Priceline Hotel: 4* New York City (Midtown West) Sofitel

[lollar12]

I've browsed this board in the past and finally decided to register so I could share my winning bid with everyone, especially since New York City seems to be a challenging city to book this time of year. So, I'm hoping this will be helpful to everyone who's having difficulty finding a decently priced room in NYC this fall.

I spent two days bidding. Both days my bid included the following 4 star zones: MTW, MTE, Times Square, CPS.

I actually copied the bidding strategy from someone else's post since we were bidding in the exact same zones and used all of my free rebids. On day one, I decided to start my bid at $120 and bid all the way up to $200 with no luck and no counteroffers.

On day two, i realized with my trip being this far out and what the average winning bid was looking like, I started my opening bid at $190 and worked my way up in $5 increments. When I got to around $240, Priceline offered me a free rebid without changing any information for $309. I'm guessing this is the same as a counteroffer. With tax $309 wasn't going to be much of a bargain compared to booking directly at a hotel. I got the $309 offer a second time after I signed out and restarted the next bidding tier.

I kept bidding and when I got up to $260, I only had two free rebids left and decided to go straight to $275. Even though my trip is two weeks away, I just don't have an hour to spend every day on a hotel and was anxious to make sure I got a hotel.

Anyhow, at $275 I got the Sofitel for a Thursday - Sunday stay. I am beyond thrilled with the location and the quality of the hotel. Taxes and fees made the total come to $1002 for three nights. Not bad considering when I looked at the Sofitel website and the cheapest 3 night stay was $1600 total. Maybe I could have given it a few more days or even a week and perhaps I would've won a hotel for slightly less or maybe a lot less, but who knows what room availability would be like in a week and maybe I wouldn't be so lucky then and maybe I wouldn't have gotten the Sofitel which I definitely prefer over getting something like the Grand Hyatt or The W.

If anyone is bidding for NYC and you have the time and days to bid, perhaps I'd recommend that once you get to $260, don't jump all the way to $275 like I did and maybe you'll be able to win a bid closer to $260 than $275.

Since I won my room at $275, I'd warn people to be wary of Priceline's counter offer b/c it was a $34 difference b/w what they were offering and the price that won my room. Hope this helps and good luck bidding!

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

Congratulations on your success!

While not cheap in dollar terms, this does look like a nice deal for this busy time of year... glad to see you're pleased with your purchase.

If you haven't seen it yet, this is a good thread which discusses PRICELINE's counter-offer in a bit more detail: Priceline Suggests Price to Pay

Thank you for sharing your win with the board.

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

Enjoy your stay.