Hotwire Hotel: Please help ID 3* (Downtown - Soho)

[chickendindin]

Hi,

New to the board, need help identifying 3* in the Downtown - Soho - Financial District area. Dates are from Sept 10 to Sept 17, 2011. Amenities shown are restaurant, business center and hi-speed internet. 90% recommended in Hotwire and 3.5 Tripadvisor rating.

My guess is the Holiday Inn Soho based on the Tripadvisor rating. Would this be correct?

Also, would you recommend booking this hotel now or can I get a better deal by bidding on Priceline? The price seems great since our dates are in the high season and I can't find a decent 3* for less than $250/night. I checked the Holiday Inn's rates for this same period and they are over $300/night so if my guess is correct, this seems like a great deal.

Been to NYC before, but stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn on Times Square and that was great. How long would the commute be from Soho to let's say Times Square/Theatre district? I'm concerned about the commute time but at this price, I'm willing to sacrifice :)

Thanks in advance for your help! Great site!

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding! (and thanks for the compliments on the site :) )

These amenities are quite common for NYC, but this does match previous reports for the Holiday Inn so that would be my best guess for this one.

PRICELINE is usually a little cheaper then HOTWIRE, but you then don't have any guess as to the hotel you might receive (nor know the amenities or the increased confidence that it's a decent property based upon previous HOTWIRE guest recommendation, reviews and TA rating)... so that is the trade-off.

The subway ride from Downtown to Times Square is ~20+ minutes.

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

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

[chickendindin]

Thank you for your reply!

Given that I have a bit of time before our trip, I think I'll take the risk with Priceline bidding, using your PRICELINE link of course :). If you could give me advice on a bidding strategy, that would be great. Currently, my budget is around $180 for a 3* to 3.5* in any of these areas:

Chelsea, ESB, MSG, MTE, MTW, and TSQ

I could go as high as $200, but I'd rather try only up to $180 for now. I'd love to get a 4* but I think that's highly unlikely given the season and current prices right now.

Please let me know if I should post this in the Priceline forum instead. Many thanks again for all the help!

[thereuare]

We'll continue this thread here for both PRICELINE and HOTWIRE, if you ultimately use PRICELINE we'll then move the entire thread to that section of the board.

From your comments it sounds as if you'd want to first try for a 3.5* up to your $180 limit as opposed to looking for the least expensive 3* or better up to $180? If your rejected at $180 for a 3.5*, do you then want to immediately try for a 3* up to $180 (or will you be trying for a 3.5* for a few weeks before considering the 3* level?)

Also, note that at less than 4*, some of the hotels in the MTE zone can be up to a 15 minute walk to the subway... is this acceptable?

Let us know the above and we'll suggest a strategy for you to follow.

Thanks for using the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board.