Hotwire Hotel: 3* New York City (Downtown - SoHo) Holiday Inn Express Wall Street

[purplelotus]

Won this hotel last night. Amenities are free breakfast, free internet, business center, hi-speed internet, fitness center and a bunch of accessible stuff -- blind, deaf, wheelchair, path of travel, bathroom, in-room accessibility (whatever that is)-- and handicapped parking. Total cost was $1180.17 -- room ($945.00), taxes ($200.07) and fees ($35.10). Am reasonably satisfied.

Was pretty sure it was this hotel from Better Bidding website (thanks a lot), Trip Advisor rating (3.5/5), and Hotwire reviews so investigated before I booked. Comments generally good, especially good service, although rooms are small. Noticed there were no reviews since Hurricane Sandy so I called the phone number before booking and was redirected to a Holiday Inn near Madison Square Garden. I found out the hotel is still closed -- damage to the boilers in the basement and first floor -- and will reopen in mid-April so hopefully it will. And I hope the staff is the same although I think that is highly unlikely given the amount of time that has passed.

Booked my airfare almost 2 weeks ago and saw nothing even close to this price on either Hotwire or Priceline Express (or any hotel website) so I thought I'd maybe wait until last minute. This was about the maximum I wanted to pay although I would have liked a 4*. I did lowball bids on Priceline on 3/26 ($115 for 4* in several Manhattan areas, but all were rejected. If I didn't get something, I'd just cancel the trip (airfare on Southwest so could reuse funds). The hotel is no longer available today. There's a different 3* for $183. Cost on Holiday Inn website is $229 (AAA). Prices in New York seem higher this year. Last year I got a Hilton Garden Inn for 8 nights including Memorial Day weekend for about $137/nt (no fees either so actually lower price) on Hilton's website, and I got free breakfast with my gold card and heaps of Hilton points. This year Hilton hotels start around $235/nt. We're unwilling to change hotels -- too much of a hassle and time consuming so splitting is not an option.

Speaking of fees and taxes, the taxes Hotwire calculated are much higher than I would pay had I booked a $135/nt hotel. Tax rate in NYC is slightly less than 15% plus $3.50 per day. This would be only about $165 versus the $200 they listed. That plus the $35 fee adds about $10/nt. This seems like a lot higher than they have charged in the past. Has anyone else noticed this? I noticed the same thing on Priceline Express, eg, high taxes and fees, which added about $10/nt.

Used Better Bidding link.

[AaronJB]

Congrats on your success. :)

Nice deal for the busier Spring season, especially for a longer stay.

Thank you for sharing your win and using the site's PRICELINE or HOTWIRE links to start your purchases and searches.

Enjoy your stay.

[purplelotus]

Hotel was fine. It had reopened in April. Room was small as others noted, but this is typical of New York. Lots of maintenance problems in room, eg, no clock, one phone didn't work, no double latches on doors, etc, but problems were fixed very quickly. Breakfast was typical for hotels of this level, i.e., items not that healthy -- limited fruit, sugary cereals, packaged bread items, bacon or sausage, etc. They did have hard-boiled eggs. Fortunately there was a fruit vendor a couple of blocks away and a grocery store about 4 blocks away so we bought healthy bread and cereal and fresh fruit. Good location near subway, bus, and lots of reasonably-priced (and healthy) restaurants. Room not vacuumed properly although manager offered to do it herself. However, I didn't want it vacuumed when I was in room.

After seeing what other people paid, this turned out to be a very good deal. Hotel was sold out several nights we were there.

[AaronJB]

While there were some issues, glad to hear that the hotel was satisfactory overall.

Thank you for using the board's HOTWIRE or PRICELINE links to start your purchases and searches.