How far in advance to book / bid on Priceline / Hotwire?

[gigem_aggies]

My mom, sister, and I will be traveling to NYC for a girls trip Dec 6-Dec 10.  I've just begun perusing travel sites to see what is available.  How soon (or how late) should we get more serious about booking?  We are wanting to stay under $225/night and are not interested in renting an apartment or VRBO/airbnb.  Prefer Midtown, Times Square, or SoHo areas.  Would also potentially consider Financial District.  Thanks!

[AaronJB]

Welcome to Betterbidding.

 

There is no way to know if rates will come down closer to the stay (you can read more about How Early to Bid on Priceline in the FAQ), but with traffic up in recent years, there have been a lot of instances where rates have gone up closer to the stay. Additionally, the concern with this stay is that the first couple of weeks of December is generally one of the busiest periods of the year in NYC as it's prime time for holiday shopping and festivities. It is on the early side, but given how busy this particular period often is, I would at least start to be on the lookout for good deals at this point.

 

With three people. if you search for 3 on HOTWIRE, you should get bedding for the party, but that may mean 2 beds, 1 + rollaway or 1 + sofa. Some PRICELINE EXPRESS listings (less often seen on HOTWIRE) do offer bed choice options. Otherwise, when using PRICELINE EXPRESS in NYC where no bed choice is offered will likely result in 1 bed (although you can call the hotel and ask, no guarantees.) 

 

In terms of options for 3 (searching for 3 on HOTWIRE or seeing a PRICELINE EXPRESS listing with bed choice), rates are $245-265+ at the 4* level. I am seeing options on PRICELINE EXPRESS within your budget, but these don't have bed choice - which would mean you would have to call the hotel after booking and hope that something can be worked out (the hotel may say no.)

 

Did you have a particular star rating in mind?

 

Please remember to return to BetterBidding and use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases... or thru our sister site MAPSandHOTELS.com for your regular rate purchases.

 

 

[thereuare]

Just to add one thing to the above...

 

While rates may be more expensive on other dates due to special events that are taking place, from a seasonal point of view your dates are some of the most expensive of the year (lots of tourists coming to town for last minute holiday shopping and to see the store window displays and Rockefeller Center tree).

 

On top of your dates being expensive, you need triple occupancy, which in NYC often increases the price vs. double occupancy (with space at a premium, nyc hotels have many hotels that have a percentage of rooms with only one bed, and therefore rooms with two beds are considered an upgrade over standard and cost more).

 

BOTTOMLINE: if/when you see a good deal for these dates i would be prepared to take it as your budget is not that high given historically how expensive this weekend typically is and that you need triple occupancy.

 

Let us know more about your desired/expected star rating as well as if your $225 budget is for the room rate only OR if that is all-in including taxes/fees (the latter of which i think will be much more difficult) and we will take it from there.

 

Please remember to return to BetterBidding and use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases... or thru our sister site MAPSandHOTELS.com for your regular rate purchases.

 

EDIT TO ADD: one more comment, the easiest way for you to search and see the options within your budget:
1) use our BiddingHelper.com tool

2) in either the HOTWIRE EASY VIEW and/or PRICELINE EXPRESS tabs...

3) on the top right above the search results (directly under the PRICELINE EXPRESS tab) change the right side of the price slider to $225 (although i would suggest a little higher just so you don't miss out on some incredible deal that is just $5-$10 outside of your current budget but would be worthwhile spending the extra few dollars on)

4) on the left side just above the search results look for the text:

Sort by Zone | Star rating | Price

click the PRICE link and all of the results with be ordered from lowest to highest

5) simply scroll down the page and see what is available at the lowest end of the spectrum and how the offers improve (or not) as they increase in price

 

OPTIONAL: if you find there are too many results that don't meet your zone or star rating criteria you can filter the results to the zone(s) and star rating(s) that you are interested in