Priceline Hotel: 4* New York City (Central Park South) Renaissance Hotel 57

[stlfan62]

A little more than I had hoped, but still within my acceptable range. I have a room at the Westin on 43rd & 8th for Thu and Fri, and needed to tack on a Wed night stay. The Westin could not accommodate for less than $730 (yikes!), so I just started bidding and adding zones as needed. Location is not a big deal to me as long as I'm in Manhattan, but wanted at least a 4-star hotel.

I know zero, zip, nada regarding this hotel, but I see the word "boutique" tossed around in descriptions, and I know what that means.

PS Launched my PRICELINE session via the BetterBidding link!

[yellowdog]

Congratulations on your success!

Thanks for using the PRICELINE links on the board to begin your bidding :)

We hope you're satisfied with the outcome and will like the Renaissance.

I'm sorry but I can't help you with any information about the hotel since I don't know anything about it.

Enjoy your stay.

Yellowdog.

[thereuare]

Reviews used to be very mixed, mostly due to the small rooms at this property, but have improved lately (but since the room size can't be changed i'm assuming service levels have improved).

You're also near my often recommended Ess-A-Bagel (Third Ave at 51st St) which has one of the best bagels in the city, makes for a nice, and relatively inexpensive, breakfast among local NYers.

Enjoy your stay.

[stlfan62]

This turned out to be a great win for me. Since this was a last-minute reservation, I called the hotel directly to make sure everything was cool. It was, but the room that I had been assigned had only a double bed. There's no place to specify bed size in PRICELINE, and I guess a double (AKA full, AKA not-very-big) bed is seen as fit for 2 adults. I was a little bummed out about this, but wasn't completely without options.

When my wife and I checked in, I simply asked the kind young woman (Nicole) if there was any chance I could get a room upgrade with a bigger bed. I knew this was a "boutique" hotel and maybe there weren't a lot of (any?) rooms with queen beds, but it costs nothing to ask, right? Nicole did a little checking, and I was offered an upgraded room, with a queen bed, for no additional charge. It gets better. There are 3 rooms in the entire hotel that have recently been completely re-renovated (the rooms were renovated quite some time ago, but these 3 were done over more recently). I was told it was larger, with a larger bathroom, and the dark paneled walls had been replaced with brighter colors, etc. Bottom line: Excellent room! Still on the small side compared to the "corner king" we had at the Westin for subsequent nights, but the bathroom was actually *larger* than that of our Westin room! Huge shower stall, decent amount of counter space, etc. All Nicole asked is that we fill out a comment sheet at the end of our stay to provide feedback on the renovated room. If I could guarantee getting that room, I'd stay there again in the future.

Also: Great little roof-top bar with spectacular view of the Chrysler Building.

[yellowdog]

Thanx for the update!

Good to see that you enjoyed your stay.

Yellowdog.

Please use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your purchases and searches.