Priceline Hotel: New York City -- budget trip help (july 3-8th)

[buster_munster]

Hi, I've never used priceline and have some great deals hat ppl have gotten from this forum and I was hoping you can help me out.

my friend and I are plannign a trip to NYC for july 3rd to 8th. We are planning to do the typical touristy things, but are on a really tight budget... but we didn't want to do hostels with many ppl in a room.

is it possible for us to get a hotel at about $60/ a night... we are not looking for anythign fancy just a place to sleep... we are also willing to stay in new jersey as long as the commute is ok.

how/where shoudl I start.... thanks alot!!

ps.. i understand that if an offer is made our credit card is charged... is there a way to retract a bid no one is accepting it... and choose not to you priceline althogether and look for other options (i heard you can rent sublets for cheap).

thanks in advance!

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetteBidding!

I don't think you're going to find anything i would deem 'acceptable' in NYC for $60/nite or less.

You may have success outside of the city, but which area(s) you bid in NJ depends upon whether or not you have a car... how will you be arriving to the NYC metro area?

You will know within a few minutes if you're bid is accepted or not, so there is no time to 'retract' a bid and you should only bid after knowing your best alternate options... so i would suggest first seeing how much a sublet would cost (can you sublet a place for 5 nites??... for only $60/nite??) and then try to see if you can better that deal.

If/when you're ready to bid let us know and we'll have a look at current prices at that time and suggest a strategy to follow.

[buster_munster]

thanks for the quick response....

we will be arriving by plane into jfk.. with the possibility of being able to have a family friend pick us up and drop us off at our hotel.

we will have no car for the duration of our trip....

in terms of retracting a bid i guess a better question would have been... if a bid is not accepted... can it end there.. or does the bid remain active for days with the possibility that an offer is made sometime down the road (hopefully that makes sense)... cause if my offer is not met i would persue other options and not want an offer to come through seveal days after the fact...

I've been recommended looking for a place in secause.. but i heard manhattan is only acessible by bus which isnt really frequent and stops runnign at midnight... so I'm thinking jersey city is better....

we're two travellers in our early 20s so walking is not a problem.. and would also not mind having to change our hotel in between if it means a better deal by splitting the bid...

[geronimo]

^ To answer your question about retracting a bid on Priceline.com, if a bid is not accepted it will end there. It does not remain active and it will not go through at a later date/be charged to your credit card, or anything like that. If later on you choose to attempt it again you will have to do it all over and it will be treated as a new bid, so you don't have to worry about that when using Princeline. :)

[thereuare]

For Jersey City i think you're still going to need to adjust your budget upwards.

[buster_munster]

ok we can increase our price ... although we would like to keep it as cheap as possible.... we will go up to about 80... will that work better...

and in one of your previous posts you mentioned "acceptable" hotel in nyc... what exactly do you mean cuase we are okay with really basic/budget accomodation.

[buster_munster]

ok we can increase our price ... although we would like to keep it as cheap as possible.... we will go up to about 80... will that work better...

and in one of your previous posts you mentioned "acceptable" hotel in nyc... what exactly do you mean cuase we are okay with really basic/budget accomodation.

[thereuare]

When using the opaque providers you can't choose which hotel within the star rating you'll receive... so while there may be 2* hotels that are perfectly acceptable, there are <likley many more> 2* hotels that are not acceptable. Since you can't choose the '2 star gem' it is often best to avoid the star rating entirely to avoid risking a hotel that is not acceptable (unclean, unsafe, and otherwise not suitable)

What is the lowest star rating you're willing to accept?

[buster_munster]

i'm new with this so i'm going to go on your recommendations... so guess I will start the bidding at 3 stars

[thereuare]

I really don't think you're in the right ballpark for this area for these dates, but to give it a shot...

You have one re-bid zone available at the 3* level. If you're not familiar with re-bidding please read Priceline Re-Bidding Explained and feel free to ask questions and/or confirm your re-bid zones with the board before proceeding.

Select 3* MTE, MTW, UM/CPS, MTS, and UES...

Bid $70, if rejected add re-bid zone...

Bid $75, if rejected close browser and re-access priceline however you did previously.

Select 3* Downtown...

Bid $70, if rejected add MTE, MTW, UM/CPS, MTS, and UES

Bid $75, if rejectd add re-bid zone...

Bid $80.

You can try the above for the following date combinations:

7/3-7/8

7/3-7/7

7/4-7/8

7/3-7/6

7/5-7/8

7/3-7/5

7/6-7/8

If the above is rejected you can then try for jersey city where you have one re-bid zone available. If you're not familiar with re-bidding please read Priceline Re-Bidding Explained and feel free to ask questions and/or confirm your re-bid zones with the board before proceeding.

Select 3* Jersey City...

Bid $70, if rejected add re-bid zone...

Bid $80.

You can once again loop thru the date combinations in this order:

7/3-7/8

7/3-7/7

7/4-7/8

7/3-7/6

7/5-7/8

7/3-7/5

7/6-7/8

Any questions feel free to ask.

Good Luck and let us know how it goes.