New York City Late Room Booking Explained

Ask any NYC local how to get a deal on a hotel room in New York City, you’ll get as many answers as you people you ask. Everyone that knows New York City also knows where to find a great boutique hotel, or a hotel in or near Manhattan that you can generally get in for a deal (which is under $175 a night when we are talking about Manhattan.  If you don’t need to stay in Manhattan, your options for a cheap hotel deal expand dramatically as you can stay nearby for less than $100 a night in a 3 to 4 star hotel if you do your research and book wisely.  Here are a few tips for booking a hotel in New York City that will get you the most value for your hotel dollar.

You’ll Do Well if You Book a LATE Room in NYC

No matter where you book a room in New York City you will always do well if you are able to book a hotel with late room availability.  The market in New York City is one of the largest hotel markets in the world.  It is affected by weather, conventions, seasonal fluctuations, the local and national economy, and the supply of new hotel room construction coming to market.  Everything that affects the price of hotels worldwide affects New York City, except that New York City hotel rooms tend to be more price volatile and prices can vary considerably form day-to-day based upon the daily demand and supply.  For this reason if you are able to book a room early or late you may get an exceptional hotel deal.  Late booking in New York City might be considered within days or even the same day to yield the best price.

Consider Hotel Hopping in NYC

Also consider that if you’re in New York City for a few days, you can shop around a bit for a better, cheaper, well reviewed hotel and considering shortening your stay at the original booking and moving to a less expensive upgrade that you score with a late room hotel deal online.  A couple of exceptional websites that offer these late room deals are not surprisingly; LateRooms.com and Late-hotel.com.  These hotel booking websites specialize in late room availability and special discount s and hotel promos to move inventory that is just about to expire.  No hotelier wants to let a single room go vacant if they can make a price adjustment in their system and attract someone like you away from their competition down the street because you were wise enough to go online and shop for late hotel in the immediate area.  On Late-hotel.com look for the “Promo: on sale now-special promo rate” near the hotel room price.  This is the indication that these hotels have discounted their rates form the rack rates they would like to get and are aggressively marketing their rooms and especially their late hotel.

If You Don’t Need to Stay in Manhattan

If you don’t need to stay in Manhattan, consider staying just a few miles away at a significant discount.  Much lower prices are generally available very nearby New York City, such as;  Hoboken, NJ with hotels from $149 just 2 miles from New York City, Long Island City, NY with hotels available just 3 miles from New York City starting at about $59 a night, and across the bridge Jersey City, NJ, with a couple of dozen hotels just 3 miles from New York City starting around $69 a night, Maspeth, NY with a few hotels from the low $100 range 4 miles from New York City, and of course Brooklyn, NY, with dozens of hotels that start at rock bottom prices of just $29 and up only 5 miles from New York City.

How Do You Know When it’s the Real Deal?

The old saying “You Get What You Pay For” does not necessarily hold in the hotel business.  Just look at the late room deals in Las Vegas that can be as low as $14 a night for a four or five star hotel.  The hotel is betting that you’ll spend enough on amenities and other in hotel services that they will make up for the loss on the room rental.  When it comes to finding a great hotel room deal in New York City or nearby NYC, the key to getting VALUE, is to read the hotel reviews.  So if you found a nice looking hotel in Long Island City for $69 a night, you’ll want to be certain that the hotel has many reviews and that the reviews are generally highly favorable.  It’s wise to throw out to the extreme reviews both really good and really bad, there are always a few of those as each traveler has a different experience at a different time.  You are looking for what the majority of the hotel guests have to say.  Look for a late room deal in a hotel with dozens of reviews where nearly all of those reviews are highly favorable.  This will provide you with an increased feeling of hospitality, cleanliness, and security, you’ll significantly increase your confidence that the deal is really a deal, and not just regular price for a very mediocre hotel with service or location concerns.