As an e-commerce manager of an NY hotel, I would like to know how
NY hotels can beeter benefit Amtrak customers. I think I can speak for many of my colleagues when I say that some of our hotels are so close to NY Penn station, that it seems imperative in this economy that we capitalize this resource in location. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
One thing is that I often take early trains out of Penn station. With the discontinuation of very early morning and very late evening service on my NJ Transit line, this means getting up at ungodly hours to get to Penn Station in time. I would love to be able to go into the city the night before and buy a hotel room at a reduced rate as part of my ticket package. Working with Amtrak to produce a discounted package rate would be wonderful.
Another thing that happens is arrival on late trains after the last NJ Transit trains have left. I would love to be able to walk across to, say, the Hotel Pennsylvania, present my Amtrak ticket and get a room for a reasonable rate (say... $115?) rather then the one time I tried that, they attempted to gut me for $265 as a "last minute" rate. For $265, I decided to pocket the money and sleep on the floor, get up for the 4AM train out of the station. And so the Hotel Pennsy lost my money, which wouldn't have cost them more then 15 minutes of maid labor and pennies of water and soap to simply accept.
Putting a sign up in Penn Station, paid for or otherwise, advertising "Hotel So and So" offers "X highly discounted per night rate to people who present Amtrak ticket stubs from todays trains." Preferably one in comfortable walking distance given a late night. Possibly subject to availability with one of those direct-dial phones to check for said availability.
Another thing is... often times by the time I arrive back in New York from a long distance trip, I still have my credit cards, but not much in the way of cash. Which means I would not be able to trust any taxi to be able to accept my money. If a hotel were to offer to include taxi fare to their location (further away from the hotel) with presentation of an Amtrak ticket to the doorman of the hotel, the hotel could pay the cab and build the price of that cab into the price of the room.
Any hotel interested in offering these programs would do well to buy advertising aboard the train, in the timetable, in Arrive (Amtrak's regional magazine) and in the Northeat Regional timetables.