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Tags: New York City Hotels / Queens Hotels / → All Tags

Manhattan Hotel Prices Striking a Nerve? Stay at The Verve

Where: 40-03 29th Street [map], Long Island City, NY, United States, 11101

Consider this: Your nice, Midwestern parents are coming to New York City for the weekend, and because you live in the proverbial shoebox, they can't stay with you. And with Manhattan hotel prices as sky high as the Empire State Building, asking your nice, Midwestern parents to shell out $400-plus for the pleasure of being in your company for three nights seems like, well--a lot to ask. So what do you do? Book them in an outer-borough hotel, specifically, in the industrial section of Long Island City, Queens.

How does it turn out, you ask?

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Tags: Manhattan Hotels / Queens Hotels / → All Tags

NYC-Area Hotels: Unraveling Whether The Ravel Is Worth the Stay

Where: 8-08 Queens Plaza South [map], Long Island City, NY, United States, 11101

New York's five boroughs can easily be equated with select members of the Brady Bunch: Manhattan is so obviously Marsha, Marsha, Marsha! and Brooklyn, with its hipster scene and neighborhoody vibe is paramount to Cindy and her lisp--annoying, but also cute on occasion.

The Bronx, with its northern location, is sort of like when Greg finally landed his own room in the attic and Staten Island is the borough we liken to Jan, since it never gets any respect.

Then there's Queens. Very much the forgotten borough unless its baseball season; sort of like how no one remembers any significant story line for Bobby except the episode where he got to play football with Joe Namath.

Which is why we were so intrigued to learn via Bloomberg News that NYC tourists are venturing to Queens, particularly the Ravel Hotel in Long Island City, as a way to be in close proximity to Manhattan without the Manhattan price tag. (Ravel rates start at about $200.)

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