Priceline Hotel: Bidding Help - NYC

[sxc]

Looking for some bidding help for NYC-Downtown/Soho area. Looking for 3* or 4* and my budget is about $110/night. Is this budget unrealistic? I found that the Holiday Inn Downtown is currently offering $184/night for my nights so I'm thinking it's not completely out of reach?

Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks.

[AaronJB]

1. You may be trying to bid a little too early. Priceline may not have inventory (or much inventory) that far in advance yet. I'd keep bidding once a week or so, then maybe try a bit more frequently starting later in November/early December.

2. You may have better luck splitting your stay, as a lot of times in cities like New York or Chicago you may have better luck trying to get a hotel for the price you want for 3-4 days instead of trying to get it for 7+ in a row for the price you want. You could maybe consider trying for 2/8-12 and then 2/12-16.

3. What appears to be the Hudson Hotel is showing for $143 on HOTWIRE for your entire stay. You may want to attempt to bid for that by bidding for a 3* in the Upper Midtown/Central Park South area to see if you could get in there. However, if you tried to bid for it, there's no guarantee that's what you would get - you could get a different 3* in that zone.

4. I don't think your bid is unrealistic (unless there is something going on in NYC at the time, which is possible) for that time of year (most other times of year it would be unrealistic), but I just think it may be too early.

Any questions, please ask.

[BeachBum]

In my experience, January to March is a low occupancy time for NYC and bargains abound, though maybe not as far in advance as five months. Take a look at the prices available on Quikbook and EasyClickTravel, which sometimes have deals better than Priceline.