Priceline Hotel: Help! Planning a trip to NYC

[Coco]

This site is wonderful, but please excuse me, I'm a total newbie. We are a family of (gasp! :) ) 6 traveling to NYC August 17-21. The kids range in age from 8 - 15. Since NYC is very expensive with small hotel rooms we were looking at doing a suite in Secaucus (or Jersey City, which seems easier for public transportation to the city!). We would probably need a suite with 2 double beds and a pull out sofa. (The Embassy Suites runs 170/night)

I have never used Priceline or Hotwire before, but if I could score a hotel room at the Hyatt for $70-80/night, maybe a better strategy would be to try to book 2 hotels rooms through Priceline. We are driving up from the DC area so we will have a car to park at the hotel (sometimes parking fees, right?), but we plan to use public transportation to the city and back. Any advice on how to get a great hotel for us?

Thank you for your help; it's pretty daunting trying to arrange this whole thing (many hotels have a maximum of 4 people per room). Thanks again for all your travel expertise!! :)

[dahammer]

you might be successful in Secaucus at the Crown Plaza for two rooms and be under $170 per night. Besides, Priceline only guarantees accomodations for two, you can book a Hotwire room for 4.

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

Are you willing to SPLIT YOUR BID?

[Coco]

Yes, I would be willing to split the bid if you think it would help!

[thereuare]

When i had asked last nite about splitting the bid i think you could have gotten good rates at the Hyatt for everyday except for Friday nite, but now it appears that only Thursday and Sunday nites are availble.

I would try anyway...

Select 3* Jersey City for 8/17-8/21

Bid $81, if rejected change dates to 8/17-8/20...

Bid $81, if rejected change dates to 8/17-8/19....

Bid $81.

I'm assuming you do not want to change 3 times (a hotel Wednesday, another hotel Thursday and Friday, and a third hotel Saturday), but if the above fails (which very well may be likely) then post back of the 3x move is acceptable or not and we'll discuss your other possibilities.

Any questions on the above feel free to ask.

Good Luck.

[biddingforhotel]

Here is an alternative. You could bid "Somerset, NJ" area for 3* and for $33 you will get the Marriott Somerset with both indoor and outdoor pools for kids. Once you stay at Someset NJ, you are New Jerseyan visiting NYC... From Someset NJ to NYC is only 35 miles, and many people commute to NYC and work, so it is not a big deal. So, how would people like us going to visit NYC from NJ?

There are several ways: you can drive to Staten Island NY at the ferry terminal and park the car there at $6 a day and take the only FREE ferry to Manhattan at Battery Park. at the ferry, you can see gorgeous Manhtttan view and Lady Liberty ...etc. The ferry is 24 hours, and quite frequent; you feel you are New Yorker right away living at Staten Island NY commuting to Manhattan. After arriving lower Manhattan, you can walk along Water St to see the Wall St area and visit South Street Seaport, (0.5 miles), if you keep walking, under Brooklyn Bridge, you will hit famous Chinatown (another 0.5 miles), you can take subway to Midtown (N/R or 4,5,6), when you come back, you can take the same back to Battery Park and take ferry back to Staten Island. If you want to save money, you can even check out this $4 buffet on Center St at Canal or on Division St at Confucious Plaza, pick 4 dishes out of 100+ dishes with free rice and soup. When you walk, do not hesitate to pop in stores along way or hotel like Ritz Carlton Battery Park, just to get some cold air ... This is the best route that we used for years for hundreds of friends visiting us from all over the place to NYC.

Another way is to drive to Newport Jersey City, and park the car at Target Parking lot (free), park and walk in to buy some drink and icy for kids and you are customer (keep the receipt), and walk to PATH station at Newport, just two blocks (right next Courtyard Marriott), then you will be as if living at Courtyard and take PATH to tour Manhattan.

Yeh another one is to drive to Hyatt Jersey City, and park at the parking lot, $22 a day. You can also drive to Liberty State Park and park the car there and take new Light Weight Rail over to transfer PATH. This may be good for one day that your kids can check out the famous Liberty Science Center which has the only Dome Imax Theather in the area ...

You can also drive to Lincoln Harbor and take Ferry over to Manhattan ($4), the above locations can also take ferry over too; ferry is normally twice more expensive, but it also privide FREE connection free Waterway shuttles in Manhattan that you can save subway fare ... and it is a good choice during sunny day, the Hudson River is great!

If you do not want to drive, you can also bid 2.5* at Edison, NJ for $35 min, you will hit Clarion Hotel which has direct charter bus to Manhattan but it is $15 round trip, so for 6 people may not be that applicable.

Here is another more tricker way to save money. If you happen to be visiting NYC during weekends, you can also bid 2.5* at Newark, NJ airport area that you will hit Country Inn & Suites for $42, and you can drive a mile or two to IKEA and take their free shuttle to Manhattan ...

Since you are coming from DC, you can also bid 3* $40 at Princeton NJ and you may hit this Chauncey Conference Center, very nice hotel, like a resort, outdoor poor and tennis court ($30 dinner buffet and $20 breakfast should be avoid) before heading to NYC.

[Coco]

WOW! :) Thank you for so many great options!!! I'll be sure to post my eventual trip results...it's so nice to have so many helpful and knowledgeable travel buddies!

Thanks again.

[thereuare]

While Somerset NJ may be fine for a local visting NYC, i don't think it's appropriate for the typical out of town visitor... 35 miles (40 minutes?) plus linking up with additional transit into NYC makes total commute time close to an hour (each way)... so 2 hours of vacation each day spent commuting.

That may be fine for some, but i also think it's "less than ideal".

[Coco]

I bid through the link on savingsbarn.com, unfortunately I didn't get any bites on $81 or $85 for any of my dates. I tried to up my bid to $90, but for some reason it said I still needed to change some information to bid again or wait the 72 hours. I'm going to try to bid ($90) on my husband's computer with his email information and credit card and see if we can get some of the dates.

We'd love to stay at the Hyatt; I'm a little bit afraid of lowering the rating to 2.5*...I really don't want to stay at the Courtyard. I do have backup reservations at the Embassy Suites (which is now sold out for my dates), but I guess I could try Secaucus (as a last resort) with a 3*. At worst I could get a hotel = to the Embassy Suites at a lesser rate.

Do you think I would be better off waiting and trying to rebid for the Hyatt as I get closer to the dates or, in your experience, will the chances diminish as we get closer? Do you think lowering to a 2.5* in Jersey City will increase my chances of getting Hyatt or will it likely just get me the Courtyard?

Thanks again everyone for your help; it's been invaluable :)

--------------------

[ Add to Buddies ]

[dahammer]

I tried to up my bid to $90, but for some reason it said I still needed to change some information to bid again or wait the 72 hours.

you can change part of your bid such as the dates and not have to wait 72 hours would try anyway...

Bid $81, if rejected change dates to 8/17-8/20...

Bid $81, if rejected change dates to 8/17-8/19....

Bid $81.

Or, if you select the Secaucus-North Bergen zone, the 3* hotels have been identified as:

3* Crowne Plaza

3* Embassy Suites

3* Prime Suites

The rates for the Crown Plaza and Prime suites are $139 for your dates of travel and in fact go down to $129 on the weekends. You might just get lucky at $65 per room per night, I would bid for two rooms.

[thereuare]

How much higher are you willing to raise your bid to be in Jersey City?

[Coco]

I would be willing to go to $105; I guess $110 would be my absolute tops!

Also, I heard you can take the ferry from the Liberty Science Center in NJ to the Statue of Liberyty and it's less crowded than the NY Ferry. True? Also, do you think it's worthwhile to actually take the trip to the Statute (can we go inside now?) and Ellis Island or just take the Staten Island Ferry and view it? Any idea how long the trip to the Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island would take it we took the first ferry of the day (weekday)?

Thanks....

[Coco]

I forgot to mention, we bid $90 on my husband's computer for Jersey City, tried 8/17-8/20, rejected, 8/18-8/20, rejected, then 8/18-8/19, rejected. Then we tried to rebid for the original dates (8/17-8/20) for $95 and got locked out for 72 hours.

Did we do something wrong? We changed our bid to $95 but it didn't recognize it, still showed our bid as $90.

[thereuare]

Your 8/17-8/20 bid at $95 was a duplicate of your first bid... you can only make the same exact bid once every 72 hours.