Priceline Hotel: Looking for 4-4.5* (2013-09-04--09)

[Olle]

Hi!

We are new users at this forum so apologies for our lack of knowledge.

We are looking for a nice 4* or better hotel from 4 September to 9 September in NYC (5 nights).

We are primarily looking for a hotel in SoHo or East/West of Central Park, as we believe these are areas which are nice and somewhat peaceful (i.e. we try to avoid the very most tourist populated areas).

However, we are open to suggestions for other good areas in Manhattan as well.

We are willing to pay up to 300 USD/night (total 1500 USD including taxes etc). Is that reasonable? Also, would you suggest that we Hotwire or Priceline?

We would be most grateful for any tips or suggestions for a place to stay during our visit!

Many thanks!

Olle & Jenny from Sweden

[AaronJB]

Welcome to Betterbidding.

Personally, I like Midtown East, as well as the Empire State Building area. If you are looking for less busy/touristy areas, certainly not TS. Central Park East/West are pleasant areas, but I think the issue is that you risk being a little too out of the way. September is usually a busy period, but I think you are early enough in the month that prices are (at least for NYC) more reasonable.

You can go a few routes:

HOTWIRE: offers the ability to make an educated guess as to which hotels are showing. Mildly-to-moderately more expensive than PRICELINE, but allows the possibility you may get something you like.

PRICELINE bidding: Cheaper than HOTWIRE, but the issue is if you bid for a 4* (as an example) in a particular zone, you have to be willing to accept ANY 4* in the zone.

PRICELINE Express Deals: Like HOTWIRE, this side of PRICELINE offers a set of listings with fixed prices, amenities, star ratings and zones, but you do not know the name until after purchase. The amenities showing on PRICELINE Express listings are often more common, making it more difficult to narrow down as much as HOTWIRE.

Do any of the routes above sound appealing?

Any which way, you should certainly be able to stay within budget. For example, HOTWIRE has a 4* in the Empire State Building zone for $167 (the price you see may vary slightly), which results in a total of about $1,013 w/taxes.

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

[thereuare]

... and if you haven't yet please read your messages.

Thanks.

[Olle]

Many thanks for your answer!

We are definitely interested in a 4* hotel which will only cost us 1,013 USD. Is it possible to find out which hotel this is?

Also, would there be any other hotel that would be even better "bang for the buck"?

One again - many thanks!

Olle

[AaronJB]

Keep in mind that the price you see may be slightly different..

When searching for 2 people for 9/4-9, I'm seeing a 4* in the Empire State Building area w/the amenities:

Free Internet

Pet friendly

Fitness Center

Restaurant(s)

Business Center

High-Speed Internet Access

This most likely would be the St Giles the Court, which has been seen with this amenity set previously. The Radisson Martinque with a new amenity set than has been previously seen may also be a slight possibility.

This is the cheapest HOTWIRE 4* showing for your dates. There's also a 4* in the Midtown East area for $186 and a 4.5* on PRICELINE Express that may be the Hyatt 48 Lex or Omni Berkshire for $259 (w/tax a bit higher than your desired budget - $1561 and change.) There's also a lot of options in-between those prices too, including some nice properties full price that would be within your budget.

It really depends on what you are looking for in terms of hotel - given the amount of options within your budget you may find something that appeals to you.

If you are looking for a cheaper option and don't care about potentially getting a specific property or properties, then you can bid on PRICELINE - if you bid for a 4* in Midtown East (for example), you have to be willing to accept ANY 4* in the zone. However, this will be cheaper than HOTWIRE or PRICELINE Express.

Let us know your thoughts.

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

[thereuare]

Of the current offerings the 4* ESB property is the best value, imo.

If/when you make your purchase, please be sure you're on the HOTWIRE US site by changing the drop down menu on the top right of their page to US.. you can change the currency to whichever one you'd like to use for your purchase.

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

Thanks.

[Olle]

Once again - many thanks! We would definitely be interested in the St Giles the Court. However, when we now select ESB and 4* or higher, we can only find one hotel, which is much more expensive(5 stars). Is it common that available rooms change day to day, hour to hour? Or does this mean that there are only a few rooms left (and there are no more that will be available)?

We will use your provided links for sure.

Thanks!

Olle

[thereuare]

If the hotel is no longer offered the hotel has either increased the price of their rooms, pulled the inventory from HOTWIRE (if for example they have booked a bunch of rooms on their own and no longer need to offer rooms thru the opaque suppliers), or has sold-out of the rooms that they allotted to HOTWIRE (they may or may not add more inventory, and if they do, it may or may not be at this same price)

Fortunately there are still HOTWIRE offers within your budget, what seems to be:

4* ESB King and Grove $199/nite ($1262 all-in)

4* MTE $186 (too many options to guess) ($1125 all-in)

4* MTC $206

4* TS $233

4.5* MTE $244

Not sure if you're interested in any of the above OR want to wait it out hoping for the previous 4* ESB property to re-appear at the lower rate again.

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

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