Priceline Hotel: 4* NYC (Lower Manhattan) Embassy Suites

[fightinirish]

We will be travelling to NY in November 2004 and staying for 5 nights beginning on the 23rd,I wonder if anyone can help me with a number of items?:When to start bidding?,how much and how to table my bid?What area of Mannahattan to stay in for convenience to shopping, restaurants,nightlife etc.?Will Thanksgiving effect price and availability?We would prefer to stay in 4* accomodation if possible.Our budget is approx $100 per night.

Thank you.

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

We don't discriminate... we'll even help Notre Dame fans! :)

Here is the guide we wrote for NYC PRICELINE ZONES.

Rates are sure to be inflated on account of Thanksgiving and i think that $100/nite is going to be too low. If you're not successful with a 4* Priceline at $100 what will you do... raise you maximum bid, lower your quality, stay in nearby NJ, cancel the trip, etc?

Also, is Splitting your Priceline Bid an option?

Given that this is a peak weekend in NYC, if your plans are firm, i would come up with a realistic plan (either raise your bid amount or lower your star rating) and start to bid this immediately. Of course if you want to keep your maximum bid at $100 you're entitled to do so and we'll still be happy to supply a bidding strategy, but i don't think you'll be successful.

[fightinirish]

I finally ended up paying $130 per night for The Embassy Suites in Lower Mannahattan.Good reviews on Tripadvisor.Ranked number 14 in the city.Includes free breakfast and free drinks for two hours each evening.How did I do?

[thereuare]

Did you bid the mid-town areas before this and were rejected? If so, did you just add the Lower Manhattan area at the end or did you start a new bid for the Lower Manhattan area?

If you supply your bid history we can give more insight as to how close to the actual price you got.

[gleff]

I stayed at this hotel on an HHonors award a couple weeks ago, the prepaid internet rate was ~ $280 (at one point it was over $300). It's an all-suites hotel, smallest room is 450 or 500 sq ft which is large for a New York property. Don't know if this was high or low for your particular dates vis a vis what you could have gotten (but probably not too high!) but it's certainly great compared to conventionally available rates for the property.

I asked for and received a harbor view, which was nice.

Frankly found the bed to be a bit uncomfortable and the furnishings dated, but no big deal. It's in the financial distrct, battery park area, and is really quite dead on the weekends.

High speed internet available $10/24 hrs.

[fightinirish]

Tried upper areas at $110 added lower area at $120,finally added upper west side at $130.I have been trying priceline every 72 hours almost continually during the past couple of months without success.I also tried all the usual conventional sites,Hotelkingdom,ebookers,Expedia,travelnow etc.and found that Tuesday and Wednesday were o.k pricewise, but Thanksgiving and the weekend were crazy money.

[thereuare]

So based upon your bidding history i think you did very well and if an over-bid, it wasn't by more than a couple of dollars (which is perfectly acceptable, we can't always hit them right on the money).

As you saw, prices for Thanksgiving weekend go thru the roof, so you may have saved some money by splitting your bid, but that would have involved the likely scenario of changing hotels during your stay... something not everyone is willing to do.

Glad you got it settled and are now 'set'. The area is quiet on the weekends but the hotel is fairly new and very nice.