Forums › Other › Destination advice › When did NYC hotels get so expensive?
-
I’ve been going regularly to NYC with my wife since we met in 2014, and always stayed at the same hotel.
Considering a trip for May, and when I went to price the Hotel it worked out to >$1000/night even with a promotion on.
I remember in 2014 only paying around $350/night, that then going up to $600/night as recently as Jan-2022, but now am up at $1000.I know that some hotels can have different evolutions, so this prompted me to look at general hotel pricing in NYC and found the same – am shocked to find I struggle to get ANY hotel room in NYC (that isn’t a hostel or similar) for less than $300/night now even for the most basic box rooms with an old tv.
I know that hotel prices globally have shot up in a sort of post-pandemic spending craze, but I feel like NYC has just reached loopy levels – do people agree? Does this also make you feel like looking elsewhere if you’re a regular goer or would you still bite the bullet?
Love to hear thoughts! Mostly so it can help me judge whether I’ll ever be able to go back for a better price!
I think you’ve just hit a set of dates where something big is happening.
Random date, 18th April in midtwon, IHG properties are 250-450. So no more expensive than it ever was.
Prices have gone up overall since Jan. I’ve been tracking boring old Hamptons across mid america and they’ve all risen 40-50/night for my June dates since I started looking in Jan.
I spent 3 weeks in Washington DC and Florida over Christmas and prices for everything have gone up since the pandemic, as well as pressure to tip generously being even more evident. In the Keys, Hampton Inns and similar were commanding prices around $500 pn. Resort fees very much in evidence in all but the most basic properties, with very little being provided in return. That trip was a very good use of some of the hotel points I hadn’t spent during lockdown! I was so underwhelmed with the experience (including silly car-hire prices) I cancelled 3 other trips I had booked to the USA for this year.
Indications are that prices may be starting to come down so hopefully things might be a bit more reasonable from next year.Hotel points are your friend in the US right now. My stays have exclusively been points or Amex FHR since 2021
Indeed – I calculated that the cash price for our hotel accommodation would have been in the region of £10k! The only nights we paid for with money were using the Ambassador weekend free night at The Willard in Washington DC. That’s an extreme example as it included Xmas and New Year but I’m looking for other destinations until they realise in the US that they are just being silly now.
NYC is pretty variable depending on your dates. I go for work quite frequently and at least we’ve got corporate rates in place so we’re protected somewhat. But what I dislike is still paying $100s to stay in a hotel in a shoebox room with pretty much zero service and insane prices for mediocre breakfast etc. But it is what it is!
I actually prefer to stay in Jersey City (I have to go to both for work anyway) – it’s just a few minutes on the PATH back into Manhattan or you can take the boats as well depending on where you’re going.
It’s not just New York or USA. I’ve been looking at Toronto in June and prices are crazy there too. Holiday Inns at more than £300 pn.
I’m fortunate to have a fair bit of flexibility these days so have been booking UK short breaks on week nights or Sundays as prices fall to around half of what they are on Fri/Sat. Staying in a city centre Staybridge Suites tomorrow, great location and £125 for 4 of us, including breakfast.
I thought the same recently, as needed to book one night after a cruise before flying home. Turns out it’s the weekend of the New York marathon, and hotel prices were stupid.
Thanks to a suggestion on here (think it may have been @BJ) we’re actually getting the train to Philadelphia and staying there the night (have changed flights to fly home from there too). Somewhere we’ve not been, so will be good to do something a bit different.
Flexibility is the key and not getting wedded to a particular area or a particular hotel or chain.
Lower Manhattan hotels can be cheaper especially at weekends when there is little or no business persons needing rooms yet all the attractions are still easily accessible.
Brooklyn can also offer reasonable prices as well.
I thought the same recently, as needed to book one night after a cruise before flying home. Turns out it’s the weekend of the New York marathon, and hotel prices were stupid.
Thanks to a suggestion on here (think it may have been @BJ) we’re actually getting the train to Philadelphia and staying there the night (have changed flights to fly home from there too). Somewhere we’ve not been, so will be good to do something a bit different.
Philly is lovely. We had two nights there last year. A bit like NYC in miniature. Lots of history. Lovely old architecture. A great city to just walk around.
Check the Westin for rates. Great hotel, great location.
You’ve used some tough comparisons. 2014 was a £/$ peak at $1.70 or so, so it would be fairer to say that things were unusually cheap in that year, while we’ve just (hopefully) come out of a Truss-inspired trough at near parity. This explains a fair chunk of the price variation and shows that it’s largely to do with exchange rates and the weakness of sterling, rather than US prices being “silly”.
OP prices were all in dollars, exchange rate not the reason.
OP was comparing $ prices though, $350 v $1000 is nothing to do with the exchange rate! Americans are equally shocked at the price increases since the pandemic.
If exchange rates affected anything, it would have been in the opposite direction as hoteliers may have raised prices to take advantage of the relatively weaker USD (compared to other main currencies) in 2014. Just like the present weaker GBP is a minor contributor to the high prices of UK hotels, at least in places that foreign tourists frequent.
We are in NYC now. Rates softened hugely in the couple of weeks leading up to the stay, to the extent that I almost cancelled a redemption night and rebooked for cash. At the end of the day I did stick with points (was still getting above my target valuation) but it made me do the maths.
Even the Park Hyatt was down to $749 – when I was there last May, admittedly not over Easter of course, it was $1995.
We are in NYC now. Rates softened hugely in the couple of weeks leading up to the stay ..
MY experience as well. For a booking I had last January the rate dropped about a month before and then two weeks before the stay.
Hoping the same for my June booking!
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Popular articles this week:
New to Head for Points?
Welcome! We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.
Latest Forum Posts
-
NorthernLass on Adding MAD – LHR to Iberia reward flight booking
-
Alex G on Chat thread – Saturday 15th February
-
Blair Waldorf Salad on Dreadful flight
-
Perkypat on Chat thread – Saturday 15th February
-
Sobeboy15 on Chat thread – Saturday 15th February
-
davefl on Chat thread – Saturday 15th February
-
Sobeboy15 on Chat thread – Saturday 15th February
-
grandeur on Chat thread – Saturday 15th February
-
davefl on Chat thread – Saturday 15th February
-
AJA on Flying to McGhee Tyson Airport from London using Avios ideally or Amex points
Check reward flight availability instantly for free!
Booking a luxury hotel?
Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.