Management want to rip off stranded guests
Re-posting after management got my initial post removed from trip advisor for no apparent reason.
I am never staying in this hotel or another Holiday Inn again,
So i had to stay there during Sandy..... being in wall street when the hurricane hit i checked into the first hotel I could find to get shelter thinking of spending the night and checking out the next day once the storm passed...
I was charged the exceptionally high rate of $400, which i was okay with because of lack of options..... everything seemed fine for about 4 hours, when we were notified by the staff that the power might be shut off, and rightly enough 30min later it did go off..... spent the night in a dark room, with no heat, no running water, and then cell reception went down, and it was pitch dark......
next day lower Manhattan was a ghost town, there was no information, not much cars, people wandering the streets, surveying the damage, some cop cars... but virtually it looked deserted, nothing was open, except a few shops here and there. we had no information, no cell, no power, the only info we had was a radio in the lobby, The staff was trying to be as helpful as possible and we were not evacuated, and said they are not asking any of the guests to leave and they are not accepting any incoming new guests. but they couldn't transfer any of the guests to the other hotels because they couldn't reach any of their affiliate hotels and have no info....
accordingly to stay there another night since there was no way out of lower Manhattan/wall street in hopes of perhaps getting power and things getting to normal be it by subway or cabs (of course that wasn't the case as they were out of power till the following weekend)..... when asked about the 2nd night they mentioned that they will charge the discounted rate of $169, which i argued on what basis are they charging a discounted rate of a fully functioning hotel, if their regular rate when booking is b/w 169 to 220 (i did my research after), and the front desk person said that management would decide on the rate later..... and me not wanting to add more tension and stress to an already stressful situation opted to fight my battle later, afterall that front desk person had been stuck and in the same boat..... and then i took my stuff checked out the tuesday morning and after about an hour and half found a cab willing to take me to my friends place in queens.
The following week i checked my credit card to discover i was charged the full rate amount, $399 and $169, so i called to discuss, and got the same front desk person who was polite but utterly unhelpful and actually ridiculous citing things as "sandy" as an excuse for lack of service but still charging the full rate and also, "we didn't ask guests to leave", you "had a choice to leave" i know its her trying to do her job, but i think it is a SHAME and DISGRACEFUL for HOLLIDAY INN, or the MANAGEMENT of that hotel, to TAKE ADVANTAGE of stranded guests and charge them THEIR FULL REGULAR rate for a room without ANY SERVICE, HEATING, RUNNING WATER, and then have the AUDACITY to say they didn't ask you to leave, when they themselves couldn't help international guests coming there on vacation to NY to go to any other hotel..... 
I think that to charge guests full rate when you are not providing the service you are supposed to provide and charging the full rate is ridiculous.
Airlines when disrupted provide the full service, late but they do fly you there eventually. But charging your regular rate for a hotel room with no light, power, water, electricity, heating, is unethical and amounts to theft.