Priceline Hotel: Manhattan nov 23-26 party of FOUR

[king-of-rock]

I lived in NYC for 8 years in the eighties, and visited since many times, but have never tried to stay in a hotel with a family of 4. I have a limited budget of $150. (maybe$175.) per night, and I understand priceline non-guarantee of more than occupancy of two people. I am ONLY interested in staying in Manhattan below 80th St. (I can probably bum a couch at a friends house if need be, but c'mon!...) I have tried to book a cancellable reservation, and cannot even get anything reasonable for that either...

Obviously 4 stars are out, but what would be your advice? I have never had experience with a place with so many rooms and so little deals!

Help a neophyte out, what is the strategy on my limited budget with four (maybe 5) people?!

[AaronJB]

Welcome to Betterbidding. :)

In terms of a party of four, I'd suggest HOTWIRE, where you can indicate the amount of people (up to 4) in the party, and ensure some form of bedding (could be 2 beds or 1 + rollaway or other combo.)

Unfortunately, these dates are expensive; additionally, HOTWIRE has appeared to be down throughout this evening. If you are able to search HOTWIRE, please let us know if there are any listings showing within your desired budget and the details of the listing.

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

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

Two issues:

1) many NYC hotel rooms are notoriously small, and a high percentage only have one bed. Many hotels consider rooms with two beds to be an upgrade and/or charge more for them. Therefore, anytime you need more than double occupancy in NYC many hotels will charge a premium since you're taking one of the 'premium/limited supply' rooms with two beds off the market.

2) NYC hosts a small Thanksgiving Parade :) which takes place during these dates. Not only do people come from all over to see it live, but marching bands, choirs, etc. also come from all over the country to participate. Both of these groups need places to stay, and in the case of the marching bands, they consume a large block of rooms wherever they stay. The net result is that these are peak dates for hotel rooms and the price reflect the higher then usual demand.

If your dates are flexible and you can change them to 11/25-11/28 (a check-in date when all the marching bands are on their way home) you'll likely do better, although $150 for quad occupancy may still be a tough win for this time of year.

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

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