Updates in the Big Apple
The latest New York City trends
Every year at this time, I update the “Frommer’s EasyGuide to New York City” guidebook. This involves creating spreadsheets of pricing, hours and more, meaning that I’m easily able to graph the trends that will shape visits to one of the world’s most popular cities. Here’s what I’m seeing for 2018 and into 2019:
Good news/bad news on hotel rates: To track hotel pricing, I use several hotel-booking engines, keying in dates for both the slowest travel days of the year (Sundays in January) and the busiest ones that aren’t holidays (Tuesdays in October). (Why Sundays and Tuesdays? Business travel drives up hotel pricing, and biz travelers tend to have meetings on Wednesdays and are home with their families on Sunday nights.)
This year I found that, across the board, mid-range and luxury hotel pricing had dropped for both high season and low season, sometimes by as much as $25 per night compared with the 2017 rates. Budget hotels also had gone down - at least, when they still existed. In 2017, a number of Manhattan’s cheap standbys closed up shop, either becoming apartment buildings or switching to a policy of accepting only month-long customers. There still are a good number of budget options in the outer boroughs (especially Queens), but those who want to stay in Manhattan now have far fewer options.
And, when digging deeper, I found that a number of hotels are now charging “resort fees” (often called “facility fees” in NYC), and guess what the average cost was for those? Yup, it’s $25 per night. According to the advocacy group Kill Resort Fees (www.killresortfees.com), New York City has seen a 70 percent increase in hotels that charge resort fees in just the past year. So, what’s a budget-conscious traveler to do? Read the fine print before booking, as the majority of Gotham hotels still are fee-free. Also look at digs in Brooklyn and Queens, both of which are vibrant, interesting communities in their own rights.
Higher food costs, limited hours: For those hoping to eat a bit of the Big Apple, sticker shock is on the menu. I can count on one hand the restaurants in my book that haven’t upped their prices. Today, in New York City, an entree for $18 counts as a very good deal. It’s difficult to find “sit-down” restaurants where you’ll pay much less (though I have found some, and do list them in the guidebook). The “City That Never Sleeps” also seems to be dining earlier. Restaurants that once stayed open till 11 p.m. are now shutting the doors at 10 p.m., or even 9:30 on some nights.
Chinese Restaurants Go Gourmet: Thanks to an influx of top chefs from China, the city is having a chopsticks renaissance. Best represented is Sichuan cuisine, with such restaurants as Guan Fu Sichuan (www.guanfuny.com), the Mala Project (www.malaproject.nyc) and Xian Famous Foods (www.xianfoods.com) raising the bar. But there also has been an upsurge in eateries serving the foods of Taiwan, most notably beef-noodle-soup seller Ho Foods (www.hofoodsnyc.com), and stinky-tofu purveyor Win Son (http://winsonbrooklyn.com). The city also is now home to excellent Chinese fusion joints, like Chinese Tuxedo (www.chinesetuxedo.com) and Mission Chinese (www.mcfny.com). More middlemen for attractions: A slew of websites has arisen to help tourists book tickets to museums, tours and other attractions. While the prices aren’t lower than what you’d get by going to the attraction directly, sometimes they offer greater convenience. GetYourGuide.com, for example, has a package that allows visitors to jump to the front of the security line for the ferry to the Statue of Liberty something that the ferry company itself doesn’t offer. Other tour/attraction companies include Viator.com and ToursByLocals.com.
Note to the reader: Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before planning your trip. The information in this column was accurate when it was released, but prices are competitive, sometimes limited and can always change without notice.