Hotwire Hotel: NYC 10/6 - 10/12 : Advice?

[pan2]

I'll be in NYC from 10/6 to 10/12 (ie, six nights). I'm not too concerned about the number of stars-- it doesn't have to be fancy, just decent. Most areas in Manhattan would be acceptable too. Any ideas what I should be bidding?

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

We'll need a bit more information in order to advise you on this. "Decent" is a relative term adn means different things to different people... some are happy with a Travelodge while others find it unacceptable if a valet at a Hilton doesn't open their car door to help them out.

What type of hotels do you regularly stay at. What is your expected budget. Is price the most important or would you spend a few extra dollars per nite in order to stay at a higher rated hotel?

Remember that you're buying a hotel before knowing the actual property, so there could be 2* hotels that are fine but other 2* hotels in that area that are not, and no way to choose between them (except to avoid the zone entirely). As a result it is usually recommended to stick with the higher rated hotel that your budget will allow.

Do you currently have a back-up reservtion? If so, where and and how much? If not, maybe you'll want to find out where and how much you'd be paying if you didn't use Priceline and then we could try to beat that rate and/or star quality.

[pan2]

No back up as of yet. We've been looking into short term rentals on craigslist that might be around $100/night or a bit more. As far as decent, a Travelodge is good enough. As long as it's clean, not dangerous, reasonably accessible to Manhattan by subway, and has a TV, that will be fine.

[thereuare]

In order to help, we'll still need to have an idea of your budget/maximum bid amount. I'm somewhat doubtful you will be able to get under the $100 you are currently looking at.

Thanks.

[pan2]

There's not really an exact budget. We've already committed to go so now it's just a question of paying as little as we can without living in a slum. What do you think is the least we could pay if we weren't at all picky? How far would $150/night get us?

[thereuare]

OK, last questions <i promise> and a bidding strategy will follow in the next post.

I think you can get hotels within your price range, but the problem is that one hotel may not have availability at your limit for the entire length of your stay. For instance, if one hotel has the following rates:

10/6 $120

10/7 $120

10/8 $120

10/9 $152

10/10 $120

10/11 $120

In the above example, a bid of $150 is enough if you average out the cost of the stay, but with Priceline it would be rejected since it's not enough for the nite of 10/9... Priceline's system requires that you bid is high enough for each individual nite of your stay. A 'work-around' for this is SPLITTING YOUR BID, but doing so adds the likely possibility that you'll have to change hotels during your stay since you'll likely get a different hotel on subsequent bids.

We'll obviously provide a strategy that first attempts to get one hotel for the complete stay, but if that's unsuccessful, would you be willing to split the bid? If so, in order to save money, how many times would you be willing to switch hotels?

I do think that the nite of the 9th is going to be difficult as it has much higher prices than the other dates. However, i also think that the latter part of your stay (10th-12th) is likely to get you a hotel of much higher quality than you expect, as rates are considerably lower for those dates.

[pan2]

I defer to your wisdom :)

Suppose I'm willing to change hotels twice. What then would you recommend?

[thereuare]

I didn't forget about you... this has been a very tough one and i've been trying to figure out how to proceed. The nite of the 9th has extremely high rates and my concern is that you'd be successful for other nites at/near your limit and then be left with having to pay more than you'd like for the nite of the 10/9.

When you say "change hotels twice" i assume you mean a total of three hotels? (or a total of two different hotels?) The information below is for 3 hotels, but i interpretted you incorrectly just let me know and i'll adjust accordingly.

This is what i'm thinking....

What are your thoughts about Jersey City, NJ. It's actually a very popular alternative to NYC as it's an easy commute to Manhattan (under 15 minute train ride via the PATH) and is relatively inexpensive.

Here's wha i'm seeing: What i believe to be the Candlewood Suites is available for all of your dates for roughtly $80/nite, you can read these comments which are pretty good as well as our own user's review.

If the above works for you, the question then becomes "Do you want to stay here for the entire length of your stay?" There are a few upsides to Jersey City, but the big downside is that you don't get what i call "the NYC feel". How important this is to you depends upon your age, whether you've been to NYC before, how late you intend on staying out (causing waiting for a train at 3am just isn't fun), if you're looking for 'action' in the wee hours of the morning, etc, etc.

Perhpas you'll decide that the savings are worth it and select to stay in Jersey City the entire time. If not, i would suggest considering to stay here at least for 10/8-10/10.

For 10/6-10/8 i see Hotwire has a 3.5* for $161 which i believe to be the Sheraton Manhattan (a little more than you budget, but due to the savings of the $80/nite Hotwire stay it'll still average to less than you limit). You could also try to beat this rate via Priceline, and if you choose to do so, we'll suggest a strategy to follow.

For 10/10-10/12, the least expensive nites of your stay, Hotwire has a few offerings around $140/nite, which i believe to the Sheraton New York and the Sheraton Manhattan. For this stay too you can try to beat it on Priceline, for which we'll suggest a strategy.

So hopefully you followed all of the above, and something is to your liking. Let us know your thoughts on the Jersey City stay, and if acceptable, if you'd like to try to stay there the entire time or for which nites. We'll then suggest a strategy to get you thru the process.