Review of Courtyard Long Island City/New York Manhattan View

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When I started planning a trip to New York City in December of 2023, I quickly realized that hotel rooms in Manhattan weren’t going to be cheap. Even when I found award availability, hotels charged peak rates over the already inflated non-peak prices. I spread out my search radius and found that hotels in Long Island City were more reasonably priced. I am not saying that the rooms were cheap, but they cost what I typically expect to pay when visiting NYC.

In addition, Long Island City looked to be a nice base for a longer trip. It’s a short ride on the subway to Midtown Manhattan while feeling like you’re not staying in the middle of tourist central. It’s also easy to get there from both LaGuardia and JFK Airports.

I booked a six-night stay at the Courtyard Long Island City/New York Manhattan View. Award rates were between 40,000 and 42,000 points a night, and we got a free night for booking an award stay of 5 nights or more. The six nights cost 206,000 points.

The hotel is located near one of the exits of the Queens Plaza Station on the E, M and R lines. It took us a few attempts to locate the correct exit, as the intersection near the hotel is one of the most perplexing sets of crosswalks I have ever encountered.

Hotel Lobby

The hotel’s lobby is very minimalist. During our stay, it was decorated for the holidays.

There’s a grab-and-go selection, which you can pay for at the front desk. However, there’s also a 24-hour grocery store next door to the hotel entrance with a much larger selection and better prices.

Our Hotel Room

The hotel isn’t very long – only 10 rooms across. We were assigned a room at the end of the hall, which was nice as we didn’t have noise from other guests.

Staying in New York often means not expecting a large hotel room. This hotel room was larger than some we’ve had but smaller than others. I wouldn’t want to stay somewhere much smaller when staying for several days. I liked the design while the decor was different for a Courtyard by Marriott. A big plus was that we had a desk and a table with a chair, so both of us were able to work on our computers at the same time.

Bathroom

The best word to describe the bathroom would be compact. There wasn’t any extra space, but it had everything you’d need. The lighting was great and the shower was sufficient.

Breakfast/Bar area

Guests at Courtyard by Marriott do not get a free breakfast benefit. There was a large breakfast room on the first floor behind the lobby, which seemed to be more than was needed for this hotel. This also served as the bar area in the evening. However, with many options in the area, it wasn’t very busy.

Final Thought

I was initially hesitant about staying in Long Island City as we prefer to stay in Manhattan. However, since we have stayed in various neighborhoods over the past few years, staying in Queens wasn’t much of a stretch. In fact, this location is closer to the theater district (just 2 stops on the subway) than some of the hotels we’ve stayed in lower Manhattan.

After our stay, we both agreed that we’d stay in Long Island City again and would return to the Courtyard by Marriott. However, there are plenty of other hotels in the general area, including a Hyatt Place, Aloft, and a Hilton Garden Inn, to choose from.

Have you stayed at any of the other hotels in Long Island City? What’s your favorite NYC neighborhood to stay in?

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