shoeless

I've been having similar issues with this region for the dates of 4/4 - 4/7. Tried bidding a few times up to the $90 range and keep getting rejected. Since I have a few months before the trip, I plan to keep trying...will post if I have success.

Thanks for the help, that's exactly what I was looking for. I don't rember how I came across this site, but I'm sure glad I did. I've never received anything but good, helpful advice. Thanks again, shoeless

We'll be driving up from Maryland. There are 4 of us, two of which are children (14 & 11). We plan on staying at the Millenium Hilton on Fri & Sat nights (1/28, 1/29). I'm considering driving up to somewhere in NJ on Thurs evening (depending on hotel/transport options/parking) so that we could have all day Fri for goofing off. Otherwise we'll drive up early on Fri and try to get there by noon or so. Thanks for your help, RS

Rather than start a new thread, I'll update here. I tried bidding Jersey City (hoping for the Hyatt) for $37 on 1/28 - 1/30 and was rejected. Didn't try adding zones or rebidding even though my 3 days are up now. We've pretty much decided to stay with the rest of the team at the Millenium Hilton at the group rate of $130/nt. Seems decent for that hotel and it is walking distance to the competition site (Pace Univ.) and has the advantage of being on the island. So now for my next question. The parking lot that services the Hilton charges $45/24 hr. Since I won't be needing the car once we get there, is there a place on the Jersey side that I can long-term park and ride a train/bus into NY? I was considering parking in one of the Jersey City lots near the Exchange place PATH station and riding PATH in. Is long term parking allowed in those lots? If so, what are the rates? One website said around $17/24 hr. Does that sound right? Are there better/cheaper/safer options if I decide to park farther out, such as Newark/Meadowlands, etc. Thanks, hope this is not too off-topic. RS

Thanks for the link to the wins compilation. I would say I have to agree with you, winning in Downtown in my price range looks pretty slim (I may try anyway though). The gymnastics team has reserved several rooms at a hotel (don't remember which one) in the area for around $130/nt + parking. I may try to lo-ball bid the Downtown and if that doesn't work go to Jersey City. If all else fails we have the backup at $130. I'll post to either the NJ or NY forums if I end up bidding. Thanks for your help. I honestly don't know how you find the time to manage this site and reply to everyone, but I assure you, we're glad that you do. Thanks, shoeless

Thanks for the tip, I checked out the Marriott website and saw the offer you referenced. Even better, IMO, is the $179 package that includes parking and breakfast for 2. I AM all about the best value though :). I looked through some of the old posts in the NY forum and didn't see any about NYC Downtown/Soho (I admit my search was not very thorough though). Is there any history on bids/wins in this area? I did the "view source" trick on the Priceline page and saw that the 4* cutoff for "almost no chance" is $50. Any idea what hotel might accept a bid in the $50 - $60 range? Thanks again for your help/website.

I'll be going to NYC on 1/28 - 1/30 (2 nights) for a gymnastics meet in the Wall Street area. Haven't seen many postings on bids/wins in that area, probably since most folks want to be nearer to the theatre district. I'll be there with my family (daughter is competing) and will be driving up from MD. I'm a little hesitant to try this area since the neighborhood goes downhill pretty quickly (as I recall) once you are outside of the financial district and I would not want to get stuck in a seedy hotel out there. My current plan is to bid for the Jersey City Hyatt (I bid and won there last May with your help, thx) and just ride PATH across the river. However, the convenience of staying in the Downtown/Soho area is tempting. I'm hoping that this is not a very busy time of year and hotel rooms will be plentiful. Any suggestions? Thanks

Thanks for the tips! I'm always up for some good Mexican food... As far as parking goes, I called both the Courtyard and the Hyatt. For future reference, here's what they both offer: Hyatt had 2 options: 1) Valet park on-premesis for $30/day (ouch), in & out priveleges. 2) Self park in a nearby (2 blocks according to the valet I spoke with) Central Parking garage, and the Hyatt will validate the ticket so that the cost is $15/day, no in & out privelege. Courtyard parking is valet, on-premesis for $14/day, in & out privelege. Since my friends are staying at the Courtyard, I'll plan on leaving my car there for the duration. Thanks again for all your help & tips.

At the risk of making this one of the longest running threads on your site, I'm going to open it back up again to ask one final question. We'll be driving up Friday morning and will probably arrive in NJ before we can check into our room and will probably just want to park somewhere and ride PATH into NYC for a little sight-seeing prior to check-in. I'm not sure what the Hyatt (or Courtyard) policy is on using their lots before check-in and was wondering if you would suggest a safe place to park for a few hours while we're in NYC. It did not look like the Exchange Place PATH station had a dedicated lot, but maybe some spots (I'm guessing metered) on the street around the station. Is parking available at Newport Centre Mall? I thought I could park there and take PATH from Pavonia. Another option looks like there might be a PATH parking lot at Journal Square, but it's kind of hard to tell for sure. Any tips are welcomed. I plan on calling both the Hyatt and Courtyard (since we have folks staying in both) to see if we can just park in one of those lots. Thanks in advance...again

Keoni, Sorry for the confusion, but theruare has basically summed it up. I bid Jersey City back in March for the Memorial Day weekend and got the Hyatt for $37. Then, around 5/1, some friends of mine decided they wanted to join us and we tried for the Hyatt again. After numerous attempts, we were always rejected. Turns out the Hyatt was booked full for the Saturday night of that weekend. (thanks to thereuare for figuring that one out) So we changed our bidding strategy to try to get something else close by for them and ended up with the Courtyard Marriott for $55 for the same weekend dates. Hope that all makes sense. By the way, shoeless is a "he" :)

This bid history was originally part of another thread (3* Newark (Jersey City) Hyatt Regency, $37 ... 5/28-5/31), but reposted here on it's own at the request of thereuare. This bid took place on 5/9/04 for occupancy on 5/28/04 - 5/31/04. bid 3* Jersey City, $52 (hoping for the Hyatt or possibly Doubletree) - rejected added 2.5* and bid $55 - Accepted at the Courtyard Marriott

Thanks for the info, you are always so helpful! My friends were at our house over the weekend and they decided they'd rather just get into a hotel close by for the duration rather than checking in and out of the Hyatt. So here's what we did: bid 3* Jersey City, $52 (still hoping for the Hyatt or possibly Doubletree) - rejected added 2.5* and bid $55 - Accepted at the Courtyard Marriott. - maybe a little high, but they were really starting to worry about getting a hotel and it was worth the extra few bucks to be done with it. They are happy with this result and I think it will work out OK for everyone. It looks like they're near the next PATH stop (Pavonia) although it will involve changing trains if they want to go to WTC via PATH. What would you recommend for their commute into NYC; take PATH via Hoboken, PATH to WTC via Grove street transfer, or light rail to Exchange Place and PATH to WTC from there (obviously most expensive option)? I suspect we'll be spending most of our time in the Midtown area, so we may just end up meeting in NYC somewhere each morning. Cell phones make that pretty easy to do anymore. Thanks again for all your help.

Thanks for the tip! It seems so obvious to take the PATH Red line to WTC then jump onto NYC subway, don't know why I didn't think of it. It's a much better alternative than waiting for multiple PATH transfers. The reason I'm resurrecting this thread is because some friends of mine now want to tag along for this trip (5/28 - 5/31) and really want to be in the Hyatt with us. I've tried bidding it again for them, but have been unsuccessful. On 4/28 I bid $37 for 3* Jersey City (which previously worked for me) but was rejected; waited 3 days til 5/1 and bid $47, 3* Jersey City and was rejected again. I'm planning on continuing this approach for the next few bids (til next week?) and then I'm open to other suggestions that will hopefully get them into a hotel nearby (e.g. Doubletree). Any suggestions/strategies are welcome. Thanks.

Thanks for the links. It does raise a few questions though, and since you're a local, I'll ask for your advice if you don't mind. My two main destinations for the weekend will be midtown area and Liberty Island. From the PATH map, it looks like I need to change trains at Pavonia to get from Exchange Place to midtown. And after 7:30pm I need to change at Grove Street instead. Am I reading this correctly? Just want to know what to expect. I also noticed the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail on the PATH map. Is that operational? If so, would it be easier or quicker to take this from Exchange Place to Pavonia instead of changing trains on PATH? Is walking from Exchange to Pavonia or Grove St. an option? Hard to tell from the map how far it is or what the neighborhood is like. One last question...if the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail is operational on weekends, can I take it to Liberty Park, then take the ferry from there to Liberty Island? If not I guess I can either walk/taxi to Liberty Park, or PATH to WTC and ferry from Battery Park. What do you recommend? Thanks again for all your help.

Woohoo...another success story! I ended up going full circle on this and decided to go back to the Jersey City stay, hoping to get all 3 nights for about the same price as a single in Midtown. I bid $37, Jersey City 3* and was accepted on my first attempt. Got the Jersey City Hyatt, which is what I was hoping for. I may have been able to save a few bucks by starting at $33 or so and working my way up, but since I've been talking about this since 3/1, I just went for what has worked for others. This is my first use of Priceline and I'm sold. Thanks BetterBidding & theruare for all the help/advice/patience. One quick question: Priceline says the room will accomodate up to 2 adults. Do you think the Hyatt will give me any grief about having a child (10 yr.) stay with us?

OK, I'll keep it here. I'm going to try again tomorrow (Sat.). I should have mentioned that my previous bids were on 4* using price ranges that seemed to work for others. Maybe a bad assumption for a holiday weekend. I'll try going up to around $120 at 4* and see what happens. If that doesn't work, then maybe I'll go to 3* at my original price range (up to $100). Any recommendations on a 3* strategy for midtown? From previous posts it seems like most folks have had good luck on 4* right around $100 for MTE/MTW. Thanks

After much delay, I fianally decided to try bidding NYC (MTE, MTW & CPS) to no avail. For various reasons (it's only money :) ), I thought I'd try NY first and maybe fall back to Jersey later. After reading a few of the threads in the NY area I adopted the following approach: bid MTE @ $85, rejected added MTW @ $97, rejected added UM/CPS @ $100, rejected dates were 5/28 - 5/31 (Memorial Day wknd) Luckily I have a few mo's. to get something and do have a cancellable backup plan. I guess now I'll just wait the 3 days and try again... If I'm successful, I'll start a new thread in the NY area.

Thanks, I think I'll take your suggestion and start in Jersey City at $35. I'll report back with my results, but it may be a few days (after the weekend?) until I do.

Thanks for the reply. My specfiics are: Date: 5/28 - 5/31 (3 nights), Is it too early to bid for these dates? Location: Jersey City (or maybe NYC midtown East/West) Hotel Rating: 3 star minimum (maybe 4* for NYC, seems like their ratings are a bit skewed) Price Range: ~$60/night for Jersey, ~$100/night for NYC Other: Driving up from MD, so parking will be required. Prefer to leave car in parking lot for duration of stay, so easy access to public transportation into NYC is desirable. Will be spending most of the time in NYC midtown/Wall Street areas. There will be 3 of us (2 adults, 1 child) so I'm trying to figure out if the money I save by staying in Jersey will be negated by 3 roundtrip PATH tickets x 3 days. So if NYC Hotel + Parking = Jersey Hotel + Parking + Path, then I'll stay in NYC. Somehow I think the Jersey option will be the cheaper. As a side note, I wanted to compliment you on your site. You obviously put a lot of time and effort into it. Thanks.

I'll be driving to NYC for Memorial Day weekend and was considering these two areas. I've never used Priceline and have found this board very helpful, but I don't see any posts regarding hotels in the N. Bergen/Union City area even though that region is on Priceline. I stayed in Weehawken a few years ago (not using Priceline) and found the bus ride into the Pt. Auth. station to be very convenient. So I'll try to keep it short. Anyone care to comment on the following: 1. How does NB/UC compare to JC in terms of neighborhood, surroundings, public transport to NYC? 2. What hotels does Priceline offer in NB/UC? I have a good idea about JC from other posts. 3. Do most hotels in these regions charge for parking, and if so, what can I expect to pay? One of the things keeping me from pursuing a NYC hotel is getting a great rate on a room then paying $40/night for parking. OTOH, if I'm going to pay $20 in Jersey anyway, then I'll reconsider NYC. Thanks