You're off to a fine start then. There's no reason not to book hotels before you go, is there? You're paying so much to go, it's not something you want to spend any time doing while you're there. Tripadvisoring is usually a drag but quite good fun when it comes to NYC and can add to the fun, before you go. Book two quite different hotels and change in the middle, for a change of scene. The best other advice I think is to book at least a couple of really good places to eat, waaaay in advance. We had to book the ones we wanted to go to 4 weeks in advance, otherwise there was no hope. It's great knowing you've got someone in the bag lined-up that you're really looking forward to - and it gave us something around which to hang the day.