Newly opened hotel - should I book?
 

I have an upcoming one-night trip in NYC, which, around this time of year, is outrageously expensive. There's a decent-looking choice (Ascend Collection) hotel about a subway stop from where I need to be for under $150/night. That's the best I"m going to do this time of year, especially since I only need it for one night, so all I need is a clean room with a bed and wifi, no bells and whistles. However, I'm a bit nervous about booking a newly-opened hotel that has no guest reviews (at the moment it has one one-star review, which is someone complaining that the hotel didn't open when it was supposed to and cancelled his booking, which obviously makes me nervous). It opens December 1st (theoretically) and my stay is December 5th. Should I take the chance? If they can't honor my booking, will they make alternate arrangements for me or just leave me hanging?

You already know that at least one reservation got cancelled, most likely more than one. What did the hotel do for the guest whose reservation where cancelled, we don't know. Perhaps a call to the hotel is in order, seems to be the most obvious thing to do. Get name of person, perhaps have them email you. Typically they will walk you to another partner. You could book a refundable rate on another hotel to be safe in case they are not open when you go, but that defeats the purpose of saving money. You can also do a last minute hotel booking on hotels.com or any of the numerous booking channels on the date of arrival in case your hotel is not open.

Ascend Collection is part of the Choice program.

There is a Choice Hotels representative in the Choice forum, you may want to ask them.

That would be a lot easier if this thread was in the Choice forum, so I'm going ask a moderator to move it.

Which ascend, if it is near where I pass I will check it out.
The ones I see with low Choice reviews are in the Bronx or Brooklyn but I'm only looking at the Choice webpage with Ascend in the filter at a random date.

It's the Gowanus Inn in Brooklyn, opens December 1st. Has the same 1-star review on all the review sites about its delayed opening - clearly the same person got really, really annoyed.

In answer to the other posts -

It sounds like the hotel cancelled the reservation some amount of time before the guest arrived, which is why they didn't do anything. i wouldn't want to be stuck in the same situation because, well, prices tend to go up the closer you book to your stay, so I wouldn't want to have my reservation cancelled, say, 3 days beforehand.

I considered posting this in the Choice forum at first, but wasn't sure it was the best idea - I'll leave it up to a mod's discretion to move it.

I know the area, you have public transportation the subway on 4th Ave entrance right on the corner. A lot of hotels in renovated buildings being built there for the Brooklyn Cruise port.
Not an area I will likely be in anytime soon.

Week out and canceling the reservation would get me mad too. I would stay away until you can confirm its open. If I'm in the area (passing by on 4th Ave when the Gowanus Expy is backed up) I'll try to look.