Priceline Hotel: 4* NYC (MTW) InterContinental The Barclay

[ashta]

I am trying for a 4* in MTW from 7/30 - 8/3 (4 nights). I bid up to $130, and was rejected (started at 122, added UES & bid 126, added UWS & bid 130 - all rejected).

Am I bidding too low ? I was hoping that late July / early August would not be as bad as other times of the year.

Or am I just bidding too early and should wait till May or so before bidding again ?

Any advice from the forum experts would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance (this is my first post, but I have been browsing this site & have find the advice very useful !). Thanks again for any help...

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

Summertime is usually fairly inexpensive in NYC so i would try to remain patient.

However, is there a reason you're restricting yourself to only the MTW zone? What about the MTE and UM/CPS zone(s)?

NYC is so compact and mass transit cheap and readily available, that for the average visitor any midtown location is more than sufficient.

[ashta]

Thanks - I will be patient as you suggested.

For zones : if I cannot get into MTW at that price, I will certainly try & add zones (MTE for sure, maybe others). I picked MTW because this is my first visit to NYC since 1980, and my wife's first ever, and I wanted to be in the heart of the touristy stuff (I know I will be a typical tourist :) ). But if I don't get MTW accepted in a few weeks, I will start branching out to try other zones...

[norwegianwife]

Hi Ashta!

Last summer we had luck in MTE and got the Waldorf Astoria for 140 dollars a night. Both the Waldorf and the Barclay are good bets to see on Priceline for a decent amount, and I agree with Thereuare, NYC is a compact area, so anywhere in Midtown would be good. For example, when we stayed at the Waldorf, we had MAYBE a 15 minute walk to Times Square, 20 minutes or so the The Empire State building and about 10 to Central Park. So take a look through this thread and see which hotels are being won in MTW and that will give you an idea at what your own chances will be. For example, if NOONE else is winning hotels for around that time of the year for around that price in MTW, that is a fair indication that there is probably nothing there for that price. So the best advice for this board, and for aquiring hotels in this manner, is be FLEXIBLE! and fortunantly NYC is a GREAT place to be flexible in!! Good Luck!

[ashta]

Need help bidding. I am staying 4 nights in NYC (7/30 - 8/3). I want to stay in MTW or MTE.

I tried the following bidding strategy - no success :

MTW, 120

Add MTE, 125

Add UES, 130

Add UWS, 140 - all rejected.

I have seen reports of a couple of bids in the 120-135 range accepted in July / Aug, so I am disappointed that even at 140 my bids were rejected. Is something special going on from 7/30 to 8/3 ? Should I follow a different bidding strategy ? Should I be bidding higher ?

Help would be much appreciated. My bidding window will open again Sat 8pm PDT, so I have to wait patiently for a day before rebidding- any help you can give me before that would be very much appreciated.

BTW - I do have a backup (refundable) reservation for 200/night at the Hilton Garden Inn, which I see is listed as a 3* on Priceline. I was hoping to get a 4* at 135 on Priceline given the accepted bids I have seen on this board - is that a realistic expectation, or should I scale back to a 3* ? Suggestions welcome !

Of course I will use the appropriate link for all my bids...

Sunil

[GM Mike]

Have you considered splitting your bid? I'm wondering if that Saturday night is what's getting you.

You could bid the 8/1-8/3 separately and then either book that hotel directly at a (much?) higher rate the first night or stay at the HGI the first night? (Just make sure in advance the HGI will let you shorten your stay without raising your rate.)

For that matter, have you compared general prices in the area for each date to find out if one particular date is significantly higher? The split might be at a different point.

Also, did you check hotwire and EasyClickTravel "Off the Record" deals?

[ashta]

I am checking in on a Sunday (7/30), and checking out on Thu (8/3). No Sat night in my stay. I have been trying to avoid a split stay if possible just to avoid the hassle, unless of course that's the only option...

[ashta]

When I look at prices on Expedia and other sites, looks the Sunday (7/30) is actually cheaper than the remaining three days (7/31, 8/1, 8/2 nights - these 3 days are all the same price everywhere). SO I do not see a way to split my stay (plus I m not inclined to split because of the hassle). Also, nothing interesting on either Hotwire or EasyClickTravel - everything seems expensive for those dates, all 4* including off-the-record are well north of 200.

Last night I went as far as 161 (using SavingsBarn) with no luck (MTW= 141, add MTW=146, add UES=151, add UWS = 161 - all rejected).

My next bidding window open tonight, 9pm PDT - unless somebody can suggest a better strategy, I will try the above strategy again, but go up to 170 as the highest bid (my backup at the 3* Hilton Garden Inn is at 200).

Sunil

[ashta]

Finally I got my bid accepted last night - 175/night, Intercontinental The Barclay. I started at 160/MTW, added MTE & tried 163, added UES & tried 169, added UWS & tried 175 - accepted. (Used SB).

Not thrilled with the price - I had hoped to score something cheaper since I saw posts of around 130 for this time-frame - but oh well, I have been trying for a while and this is the best I could get. I am still coming out cheaper than my refundable 200/night rate at the Hilton Garden Inn, and the Barclay is rated 4* (HGI is 3*), so overall still a positive result I think. Thanks for all the help provided on this site - much appreciated.

Now for the rest of the trip - I was able to get "discounted" tickets online to Mama Mia on Sunday evening (discounted rate is still 81/each so not cheap). And I have purchased tickets on-line for Empire State Building and for the Statue of Liberty ferry, so I guess I am mostly set for advance planning .

One more question : I happen to have some $25 United-Miles-For-Dining certificates ($25 off dinner at patricipating restaurants, list below). Anybody have a recommendation for good restaurants where these can be redeemed easily ? I have to pick the specific restaurant in advance if I want to use these, I cannot just use them anywhere at the last minute. Of course I do not want to overplan dinners in advance (I want to leave some room for just wandering around and picking a place based on whim), but at the same time I just happen to have 4 of these certificates, & I just happen to have 4 evenings in NYC... List of participating places is below if you have any suggestions (type the hotel zip code - 10017 - into the search box). Thanks in advance for any suggestions you may have.

Restaurant.com

Sunil

[thereuare]

Congratulations on your win and thank you for starting your bids with the PRICELINE links at SavingsBarn.com

Only restaurant i recognize on the list above is Penang where i've eaten twice (they have multiple locations but only two offered above) and enjoyed our meals both times. We'll be going back there again since we enjoyed the meal(s), but i also think it's expensive for what you get (i guess less so with the gift certificate deals), but if you need to use the certfificates this trip i'd have no problem recommending the place (based upon taste and not necessarily value). When confirming with my wife just now if this was indeed the restaurant i thought it was she confirmed, and also reminded me we have some gift certficates ourselves to use here, so we'll be heading there in the near future on one of our 'date nites' :)

Enjoy your stay.

[ashta]

Thanks for the recommendation for Penang - we will try it. BTW - my winning bid was for 175 (not 130), so the title of this topic is not mis-leading, you may want to fix that.