Hotel

GENERAL HOTEL TIPS

• Reserve your hotel in advance as soon as you have your airline tickets. This should prevent you from having any surprises.

• Some hotel rooms include a small refrigerator. To save money, buy snacks, cereal, milk (i.e., breakfast stuff), juice, and cokes immediately upon arrival and store them in your hotel room.

• You absolutely MUST have a phone in the room with voice mail. Don't compromise on this feature or you will regret it!

HOTEL WOLCOTT

http://www.wolcott.com 4 West 31st Street New York, NY 10001 (Between 5th Avenue and Broadway) Tel: 212-268-2900 Fax: 212-563-0096 Area Around Hotel Wolcott My Map

Hotel Wolcott is definitely a bargain for New York.  I stumbled across it by accident and stayed there every night but one while in NYC.  The rooms are comfortable and the staff is very nice. The coolest part of the hotel is the lobby, a throwback to the grand hotels of another era. It has intricate molding and friezes that complement the two-story room well.

The hotel is convenient to restaurants (Subway, Dunkin' Donuts, Taco Bell, Baskin Robbins, McDonald's, and deli/grocery stores), newsstands, movie theaters, the subway, the Manhattan Mall (a multi-storied shopping mall), Broadway and Seventh Avenue bus lines, Midtown businesses, K-Mart, Kinko's, and Penn Station. Time Square is eleven short-blocks north of the hotel.

• The rate between January 12 and February 28, 1999 was about $100/day plus 13.25% tax plus $2 tax or $115/day. The rate changes depending on the season. Check the Hotel Wolcott web site for current rates. Remember that if you are checking on the prices of other hotels, unless otherwise specified, hotel rates do NOT include the taxes.

• A desk, private bathroom, cable TV, and a telephone with voice mail are in every room.

• Refrigerators are in some but not all rooms (and sometimes the refrigerators do not work).

• Local calls are 90 cents for the first minute and 5 cents for each additional minute. Use your calling card for long distance calls to avoid expensive charges.

• There is a $2 per page fax machine behind the lobby desk. Give your room number to the person sending you a fax so that you can have it billed to your room. Remember, though, your room number is how you get your key (be careful). Ask the desk clerk for a cover page to send a fax to someone.

• There is a small convenience store that has an entrance inside the lobby. You can buy drinks and snacks at this store.

• There is a laundry room with a few washer and dryer machines at the hotel. It is located in the small basement room at the bottom of the stairs on the left-hand side of the lobby while facing the desk. The room is safe since it is well-lit, has no external exits, and in sight distance of the lobby. The load sizes are standard at $1.25/washer load and $1.25/dryer load (quarters only). Detergent is available in the convenience store next to the hotel. However, it is probably easier and cheaper just to bring a container of your favorite kind with you.

• There is a $1-per-12-ounce-can coke machine in the area at the bottom of the same stairs as described for the laundry room. There is also a snack machine with normal prices and selections near the coke machine.

• There are lockers in a room to the right of the lobby while facing the desk. These are useful if you need to check-out before your flight but you still want to wander around the city. The doors take quarters only for prices of $1 for the large lockers (fits a normal size, hard-side Samsonite; soft-side of the same size; and a small rolling bag) and 50 cents for the small lockers (fits maybe a normal suitcase and a light backpack). I forgot to record the prices of these lockers but I know the $1 price for the large locker is correct and 50 or 75 cents is correct for the small locker. There is also a second locker room with small lockers to the left side of the lobby.

• There are brochures about New York next to the elevators in the lobby.

• Leave your room key at the desk when going out of the hotel. When you return to the hotel, just ask for room so-and-so. The desk clerk will ask you your name to check against the room receipt. The reason for this practice is that the hotel does not want lost keys floating around NYC.  This is not an unusual practice in NYC.

• One side of the hotel faces the Empire State Building (you have to look up about 90 stories!).  Ask the staff if they have one available.

CLARION HAMPSHIRE HOTEL

The Clarion Hampshire Hotel (formerly the Hampshire Broadway Hotel) is also pretty good although Hotel Wolcott is nicer and in a little better part of town. The rates on the Clarion Hampshire Hotel are about the same as Hotel Wolcott.  I don't have much information about the hotel since I only spent one night there.

HINTS

Try the Yahoo:NYC:Lodging listings for more hotels in NYC.  The few tips that I have for picking hotels are:

• Get recommendations from friends and family.

• Consult good travel guides, such as Frommers and Fodors.

• Expensive is not always better.

• Well-known chain hotels are generally a good pick.

• You should select a hotel only in Manhattan.

• These are some safe areas to stay in Manhattan:

1. Times Square (NYC has cleaned up the area considerably; Disney is building a new hotel in the area)

2. Midtown (Generally gravitate toward the center of the island; 30th Street to 60th Street and Lexington Avenue to Eighth Avenue is a good area to stay)

3. Financial District (Southern tip of Manhattan; the area has safe hotels but becomes deserted at night; very little night life)