Priceline Hotel: What rooms do Priceline bids win, 4 stars Soho

[inksleeves]

I am considering if Priceline will work for me....

The wife and I will be in NYC Oct 24-Oct 28th.

She likes her hotel luxury, so she considers a nice Holiday Inn as 'roughing it'.

When you bid for a 4 star property in say Soho, what rooms are won?

I'm presuming it's the most basic room, so are there options to pay for an upgrade, or do the hotels then fleece you?

As for what we were looking at, The Thomson LES on Allen would be great. But I wouldn't want to stay at the Modian in just the basic room.

Please help. I risk four days of woman fury for f4ck1ng up.

[dahammer]

Welcome! I have 9 years of priceline biding and hundreds of wins, however my best win was over 20 years ago when I married my wife!

My advice is proceed at your own risk. All of the reported wins for this zone can be found on BetterBidding's hotel lists. You can expect to get any hotel on this list and possibly a new one that has yet to be reported. Upon check in, you will be assigned any standard room, if they are sold out, upgrades will be very difficult. If the hotel is not fully occupied, it is up to the discretion and mood of the desk clerk, he is your best friend and a smile, hello, and positive attitude go a long way. Maybe a mention of this trip being a special occasion could soften the hard heart of a lowly front desk clerk.

I use PRICELINE to save money on business trips so the bar is set pretty low. When I travel with my spouse and children, my past history has set the bar much higher so I don't want to take a risk.

Bottom line, check the hotel lists, you cannot select your hotel, only the zone, dates, star level, and maximum price.

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

If you haven't yet please read your messages.

Few additional comments to the above:

-always look at the PRICELINE map zone boundaries as your hotel can be anywhere within the shaded boundaries of the zone. Note that PRICELINE's "Soho" zone also includes Tribeca, so that part of the zone will need to be acceptable as well

-you're coming to NYC during an expensive time of year, what is your expected buget?

-when using the opaque providers you need to be flexible in your plans... while it's OK to hope for a specific property, choosing the property you want and then bidding that zone is a recipe for disappointment

If you need to be in a precise location i would suggest looking at our sister site MAPS and HOTELS.com which makes it easy to see hotels in an exact location and how much more/less it would cost to stay closer/further for that exact location as well as how much more/less it would cost to go up/down in star rating.

Lastly, although HOTWIRE may cost a little more than PRICELINE, you may want to consider that if you decide to move forward with an opaque purchase as they give you some user review information, often TA ratings, as well as information about the hotel that enables you to make an educated guess... which may help minimize the risk of your wife not being happy (which minimizes the risk of you not begin happy :) ).

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 them.

[inksleeves]

Budget would be about $1500 for the 4 nights, maybe a little more.

Initially I was considering the 5 star Times Square bid process, I understand this is very likely to get The Chatwal.

But we plan a night out at the Slipper Room so thought a Soho or LES hotel might be better positioned as that will be our only LATE night.

[thereuare]

...I understand this is very likely to get The Chatwal.

And this 4.5/5.0 TA rated hotel, rated #15 out of 434 hotels in NYC, would not be an acceptable outcome?

The opaque providers are for guests that are flexible in the hotel that they will receive, and it appears that you have very specific needs/wants for this stay.

You can try searching HOTWIRE for a hotel that is very highly rated by previous guests and/or have a high TA rating, then try to identify it to see if it will meet your needs, but there is always the risk that you guess wrong and it's not the hotel that you're expecting.

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

Let us know if/how you'd like to proceed and we'll try to assist further.

[inksleeves]

You're right, THe Chatwal is more than acceptable, I was just considering Soho as a better location in terms of food and nightlife. I'm not a great fan of chain restaurants.

I can get a superior deluxe at Thompson LES for $1680 through olotels.

Looking here, the Chatwal is being reported at around $350 a night, so $1400 plus taxes....but as has been said, October is not a great month for deals.

[thereuare]

I'm not really sure of your intended game plan moving forward...

Are you willing to accept any 5* hotel in the Times Square zone? (with the caveat that there may be 'unknown' 5* hotels in this zone not yet reported to the board OR a hotel previously reported upgraded to the 5* level)

We can move forward however you'd like, but the real value in the opaque providers is when you're able to be flexible and see something like the 4* hotel in the ESB zone for your dates priced at $199/nite and has a 4.5/5.0 TA rating (which implies it's a very good property)... if you were to purchase that property maybe there are something you really like, and maybe some things you don't like as much, but at a savings of $150/nite it likely provides a better value than your ideal hotel at $350/nite.

Let us know how you'd like to proceed and we'll try to assist further.

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