November 09, 2006

Manhattan average daily hotel rate hit $304 in Sept.

If it's any consolation, even hotel professionals can't find a deal on New York City lodgings, according to USA Today. The paper says the average Manhattan hotel room hit $304 in September, according to Smith Travel Research data.

From the USA Today report:

Howard Solomon, who manages the 131-room Comfort Inn near the Empire State Building, says visitors have various strategies for avoiding high rates. Among them: staying in budget-priced hotels such as his or staying in New Jersey, where they can save $100 or more on a night's stay. Solomon's hotel is seeing its best performance in 10 years: 95% occupied at around $200 a night, on average.

"As long as the bigger hotels are still $100 or $200 more than me, I can keep raising the rates, because we're still a bargain for New York," he says.

Similarly, Hilton Hotels, which has the luxury Waldorf-Astoria in New York, sees no reason to stop raising rates. The conversion of The Plaza — once Waldorf's No. 1 rival — into a condominium/hotel gave the Waldorf more control, because it eliminated direct competition, spokesman Marc Grossman says.

November 9, 2006 08:36 AM in Hotelology

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