Hotel stay in Hong kong

[PurpleSquirrel]

I'm travelling to HK last week of October.
All the hotels are ridiculously expensive. $200 and above per day.
Looking to stay in hotels along the MTR in Kowloon or HK island. Any pointers in getting an affordable hotel in HK for 4 ?

Edit: Don't have any hotel points to burn. They were all redeemed on an (almost free) Canadian vacation this spring.

 

[Matt]

I'm travelling to HK last week of October.
All the hotels are ridiculously expensive. $200 and above per day.
Looking to stay in hotels along the MTR in Kowloon or HK island. Any pointers in getting an affordable hotel in HK for 4 ?

Have you heard of points and miles? You can travel for freeee!

 

[smittytabb]

I'm travelling to HK last week of October.
All the hotels are ridiculously expensive. $200 and above per day.
Looking to stay in hotels along the MTR in Kowloon or HK island. Any pointers in getting an affordable hotel in HK for 4 ?

Check your free certs first. Do you have any? I am piecing together a stay in HK with several hotels. One night cert with IHG anywhere in the world I am using at Intercontinental on the last night. I get in the first night late, so I am staying at a Marriott that is close to the airport on points and I know they will pick me up for free as I have done it before. Then I am staying on points at the Ritz in Macau with more Marriott points. HK is a place you want to use your freebies!

 

[Suzie]

I'm travelling to HK last week of October.
All the hotels are ridiculously expensive. $200 and above per day.
Looking to stay in hotels along the MTR in Kowloon or HK island. Any pointers in getting an affordable hotel in HK for 4 ?

I'll be there first week of November. Using 3 free nights from last year's IHG Into The Nights promo. Staying at the Intercontinental. Very palatable!

 

[Mountain Trader]

I'm travelling to HK last week of October.
All the hotels are ridiculously expensive. $200 and above per day.
Looking to stay in hotels along the MTR in Kowloon or HK island. Any pointers in getting an affordable hotel in HK for 4 ?

Edit: Don't have any hotel points to burn. They were all redeemed on an (almost free) Canadian vacation this spring.

HKG is about the most expensive hotel city in the world. If you can find a good hotel for $200 a night, I would book it whike you try to work something better.

Given that your trip is in a few weeks, you may well be out of luck on anything significantly better.

 

[Suzie]

I'm travelling to HK last week of October.
All the hotels are ridiculously expensive. $200 and above per day.
Looking to stay in hotels along the MTR in Kowloon or HK island. Any pointers in getting an affordable hotel in HK for 4 ?

Edit: Don't have any hotel points to burn. They were all redeemed on an (almost free) Canadian vacation this spring.

Have you tried air B&B or HomeAway?

 

[smittytabb]

HKG is about the most expensive hotel city in the world. If you can find a good hotel for $200 a night, I would book it whike you try to work something better.

Given that your trip is in a few weeks, you may well be out of luck on anything significantly better.

Yeah, I was thinking that too. It is often double that.

 

[TheBOSman]

I'm travelling to HK last week of October.
All the hotels are ridiculously expensive. $200 and above per day.
Looking to stay in hotels along the MTR in Kowloon or HK island. Any pointers in getting an affordable hotel in HK for 4 ?

Edit: Don't have any hotel points to burn. They were all redeemed on an (almost free) Canadian vacation this spring.

October is high season for HKG conferences and the like. Those prices won't get lower, especially if you want to stay in Kowloon or Hong Kong Island. I've stayed multiple times at the Crowne Plaza and the Holiday Inn Express at Tseung Kwan O MTR station east of Kowloon for very reasonable rates.

 

[KennyBSAT]

I'm travelling to HK last week of October.
All the hotels are ridiculously expensive. $200 and above per day.
Looking to stay in hotels along the MTR in Kowloon or HK island. Any pointers in getting an affordable hotel in HK for 4 ?

Edit: Don't have any hotel points to burn. They were all redeemed on an (almost free) Canadian vacation this spring.

Not only are hotels in HK expensive, rooms for 4 are hard to find. Did you try Airbnb?

 

[PurpleSquirrel]

Found a hotel near Jordan, Kowloon - Novotel Kowloon hotel. 2 min to MTR and adjacent to Night Market. Price is approx $190 per night.

 

[Voyaging Doc]

Yea hotel rates there are ridiculous. I wonder how people can afford it. SPG platinum did not get us far there in terms of a spacious room upgrade. Ended up spending a few nights at a condo a distant family member owns. $30M USD for 3-bed 2-bath <800 sqft crib. I could pay 0.7% of that and get a better condo in a good neighborhood of a major US city

 

[lovenola]

Look at the nathan hotel. Near an mtr station and much nicer than the novotel

 

[spirith20]

LOVED staying at the W Hong Kong. Great buffet, very clean, modern rooms, great location as it's attached to a wonderful mall which has customer service desks for all the major airlines.

 

[knick1959]

I'm finding all sorts of older-but-pertinent threads to revive!

From the discussions above I've decided to leverage our 2 IHG free night certs in Hong Kong. Seems that I can get big value from these there, something I often have a tough time doing. However, since I only have 2 certs and need a third night (and have minimal IHG points), the best fit for us is IH Golden Mile. With Points + Cash I should be able to get 3 nights for $70 total cash. Other hotels are possible, but I'd have to MS some IHG points. The Golden Mile one is minimal new effort for me.

Is there any disadvantage to this hotel? All the IHG properties seem to be pretty close together AND this one still gets a 4/5 on TripAdvisor. Should I shoot for one of the others?

Will also be arriving at HKG in the evening; technically our 4th night in the area and I liked the idea posted by @smittytabb to use the nearby Marriott for that night. That'll cost me 10k SPG -> 30k Marriott. I'm ok with this (and we'll need this a second time on the way back home). Just curious, does anyone else have any airport-convenient hotels they like?

 

[italdesign]

I would stay at the IC* (it's incredible) and move somewhere nearby for the 3rd night. I always stay at Hyatt Regency Tsim Sha Tsui, which is an excellent value for 15k Hyatt.

HK once again had very limited visibility during my 5 days this winter. Had to fill in a lot of blanks with imagination. I can only imagine how beautiful it must be on a clear day.

* It's probably the 2nd or 3rd most aspirational IHG hotel in the world after Bora Bora and maybe Danang.

 

[italdesign]

Here's an example of the visibility problem from last week. There's impressive and expansive skyline along the river, but you can hardly see a thing due to the fog/smog. It wasn't always this bad, but it was never great during my collective 10 days this and last winter.

 

[knick1959]

I would stay at the IC* (it's incredible) and move somewhere nearby for the 3rd night. I always stay at Hyatt Regency Tsim Sha Tsui, which is an excellent value for 15k Hyatt.

I saw the Hyatt, but with only ~17 split between the 2 of us, it seemed impractical. Have plenty of UR, but I am a little resistant to using 30k of it. I could warm up to the idea. I'm assuming, from reading, that I could combine points from 2 accounts for use here.

With the IC (there are 2, I'm assuming the IC Grand Stanford one is not "it" ... or is THAT the one?), the 2 certs would still work fine. but I'd be short 30k for the cash + points option. Again, UR would cover it, but that's a chunk.

Perfect you threw in mention of Danang. I saw the web site for the IC there a couple of weeks back. Wicked views and hotel pics. And reviews!! Danang is still on my 4 week plan but sadly, the 2+ week reduced plan is looking like the most likely to apply. Still, if I would handle HKG via Hyatt using UR? Hmmm,

Thanks for the input. I won't be committing to hotels until the 2 vs 4 week question resolves itself better. I'm expecting some datapoints this week. I'm still mentally figuring on the 2 week plan being the one, but there some uncertainty.

 

[knick1959]

Here's an example of the visibility problem from last week. There's impressive and expansive skyline along the river, but you can hardly see a thing due to the fog/smog. It wasn't always this bad, but it was never great during my collective 10 days this and last winter.

Thanks. I understand. However, my dates are pretty fixed now, which means I get the views that I get. My wife finally tuned into the fact that we are going to be in HKG and declared that 2 days (we really have 3, 1 is reserved for Macau) is not enough! We need 2 weeks! And having looked more deeply myself, I would agree. But it isn't going to happen this trip. The good news is that HKG is one of the better options as a gateway to the area and we have more things to see. So more days later should be easy and more strategic with this 2-3 day preview!

Hong Kong was meant to be a way to get us to Cambodia and Laos. Now I see we've cheated it a bit with a stay that is too short. There will certainly be a next time.

 

[knick1959]

BTW @italdesign, I was also looking up places to stay in Luang Prabang and your recent blog post was helpful. I looked up the place you stayed and it gets rave reviews. The one down side, and my wife always prefers otherwise, is the shared bathroom there. I found 2 small, independent (and inexpensive) hotels there that might serve us better. Too bad, because your choice of guest house sounds like a great place!

 

[italdesign]

I saw the Hyatt, but with only ~17 split between the 2 of us, it seemed impractical. Have plenty of UR, but I am a little resistant to using 30k of it.

I thought you are only missing one night so it would be 15k Hyatt/UR?

 

[knick1959]

I thought you are only missing one night so it would be 15k Hyatt/UR?

Ah, yes. If I was switching hotels. Certainly an option that I didn't see clearly the first time. Will consider that, thanks ... even better as no UR to do this!

 

[italdesign]

Hong Kong was meant to be a way to get us to Cambodia and Laos. Now I see we've cheated it a bit with a stay that is too short. There will certainly be a next time.

That's OK. I had even less time on my first few visits. It's a great place for short and long visits alike. Not sure I'd make the trip to Macau on such tight schedule though - I'm less sure I would have enjoyed it on a short visit. If you insist on it, I would recommend staying until after dark, which was my favorite time of day in Macau.

 

[SanDiego1K]

2 days (we really have 3, 1 is reserved for Macau) is not enough!

I've been to Hong Kong many times and Macau three times. Hong Kong is vastly more interesting than Macau. If it were me, I'd drop Macau. But if you are determined to go, you can go directly from HKG airport and not even enter Hong Kong til your return. It's an efficient use of time.

 

[knick1959]

I've been to Hong Kong many times and Macau three times. Hong Kong is vastly more interesting than Macau. If it were me, I'd drop Macau. But if you are determined to go, you can go directly from HKG airport and not even enter Hong Kong til your return. It's an efficient use of time.

Hmmm. Very interesting. I'll consider this, but we're landing early evening. Now, I have no idea what time our internal clocks will think it is ... are the logistics here hampered at all by the fact that we don't land until (checking...) 7:05pm? This also would mean that, instead of a day trip with no luggage, we're carting all bags to Macau and back.

If feasible, we could overnight there instead of near the airport. Still, I'd hate to land and be faced with overwhelming logistics still ahead of us. Certainly a great suggestion to toy with. We'd get an evening in Macau ("after dark" per @italdesign) under our belts as soon as we get there. Will toy with the idea. Perhaps skipping Macau until next time is also ok. I'll check with my better half. Thanks!