Holiday change!

[JoM]

Had a call from Virgin at lunchtime saying that the hotel we've booked in New York (well, on Long Island) is actually closing for renovations so they'd booked us into another equivalent one in Brooklyn. I took the details so that we could have a look and said I'd get back to her.

It looked nice but the location wasn't so good (the hotel we'd booked was right by a bridge over the river to Midtown Manhattan) and the reviews were very mixed so I called back and said that we weren't happy about that and what else was available at the same price, as they said we'd have to pay extra if wanted to go to a hotel which cost more. There were just two - one with terrible reviews and the other out in New Jersey by the airport. The next cheapest was £500 more.

In the end we've been upgraded to a hotel in Hell's Kitchen (which was £700 more but at no extra cost to us) so we're just a couple of blocks across from Times Square. There're lots of nice places to eat and drink in the area so it's turned out well!

[JanB]

Good on you Jo

[Kaz]

Sounds good Jo!

[Diflower]

Sounds like you've done well

[saundra]

Ho that's good an upgrade

[meriad]

well done you!

[Osc]

Well done on not accepting the first one unquestioningly, the final one sounds good in a convenient location.

[Gal]

Well done on not accepting the first one unquestioningly, the final one sounds good in a convenient location.

Wow well done you!!

[JoM]

Well done on not accepting the first one unquestioningly, the final one sounds good in a convenient location.

This is the second time this has happened to us with New York. First time was 20 years ago and we had no internet to check out where we were being changed to, just the pic and blurb in the holiday brochure so we accepted it blindly. That turned out well though as it was a gorgeous hotel right on the corner of W32nd and Broadway!

Not sure how often this happens but it's the first time since then that we've booked a package holiday so we have a 100% failure rate at getting the hotel we chose when booking I usually book flights and then look at hotels at a later date.

The one that Virgin were pushing in the first place though isn't one that they usually sell, and seemed to have better reviews for it's house music club nights at weekends than for its qualities as a hotel.

We know Hell's Kitchen pretty well anyway, and the hotel's just a couple of streets away from where I stayed when I went on my own.