Priceline Hotel: 3.5* New York City (Madison Square Garden - Convention) Staybridge Suites Times Square - New York City

[demon_princezz]

Hi there, I'm looking to stay in NY for 5 nights in October - quite a while away but I like to be organised! After a bit of research, we like the look of District and Element, so those are the hotels we're aiming for and ideally looking to get something cheaper than $250/night.

Searching with the Bidding Helper it's thrown up slightly conflicting options on the Hotwire/Hotwire easy view tabs, but hoping you can help identify which hotels they are. I originally thought they described Distrikt, but it doesn't appear on Hotwire's website at all, so maybe Element? although Element offers free breakfast... :/

 

Hotwire

3.5* Madison Square Garden area new to hotwire hotel, 90% recommend - Amenities: Free internet, Business centre, Fitness centre, Restaurant(s) - $248/night

Hotwire Easyview

3.5* Madison Square Garden, 90% recommend - Amenities: Free Internet, Fitness center, Restaurant(s), Business center, Internet access - $245/night

 

This also turned up in search results:

Hotwire

4* Amenities - Boutique hotel, Business centre, Fitness centre, Internet access, Pet friendly, Restaurant(s), Self-service laundry, Smoke-free rooms - $165/night - clicking on the link for this page it says: See the hotel the last person got: Manhattan NYC-an Affinia hotel - is this a guide or what this hotel actual is?

Hotwire Easyview

4* MSG Hot rate boutique hotel, 70% recommend - Amenities: Pet friendly, Boutique hotel, Smoke-free rooms, Fitness center, Restaurant(s), Business center, Self-service laundry, Internet access, Accessible for visually impaired, Accessible for hearing impaired, Accessible path of travel, In-room accessibility, Accessible bathroom, Accessible parking, Roll-in shower - $161/night

(Note: Both are also showing what I've identified as the New Yorker for the dates)

 

I noticed the prices seem to move about quite a bit while searching - is this usual? The 4* hotel started off at $116/night and had risen $50 by the time I finished writing this post...

 

Priceline only returns one result in my price range: 3.5* MSG - Convention Area, Amenities - Business Centre, Restaurant, Free Internet, Fitness Centre - $238/night

 

Obviously it would be great to be able to get a hotel for as cheap as possible and if you think it's feasible to get the ones we're after for less than $200/night by bidding on Priceline that would be awesome.  We would be happy if we ended up with either Four Points/Staybridge Suites/Courtyard which also appear in the 3.5* Priceline hotel list if we didn't end up with either District or Element.

 

Any advice or thoughts would be very much appreciated :)

[thereuare]

Both the Element and the Distrikt are not seen as wins very often, and when they are won, it's typically not during peak season (which your dates above are part of)

 

Did you choose this zone with the hopes of landing one of the two hotels above OR is this the zone you need to be in?

 

What are your needs for this trip?

 

Please remember to return to BetterBidding and use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases... or thru our sister site MAPSandHOTELS.com for your regular rate purchases.

[demon_princezz]

Thanks for your response. We researched hotels we liked the look of first, shortlisted Distrikt and Element as our top 2 and then saw they happen to be in the same zone (in fact so were most of our other picks) so it would be our first choice - we'd just like to get it the best possible price.

 

But having said that, the other 3.5* options don't seem too bad for our needs (trip for our wedding anniversary) and we like the location, so we'd be prepared to take a risk and bid for it and won't be disappointed if we ended up with the ones mentioned above - assuming there aren't any other hotels that unexpectedly turn up in that category.

 

When you say the two hotels aren't seen very often as wins, do you mean generally across both Hotwire and Priceline on express-type deals, or only when bidding on Priceline?

[AaronJB]

2 minutes ago, demon_princezz said:

 

When you say the two hotels aren't seen very often as wins, do you mean generally across both Hotwire and Priceline on express-type deals, or only when bidding on Priceline?

 

The Element has not been reported to the board in general in a while, but the Distrikt has not been seen as a win in general in quite some time. When bidding you have to be willing to accept any of the possibilities at the star rating picked in the zone picked. HOTWIRE and PRICELINE EXPRESS are generally slightly/somewhat more expensive, but given that you can make a guess based on what is showing you can have a better chance at getting something you like. Still, even with that you have to be flexible as HOTWIRE usually has 1-3 hotels per star rating/per zone/per set of dates and PRICELINE EXPRESS generally has 1.

 

Please remember to return to BetterBidding and use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases... or thru our sister site MAPSandHOTELS.com for your regular rate purchases.

[demon_princezz]

Thanks again for your advice - so bearing all the above in mind, which hotels do you think the 3.5* properties I picked out in my original post could be, if it's not Distrikt or Element? And what could the 4* property be?

Appreciate the help :)

 

 

[thereuare]

The "Last person got ___" information shown by HOTWIRE is the last person who bought a hotel in this zone at this star rating... it is not necessarily the underlying hotel currently offered for your own dates.

 

I don't have a guess for the 3.5* MSG property as the limited amenities shown are common for almost all hotels in the city at this star rating or higher.

 

My guess for the 4* would be the Manhattan NYC-an Affinia Hotel.

 

I know the city very well... if you let us know what you're looking for in a hotel for this trip, and your maximum budget per nite (before fees/taxes), i can probably easily pick out some of the best options.

 

Please remember to return to BetterBidding and use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases... or thru our sister site MAPSandHOTELS.com for your regular rate purchases.

[demon_princezz]

We like the MSG area and a more modern looking hotel, breakfast not essential but would be a bonus, wouldn't mind a suite/extended stay type hotel either - basically all the hotels I mentioned in the last paragraph of my first post ;)  I was hoping this criteria would get me one of them in this zone bidding on Priceline, or do you not think that is realistic?

 

I looked at the Manhattan NYC, but it seems like the majority of the rooms are tiny...

 

Looking at regular rate purchases my budget would be $250/night - would it be reasonable to aim for $200 a night on HOTWIRE / PRICELINE?

 

Thanks again :)

 

 

[thereuare]

You could aim for $200/nite on PRICELINE / HOTWIRE... but my guess is that at current rates you're likely looking at the $200-$225 area needed to be successful for a 4* property in 'midtown'; more if only considering the MSG zone.

 

I am seeing what appears to be the Wyndham Garden Hotel Manhattan Chelsea West for $210/nite which is in a newer building (or at least it was re-done about 5-6 years ago), centrally located, and not too far from the MSG zone, should this be of any interest.

 

Please remember to return to BetterBidding and use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases... or thru our sister site MAPSandHOTELS.com for your regular rate purchases.

Let us know your thoughts and how you'd like to proceed and we'll take it from there.

[demon_princezz]

Thanks for the suggestion, it's a nice looking hotel but it's about 10 blocks south of where we would consider really.

Could I realistically aim for sub $200/night for 3.5* hotels in the MSG area? Sorry to keep bringing it back to the five hotels I mentioned previously, but I'm still not quite clear on whether we could get one of them via bidding or a PRICELINE EXPRESS deal.

 

Given they all feature on the Priceline list of 3.5* hotels, I'm hoping it would be the case, but if it's not then I guess I have to take the hit and just pay the retail rate? Or we would consider a 3* hotel like Hampton Inn ESB. Thanks :)

 

 

[Romelle]

18 hours ago, demon_princezz said:

but I'm still not quite clear on whether we could get one of them via bidding or a PRICELINE EXPRESS deal.

 

I'll do the easy question.  Via bidding on PRICELINE you have to be willing to accept any hotel within the zone boundaries of the zone or zones you are bidding, at the star level you are bidding or higher (an upgrade).  You can't count on your bidding to get you an specific hotel.  Besides the hotels members have posted as receiving, it is always possible to get a completely different one (speaking from several experiences).  Via Priceline Express, with the help of the board experts identification, you have a good chance of getting a specific hotel, but even that isn't for sure (again, speaking from experience).  Some of the identifications are more confident than others, but none are 100% guarantees.  

 

I'm a member, not a board official.  Just thought I'd help a bit.  Romelle

[thereuare]

On 2/2/2016 at 7:53 PM, demon_princezz said:

We researched hotels we liked the look of first

You're using PRICELINE / HOTWIRE backwards... there are hundreds of hotels in NYC, so to pick one/two that you want and then hope they appear on either of the opaque services, is generally a waste of time.  The better approach is to search PRICELINE / HOTWIRE (our BiddingHelper.com will show you results for both with just one search) and then see if any of the hotels offered within your budget meet your needs.  You may get lucky that one of the hotels you want will appear when searching for your dates, but you would learn this when researching the hotels offered for your dates... to do it the other way around is like looking for a needle in a haystack since there are so many hotels in NYC.

 

Generally speaking Both the Distrikt and the Element are selling for about $300/nite for your dates, so it becomes a question if it's worth this price to stay at the exact hotels/location that you want, or for a little flexibility if it's worth saving $50-$100/nite.  With NYC transportation easily accessible and relatively inexpensive, i doubt this is the only acceptable zone that will work for your needs as i'm sure most of your 7+ nite stay activities will take place outside of this 10 block x 10 block zone, but you know your needs better than we do.

 

If you do decide to book at regular retail rates please use our sister stie MAPS and HOTELS.com for your purchases.

 

Let us know whatever you decide for this trip or how we can be of further help.

[demon_princezz]

Apologies for the delayed response. I see your point - I guess I'm just a bit more risk-aversed and prefer to know where I'm staying instead of taking pot luck, but I understand that's the nature of the beast.  When we go away, we generally like to pick where we're going to suit our needs and then secure it for the best possible price - if that happens to involve Priceline/Hotwire great, if not it's not the end of the world. That's why I was trying to identify the hotels in my original post, in case they were ones I had picked out before - which has worked in the past for me.

 

I have now booked through a PRICELINE EXPRESS deal (using the links here), and got Staybridge Suites, $267/night.  It was listed as 3.5* MSG, free breakfast, free internet, pets allowed, fitness centre, business centre, rated 8+.

 

It was easily identifiable because at the bottom of the page, it listed a phone number to enquire about the hotel's pet policy - and a quick Google of the number showed it was Staybridge. We had ear-marked it because of the convenience of the free breakfast and extra benefits in the evening - and it was much cheaper than the @$372/night UK retail sites were selling it for.

 

It turns out New York Comic Con is running that week, which I presume is why prices are a running a bit higher that week. 

 

What's the best way to report this win as I'm aware this is now a PRICELINE win in a HOTWIRE section - or does it not matter?

 

Thanks again for you help and advice.

[thereuare]

Congratulations on your success!

Glad to see you found something that will work well for your plans and it was the hotel you were expecting.

 

In the future you can simply use the 'ADD REPLY and REPORT WIN' button on the lower right corner of the page (it's gone now since it can only be used once and then it disappears) and when you report your win the entire thread will automatically be moved (if necessary) to the correct section of the board.

Thank you for using the PRICELINE links on the board to begin your purchase and sharing your win, helping us add the new amenity set for this property to the Priceline Express Hotel List.

Enjoy your stay.