Starwood Hotels has a large presence in New York with 25 hotels in the New York City area and over a dozen hotels in Manhattan and several in Harlem and Brooklyn.

Starwood Hotels in New York range from St. Regis to Aloft Harlem.

Starwood Hotel Brands in New York area:

• St. Regis = 1
• Luxury Collection = 1 (The Chatwal)
• W Hotels = 5
• Westin = 3
• Sheraton = 7
• Le Meridien = 1
• Four Points = 4
• Element = 1
• Aloft = 2

SPG Hotel Reward Categories for New York

• Category 7 (30,000 or 35,000) = 2 with 1 hotel peak season.
• Category 6 (20,000 or 25,000) = 6 with 1 hotel peak season.
• Category 5 (12,000 or 16,000) = 12 with 3 hotels in peak season.
• Category 4 (10,000) = 4
• Category 3 (7,000) = 1

Starwood Hotels New York SPG Rewards Survey

Read More…

New York City is probably the location most impacted by the 2013 reward changes in Priority Club Rewards. InterContinental Hotels Group had a major redesign of its hotel rewards in January 2013 with the change to a 9-category system from 10,000 points to 50,000 points per reward night. New York was one of the best places around the globe to spend points with hotel rewards when the cost of a free night was based on the hotel brand.

Candlewood Suites was capped at 20,000 points per night in 2012. Candlewood Suites NYC Times Square is now 35,000 points per night.

Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express were capped at 25,000 points per night in 2012 under the former reward nights system. The new 9-category system places all Manhattan location Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express hotels in the category 6 tier at 35,000 points per night.

Hotel Indigo formerly capped at 35,000 points in 2012 are now 45,000 points for Hotel Indigo Chelsea and 40,000 points for Hotel Indigo Brooklyn.

Needless to say, IHG Rewards Club bookings using points in New York in August 2013 will require significantly more points at most hotels in Manhattan than were needed with Priority Club Rewards in August 2012 for the same hotels.

Survey of New York City

This survey of IHG hotels looks at two dates in June 2013, a weekday night, Tuesday, June 11 and a weekend night, Friday. June 14, 2013.

The chart below shows the published BAR room rates, hotel reward night rates and a snapshot of the value of IHG points in New York. BAR room rates are non-discounted best available rates. These rates can generally be lowered by 10% with a group membership like AAA or senior discount rates.

Loyalty Traveler Survey of IHG Rewards Club points value in New York City.

Observations:

IHG has more hotels globally with over 4,500 than either Hilton Worldwide 3,900 or Marriott 3,700. This looks like IHG has more hotels in New York Manhattan than any other chain. There are 27 hotels in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and JFK/LGA airports. There are another 25 hotel properties in New Jersey, Long Island and other locations listed for the New York area in a search on IHG websites.

New York City IHG-Brand Hotels (27 hotels)

• InterContinental Hotels = 2
• Hotel Indigo = 2
• Crowne Plaza = 1
• Holiday Inn Express = 12
• Holiday Inn = 8
• Staybridge Suites = 1
• Candlewood Suites = 1

IHG Rewards Club Hotel Reward Category 1-9 Distribution

26 hotels in New York City currently open.

• 50,000 points category 9 = 2 hotels
• 45,000 points category 8 = 2 hotels
• 40,000 points category 7 = 1 hotel
• 35,000 points category 6 = 14 hotels
• 30,000 points category 5 = 2 hotels
• 25,000 points category 4 = 3 hotels
• 20,000 points category 3 = 1 hotel
• 15,000 points category 2 = 1 hotel

New York Manhattan average room rate Tuesday June 11, 2013 = $267. Tax is 15% additional to these rates.

New York Manhattan average room rate Friday June 14, 2013 = $228 or 15% less than weeknight rate.

Manhattan Room Rate Range = IC Times Square $473 to Holiday Inn Lower East Side $198. This city is expensive.

• Average Reward Rate = 34,231 points.
• Average spend for a free night = $3,423 if earning 10 points/$.  Staybridge and Candlewood Suites only earn 5 points/$1. 
• Redemption Value Range = $4.30 to $10.80 per 1,000 points.
• Weeknight Average redemption value = $7.96 per 1,000 points for Tuesday, June 11, 2013.
• Weekend Average redemption value = $6.84 per 1,000 points for Friday, June 14, 2013.

Buying Priority Club points with Points & Cash Reward Nights

The ability to buy IHG points for reward nights at the rate of $70 per 10,000 points gives a fixed value for Priority Club points. Whenever the redemption value is over $7.00 per 1,000 points, then you can consider booking a Points & Cash reward stay for better value.

Example: Crowne Plaza Times Square

• Tuesday, June 11 = $378 rate or 45,000 points. Redemption value = $8.40. [378/45].
• Book with Points & Cash for 35,000 + $70. Redemption value = $308/35 = $8.80. The redemption value of your points improves buying 10,000 points for $70 when booking Priority Club Rewards Points & Cash night.

This same hotel drops in rate for Friday, June 14 down to $256 or 45,000 points. Redemption value 256/45 drops to $5.69 per 1,000 points. In this case, do not buy 10,000 Priority Club points for $70 to book a Points & Money reward night since you are redeeming 10,000 points for $56.90 in value.

Final thoughts:

New York is the most expensive city in the US for hotel stays. IHG has more options than most hotel chains for NYC. The past was great for IHG Priority Club Rewards members who could leverage the program features for low cost reward nights at the numerous Holiday Inn and HI Express hotels in the city. Now most everything is up to 35,000 points or more; increases of 40% or more for many of these hotels in 2013.

I still seek $10 per 1,000 points value when I redeem IHG points. Looks like that value is hard to find in New York City these days with redemption value in the $7 to $8 range. Prices are high in New York City and the redemption value is reasonable with IHG points.

There are many IHG hotel options and points can save quite a bit of cash on a New York getaway.

New York Hotel Reward Value Surveys:

HHonors Reward Analysis New York 2013

Hyatt Reward Analysis New York area

Choice Privileges reward analysis in New York metro area

Best Western Rewards Analysis New York and Atlanta

Hyatt Gold Passport in New York reveals the variability in the value of points as room rates wildly fluctuate from week to week and weeknights to weekends. There are six Hyatt properties currently open in Manhattan and the new Hyatt Times Square New York scheduled to open later in 2013. The Hyatt Regency Jersey City is also included with Manhattan hotels due to close proximity. One survey looks at seven hotels in Manhattan and Jersey City separately.

Another 15 Hyatt brand hotels are located within 50 miles of New York City in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut. These hotels are grouped together in a separate survey since the room rates and reward rates are substantially lower than Manhattan hotels and provide an alternative hotel option for travelers without the cash or points to stay in Manhattan.

Read More…

Choice Hotels are an astounding collection in terms of the number of hotel properties globally with over 6,000 hotels. A search of New York, New York returns 61 hotels, a Rodeway Inn in the Bronx not yet open. A search of Los Angeles area returned 60 hotels with data to be shared in a separate post. There is plenty of choice with Choice Hotels.

Choice Hotels have a far lower price point as a brand in the New York metropolitan area than the big Manhattan focused brands of Hyatt, Starwood, Hilton, IHG and Marriott.

Hilton had one hotel out of 24 hotels in Manhattan with rates under $300 for dates I checked in May.

Choice Hotels had no properties over $300 and only 3 hotels over $200 per night for Saturday night this weekend when I checked day of arrival bookings. The average room rate for day of arrival booking for 60 hotels was $127. Hotels only in Manhattan (13 hotels) had a $170 average rate.

Only 1 of 60 Choice Hotels in the New York area was unavailable for booking with points.

Choice Hotels are properties where TripAdvisor helps to choose the better locations. The nature of brands like EconoLodge and Rodeway Inn are low cost hotels in places where there is demand for hotel rooms, but not much interest in building an upper-upscale property in that location.

Choice Hotels in New York Reward Analysis

Choice Hotels Room Rates and Choice Privileges Reward Night Observations

7 Ascend Collection Hotels in New York area. This is a major source of properties in the Ascend Collection brand for independent boutique hotels.

Union Hotel, one of the Ascend Collection hotels is actually in Brooklyn. I wondered if the $79 rate was a mistake? TripAdvisor ratings for Union Hotel Brooklyngive a range of opinions with the largest proportion of ratings in the “Terrible” category, yet with a higher combined rating for Excellent and Very Good. Mostly complaints about the really small room size.   

Choice Privileges takes $3,000 in hotel spend to earn the base points for the top properties in Manhattan at 30,000 points per night.

Hilton Hotels in New York City require $4,000 to $6,000 earning 15 points/$1. Most HHonors brand hotels in New York are 70,000 or 80,000 points per night.Lowest priced Hilton is currently 60,000 points per night in May and that is equivalent to $4,000 in hotel spend at 15 points/$1. HHonors members can double their earn rate of Hilton HHonors points with HHonors American Express Surpass and elite status.Choice Privileges Visa card members earn 5 points per dollar at Choice Hotels. Choice Privileges Diamond members (40 nights) earn 50% bonus points as an elite member. Choice Privileges members can earn 20 points per dollar for hotel stays, plus any bonuses like the current unlimited earning of 8,000 points every two hotel stays through May 15, 2013.

Choice Privileges offers 8,000 points after two stays. This bonus points promotion can be done for under $150 in most locations around the USA.

Price of earning 16,000 points during the 8,000 points for 2 Stays frequent promotion is reduced to $300 to $400 rather than $1,600 as shown in the table above.

Free nights are potentially earned much faster with Choice Privileges than most other hotel loyalty programs in the upper-upscale market segment of New York.

New York is a glamorous place to be in the center of Manhattan in a high style hotel room. But not if $600 per night is going to bust your credit card limit.

I personally avoid New York conferences for business trips due to the high cost of hotels. Choice Hotels looks like a more reasonable alternative to the upscale loyalty programs for actually paying the published room rates for a stay in NY, especially with the 2 stays = 8,000 points promotion.

Choice Privileges Hotel Rewards Distribution in LA and NY.

I am looking at Choice Hotels more closely right now as I plan May travel through Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico and see stretches on the map where the Choice Hotel option is the only option for 50 miles. I wondered what the relative distribution of hotel rewards was along the categories and I quickly mapped out Los Angeles and New York. Choice Hotels does not offer a list of hotels by reward category and the Choice Privileges program uses seasonal rates. Hotels can shift from 8,000 to 25,000 points per night depending on the season.

These two cities with 120 hotels are 2% of the Choice Hotels 6,000 properties.

Los Angeles Area = 60 hotels.

Reservation date checked, Saturday, April 13, 2013.

• 6,000 points = 2 hotels in Azusa and Anaheim (3%)
• 8,000 points = 15 hotels (25%)
• 10,000 points = 7 hotels (12%)
• 12,000 points = 10 hotels (17%)
• 16,000 points = 14 hotels (23%)
• 20,000 points = 7 hotels (12%)
• 25,000 points = 4 hotels (7%)
• 30,000 points = 1 hotel (Santa Monica) (1%)

New York City area = 60 hotels.

Reservation date checked, Saturday, April 13, 2013.

• 6,000 points = 0 hotels
• 8,000 points = 3 hotels (5%)
• 10,000 points = 3 hotels (5%)
• 12,000 points = 3 hotels (5%)
• 16,000 points = 10 hotels (17%)
• 20,000 points = 14 hotels (23%)
• 25,000 points = 9 hotels (15%)
• 30,000 points = 18 hotels (30%)

20% of Choice Hotels in LA are 20,000 points or higher per reward night compared to 68% of Choice Hotels in New York.

New York City saw a blistering rise in the points price for HHonors Standard Rewards with the March 28, 2013 changes. Many hotels that were 50,000 points per night are now 80,000 to 95,000 per night.

New York City was the first U.S. city to make a striking comeback in room rates following the 2008-2010 hotel recession. At one point nearly all the hospitality industry gains in the U.S. were coming from New York and a couple other cities. New York room rates are back up in the $400 range for an upper upscale hotel and even Hampton Inn is fetching that rate after taxes in Manhattan.

DoubleTree Suites New York Times Square is a hotel rising from 50,000 to 95,000 points per night as a new HHonors category 10 hotel reward. Hilton Times Square goes from 50,000 points as a Category 7 to 80,000 points peak season in may as a category 9 hotel in the new rewards system.

The Waldorf-Astoria is 80,000 points per reward night for the historic flagship property of Hilton’s luxury brand while the hotel charges a $459 room rate.

And the Hampton Inn Times Square North is also 80,000 points per Standard Reward night at Hilton’s upper midscale brand with a $359 rate.

New York lights up the topsy-turvy world of the new Hilton HHonors rewards.

New York is the fifth city in my five U.S. cities survey of Hilton HHonors rewards following the March 28, 2013 changes to the loyalty program. Read More…

Westin New York Grand Central held a grand opening celebration last week after a $75 million renovation. The new hotel has 774 rooms and a 3,000 square foot workout center which far exceeds the size of the small workout rooms I saw last month at Westin Times Square and W Union Square.

Big wigs like Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Starwood executives along with hotel owner executives from Host Hotels attended the ribbon cutting.

Ben Folds Five played a private performance at the hotel as an SPG Moments member opportunity. 

Westin New York Grand Central

• 774 rooms over 300 sq. ft.
• 11 one-bedroom suites
• 1 three-bedroom Presidential Suite
• SPG category 5 at 12,000 or 16,000 points per night.

Grand Opening Special Rate October 1, 2012 – March 31, 2013

Welcoming Guests with Special Opening Offer

In celebration of the Grand Opening, The Westin New York Grand Central is extending a special limited-time offer available from October 1, 2012 – March 31, 2013, which includes 10% off best available rates and daily complimentary in-room breakfast for two. Hotel rates start at $269. www.westinnewyorkgrandcentral.com/grandopening

$186 per night for Dec 21-25, 2012, but the rate details do not have any reference to complimentary breakfast.

Source: Starwood Hotels news (Oct. 12, 2012)

Ric Garrido, writer and owner of Loyalty Traveler, shares news and views on hotels, hotel loyalty programs and vacation destinations for frequent guests. You can follow Loyalty Traveler on Twitter and Facebook and RSS feed.

Last month I stayed at the W New York Union Square. I am happy to report that no young republicans harassed or assaulted me. I didn’t even notice any condoms in my room – used or new.

Lindsay Lohan news stories this week showing the outside of a familiar looking hotel triggered my recall that I had not yet written about the W New York Union Square where I stayed two nights, FOR FREE, courtesy of SPG Amex Stars gig to attend New York Fashion Week.

The W New York Union Square hotel is one I enjoyed for a nice room in a century old building with a great location for a New York tourist.

W New York Union Square seen from Union Square.

The hotel address is 201 Park Avenue South and the cross-street is East 17th Street.

Obviously I was mistaken when I stated after my trip to New York the week before that I walked a half-marathon around Manhattan and never crossed east of 5th Avenue to the E Streets of Manhattan. I had walked by the W Union Square a week earlier when I snapped this photo of the hotel from Union Square. Read More…

Reader Alert: Make it through this post and you will find out how to enter a Loyalty Traveler contest for a $250 American Express giftcard courtesy of SPG American Express.

Anyone who knows me would likely say I am the least qualified person to be writing about fashion week. I did put on a pair of pants for the show which is something I am reluctant to do when the temperature is over 65 degrees. It was 75 in New York.

I am definitely qualified as a leading candidate for an Extreme Makeover. Too bad designer Rachel Zoe was not my childhood friend. As an 8 year old she said she tired of a family friend who never wore anything but soccer outfits and she went to his house and planned his outfits for better style. Read More…

Reaching the Circle Line Sightseeing Cruise boats from Pier 83 New York at West 42nd St and 12th Avenue is an easy 10 to 15 minute walk from Times Square subway station.

Disclosure: This was a complimentary trip for me as Loyalty Traveler. I played the media card, but I certainly recommend this cruise as a good value for $38 ($5 online discount available for $33 adult ticket).

Part 1 is here: Circumnavigating Manhattan Island on Circle Line Cruise

The 3-hour Circle Line cruise begins with a trip south along the Hudson River bordering west side Manhattan, past Chelsea Piers and out to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty before swinging back to the East River and Brooklyn.

Read More…

Circle Line 42 operates New York City sightseeing cruises from West 42nd Street and 12th Avenue on Pier 83 in midtown Manhattan. Last April I met Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises representatives in Los Angeles and they said look them up when I came to New York. This was actually the first time I approached a company to ask for a complimentary media trip. So I didn’t pay the $38 cruise ticket cost for a 3-hour full island Manhattan tour, but I certainly can recommend it as a great idea for a New York City excursion if the weather is right. This was a great way to see New York City and get a feel for the layout of the geography with the five different boroughs and regional geology.

The weather was forecast to be gorgeous for my cruise. Clear skies, mid-70s and a 10am morning time cruise in relatively low humidity compared to my stay last week in New York when it was 90 and humid.

Read More…