Hotels in New York

Accommodation is the largest single line in almost any New York budget, and the choices that affect it most are made before you look at a single room: which neighbourhood, and which month.

Before you book

Check the total, not the rate. New York state and city taxes add roughly 15 per cent plus a small nightly occupancy charge. On top of that, a great many New York hotels charge a mandatory nightly facility fee or destination fee that is not in the advertised price and can be twenty-five to fifty dollars a night. It is disclosed, but it is disclosed late.

Rooms are small. A standard New York double is often 200 to 250 square feet. That is normal here, not an error in the listing.

Low season is genuinely cheap. Mid-January to early March is roughly half the price of late September and October. The city is cold and grey and the museums are empty, which a lot of people consider a fair trade.

Short-term lets are restricted. Under Local Law 18, whole-apartment rentals under thirty days are largely illegal unless the host is registered and present. Listings that ignore this get taken down, sometimes after you have booked.

Where to stay

The neighbourhood matters more than the hotel. The full comparison is in the where-to-stay guide, but in short:

Midtown — walk to most of the sights, every subway line, enormous supply. No neighbourhood texture, and the food nearby is poor. Right for a first trip of three or four days.

Hell’s Kitchen — the best Midtown compromise. Cheaper, next to the theatres, and with an actual eating street in Ninth Avenue.

Lower Manhattan — converted office towers with unusually large rooms, quiet at night, good transport, close to the ferries. Thin on restaurants.

Greenwich Village, SoHo and the Lower East Side — the most pleasant part of Manhattan to stay in and the least practical for crosstown journeys. Boutique and expensive.

Upper West and Upper East Sides — residential and calm, with the big museums and Central Park on the doorstep, twenty to thirty minutes from downtown.

Brooklyn — Downtown Brooklyn and Brooklyn Heights are practical and cheaper; Williamsburg has the best food and nightlife and is a poor base for a Midtown-heavy itinerary.

Long Island City, Queens — one stop from Grand Central on the 7, routinely 30 to 40 per cent cheaper, and not charming.

Harlem — real neighbourhood, real food, express trains to Midtown in fifteen minutes, well below downtown prices.

When prices move

Highest: the second half of September, October, and the two weeks before Christmas.

Lowest: the second week of January to the end of February, and the second half of August.

Watch for: the UN General Assembly in late September, which fills Midtown East; the New York Marathon in early November; and any large convention at the Javits Center.

Practical

Ask for a high floor away from the street. Rubbish collection in Manhattan happens at night and it is loud.

Air conditioning in older hotels is often a through-wall unit that runs noisily. Worth asking about if you are a light sleeper.

Most hotels will hold luggage before check-in and after check-out without being asked twice, which makes a late flight much easier to manage.