How We Found A Reasonable Rate At A NYC Chain Hotel That Had No Resort Fee

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Finding hotel rooms in Manhattan is always a challenge. The sheer number of options available could easily cause travelers to throw up their hands and roll the dice, taking whatever hotel Priceline picks for them. We’re not that type of traveler. We need to know the hotel we’re staying at, check to see if the hotel gets good reviews and still get to stay there at what we consider to be a reasonable price.

For each trip, there are different factors that give me a hint of where to start looking. For this stay, we were going for four nights. If it was a five-night stay, I’d look at Marriott or Hilton properties because you get the fifth night free on reward stays. If I had the IHG Premier, I could look at one of their hotels since they offer a fourth night free on reward stays, but we’re keeping our Select versions of the IHG cards for now.

When I hear four-night hotel stay, there’s only one other thing that pops into my mind. Citi Prestige fourth-night free! All I need to do is find a hotel I like at a reasonable rate and I’ll get 25% of the room rate charges refunded. Granted, Citi doesn’t refund the taxes or any additional resort fees, so you end up saving less than 25% but still, that’s a great discount for a hotel in Manhattan.

We had to be at the Sheraton New York Times Square hotel so staying there would have been the best option. We’ve stayed there before and were pleasantly surprised with what they offered, but for the dates we needed, their rates were super high. Room rates at large convention hotels can vary greatly from week to week.

The next thing I did was check out prices at places we’ve stayed in the past and liked. I keep these handy on a Google Map. Unfortunately, none of these places had prices I was totally thrilled about, either. Time to expand the search.

When I go to look at hotels on a map, I’ll usually start with TripAdvisor or Trivago. Remember, I’m looking for rates, not reviews cause I’m not so sure about TripAdvisor’s reviews anymore.

Centering around the Sheraton, many of the hotels had rates that were sky-high, but one hotel stood out.

A base room rate of $159.50 per night. Sounds good. I made sure to check if this hotel hides one of those pesky “destination” or “resort” fees but for now, they aren’t charging one.

I shot off an email to the Citi Concierge to book the room. I’m going to miss the ability to make Citi Prestige reservations this way since the least expensive option on the ThankYou portal for the same hotel room cost $150 more.

Within 30 minutes, I had a confirmation of our hotel room, Marriott member rate included. All I needed to do was pay with the Citi Prestige card. My total amount due for the four-night stay, after the Citi rebate, was $586.62. Getting a room in New York for less than $150 a night is almost impossible and one of the reasons I still get value from the Citi Prestige card.

I’ll get more into a review of our stay at the hotel in tomorrow’s post.

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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary