1 for Service, 5 for Price: A Review of Canal Loft Hotel
It’s not luxury, but Canal Loft Hotel proved adequate for a 1-night stay. Photo by: Evan Berman
For the first stop on our trip to South America, we opted to stay in New York City rather than being near the airport.
The review of this uneven hotel stay is a part of the larger South American Adventure. For more on this trip, follow these links:
Flight: CHS-JFK in Delta Economy
24 Hours in New York, NY (This Article)
Flight: JFK-SCL in LATAM Economy+
Osaka Santiago, Chile Restaurant Review
Flight: SCL-AEP in Aerolíneas Argentinas Economy
Flight: AEP-FTE in Aerolíneas Argentinas Economy
36 Hours in El Calafate, Argentina
Trekking on Perito Moreno Glacier, Argentine Patagonia
Flight: FTE-USH in Aerolíneas Argentinas Economy
Flight: USH-AEP in Aerolíneas Argentinas Economy
2 Days in Buenos Aires, Argentina
Flight: AEP-SCL in Aerolíneas Argentinas Economy
Flight: SCL-MIA in LATAM Business Class
Hyatt Place Ft. Lauderdale/Plantation
Flight: FLL-CHS in Silver Airways Economy Class
Intro:
New York is known for many things. The Empire State Building. Times Square. Madison Square Garden. Broadway. One thing that many (rightly) associate with New York is high prices. Unfortunately, this is the case with hotels, both booked via cash and via points. $200 a night in most cities denotes luxury. In New York, that is being a cheapskate!
We wanted to stay in the City, either in Manhattan or nearby in Queens/Brooklyn. The pickings are slim, but the option we selected was Canal Loft Hotel in Chinatown in Manhattan. It was convenient to walk around in the City and the price was cheap for NYC.
Booking:
I booked this hotel through hotels.com. Why? Prices on booking.com and hotels.com are roughly the same. I usually choose between the two based on two factors:
- Portals
- Offers
Simply put, if price is similar, I go for whichever one will reward me more. At this particular time, Rakuten had a 10x offer for hotels booked in NYC, Vegas, and a few other cities. Booking.com was at the typical 4x. Not bad, but 6x on $200 is 1,200 more points for a purchase I would be making anyway.
Card Used:
Next, my Citi Custom Cash Card had an offer of 10% back up to $21 on any purchase at hotels.com of over $150.
Simply Miles:
Additionally, there was a Simply Miles promotion of 4x AA miles on any purchase over $100 on a registered Mastercard at hotels.com.
Finally, I had a voucher for $40 off of my next hotel stay booked through hotels.com. That took the similar $200 price down to $161.52.
Price: $161.52 + $21.55 – $16.15= $166.92 ($83.46 per person)
Points Earned: 1,615 AmEx Membership Rewards Points, 65 Chase Ultimate Rewards Points, $8.08 or 808 Citi ThankYou Points, and 646 AAdvantage Miles
Review:
This hotel was located in Chinatown Manhattan, on the Lower East Side. It is far from JFK (as most everything is), but convenient for going out to the fun nearby bars. When we arrived at 10:40pm, the front desk attendant said “I know that you requested two beds but we don’t have any of those left.” That was a first for me. We opted for a Queen bed over two beds in a shared room. The room itself was relatively comfortable and decently sized for New York.
Value:
As mentioned above, after rebates, we paid $166.92 or $83.46 each for 1 night in Manhattan. That is tremendous value, especially since we got our own room and shower. Additionally, I earned significant rewards and cashback.
10/10, Excellent.
View:
New York is not exactly known for its views. We looked out on a side street, which is a blessing as that allows for relatively quiet nights. To be honest, other than glancing outside briefly, I don’t think I looked out the window once. I’d rate the view as decent since it can be much worse but the view was nothing to write home about.
6/10 Average
Service:
I mentioned how the front desk attendant was less than interested in helping me get the room I paid for and requested. The service was minimal, as you would expect from an inexpensive hotel in New York.
5/10, Poor.
Location:
As usual, my disclaimer applies: this one is highly subjective. If you’re looking to be in midtown Manhattan or in a quiet suburb, this is not the place for you. However, if you want to be near the nightlife and don’t need to be near midtown, this location was stellar.
9/10, Great.
Bathroom:
The bathroom was surprisingly large given the city. Other than the front desk attendant’s misleading comment to pull up on the faucet rather than pull down, the shower was intuitive and provided surprisingly decent water pressure. In short, I was impressed by the bathroom– it was much better than it needed to be.
9/10, Great.
Furnishings:
The bed was adequate. I was expecting a brick, but there was some give to the mattress. While I was not terribly excited by the furnishings, they proved satisfactory for the night. Again, you get what you pay for. If you want a comfortable bed and fluffy pillows, you’d better be willing to pay for that! 😉
6/10, Average.
Electronics:
There was a small TV in the room, though I’m not sure who would watch in the room in which we stayed. The Wi-Fi was more than adequate, though we did not tax it. Since we were only there for a night, there were no Zoom calls or important emails that needed to be sent.
8/10, Very Nice, though if you are hung up on the size of the TV, you might rate this aspect lower.
Housekeeping:
We only stayed one night in this hotel, so this section is impossible to review.
N/A, we did not experience.
Food and Drink:
There was no breakfast, though as you’ll see we didn’t exactly starve in the morning, courtesy of Big Wong!
N/A, none offered.
Overall:
8/10, Very Nice. Was I excited to stay here? No, but the value was evident and the room was satisfactory. Call me a softie but if we had gotten the 2 beds that I requested, this may be a 9/10.
Up next, stay tuned for the flight down to Santiago, Chile and the beginning of the South America portion of our trip. See ya, NYC!
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