<p>My family just booked tickets to fly into NY the morning before move-in (28th)..does anyone have any good suggestions on hotels in the area that are cheap? We're also planning on booking a car for the weekend so any experience with that would also be helpful.</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>hardworker,</p>
<p>I had a fairly good experience at La Quinta Inn, Manhattan, W. 32 St. (I stayed there for $50 because I went on Ebay at that time and got a coupon for a free night, not including taxes). I see it is now $214 (before taxes) for 2 Queen beds (sleeping up to 4 people) or $185 (before taxes) for 2 people. It is right in Manhattan’s Koreatown area. Really not a bad hotel for the location and with nice beds for sleeping.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if you can do better by naming your own price on Priceline (request by neighborhood, with the financial district tending to be cheaper than uptown). However, Priceline hotels do not guarantee beds for more than 2 people generally. So depends on how many in your party. There is also a Holiday Inn or Howard Johnson in the East Village/ Houston Street area. It used to be reasonable but that was many years ago. I’m not sure what the current situation is. (OK, there is both a Holiday Inn Soho located on Lafayette St. and a Howard Johnson Express Inn on E. Houston and their rates seem to be in the $200 range before taxes.)</p>
<p>I just looked at Expedia and they actually quoted $189 for 2 double beds (extra charge for third person and before taxes) for the Helmsley Hotel in midtown. So it might be worth your while to search via the various hotel search engines.</p>
<p>Is your family planning on renting a car to drive around NYC or to get into NYC? Of course, the former is not recommended since parking is so expensive. All I can say is if you have to have the rental car, look up iconparking.com for the best overnight (24 hours+) parking fees.</p>
<p>In regards to car rentals, I usually use National or Alamo (I think they are one company now) since I find they have competitive prices and I also generally use a discount coupon for 20% off (these discount coupons are available through ebay). I also see that Hertz has a pre-pay rate that is cheaper than their normal rate and $20 off for a weekend airport rental through 9/30/10. In searching, I see that a one day rental for a compact or economy size car is around $115 to $130+ a day from the 2 main NYC airports, JFK and LaQuardia Airport (for the above two companies quoted above, with Laguardia pick up and drop off being more expensive with Hertz). </p>
<p>Not sure what the details are for your trip. This is just info based on my interpretation of what you are looking for.</p>
<p>There’s an Alamo three blocks away from campus, at East 11th and Broadway. Hope that helps.</p>
<p>@hardworker: Here is a link from NYU’s website on area hotels:
[url=<a href=“http://www.nyu.edu/about/visitor-information/hotels.html]Hotels[/url”>Hotels and Neighborhoods]Hotels[/url</a>]</p>
<p>We often stay at Club Quarters when we come to visit. NYU has an arrangement with them so you get a special rate if you mention that you are an NYU student/parent. We have also gotten some pretty good deals through Quikbook.com. </p>
<p>Driving in Manhattan is not for the faint-hearted. I really don’t recommend it unless you absolutely have to. Just take taxis or the subway. My one and only experience driving in to/out of Manhattan (with a U-Haul trailer in tow) was soooo not fun. I still shudder when I think about it.</p>