Havanah Joe

I tried a Name Your Own Price search for a little under this price and nothing came back for Downtown in this star range. It's a long weekend, so prices are up everywhere. We took to long to book an apartment, which has been our preferred option for a while, but this was pretty good compared to what other prices are.

Alright so I missed out on that offer and now I am seeing a different hotel pop up.

It's for $137 a night, 4* from 8/11 to 8/14. Amenities are:

Pet Friendly

Boutique Hotel

Fitness Center

Restaurant

High Speed Internet

Accessible path of travel

In-room accessibility

Accessible bathroom

Handicapped parking

If it wasn't for the Pet Friendly ammenity, I would say it was the DeLuxe, but if it didn't have the Boutique part it would be The Benson

Thoughts?

Here's what I see, and I do see all the amenities you posted on there. The link is just on the right side of the page, in the Trip Summary box :) I was also thinking it would let me copy, but the box disappears after a few seconds.

So it does look like the Benson with those amenities.

Hmm I don't see an all amenities link on the secure checkout page (after clicking on book now). The list I got is from See All Amenities on the page right after clicking on the hotel offer. I removed the description below each one.

The Benson is on the right side of the 405, it's the deLuxe that seems far, but reviews on TripAdvisor seem to like the distance. I think for the price, knowing that it's the Benson it would be a good option, but the deLuxe does have a higher TripAdvisor rating (4.5 vs 4 of the Benson). The transit system is apparently very good but being able to walk to everything would be preferable.

Planning a trip to Portland for the first time. I rented a private condo on a recent trip to NYC and loved it, but there aren't many places in Downtown portland for a decent price, so I started going back to my

Priceline/Hotwire techniques.

I found a 4* hotel in Downtown portland for $124 a night. I think it's the Benson, but wanted to see if you guys could help confirm:

Free Internet

Pet friendly

Smoke Free Rooms

Fitness Center

Restaurant(s)

Business Center

High-Speed Internet Access

Accessible for the blind

Accessible for the deaf

Tripadvisor rating 4 out of 5.0

Would Priceline be a good option? I think public transit is good but I'd be worried about ending up at the DeLuxe on the other side of the 405 or the Riverplace, since those seem to be "far". The Priceline express deals only have two 4* hotels for $183, so I don't know if I could get a lower price by bidding on a 4* downtown hotel than this Hotwire offer.

Thanks!

Hmm, do you think it would be a better deal to get a 4* than a 3.5* even if I have to increase my maximum bid? I'd rather not, but, in order to be in the right area, I can go higher. A couple of friends ended up paying retail at $280 a night (including taxes of course) so something under that would be a good deal.

Hmm, since you mentioned they are far it sounds like that's a pretty considerable inconvenience. Is there a way to avoid those and avoid the small hotel in CPS? I guess avoiding them would just make bidding more difficult.

I tried with a bid up to $140, with the taxes it brings it up to more than the $150 per night. I didn't win anything up to trying "Select 4* CPS, Chelsea, ESB, HK, MTE, MTW, TS... for $140".

I think I'd like to try 3.5* now, and looking at express deals, looks like I should try a similar strategy and the same re-bid zones seem to apply. What do you think?

Thanks for the reply. The zones I see are:

Brooklyn 4*

Central Park South 4*

Chelsea Area 4*

Coney Island 2*

Downtown - Financial District 4*

Empire State Building Area 4*

Hell's Kitchen 4*

Long Island City 3*

Lower East Side 4*

Madison Square Garden - Convention Area 4*

Midtown East 4*

Midtown West 4*

Morningside Heights - Harlem 3*

Queensborough Bridge 3*

SoHo - Tribeca 4*

Times Square - Theatre District 5*

Upper East Side 5*

Upper West Side 4*

I now see 4 zones that don't have a 4* hotel available

Hello,

It has been a while since I've used Priceline for a hotel, last time was for my last trip to NYC several years ago.

This time I am looking for something nice (3 to 4 stars) south of Central Park, with the Financial District being lowest on the list. I have seen hotels on hotwire for around $200 in the Financial District, and $215 for a 4* hotel in Midtown East on PRICELINE EXPRESS, but would like to spend around $150 a night. Might not be doable but I'd like to do some bidding on PL to see if I can get something better.

If I want to try for 4 stars, looks like I only have 3 zones with no 4* hotel:

Long Island City

Morningside Heights

Queensboro Bridge

And I have 7 zones with 4*

Central Park South

Chelsea

Empire State

Hell's Kitchen

Midtown East

Midtown West

Times Square

On another post I saw mention of 6 rebid zones in NYC, which ones am I missing?

Thanks!

Needed a hotel near the city for the weekend. Hotwire had this hotel for $59 so I bid $50 and it was accepted. I think I would have been able to get it for less, but I'm happy with the price.

Well looks like I just had to do some more reading and learn the priceline tricks, bidding strategies, re-bidding and all that.

I tried to look for a 4* hotel and got all the way up to 200 with different zones with no luck, I tried it again and it didn't work, but followed the procedure of adding one zone each time I increased the bid.

I then read the wins for 3* hotels and found that most hotels that were won were decent ones, so I started the bidding process for 3 star hotels. I started with $140 in Downtown, then added MTW and bid $160, and then added CPS and bid $160 and the offer was accepted by Club Quarters Downtown. So I saved $39 per night on the hotel I already wanted :)

Thanks for all the help!

Thanks for the reply. I'd like to get a 4* but wouldn't mind a 3* like the Club Quarters. From what I've seen those look nice. You are right, I have not tried to bid on a 3 star hotel yet. What scares me off a bit is that I've read countless reviews and I've seen hotels with 2 or 3 stars that get horrible reviews and I'm worried that I might get one that is cheaper but not as good as an experience I could have gotten by buying when knowing the hotel.

I guess it boils down to how reliable are Priceline's picks when it comes to hotels? Will I be disappointed if I bid on a 3 star hotel and win it? What about a 2.5 star?

I've been doing some individual searching and reading reviews and it looks like these Club Quarters hotels are very nice. The package deal that I get with priceline seems to me like a very good deal.

$1,409 total for the Club Quarters Downtown or $1,437 for the Club Quarters Midtown.

This is with Jetblue nonstop flights that separately, the cheapest I can find is $758. This means that the cost of the 3 nights is $651/$679 with taxes and fees, which comes to $217/$226 per night including taxes. About $190/$199 per night pre-tax, which is what I'm bidding but not getting any wins. I don't think it's worth bidding that, so I should shoot for something lower but probably won't find it.

Now I'm wondering if it's worth saving $28 by staying at the Downtown hotel. Probably not.

Hello,

I've been in the process of looking for a decent hotel room for a trip to NYC. We're going to see Madonna on the 6th and want to spend some days in NYC since we haven't been there before. The trip is for 2. I've done some moderate research and have tried some priceline bids for $200 in:

Central Park South

Chelsea Area

Downtown - SoHo - Financial District

Empire State Building Area

Madison Square Garden

Midtown East

Midtown West

Through Expedia I found the Doubletree Metropolitan for about $280 a night including taxes and fees. I also found a package through priceline that taking out airfare comes down to about $220 a night at the Club Quarters Downtown. I also found another Club Quarters for about $20 per person more for the whole trip. This is for check-in on the 4th and check-out on the 7th. The dates can be moved around as long as we spend the whole 6th there, but I assume a weekend stay is cheaper.

It seems like October is an expensive time of year to travel. I am looking for something up to $250 a night for 3 nights at a 4* hotel. Since we're mostly only going to be sleeping at the hotel, we really don't mind staying at a cheaper place, but not really interested in a hostel with shared bathroom.

How easy is it to stay in say Brooklyn or other areas outside Manhattan and just use the subway to move around?

Of course I would love to get the best price for the best hotel and make the trip even more enjoyable.

Should I wait until the date draws closer to make my bids through priceline? I've read about making a cancelable reservation and I will take that advise, but wonder if it's worth waiting or if the prices are going to be in this range no matter what because of the date.

Thanks for the help.