Sleep tight in the Big Apple
— -- Huge demand and limited supply have kept Manhattan hotel rates sky-high in recent years, but a sour economy is putting the Big Apple on sale.
In a city where the average daily room rate was about $400 a year ago, you'll find nice lodgings for less than $150 a night, even during the usually hard-to-book Christmas shopping season. Come January, traditionally the city's slowest month, it looks as if a fire sale is starting.
•The New Yorker Hotel in Midtown, fresh from a $70 million renovation, just announced a "Surprise Winter Rate" promotion of $139, plus tax, for room and continental breakfast. The rate is good for January and February, with some blackout dates.
•This week, deal-tracking travel website DealBase.com touted a $129 room at the Milford Plaza with an upgrade to the club floor Dec. 21-28 or in January (a savings of $90 a night, DealBase says). Continental breakfast is included.
•A literary-themed room at the heavily booked Library luxury boutique hotel often runs $350 or more. But it's offering $225 Dec. 21-28 and Jan. 2-4.
•NYC & Company, the city's tourism arm, is continuing a Sunday night promotion via nycgo.com/sundaystays, in which about 50 hotels (including some big names, such as The Plaza, Ritz-Carltons and W hotels) offer 20%-30% off usual rates on Sunday nights and throw in freebies.
For a two-night stay over New Year's Eve, on Thursday, Kayak.com showed rates in the not-exorbitant $300 per night range at three-star hotels.
What's up with the falling prices?
As in other cities, the dismal economy and decreased travel has occupancy, rates and revenue on the slide. Between Nov. 30 and Dec. 6, New York occupancy was down 9.2% over the same week in 2007, hotel-tracking Smith Travel Research says. Rates dropped 14.9% (to an average $348).
Meanwhile, the amount needed for a successful Manhattan "name your own price" bid on discounter Priceline.com is "down substantially compared to previous years," says Steve Nassau, whose BetterBidding.com displays travelers' winning bids in New York and other cities.
For check-in this Saturday, a peak time in Manhattan, Priceline deals listed on BetterBidding.com included $220 at InterContinental The Barclay and $205 at the Hilton Times Square.
"Rates in the low to mid-$200s for four-star hotels may sound high, but for this time of year it's excellent," Nassau says.
Priceline's Tim Gordon says New York hotels are giving his firm "very aggressive" last-minute rates this winter, and he credits more than a slumping national economy.
New York "had benefited quite a bit from Europeans coming over to shop," but that advantage has declined as the U.S. dollar makes headway against the euro and British pound, he says.
What's more, he says, as Manhattan's hard-hit financial industry axes or scales back on holiday parties, fewer party guests are checking into the city's hotels.