Priceline Hotel: 3.5* NYC (ESB) Affinia Dumont

[Shazza]

I am fairly new to Priceline, although I have had good luck in the past booking rooms in LA.

I found this website yesterday and have been reading as much as possible ever since to try and figure out the intricacies of priceline. GREAT resource and I cant believe it took me this long to discover it.

I had planned to book a flight and hotel with Travelocity but decided to go ahead and book flights with the airline (and got a great price on San Diego to JFK!) and now have to find a room in New York - checking in on Thursday 5/7/09 and checking out on Monday 5/11/09. I am very confident that I can get something within my price range - which is a maximum of $150 but ideal would be around $125 per night for a 3.5* or 4*

My ideal hotel is Affinia Dumont but I do understand it rarely is won on priceline and that it is best not to have a hotel in mind when using priceline because things are always changing. That being said, there have been two successes in the last week or so!

I looked directly at the hotels website (Affinia Dumont) and noticed that rooms on Thursday night are significantly higher than the following three nights and I am worried that trying to get the hotel over the four nights may fail for this reason alone.

Note: I have no problem at all with any of the hotels that appear in the priceline list for ESB at 3.5* or higher and would be happy with any of them.

After finally getting my head around rebidding I jumped in today and started bidding.

Empire State Building Area, 3.5* $85 (yeah I know - VERY lowball)

Empire State Building Area, Chelsea Area, 3.5* $90

Upper East Side, Empire State Building Area, Chelsea Area, 3.5* $95

Upper East Side, Long Island City, Empire State Building Area, Chelsea Area, 3.5* $100

then ran out of rebidding districts

Splat reported getting Affinia Dumont for $112 per night for two nights at the end of April - so I am hoping I am still in for a chance.

So i guess what i am looking for is some input into my bidding strategy.

Am I just bidding way too low at this point?

Would it be crazy to book Thursday night through the hotel (refundable) and just bid on Friday through Sunday on Priceline?

I am committed to a 3.5* or greater but I am flexible on the area as long as its central Manhattan. I prefer smaller or boutique hotels but will do big chains like Hyatt and Intercontinental etc.

Oh and the one other rather significant variable (and a gamble I am willing to take) is that I will be travelling with my sister and 8 year old neice so I would prefer a room with two beds but we can survive with a king. My plan is to book and then call the hotel to request two beds - and wont complain if they cant accommodate me :)

I am not feeling worried about my timeline as I have over a month before my trip and I plan to start bidding again tomorrow and will start at $105 in ESB and work my way up from there.

Advise away - and thank you in advance for your ideas and help. I do realise that I am trying to get the most bang for my buck and I am asking a lot - but if you dont try you never know :)

[thereuare]

I looked directly at the hotels website (Affinia Dumont) and noticed that rooms on Thursday night are significantly higher than the following three nights and I am worried that trying to get the hotel over the four nights may fail for this reason alone.

Is SPLITTING YOUR PRICELINE BID and changing hotels an option (keeping in mind that you'll have an 8 year old niece in tow)

So i guess what i am looking for is some input into my bidding strategy.

You can bid better than you did, how high are you willing to bid for this complete stay in the ESB zone before deciding to add other zones or split your bid.

Would it be crazy to book Thursday night through the hotel (refundable) and just bid on Friday through Sunday on Priceline?

Keep in mind if you do this you could win a hotel other than the Affinia Dumont for Friday-Monday... then be left either paying full rate for the Thursday nite at the hotel you won or have to change hotels.

Oh and the one other rather significant variable (and a gamble I am willing to take) is that I will be travelling with my sister and 8 year old neice so I would prefer a room with two beds but we can survive with a king. My plan is to book and then call the hotel to request two beds - and wont complain if they cant accommodate me :)

What if there is only one bed and it's not a King, could you still 'make do' with such a scenario for 4 nites?

Please use these PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links to begin your travel purchases.

[Shazza]

Thanks for the feedback - my current strategy is to work on ESB until it I reach $150 per night (since I can buy the room direct on priceline for an average of $187 per night) and if that fails to add other zones and start around $110 per night.

And of course I will be using the links above :)

[Shazza]

First Bid $95 ESB - rejected

Re-bid $100 ESB, Chelsea - accepted

Congratulations, you got your price of $100 for a 3

[thereuare]

So where do you want to begin... bidding for the complete stay at the 3.5* leve in the ESB zone?

If so, what is your maximum bid for the complete stay, did you want to try bidding up to $150 first or cap your maximum at a lower amount?

Let us know and we'll advise accordingly.

Thanks for using our PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links.

[Shazza]

I wanted to add some info about my bid. I originally bid yesterday for 5/7 - 5/11 starting at $85 for 3.5* ESB and then rebidding with zones with 3* or less. I bid up to $100 and all my bids were rejected and I ran out of rebidding zones. I specifically wanted to get a hotel in the ESB zone.

I had one hotel in mind so I went to their website to look at their prices for the dates and noted that 5/7 was listed at $225 vs $165-$187 for the other nights. Today I took a huge gamble and bid on the cheaper three nights (see post above) and was successful. I then tried to bid 5/7 after getting the other three nights and was rejected but offered the hotel at $236. After checking the hotel website and seeing that booking the single night was $299 there I accepted the priceline offer. In the end I still saved a significant sum compared to any other option I had seen during my research.

Thanks so much to everyone who contributes to this board - its a great wealth of information and I probably would still be looking if I hadnt found betterbidding.

Thanks so much for your help - couldnt have done it without you :)

And of course I did all my bidding through the PRICELINE link here.

[thereuare]

Congratulations on your success!

Glad to see you were not only successful in getting a great deal, but that you also received the hotel you were hoping for... we're happy to have helped.

Thank you for sharing your win with the board and using our PRICLINE link to begin your bidding.

Enjoy your stay.

[AaronJB]

I'm impressed - congrats on getting your desired hotel.