On a recent trip to New York City, I stayed at a hotel that revised my expectations of what hotels are capable of. The Jane Hotel in the West Village of Manhattan is easily the coolest - not to be confused with best - hotel I've ever stayed in.
The hotel is right on the Hudson River in possibly the coolest neighborhood in New York City, so the location alone is worth staying here for. What's truly shocking, however, is that I paid only $125/night, and rates were even lower the weekend prior. In a city that charges $300+ for a Holiday Inn, surely, I assumed, there had to be a catch.
Upon arrival, the doorman, dressed in '20s style bellhop uniforms, opened the door for me. In fact, all the employees were in period attire and all of them were exceptionally friendly. The lobby reeked of nostalgia: oak trimmings, marble counters, gothic statues, and an elevator whose analog dial rotated 180 degrees to indicate its location. In other words, this hotel is the Tower of Terror.
But I've experienced good service and cool theming at many hotels. What set The Jane apart?
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| From The Jane Hotel |
The rooms are tiny. It's not a fact they hide from the customers. Rather, they sell it as a quirk, like experiencing what a train car was like to sleep in. I opted for the bunk bed room. Please excuse the mediocre cell phone picture quality.
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| From The Jane Hotel |
This is a shot from the door. The room is basically a glorified closet, but oh - what a closet. Let's go through Robert's list, shall we?
Free WiFi at Broadband Speeds: No complaints here. The WiFi was free and easily accessible - there wasn't even a password required. Considering I've stayed at business and conference hotels upwards of $300+ per night that only provided WiFi for a fee, this was a nice touch.
High-definition televisions: You bet. In fact, they had one for each bed with personal remotes, digital cable with nearly a hundred channels, and no irritating "home" menu with overpriced movies.
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| From The Jane Hotel |
Free toiletries: Bathrooms are shared and unisex, so The Jane is essentially a high-end hostel. The showers were very roomy and came complete with free liquid soap, shampoo, conditioner, and lotion. As an added bonus, each room included fresh towels, bathrobes, and slippers for each occupant. Oh, and the bathrooms were immaculately clean.
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| From The Jane Hotel |
A powerful hair dryer: These may have been available in the washroom, but I didn't notice. If not, the front desk probably provides them free of charge, which they also do with irons and ironing boards.
Available electrical outlets: I counted at least six, all conveniently (recall the size of the room) located at the head of the bed. Further, the room had an interesting feature I've never seen. Attached to the room key was a long, metal rod that I was instructed to insert into the wall upon entering the room. This triggers the lights, alarm clock, and TV, though the outlets still operate without the rod inserted.
Free breakfast: Unlike Robert, I love going out for breakfast, especially when in a foodie's paradise like the West Village. On a theme park vacation, however, free breakfast is a plus, and this hotel did not provide it. They did have a delicious and unique breakfast menu, however. Avocado butter spread on toast? Yes, please.
Space to dry clothes: This was duly appreciated since I'm in New York for a month on business and I only packed a carry-on bag. I think the picture speaks for itself.
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| From The Jane Hotel |
Free in-room refrigerator: Not included.
Swimming pool/fitness center: Not included. However, if you're looking to stretch, the hotel rents bicycles for free, and the adjacent Hudson River has a beautiful jogging trail. Also, you'll do enough walking in Manhattan to compensate for lost time at the gym.
Large window with a pleasant view: You may receive a pleasant view of the Hudson, though I received a back alley. Having a small room encourages you to actually leave your room and explore. When I stayed in a large hotel room in New York, I was back at the room by 5 pm every day for drinks and TV. At The Jane, I would skip the hotel downtime and go to a local happy hour. The latter option made for a much more interesting visit.
Minibars: Not included. Everything in the room was yours to use for free.
Water bottles for sale in the room: Free bottled water was provided.
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| From The Jane Hotel |
Newspapers: No surcharge for an unread daily newspaper. I read my news online.
Resort fees: There were no additional hotel fees. I paid the advertised price plus tax. I'm unsure if parking was provided for free.
So there you have it. An amazing little hotel that redefined my expectations of what a hotel can be.
Let's rekindle Robert's thread. What do you look for in a hotel? Which hotels have you stayed in that compelled you to write a glowing review or recommend the hotel to your family and friends? What are some of the worst hotels you've stayed at? Note that "worst" does not necessarily exclusively imply a hotel with bedbugs and loud neighbors. A bad hotel can provide a nice room but drastically overcharged prices or a beautiful resort with terrible staff.
Hotels which of done this for me are: Loew's Portofino Bay, Disney's Grand Californian, Disney's Wilderness Lodge
The hotels are always immaculate and desk services / concierge is amazing. 58 days and counting....
I don't worry about staying in Themed hotels at parks, simply because I'm cheap. The rooms within my budget I can find outside the parks for a better value with the same perks. While I would love to stay in the big resorts at times my brain tells me "Why pay $200 a night for THAT resort when you can pay $300 a week over there and have that extra money for goodies? Besides your only sleeping there and storing your crap, not like it's a cruse and your going to be spending a lot of time in your room!" and I always follow that instinct.
I think that's why we can manage as many trips as we do every year on our limited budget (Think college students only working part-time), because we always look for the best deal and will hunt it down to get it.
I just did a quick check on the Universal website. Four two-park Express Passes for 8 days would run $2127.68 (yikes) if I wanted to purchase the same thing we get for free.
The difference is the ones you have to purchase only allow to visit each attraction once where as the free on-site version is unlimited.
I then priced 2 park tickets for three adults and one child for the 8 days we will be there. That came to $1221.92
Add the two figures together and you will come up with $3349.60. Our total for the Hard Rock stay in June was $3170 which inlcudes 14 day Universal park to park and Sea World tickets, unlimited Express Plus, and of course 8 nights at the hotel.
Since I am a glass is half full person, I see the included perks and park tickets costing more than the entire stay, or the 8 day hotel room total costing $-179.60. TH will point out I have to pay to park at the hotel, so let's add in the cost at $24 a day for valet, which comes to $192.
That brings the hotel room to a total of $12.40 for 8 days..... at least in my way of thinking. :)
The Hard Rock room alone with no Express perk or park tickets runs about $243 a night for a Garden / Pool view with two queen size beds. So, yes it sounds expensive by itself, but I look at it a completely different way.
Don't forget to visit the completely revamped Chez Alcatraz in San Francisco. The food thier used to be pretty terrible, but they moved Bruce right next to it. They now have all sorts of tropical shark drinks and scrapped everything else for a real menu.
I am also going to hit the Coke Freestyle machine in Richter's Burgers for a Raspberry Lemonade Sprite. (You can custom make any flavor)
Be sure to let us know how the trip went.
Often we'll check the online deals for months in advance when it comes to tickets, I believe in 2010 we paid around $290 for four day, park hoppers at USO as they where running at deal for those at the time. They also had another perk at the time of doing a 30 minute survey about your trip and what you plan to do would net you free parking for your entire stay, so naturally we did that also.
Everyone just has a different style of travel, perhaps when we're out of college with (hopefully) more successful (or at least full time) jobs we'll change out of our "How to be as cheap as possible" ways but for now they seem to work. Everytime I've priced the resorts out, which I'll randomly do just to check, I've gotten better deals for us staying off property. I wish that wasn't the case but for now that's what our budget allows.
Maybe in the future!
