel Pennsylvania
[Ed. Note: Welcome to our Good Rate/Bad Rate feature where we look at hotel prices in the same region and decide which one most deserves your hard-earned benjamins. Rates quoted here were captured on March 4, 2008 and are subject to change. Enjoy.]
The odd headline above is to highlight the fact that we've got a high season week to beat all high season weeks this year, with St. Patrick's Day, Spring Break (for many public schools and colleges), Easter, and the Latino "Santa Semana" week before Easter all hitting within one 7-day period. Good luck finding a deal anywhere warm.
How bad will it hurt in New York City, where you can catch the St. Paddy's Day Parade, hit some Santa Semana festivities, and go to mass in a big cathedral?
You're going to pay a bundle then no matter what, but some bad deals are worse than others. Take the Hotel Pennsylvania, for instance, one of those decrepit and sad places milking the high city occupancy rate for all it's worth.
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