Priceline Hotel: Best option for large group, multiple rooms?

[S. Spade]

A bunch of co-workers and I are planning on driving down from Ottawa to New Jersey to watch the hockey game this Saturday, then stay the night, and drive back on Sunday.

We'd basically be looking for the cheapest possible accomodations. Group size would be around 14 or so, plans are still in the discussion stage, could be more. We'd need multiple rooms, maybe even 7+ of them, possibly more if the group gets really large.

Is there any area known for being cheapest? We could drive a ways after the game before sleeping, maybe an hour or two at most along the 80 towards Scranton, Parsippany, Stroudsburg, etc. Not knowing the area very well, just tried typing in a few town names off the map.

Are there better alternatives than Hotwire and Priceline for large groups? Book directly? Hotwire seemed to suggest hotels.ca for us, but that was still fairly expensive.

[thereuare]

The maximum number of rooms you can book thru either of the opaque suppliers is four... so you'd risk having to stay at two different hotels if you go that route.

[S. Spade]

That wouldn't really be a problem. It's mostly individuals, a few couples and in multiple vehicles, so we'd know ahead of time who had to travel with who, etc.

Any thoughts on the cheapest areas/towns to try?

[dahammer]

I would avoid the Poconos/Stroudsburg area, the hotels are not that great, mostly 2* hit or miss and you won't get much of a discount compared to rack rates. This area also gets busy on weekends as well. I would recommend looking at the Parsippany-Moorestown zone, you'll get a better deal as the hotels in this zone cater mostly to business travellers during the week, unless you're visiting Hacklebarney State Park in Long Valley on weekends..... :) . I might start bidding at the 3* level at $40 and increase by $5 for rebids, you could even drop down to the 2.5* level, the reported hotels in this zone are all decent. Priceline allows you to bid up to 4 rooms or 10 plus for groups, so there is a chance that you may end up in two different hotels if you're bidding for 7-8 rooms.

HOTWIRE has a 3* property for $61 with fitness center and business center amenities, this has not been identified.

Good luck, if you proceed please use the HOTWIRE links on this board. I usually place my PL bids through Savingsbarn.com

[thereuare]

It may be too far south for your needs (check a map of the location vs. your route) but the Somerset-Piscataway-South Plainfield zone is one of the least expensive in the area... often 3* hotels well under $50/nite on weekends.

If others are making their own purchases, please pass along our links to them too :)

Let us know how it goes or if we can be of further help.