On or off falls? Times square or New Jersey? Hong Kong island or Kowloon?….. What does hotel location have to do with it?

Day in day out I look at hotels and sometimes make judgement calls as to what it is people want for their pre or post cruise accommodation.

My long held view is that the absolute essential for a hotel is the room being clean and tidy, that is rule number 1.        

That for me is closely followed by whether the location in the chosen city is central and hopefully walk able to point of interest. Rule number 2.

Outside of that, like a cruise cabin there are quite a few variables like star rating, swimming pool or not and so on but another thing is when a feature of a city or geographical feature dictates down to what room type you might want.

Now if you look at say Iguassu falls for example there are any number of reasonably priced hotels but how many of them are near to the falls or in the national park? The answer is two hotels, the rest are a long way from the actual falls in Foz de Iguazu and Puerto Iguazu so hardly fitting in with rule number 2 but then very often trips to Iguassu are sold and advertised with these sort of hotels and that comes down to cost more than anything else and an attractive price point.

The two hotels nearest to the falls are the Melia (formerly Sheraton Iguazu) or the Belmond Cataratas which are in the national park. The fact is with these though is that they are often more than 3x the cost of a hotel in Puerto Iguazu or Foz do Iguasu. The main saving grace being that they are in the national park so you get an extra couple of hours a day without tourist buses before the falls open to the public and after it closes. If its a once in a lifetime trip possibly worth it to avoid the crowds. For sometimes an extra £200 a night+ it better well be.

New York is another example of where location dictates price, I stayed in Manhattan when I went and it was worth it, as to be honest we knocked off most of the main things to see in New York in 24 hours (aided by it being memorial day when we were there, so less busy than usual on the Sunday.)

We only stayed 2 nights with one full day to actually see stuff but its a long held and represented view that staying out in New Jersey or just generally not on Manhattan island is actually better for a longer stay as well as cheaper. From friends who have been a lot and the general ease of access to the city I would say this view holds some weight if you are doing 3 + nights.

The amount of money to be saved out here is quite big and Newark for example has a direct train link to Penn Station which we stayed opposite and is about a 15 minute walk to Times square/5 minutes to Empire state and so on. Another advantage and something which is similar to other big cities is that rooms in central New York are tiny and often substandard.

For the price of  fairly questionable or substandard quality 3 star hotel in Manhattan you can get a plush 4 star airport hotel with more facilities and  bigger room than its New York counterpart and only have 

the slight inconvenience and relatively small expense of travelling in to the city everyday.

That’s a couple of examples so what of beach resorts and direct beach access vs hotels a little further away? I’ve got mixed feelings on this one as we once stayed at the Kantary Bay hotel in Phuket which is a 3 star property but again with massive rooms and some stunning views out into the Andaman Sea. The only thing with it is it doesn’t have its own beach directly outside but you are able to go and use the beach of its sister property the Cape Panwa which is beautiful property and you had access to both the pools and the beach here with a quick 2 minute shuttle up the hill. So not always a problem as in this case but for me when you are booking a beach stay I would want a hotel or resort with direct or very close beach access, not a 15 -20 minute walk as is sometimes sold so there we go, otherwise whats the point?

So there’s my tuppence worth after a fair bit of world travelling and hotel stays. There are many more examples with these sorts of conundrums, Niagara Falls for example, Vic falls and Hong Kong and whether to stay on the island or in Kowloon.  For Hong Kong I’ve always stayed in Kowloon but also still wonder whether I’ve been missing something on the island itself but it’s served me well thus far!

Its a tricky one and thats not even getting into the ins and outs of cruise cabins so choose your hotels wisely!