Where to get a hotel room in NYC post hurricane

November 10, 2012 12:47 PM

I'm traveling to NYC on business next week, what part of town should I get a hotel in? I normally use Priceline and stay wherever in Manhattan, but I'm wondering if I should avoid parts of the city due to Hurricane impact/cleanup.
posted by puppy kuddles to Travel & Transportation around New York, NY (9 answers total)

All of Manhattan is up and running. There are some buildings in downtown Manhattan whose power has not been restored because of problems with that building's electrical systems, but Con Ed (the local electricity utility) has restored all of its connections in Manhattan.

If you book a hotel located north of 34th St., you will have no problem at all, as those places never lost power.
posted by dfriedman at 12:59 PM on November 10, 2012

Any hotel that is booking now in Manhattan is fine. There are a few builldings in Manhattan that were damaged by the flooding, but they won't be booking.

Power cuts definitely went north of 34th st though on the east side.
posted by Jahaza at 1:25 PM on November 10, 2012

By way of warning -- the MTA's website will tell you that the subway system is 85% up and running but their maps and schedules are a little bit optimistic, a little aspirational. My Friday morning commute featured probably the worst crowding I've seen in 17 years of taking the train, abrupt cancellations, having to wait for three trains to find one that had room, etc.

Normally, the system works well. Right now, however, it's still healing from the impact of Sandy. If you need to get somewhere quickly, you might not want to rely on the subway.
posted by jason's_planet at 1:37 PM on November 10, 2012

Jahaza is correct, hotels that are booking are able to accommodate. But travel to your business destination from the hotel is another issue. If your business requires that you get to the financial district or anywhere near the Staten Island Ferry, subway travel might be a problem; expect serious delays and crowding. Also cabs might be more difficult than usual due to gas shortages. So allow extra travel time inside Manhattan. And do not try to get to the Rockaway Peninsula, Gerritsen Beach, or Coney Island (just in case you were thinking of it). Those are very hard-hit areas, and the only outsiders that should be going there are relief workers and the like.
posted by RRgal at 2:44 PM on November 10, 2012

Virtually all of Manhattan hotels are fine.

With that said, stay on Madison Ave in midtown. Peaceful, nothing major is too far. If you have a generous generous expense account, stay at the Four Seasons, St. Regis, or Trump on central park. Awesome, brilliant locations.

If not that generous, stay at Andaz on 5th Ave. Beautiful hotel, great location. Not cheap, but not crazy either.
posted by Kruger5 at 2:46 PM on November 10, 2012

I would not stay anywhere in the vicinity of the broken crane. It's been secured (inadequately according to one report) and my neighbors are back in our building, but if it's not down by the time I come back I'm making arrangements to stay elsewhere.
posted by brujita at 3:07 PM on November 10, 2012

Seconding brujita about the crane. And keep in mind that anything you do in the city right now will take maybe half again as long as what you're used to. Mass transit is slammed, and that flows down through cabs, busses, streets, and sidewalks.
posted by nevercalm at 5:23 PM on November 10, 2012

I highly recommend the InterContinental Barklay. I only mention a specific hotel because it ws great to stay there and I "liked" them on Facebook. The posted a picture of a makeshift dog park in one of the ballrooms. They took folks in for Sandy with their pets . That deserves support. Plus it's a great price and quite lovely.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 6:07 PM on November 10, 2012

Stay in a hotel as close to your office as possible so you don't have to deal with the subway or finding a cab.

Hotels are all back up, transit is running and taxis are available, so you should be fine where ever you are, but it sounds like you are being sensitive to other people's needs here and staying right where you need to be is going to put the least strain on our systems.
Thanks for thinking of this.
posted by rmless at 7:09 AM on November 13, 2012