Priceline Hotel: 3.5* NYC (MSG-Convention) Affinia Manhattan

[the watcher]

Hi, i would need recommendations to choose between areas in NJ to stay in to visit NYC. Staying for 4-5 nights in the 2nd week of June.

The two most important factors for me are easiness to get to NYC (any hour) and cheap parking.

I know Jersey City is close to NYC but i heard parking is about 25$ there which is kinda expensive since we're staying 4-5 nights. Is there free safe parking close to say the Hyatt in Jersey City.

I also heard people saying there is free parking near secaucus. Is this true?

If so i would like to stay the Hyatt there. How far is secauses from NYC compared to jersey city. Which of the 2 locations is easier by public transportation? Will public transportation to Jersey City and Secaucus work t'ill 3AM about if we decide to spend a late night in NYC?

thank you in advance from a soon to be visitor from Montreal :)

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

Jersey City vs. Secaucus is a trade-off between cost vs. convenience. Secaucus has free parking, but it is a distant second choice in regards to easy access to Manhattan as well as "city-like-feel" of the surrounding area. As well, Secaucus is not going to give you 24 hour access to get home... last bus back to NJ is often around 1am-2am or thereabouts.

I'm not sure of the route from Montreal, but i'd look at your car route and see if there is a train Park N Ride station (see THIS MAP) where you can park for free or inexpensively, and then take a train for the final leg of your trip into Jersey City. However, you don't mention if you're traveling by yourself or with how many others, but of course you'll have to factor in cost of parking at the Park N Ride + train tickets and compare to if you just drove the entire distance yourself and pay for parking in Jersey City. (the more people traveling the better option driving all the way to JC yourself becomes)

You can also consider driving to Journal Square, Newark Penn Station, or Harrison, paying for overnite parking (unsure of cost but should be less than Jersey City) and taking the PATH to Jersey City. As well, if you're dates will include a weekend, there is free "on street" parking not too far way where you can leave your car from Friday nite until Monday morning.

Let us know once your plans firm up and how you'd like to proceed and we'll advise accordingly.

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

[the watcher]

thank you for your response. we are just 2 people traveling. i think we will stay in jersey city finally. we were planning on staying sunday to thursday but i think we will come and leave a day earlier to take advantage of the free parking you mentioned. By the way is this free on street parking safe for out of state cars? i heard some stories of thieves targeting foreign vehicles.

out of curiosity how long would it take to travel to Manhatten from JC and from Secaucus? JC uses PATH and Secaucus uses a bus?

[thereuare]

The car thieves don't discriminate by targeting out of state vehicles... anything is fair game. The area does have 'higher than average' car theft as (told to me by police when i once have a car stolen) the Pulaski Skyway provides an easy route to/from Newark, so thieves come into the nicer areas Hoboken/Jersey City where the nicer cars are located. Obviously the majority of vehicles don't have a problem, butwhen the Hyatt first opened (2004??) a board member did have their new car stolen from the area, so if this is a concern and you want the peace of mind then you should put it in a garage and relax during your trip.

On paper the difference in commute time isn't that much (5-15 minutes) but when in Seacaucus you need to go by a bus schedule, keep an eye on the clock, traffic is unpredictable, and traffic earlier in the day can have a domino effect, leaving you waiting at the bus stop wondering how much longer until the next bus... whereas the PATH train runs frequently and you just 'show up' whenever you'd like and wait for the next train; as well the PATH is more reliable in there traffic is not a factor and runs on a more consistent schedule.

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

[the watcher]

ok thanks for the info. we will try to book in Jersey City then. Any good parking garages people used at a good price?

We would like to book from June 6th to June 9th inclusively. Also we are going to spend a day at woodbury outlets so we will stay a night in that area on June 10th if you have any recommendations there as well.

[dahammer]

Also we are going to spend a day at woodbury outlets so we will stay a night in that area on June 10th if you have any recommendations there as well.

this outlet mall is located near Harriman, NY which is not located in a HOTWIRE or PRICELINE zone. There is a Hampton Inn nearby or you could bid in the Mahwah, NJ zone about a half hour south of the outlets.

[the watcher]

this outlet mall is located near Harriman, NY which is not located in a HOTWIRE or PRICELINE zone. There is a Hampton Inn nearby or you could bid in the Mahwah, NJ zone about a half hour south of the outlets.

perfect i'll do that thx.

so i started bidding for the JC hotel.

From Jun 6 to Jun 10.

started at 65$ REJECTED

added re-bid zone at 71$ REJECTED

added re-bid zone at 75$ REJECTED

split up my bid, did only Jun 7 to 10 at 71$ REJECTED

any tips?

[the watcher]

added re-bid zone at 80$ REJECTED

SPLIT Jun7 to 10 only at 76$ REJECTED

[thereuare]

What is your maximum bid for the 6/6-6/10 leg of your stay?

As you also tried bidding for 6/7-6/10, what is your gameplan in regards to where you would stay on 6/6 should that bid have been accepted?

Thanks for using the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your bidding.

[the watcher]

Actually we changed our dates, we're going to come sunday instead and leave thursday.

i tried 6/8 to 6/11 with the same results.

my max bid i was hoping for was 71$/night as many ppl got, but i guess we can push it to about 80$/night.

If we get most of the days cheap, i guess we can over pay the other day as it will balance out.

EDIT: Just went to 85$ for 6/8 to 6/11 and REJECTED

[thereuare]

Rates are date specific so you can't necessarily duplicate somebody elses win which are for dates other than your own.

I'm guessing it will take between $85-$110 to be successful for these dates. Current rates as the Westin star at $219/nite and the Hyatt is $239/nite... so your current bids are still well under half price of reserving thru a conventional booking channel.

Not sure if you want to wait out, raise your maximum, or consider other areas.

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

[the watcher]

well we wet up to 100$ and no success so we decided to give NYC a try for a few bucks more.

after a entire day of bidding we got the Affinia Manhattan in MSG for 115$/night. more than we wanted to pay but only a few bucks more than what we woulda gotten in JC.

any good places to eat around there?

we're just going to find a parking garage around there and park our car there

[thereuare]

Congratualtions on your success!

Glad you decided to give Manhattan a try as many people lose sight of the value proposition of Jersey City... JC is a great option when NYC is very expensive... for less than $15/nite difference you'll have a better experience staying directly in Manhattan (and consider $7RT for two peple riding the PATH and the difference becomes under $10/nite)

Plenty of places to eat in this immediate area, but mostly the fast food and pub variety, given the proximity to Madison Square Garden. If you want a notable "real meal" you'll likely need to venture outside of this immediate area, but that's not an issue with plenty of subway lines and mass transit right outside this hotel.

Can you confirm that the dates you decided upon are 6/8-6/11 and the star rating of the Affinia Manhattan is still 3.5*?

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

Enjoy your stay.

[the watcher]

so we did June 7 to 11th @ 115$

Then we decided to ad an extra night, tried from June 11th to 12th @ 100$ and got it.

Yes Affinia is still 3.5*. from their site it looks like all their rooms have kitchenettes. anyone has experience with this? might save us $$$ in food.

also we're using http://nyc.bestparking.com/ to find parking rates and found a few places around for 25$ tx in for 24hrs @ NY Central Parking.

[thereuare]

The Affinia Manhattan is an apartment buildilng converted to a hotel (as Affinia does with many of their locations... and does it well i might add) so the rooms are a bit larger than the standard hotel room (since they used to be somebody's apartment) and has a kitchenette (again, because it used to be somebody's apartment)

Enjoy your stay.

[AaronJB]

There is a Whole Foods location a few blocks South (250 7th Ave.) if you would like to do some shopping for food to bring back to the kitchen.