Priceline Hotel: Help on Bidding Strategy for Sept 4-6

[skugg]

Hi!

My 4 other guy friends and I are looking to do all the tourist-y things in NY and I'm hoping you guys could give me some tips on finding a place anywhere in the NY area (eg. Midtown E/W, Times Square, Downtown). We're all students so we're hoping to spend (with tax) $200/night at most. Is this even reasonable? Other things I was wondering was:

- We're hoping to find 1 room with 2 double beds with 1 guy on the ground. The consensus seems like hotwire would be the place to go instead of priceline.

- We going to be coming in the morning of the 4th so we're hoping we could find a place to drop our stuff off for the day until check-in time. I'm hoping the hotel has some sort of storage space for a decent price. If they don't, any other suggestions on what we can do?

- We're all virgins when it comes to NY so we want to stay in a location that is close to the tourist-y things

If you guys could let me know what you guys think I should do, it would be very much appreciated!

Any other suggestions or tips would be nice too.

[AaronJB]

Welcome to Betterbidding. :)

Many NYC hotel rooms are quite small, and being able to get two beds is often quite difficult. HOTWIRE will not guarantee two beds - it will guarantee bedding for the party, which may be 2 beds or it may be 1 + sofabed or other combination. Additionally, HOTWIRE has a max of four per room, and given the size of many NYC rooms, there may be code issues with having more than 4 per room (and in some cases maybe more than 2-3 per room.) Trying to get 5 in a room in NYC is iikely going to be very cramped (some rooms are as small as 130-150 square feet) and possibly risky if the hotel has rules regarding the amount of people in a room.

Additionally, more than 2 adults in the room is likely going to add to the cost, as most hotels charge extra person fees for each adult after the 2nd adult. When you search for 4 adults on HOTWIRE, there will be less options and higher prices. Unfortunately, HOTWIRE prices are definitely high for these dates, with Manhattan properties starting at around $250 for a 2* when searching for 4 people in the room for these dates. Unfortunately, in terms of a larger party, I don't think $200 (with tax included) is going to be realistic for these dates.

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

[skugg]

Thanks for the response!

You guys think it will be cheaper to bid for a cheaper price over at priceline and just pay the extra fee for additional guests or continue with hotwire?

Is so, any suggestions on bidding strategies for priceline/hotwire?

[thereuare]

You guys think it will be cheaper to bid for a cheaper price over at PRICELINE and just pay the extra fee for additional guests or continue with HOTWIRE?

The hotel may not be able, or willing, to accommodate your request for a room with two beds... at any price. I think 5 adults in one NYC hotel room is risky, especially at the lower star levels it would appear you would need to choose at your current budget.

I always try to recommend first time visitors try to stay directly in the city as you do lose much of the 'vibe' of NYC when you stay outside of the city, so i would try to find a way to increase your budget (and with 5 people trying t share one room an extra $20 per person gives you an extra $50 per nite in budget).

If you can't incrase your budget, if you search HOTWIRE for 4adults the Westin in Jersey City appears for $161/nite... this is a very nice hotel and easy access to Manhattan (24/7) via PATH train which takes about 15 minutes to Manattan (travel time... add some waitng for the train on both coming/going)

Alternately, if you're willing to SPLITTING YOUR PRICELINE BID, you can book the Westin for $197/nite for Saturday and then a 4* hotwire property in the Empire State Building zone for $229... just a little more then your current budget and at least gives you one nite in the city.

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

Let us know what you decide and how it goes or if we can be of further help.