Travelling with 3 adults

[mtbe]

We'll be travelling to NYC with 3 adults next week. I went to Priceline for the first time and their statement says that the price is only good for two people. How am I to be sure the hotel will offer double beds for 3 people with a minimum surcharge (or no surcharge)?

How do a purchase for 3 people? Does HW allow this?

[thereuare]

Priceline only guarantees double occupancy... after that it is at the discretion of the hotel. Usually this comes down to an availability issue, but in some areas (such as NYC, which have notoriously small rooms) it is riskier than in a family oriented area (such as Orlando), since the former has much more 'one bedded rooms' than the latter.

Hotwire allows you to search for up to quad ocupancy but is usually a little more expensive than Priceline.

[mcgervey]

I know this link is a few months stale, and may no longer be applicable to the folks who were travelling to NYC. But, if you want to assure you will have enough beds without having a surcharge, a suggestion is to bring a decent single or double height air matress with you. We often do this when travelling with the kids, so we can get a king sized bed. Of course we carry a comforter and sheets with the air matress. It all depends, I guess, on how much you want to carry with you and the space you have, and your method of travel (air or personal vehicle).

But if you're driving into NYC, and the room is big enough, you might consider the air matress solution. The room photos on most hotels websites will usually give you a pretty good idea of what is possible. We have also, when we haven't had air matresses, sometimes requested a cot. In that case, sometimes they hotel staff will just get you one or comp you one, depending on their mood, but we have also been charged $5 and $10 to get a cot.

I'm not crazy about air matresses. But we have a few higher end air matresses that are more comfortable than some hotel beds. We often carry it even when travelling alone, if we end up in hotels that don't have big enough beds, or beds that just aren't that good. Crisi loves our double high queen, I can deal with it. It has a built in pump. We grab it out of the bag, flop it out, and plug it in. It pumps up with a finger on a button for about 90 seconds as we figure out what channels the tv gets, and it's ready to go. We pull the big valves to deflate it before our showers or a bit before we check out, and by the time we're ready to go it's completely deflated and rolls up easy.

It has been more comfortable than some beds I've had in better hotels though. Across the board, since I broached the topic, I prefer Radisson and Hyatt beds. They bigger nicer chains are getting more competitive on bedding finally, and we are seeing across the board better beds as the bed "competitions" heat up in the nicer franchise hotels.

[mcgervey]

Oh, I forgot to mention, we often have called the hotel the day or the day before travel to verify what kind of beds were available. Often, even with Priceline rooms, I've asked nicely and been locked into my choice of beds (usually king) by the staff. Often with a lot of hotels the "default" room can even be two double beds. You can often see the choices offered on the hotels web site to scout out what's available, and being educated on what they have to begin with never hurts when you're talking to the hotel staff either.

I travel for business occassional, as just a couple sometimes, and sometimes as a family (2+2 kids+ 1 or 2 larger dogs), so my room needs vary drastically with what kind of travel I am on, and whether I am there for city activity or vacation or outdoors adventures. We do all of those with all combinations and not of dogs, kids, or just as a couple.

So, I have gone as far as calling weeks before, when I have won the bid, to ask if it's possible to get this or that bed choice with a priceline win. Usually the staff tells us we can have a queen or a king, and more often than not, the choice is between two doubles or a queen/king. The only time we have EVER paid for an upgrade was a resort, that charged us $10 more to upgrade to a king because they were only available in suites, which turned out to be MUCH nicer huge rooms, in that particular hotel than their run of the mill queen and double rooms.

If that's the case, you may WANT to spend a few extra bucks if you're going to get a suite or a big room upgrade. Depends on what you're there for and how long I guess. If I'm just going to be there to sleep, I'm not as interested in room size.

Cheers.

[lovetoread]

I know this is an older discussion but I thought I would add this for future reference for anyone with a similar question.

I had this problem come up. We had 3 people travelling and needed a room with 2 beds. I bid and the bid was accepted for a 2* hotel. I looked up the hotel web site and noticed that there was a difference of $5 between the charge for a room with 1 bed and a room with 2 beds. I called the hotel requesting 2 beds. They said they could give me a room with 2 beds but there would be an extra charge. When I went to check out the hotel had charged me $16 extra for a room with 2 beds. This was NOT a fancy hotel...just a clean 2*. By the time I paid the extra hotel charge plus the fees for using Priceline, I could have booked the hotel my self at the same price using one of the discounts available on the web.

When I contacted Priceline, I was told it was at the hotel's discretion as to how much they wanted to charge me for a room with 2 beds.

Lesson learned: Beware of using Priceline if you need to have a room with 2 beds. The hotel has the right to charge what ever they want extra.