The Big Apple’s experiencing a cheap hotel boom – cheap, that is, for New York.
Tourists will soon find a host of new, more affordable alternatives to the four-star Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt and Sheraton hotels in the America’s most expensive hotel city, where the average room costs about $300 a night.
Starting next month, for instance, they’ll be able to check into the city’s first-ever Best Western Premier – a skinny tower with rooms that start at 210 square feet – for about $160 a night, excluding taxes. Its four suites, with slanted all-glass walls that overlook historic buildings with gargoyles, will cost about $55 more.
Steps away from that hotel, on 36th Street near 6th Avenue, a Holiday Inn Express officially began accepting guests on Jan. 31. Rates there start at $199.
And right next to the Best Western Premier, workers are putting the finishing touches on a Hyatt Place, the chain’s first property in Manhattan. It’s scheduled to open on Feb. 21. The cheapest rate found on its website for $195 a night.
Jaz Patel, who’s developing the Best Western Premier, didn’t expect the hotel boom on his block – but he welcomes it.
“We did not know all of this was coming” when they bought the land, Patel says, pointing to even more hotels that will eventually rise on nearby sites. “But now, guests are going to recognize this block. They’ll want to stay here.”
These hotels are part of Manhattan’s mid-priced hotel building boom, which has been taking off as the recession fades, hotel rates climb and developers find it easier to get construction financing. Some of the hotels going up were planned five years ago, but the recession derailed progress.
“This is great news for consumers,” says Bjorn Hanson, divisional dean of New York University’s hospitality school. “These are new, modern concepts that have high consumer appeal and great value.”
Read more: USAToday
