Priceline Hotel: NYC Bidding With a Child

[amanda j]

i'm brand new to priceline.com and this forum. i'm planning a vacation for my husband, 11 year old son and i for 4 nights in NYC this fall. we are planning on going october 6-10. i have been told by friends they bid on 4 star hotels and only paid $100 a night and ended up in hotels like the sofitel. i really want to try this and start my bidding process. the problem is, the disclaimer says it's for 2 adults only and you'll have to work out room details with the hotel when you get there.

my question is, if i bid and end up with a 4 star hotel in the location CPS which is where we'd like to stay, will the hotel allow us to check in with our son and be accomodating? if we end up with a king bed, we can all share. if not, we can make him a pallet on the floor and it won't be the end of the world. i guess they could charge us an extra fee for him?? any ideas will be appreciated. thank you in advance!!

[AaronJB]

Welcome to Betterbidding. :)

In terms of NYC, an issue with using PRICELINE is that it only guarantees double occupancy/1 bed. Many properties - even at higher star ratings - have small rooms, and may be as small as 130-160 square feet (or at least small to the point where a rollaway wouldn't fit.) HOTWIRE is a better choice, as it allows one to indicate the amount of people in the party.

Overall, using PRICELINE for four, the risk is that you get one bed (and it definitely could be a smaller bed than a king bed.) There is a high risk of this in NYC.

In terms of rates, rates vary substantially throughout the year - $100 for a 4* is generally only seen during the slowest portion of the year. The last quarter of the year is generally the most expensive. What would be your desired budget per night?

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

[amanda j]

Thanks Aaron! I would love to spend no more than $250 a night but I'm not sure if that's an option for anything nice that time of year.

[thereuare]

I'll add a few thoughts...

You''ll likely need to expand your acceptable zones beyond just CPS. At the 4* level this is one of the most expensive PRICELINE zones in the city and if you're looking for 'a deal' you'll likely do better if you're willing to expand to most of the midtown zones.

As far as triple occupancy is concerned, it's a calculated risk. With a small child it's a bit easier to manage and hotels are less likely to say something if the child is 3-4 years old vs. if the child is 16 years old. You sound like you're flexible and willing to 'go with the flow', but it's a calculated risk and as nobody knows which hotel you will receive, it's impossible to say what the chances are it'll be 'ok'. The one caveat is that some NYC hotel rooms are so small that a rollaway won't even fit in the room, and fire code has them set for no more than two people... so you could run into a front desk clerk that makes an issue of it.

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

Let us know your thoughts and we'll take it from there.