hocomo

Thanks for your advice. Following your guidance, I got the Paramount Hotel near Times Square for $120/night. The tripadvisor reviews are a bit mixed - although one thing all reviewers seem to agree on is that the rooms are tiny - but hopefully it willl suffice. We shouldn't be hanging out in the room too much anyway. Details below. By the way, I went into priceline through savingsbarn.com.

Selected 3* UM-CPS at $95 - rejected

Added UWS for rebid zone at $100 - rejected

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Selected 3* MTW at $95 - rejected

Added UWS at $100 - rejected

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Selected 3* MTE at $95 - rejected

Added UWS at $100 - rejected

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Selected 3* MTW and UMCPS at $105 - rejected

Added UWS at $110 - rejected

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Selected 3* MTE and UMCPS at $110 - rejected

Added UWS at $115 - rejected

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Selected 3* MTE, MTW and UMCPS at $120 and had bid accepted.

Saving money by splitting is tempting, but for now I'll pass.

Thanks for offering to help with a bidding strategy. Since I haven't had any luck with a 4*, I'm ready to go for a 3*, and I'd like it to be in any of the Midtown zones. I'll go up to $120 to start.

I considered it after reading a recent post by someone who did it successfully, bit it seems so risky! I don't want to end up staying in two different hotels.

After seeing that someone paid $200 for the Intercontinental Barclay in May, I'm thinking maybe I just need to be willing to pay more, or else go for a 3*.

I've been trying to find a 4* hotel - in any Manhattan zone - for the above dates, bidding up to $155, but haven't had any luck. I've tried various combinations of adding new zones and increasing my bid. Any suggestions? Is $155 just not realistic for weekends?

Got the Intercontinental Barclay for $150/night using your strategy (except that on my last bid when I increased to $150, it wouldn't work unless I changed another one of the criteria, so I added ME).

Thanks again for your help! I'm thrilled we'll have a cushy hotel room where we can go back and recover after the race (they even have a sauna).

Unfortunately, I wasn't successful using the strategy you suggested. If you have a strategy going up to $150, I'll be happy to try it. If that doesn't get me anything, I might just try going for a 3* instead of a 4*.

Thanks again for your help!

We need a hotel for the nights of Nov 6 and 7, max of $150/night for a 4* if possible. In terms of which neighborhood, Upper Midtown/Central Park South would be our first choice, since it's close to the finish line. We'd also stay in ME, MW, UWS, UES, in no particular order, unless you have any recommendations for which is better.

Thanks for your help! This forum is really fantastic.

PS We're both *very* excited about te race - we've heard such great things about all the crowd support.

I'm going to be in NYC in November for the marathon and I'm concerned about rooms filling up as I know they do for that event. But is now too early to start bidding for a room on Priceline? Should I expect rates to be considerably higher then?