<B>Staying In NYC For Less</B>
By Robert Selwitz
While rates and occupancies at New York's most popular hotels frequently soar past city averages, there is some relief available for those willing to venture somewhat away from the properties everyone knows.
Try booking one of the numerous, moderately priced alternatives, many of which have been built, renovated or resuscitated out of former, undesirable sites. While locations and rates vary, all enable laptop usage, feature easy transportation options and save corporations a significant sum of money.
The Empire Hotel Group's seven locations meet these criteria, with rates averaging $150 per night, and rarely breaking the $200 barrier. They include, the 250-room Lucerne, 400-room Belvedere, 20-room boutique Carnegie, 160-room Travel Inn, 110-room Hotel Newton, 120-room Riverside and 50-room Americana Inn.
Another hotel group with mostly moderate rates is Apple Core Hotels. Its repertoire includes the recently opened 172-Room Red Roof Inn, the 176-room Best Western Manhattan, 79-room Comfort Inn Midtown, 193-room Quality Hotel & Suites Midtown and 95-room Quality Hotel East Side.
Then there is the 1,709-room Hotel Pennsylvania, which features four completely renovated floors, access to a new business center and 30,000 square feet of meeting space.
Hospitality House, billed as New York's first bed and breakfast, offers 36 one- and two-bedroom apartments with kitchens at rates between $175 and $275 per night. Accommodations are much larger than standard hotel fare, with one-bedroom locations around 700 square feet, with two bedrooms featuring 1,200 square feet.
Directly across the street from the American Museum of Natural History and the new Rose Center Planetarium is the totally renovated, 196-room Excelsior Hotel. All rooms feature fax machines, two-line telephones with dataports and voicemail. Also, most rooms have computers with Internet access, e-mail and T-1 lines.
Meanwhile, the 25-room Chelsea Inn occupies two renovated 19th century townhouses, and has rooms that are available in the $150 range.
The 116-room Howard Johnson is a newly renovated hotel located near Macy's, Madison Square Garden and the Empire State Building. The hotel has a parlor lounge, free breakfast and Internet hook-ups available at $9.95 per night. Single rooms are priced in the $150 range.
The Washington Jefferson Hotel is a basic economy hotel, located midtown near the theater district. The hotel, at 318 West 51st Street between Eighth and Ninth avenues, is near many restaurants and shops. Its 260 rooms, with rates starting just under $100, include dataport links.
The 96-room Comfort Inn, meanwhile, is a European-style hotel situated on a quiet street, yet it is quite close to Lincoln Center and the nightlife along Columbus Avenue. Priced in the $110 range, rooms feature Internet access upon request.