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using hotel stay as apartment


apthotel
By apthotel,
in

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apartment rentals around boston western suburbs have become expensive. for someone living out of a suitcase sunday through thursday (4 nights/week), I thought I could just make priceline bids every week and stay in hotels. If I can get a 3-3.5 star hotel consistently for around 50-60 dollars I will come out way ahead. Is this doable? Are there any gotchas I am overlooking?

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Welcome to BetterBidding!

Please start by reading your messages.

This has been done previously (and i'm sure concurrently)... the 'gotcha' is that you have to be very flexible. There may be times when the area gets busy and you won't be able to win a hotel in the $50-$60 price range and either need to increase your budget OR stay well outside of your desired/usual neighborhood. You'll also likely need to rent some storage space for much of your belongings (assuming everything you own doesn't fit in a suitcase)

While the above are the 'cons'... you also no longer have some monthly expenses such as cable, internet, phone, utlities, etc.

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

Please use this HOTWIRE and these PRICELINE LINKS: HOTELS, CAR RENTALS, and AIRFARE to begin your travel purchases

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Hello,

Ive actually have done this while our house was being built. we got to stay ata residence inn for 3 and 1/2 months at $46 a night. rate stayed the same and we had the same hotel. When mid may hit and other hotels were added to priceline we were not so lucky so moved into an apartment. It was much cheaper to be in the hotel and not pay bills. It was aprox 1550/month our apt w/ no utilities was 2,200 so a great savings. I had to bid in four day increments though to get the best deal.u must be aware that u can be moved without much notice so that is the only thing that was stressful since i had my whole family w/ kids. The free breakfast every morning was awesome, It was definitely a time in our lives that we will remember forever.

Its definitely doable in the right area and town that offers hotels consistently via priceline bidding.

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The concern with deals is that there *may* not be a hotel with a deal for the entire period - it may not require 4 switches, but it will likely require at least one and possibly two, depending on the area. Suburbs further out from major areas are more likely to have deals for a longer time period than areas closer to downtown areas. Which zones would be acceptable? Additionally, is anything showing on HOTWIRE for your dates?

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

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The concern with deals is that there *may* not be a hotel with a deal for the entire period - it may not require 4 switches, but it will likely require at least one and possibly two, depending on the area.

While I personally found that using four day increments was the best way to capitalize on the deals priceline was offering for this particular hotel during this time frame and city, that does not mean that it would be the same for you. I only said this so you are aware that it may be less expensive by bidding for less days than you desire. It is your choice to bid for the max amount of days that priceline will allow, which I believe is 21 days but can be up to 30 days. It was my experience that had I done that I would have been paying a higher daily rate. Your experience may be different. Just be open to the fact that you may not be able to bid the whole month at one shot. You won't know until you try it. Usually though hotels do not want to give large amount of inventory away like that upfront because in their mind they will try to first sell it at a higher rate. Though I bid in four day increments, I did not have to move rooms or anything, just needed to check out then check back in. THey let me do this whenever I returned back to the hotel. I would definitely look on hotwire also as suggested to see if that may be a better option as they are able to offer inventory for a longer time frame which locks in your rate for that time. hot wire also offers different hotels that priceline doesn't so also adding to your choices of desired places to stay. Once we got moved to the hyatt the rates were no longer predictable and we paid anywhere from $50 - $92 a night for the room so that is when we decided to settle down a bit and get a rental home. Same thing happened with my daughter in florida. They had low rates for Monday -thursday but high rates for fri -sun which were unpredictable. After four weeks she moved into an apartment too.

The overall theme is to save money but you must be flexible for this to work. I personally did not need to get a storage room to store things but this can also be a good option if you have large items that are a pain to move or just a large quantity of items. Hope it works out for you.

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Presumably you are talking of bidding 4 mid-week days. To over-generalize, mid-week days are similar to each other, and weekend days are similar to each other. In some cities there is an over-abundance of hotels on weekends, and in other cities there is an overabundance on week days. Splitting bids more often comes into play when a person has a span of some weekend days and some week days. Splitting a bid also generates an additional base Priceline fee to the second bid. And the possibility of having to move mid-span. You are better off if you can nail the 4 days all at once.

4 days really isn't that long a span.

Priceline has been doing some averaging for quite some time.

There are of course isolated event days that will run prices up for a while.

If I were in your position, I'd consider as many PL zones as possible. Boston is a good place to bid, since at the moment it has several free rebid zones at the 3 1/2 star level and even a few at the 3 star level. There also are those nearby areas, a couple of them even titled Metro-South and Metro-West so one has a good clue the metro is convenient.

I'd start out at the 3 1/2* level with the zone most convenient to me, and add in zones in descending order of convenience. If nothing worked, I'd sign out, sign back in and work the 3* list. And there is always the next day with higher bids.

I think I'd check the Calendar of Wins for comparable bids on the dates. I'd also check Hotwire so I'd have a good averaged idea of whether this was to be a relatively inexpensive or expensive week.

The Boston airport hotels might become your new best friends? Good metro service from there, unlike lots of other US places.

If you haven't already done so, do a Quick Search (box straight up top on this page) on "boston". While you will see lots of +$100 4* bids, buried among them are quite a few in the right price range. You'll get a better idea of what is possible/probable.

Interesting problem you have. I think you could make it work quite nicely almost all of the time. There will be a few times when things will be expensive enough that the long drive will beat another really expensive night. But you will still be way ahead on average. And overall, it should be lots less expensive than an apartment, you'd get some included breakfasts, won't have to do bedding and linens laundry, become a pro on Boston transit and geography, and a Priceline bidding expert.

Romelle

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thanks. would I get better deal if I wait until sunday to bid for that night stay (it kind of makes sense to me) or should I do it on friday itself for the next sunday through wednesday? Any way my current lease isn't up yet. Hence I have a couple of months to revise my game plan.

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There is discussion in the FAQs on when to bid. If you are sure of your schedule, I think it would be better to bid earlier, at least the first few times. Since one usually uses a gradually increasing technique, it can take several sessions to get a hit. Boston is easier than some cities because there are a lot of zones.

I once bid in Budapest for a 10 day stay. There was only one zone there and I am pretty fiscally conservation, so spent several weeks increasing my bid $1 each day until I finally was successful.

Maybe for the first couple of stays, start a couple weeks or so early? When you've got some successes under your belt, maybe a week or so early? And when you get really comfortable, you can play it even closer.

Boston only has two free rebid zones, but I'd guess a number of the other zones containing higher star level hotels would be acceptable to you so you will have quite a few bids available each session.

Romelle

PS - I'm just a member, not a moderator, so take what I have to say with the proverbial grain of salt.

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