Priceline Hotel: NYC 4* Bidding Help

[chancy]

Hello,

I am going to New York May 1 - May 8 with some friends and this will be our first time going to New York.

We're hoping to get either a 3.5* or 4* hotel. Since its our first time, location isn't too important, we just hope that its somewhere nice and relatively close to a subway and/or easy to get to and from major NY attractions. We would consider a 3* if that's the only choice, but we don't want to go below that.

Our max bid is around $150 a night not including taxes (180 incl. taxes). Is it possible to get something at this price during this time?

So far, I've tried the following bids from following an example on another thread:

Select 4* MTE, MTW, CPS and TS...

Bid $100, added re-bid zone

Bid $105, added re-bid zone

Bid $110, added re-bid zone

Bid $115, added re-bid zone

Bid $120, added re-bid zone

Bid $125

Select 4* ESB...

Bid $100, added re-bid zone

Bid $105, added re-bid zone

Bid $110, added re-bid zone

Bid $115, added re-bid zone

Bid $120, added re-bid zone

Bid $125

Select 4* MTE, MTW, CPS, TS and ESB...

Bid $125, added re-bid zone

Bid $130, added re-bid zone

Bid $135, added re-bid zone

Bid $140, added re-bid zone

Bid $145, added re-bid zone

Bid $150

Select 3.5* MTW, ESB, MSG, TS

Bid $105, added re-bid zone

Bid $110, added re-bid zone

Bid $115, added re-bid zone

Bid $120

All was rejected. Are my bids too low? Are there additional zones I should add?

Please help! TIA! :)

[chancy]

I just tried

Select 4* UWS

Bid $125, added re-bid zone

Bid $135, added re-bid zone

Bid $140, added re-bid zone

Bid $145, added re-bid zone

Bid $150, added re-bid zone

Bid $155

Select 4* MTE, MTW, CPS, TS, ESB and UWS

Bid $155, added re-bid zone

Bid $160, added re-bid zone

Bid $165, added re-bid zone

Bid $170

Select 3.5* MTW, ESB, MSG, TS and UWS

Bid $130, added re-bid zone

Bid $135, added re-bid zone

Bid $140, added re-bid zone

Bid $145

3.5* MTE

Bid 105, added re-bid zone

Bid 110, added re-bid zone

Bid 115, added re-bid zone

Bid 120, added zone I tried prior

Bid 125, added zone I tried prior

Bid 135, added zone I tried prior

Bid 145, added zone I tried prior

I've gone up to $170 which is our absolute max for:

CPS, TS, MSG, MTW, ESB, MTE, UWS

Again all rejected :) I'm out of ideas.

[chancy]

^ the $170 bids were for both 3.5* and 4*

Also tried

4* TS, MTE, MTW

$175, added rebid zone

$180

4* UWS

$175, added CPS, ESB, MSG

$175, added rebid zone

$180

Rejected again.

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

Hoe many rooms are you searching for and how many total guests will you be?

At the 3.5* level any thoughts on the MSG and/or Chelsea zone(s)? Is SPLITTING YOUR PRICELINE BID an option?

Please use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases.

Let us know the above and we'll take it from there.

[chancy]

For the 3.5 zone, I have bid on MSG but not the Chelsea area because it seems a bit far from where everything is.

We're looking for 1 bedroom for 3 people.

Thank you :) (I have been using your links to visit priceline.)

[AaronJB]

In terms of 3 people, are you okay with the possibility of 1 bed?

Please use the site's HOTWIRE or PRICELINE links to start your purchases and searches.

[chancy]

We would prefer 2 beds. Is it possible to ask the hotel to supply a roll-away bed at an extra cost or something?

[AaronJB]

PRICELINE only guarantees 1 bed/double occupancy; you can definitely ask about an extra bed/rollaway, although that may be tough in NYC, where rooms are generally quite small (rooms that are 150 sq ft are definitely not unheard of) and rooms with two beds are often hard to find. A room with 2 actual beds via PRICELINE in NYC is not likely, though.

With HOTWIRE, you can search for more than 2 people, which would guarantee some form of bedding for your entire party.

Thank you for using the site's HOTWIRE or PRICELINE links to start your purchases and searches.

[chancy]

Thank you for the tip.

Would you still have any bidding strategy for priceline?

Thanks.

[AaronJB]

What would your desired max budget per night be? You could continue using re-bidding and bidding higher by $5's.

Please use the site's HOTWIRE or PRICELINE links to start your purchases and searches.

[chancy]

We want to keep under $200 a night taxes included. I've bidded upto $180 a night though and was all rejected.

[AaronJB]

What have you bid up to for 3.5*? If you have bid to your max for 4*, then I would drop down to the next star rating lower.

Thank you for using the site's HOTWIRE or PRICELINE links to start your purchases and searches.

[chancy]

I have bid up to $170 for 3.5*.

How are the 3* hotels that are known to be available on PRICELINE? Do you know if they are fairly good/large/close to subway stations etc?

Would we have a better chance at these at perhaps $150?

Thank you :)

[thereuare]

I would be very cautious bidding for one room for more than double occupancy in NYC.

For example, i believe the current 3.5* hotel listed on HOTWIRE in the MTC zone is the Hudson Hotel which has notoriously small rooms... there would be no way to fit a rollaway in this room (and barely even enough room for a 3rd person to sleep on the floor).

Unfortunately when searching HOTWIRE for triple occupancy the rates jump dramatically (not uncommon in NYC since rooms to accommodate more than double occupancy can be hard to come by or considered a premium/upgrade), but if you're willing to take the double occupancy risk you may want to use HOTWIRE anyway so that you can take an educated guess as to the hotel offered and at least know that they have rooms which can accommodate three people (no assurance the hotel will be able to accommodate your request for such a room as one might not be available or the hotel may not be willing to offer you such a room on a HOTWIRE purchase, but at least it allows you to try to avoid hotels where this is a 'known' problem)

HOTWIRE does have a 3.5* hotel in the Chelsea-MSG zone for $189 (Restaurant, Fitness, Internet) for which the best guess is the Ramada New Yorker (a 3* rated hotel on PRICELINE) which i would consider to be centrally located and near a subway... should you think this may work for your needs.

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

Please use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases.

[AaronJB]

In terms of searching for 2 instead of 3, The 4* Ink48 (a new Kimpton boutique property that opened not too long ago) is $223 on Orbitz, and coupon code FABSAVE10 takes an extra 10% off that price. The room is listed at 275 sq ft, which is above-average for NYC.

Please use the site's Orbitz.com link if this idea is of interest.

[chancy]

In terms of searching for 2 instead of 3, The 4* Ink48 (a new Kimpton boutique property that opened not too long ago) is $223 on Orbitz, and coupon code FABSAVE10 takes an extra 10% off that price. The room is listed at 275 sq ft, which is above-average for NYC.

Please use the site's Orbitz.com link if this idea is of interest.

Thanks for the recommendation. We decided to not take the risk and booked a Ink48 room with 2 double bed through Orbitz.

[AaronJB]

Sweet deal! Glad to hear the Ink48 deal worked well for your plans.

Thank you for using the site's Orbitz.com link to start your purchase.

Enjoy your stay.