NYC Hotels during UN General Assembly

[gwesq]

We're boarding the Whisper on Sept 19, and plan to spend the evening prior at a hotel in NYC.   We have our "Go To" hotel, BUT it is a few blocks from the UN, and that date is during the annual meeting of the UN General Assembly.  Not only are rooms on the East Side hard to find, but the prices are 3 -5X what they normally are. And everything is overcrowded, streets closed off, etc. It's a real mess on the East Side.

 

SO - we have to find a different hotel.  Been reading review after review, and there are so many bad reviews of hotels in NYC.  Many many "In need of maintenance" and "A/C not working." And most 5 star reviews are about location.  Looking for recommendations either on the West Side, or downtown or Union Square area.  NOT Times Square.  We don't plan on Sightseeing in NYC -  long time NYers.  We can Uber to the ship, so we definitely do not need to be very close to the Pier.  Thanks

[riffatsea]

Hi

There are too many hotels that are possible to suggest

I am an x nyrker and I always stay on the west side around Chelsea 

That way my family and friends who live all over can easily meet me for dinner

I have not read bad reviews recently

I tend to use Hilton brand hotels since I collect Hilton points

I'd check thise to see if any suit you

You can see them on a Google map or on the map on Trip Adviser

[njhorseman]

35 minutes ago, gwesq said:

We're boarding the Whisper on Sept 19, and plan to spend the evening prior at a hotel in NYC.   We have our "Go To" hotel, BUT it is a few blocks from the UN, and that date is during the annual meeting of the UN General Assembly.  Not only are rooms on the East Side hard to find, but the prices are 3 -5X what they normally are. And everything is overcrowded, streets closed off, etc. It's a real mess on the East Side.

 

SO - we have to find a different hotel.  Been reading review after review, and there are so many bad reviews of hotels in NYC.  Many many "In need of maintenance" and "A/C not working." And most 5 star reviews are about location.  Looking for recommendations either on the West Side, or downtown or Union Square area.  NOT Times Square.  We don't plan on Sightseeing in NYC -  long time NYers.  We can Uber to the ship, so we definitely do not need to be very close to the Pier.  Thanks

My son and DIL seem to like the Club Quarters Hotel World Trade Center and the World Center Hotel, which are adjacent to each other near the 9/11 memorial . Recent reviews of each are generally good.

[Got2Cruise]

Try around Rockefeller Center. Still walkable to sites, public trans and restaurants but the VIPs won’t be in that area. There’s a Raddison on W 51 and a Hilton on W 54 

[Got2Cruise]

2 hours ago, njhorseman said:

My son and DIL seem to like the Club Quarters Hotel World Trade Center and the World Center Hotel, which are adjacent to each other near the 9/11 memorial . Recent reviews of each are generally good.

This is a good choice but remember the traffic is always horrific with motorcades with the UN. But if you come up Westside Hwy should be fine unless VIPS are arriving or departing EWR it might affect that. 

[George C]

55 minutes ago, Got2Cruise said:

Try around Rockefeller Center. Still walkable to sites, public trans and restaurants but the VIPs won’t be in that area. There’s a Raddison on W 51 and a Hilton on W 54 

Hilton is huge and so we’re the wait for elevators , stayed there a few times , location is good but once we tried michealanglo on 51st and 7th we now only stay there 

[Nitemare]

We've stayed at 15 or so hotels in NYC.  Only one we wouldn't go back to was the W Times Square, due to paperthin doors.  And we had a friend who worked there so we got a great rate.

 

We have been to NYC at least 100 times over the past 20 years.  And only the 1 bad stay

[George C]

7 hours ago, Nitemare said:

We've stayed at 15 or so hotels in NYC.  Only one we wouldn't go back to was the W Times Square, due to paperthin doors.  And we had a friend who worked there so we got a great rate.

 

We have been to NYC at least 100 times over the past 20 years.  And only the 1 bad stay

Surprising W hotels are normally upscale. Worst we ever stayed was the Milford Plaza I believe they changed the name since total dive , it was over 30 years ago , had no major issues with others . 

[GTJ]

On 8/7/2022 at 11:00 AM, riffatsea said:

There are too many hotels that are possible to suggest

This was my first thought as well. New York City is not like other cities. It is huge, and we can absorb so many events that would overwhelm other cities, and do so with most people not even noticing. That the United Nations is hosting a meeting? Maybe some traffic on the east side, bus so what? There is no single event that affects the city as a whole. And what remains outside these relatively small events is substantial. I would not expect any effect whatsoever on hotels in the other four boroughs, and within Manhattan there are simply so many choices, with the number of available rooms dwarfing the number of United Nations meeting attendees. Just choose a neighborhood outside the east side and, outside of other neighborhood happenings, I would anticipate the usual sense of finding accommodations at the ordinary seasonal prices. But to randomly choose hotels in this city is an impossible task, and at best there can be random responses rather than anything systematic and useful. I would say to first choose a neighborhood. Not necessarily based on proximity to sightseeing, and so upper west side, Union Square, and lower Manhattan are all good starting points. Knowing how to navigate by subway, maybe look outside of Manhattan at some neighborhoods not previously seen. Consider if price is important, and if so, consider appropriate neighborhoods. Then just use Google maps or another hotel search service to start searching. All sorts of things will pop up. From there you will probably have more success in finding online reviews all over, more so than any responses that one can anticipate on this discussion board (I would not rely on Cruise Critic other than for hotels that are particularly directed towards cruise vessel passengers, generally on the basis of proximity to port.)

[Nitemare]

13 hours ago, George C said:

Surprising W hotels are normally upscale. Worst we ever stayed was the Milford Plaza I believe they changed the name since total dive , it was over 30 years ago , had no major issues with others . 

It was quite upscale. And we had a high floor and a great view.  But it was built with thin doors and we never went back.  Stayed dozens of times at the nearby Westin, now we take our business to the Sheraton Tribeca whenever possible for the amazing location (near lots of subway lines and the river) and great "elite" acknowledgement

[princeton123211]

On 8/7/2022 at 10:36 AM, gwesq said:

We have our "Go To" hotel, BUT it is a few blocks from the UN, and that date is during the annual meeting of the UN General Assembly.

What is your "go to" hotel? I think that would help us tremendously offer you an alternative. Without knowing your budget, preferences, etc its pretty difficult. 

 

On 8/7/2022 at 10:36 AM, gwesq said:

Not only are rooms on the East Side hard to find, but the prices are 3 -5X what they normally are. And everything is overcrowded, streets closed off, etc. It's a real mess on the East Side.

Even without the General Assembly prices are 3-4x what they were before at a lot of top end places in Manhattan. My assumption is that they are not running at 100% capacity and charging the difference to make up for it although no one would admit to that. I used to live in Tudor City, which is adjacent to the UN, and it not a super fun time to be in that area of town. Most of the major delegations all used to stay at the Waldorf Astoria and Waldorf Towers which consolidated things a little but but with the Waldorf closed for conversion to condos they scattered all over to area hotels and the traffic issues have actually gotten worse. 

 

On 8/7/2022 at 10:36 AM, gwesq said:

And most 5 star reviews are about location.  Looking for recommendations either on the West Side, or downtown or Union Square area.  NOT Times Square.

Since you are on a luxury ship and you mention 5 star a couple times in your request I am going to generalize and assume you are looking for a top property. If you wanted to stay near Midtown you could go over to the west side with the Mandarin Oriental in Columbus Circle.

 

The Equinox Hotel in Hudson Yards a but further south would also work. I haven't stayed here, as its fairly new, but they also recently opened The Pendry Manhattan West near Hudson Yards. The Pendry property in Baltimore is top notch so I would bet this one would be too. 

 

If you still wanted some old school New York vibes you could go further up on the East side to The Carlyle which, on 76th Street, should be just outside of the commotion of the GA. 

 

Ritz Carlton just opened a new property in Nomad. There is a risk that some of the GA shenanigans could spill over here due to proximity and the fact its brand new. 

 

Downtown my pick would be the Four Seasons near the WTC site. As a former New Yorker downtown wouldn't be my first pick but this is a very nice property. 

[George C]

11 minutes ago, princeton123211 said:

What is your "go to" hotel? I think that would help us tremendously offer you an alternative. Without knowing your budget, preferences, etc its pretty difficult. 

 

Even without the General Assembly prices are 3-4x what they were before at a lot of top end places in Manhattan. My assumption is that they are not running at 100% capacity and charging the difference to make up for it although no one would admit to that. I used to live in Tudor City, which is adjacent to the UN, and it not a super fun time to be in that area of town. Most of the major delegations all used to stay at the Waldorf Astoria and Waldorf Towers which consolidated things a little but but with the Waldorf closed for conversion to condos they scattered all over to area hotels and the traffic issues have actually gotten worse. 

 

Since you are on a luxury ship and you mention 5 star a couple times in your request I am going to generalize and assume you are looking for a top property. If you wanted to stay near Midtown you could go over to the west side with the Mandarin Oriental in Columbus Circle.

 

The Equinox Hotel in Hudson Yards a but further south would also work. I haven't stayed here, as its fairly new, but they also recently opened The Pendry Manhattan West near Hudson Yards. The Pendry property in Baltimore is top notch so I would bet this one would be too. 

 

If you still wanted some old school New York vibes you could go further up on the East side to The Carlyle which, on 76th Street, should be just outside of the commotion of the GA. 

 

Ritz Carlton just opened a new property in Nomad. There is a risk that some of the GA shenanigans could spill over here due to proximity and the fact its brand new. 

 

Downtown my pick would be the Four Seasons near the WTC site. As a former New Yorker downtown wouldn't be my first pick but this is a very nice property. 

I wouldn’t stay at Carlyle don’t like location, very upscale, has a great nightclub with great entertainment, Herb Albert was there recently and also Michael Finestein , not cheap but worth the money.