Priceline Hotel: Jersey City...Secaucus..Help Please

[Samsonite]

We have decided to drive to NY from Toronto Canada this Friday (July 31) and plan on staying for 3 or 4 nights (Aug.3 or 4). Being a last minute situation we are kind of scrambling. I have read as much as I could over the last night or so. Can anyone assist us on making the "right decision"?

Here are some of our needs/requirments.

Close or convenient access to NY city

double beds (travelling with 2 adults, 5 & 6 year olds)

reasonable surroundings (ie not in the middle of nowhere)

safe place to park a car

additional likes but not required...

Breakfast included

Shuttle service of some sort

We are hoping to pay around $100 US or less... Ideally this would include parking.

In addition, we are travelling with 2 other families and would require 3 rooms in total. What would be the best strategy on getting the whole group in one hotel with the best rate?

We are open to using priceline or hotwire and would obviously use the referral links provided on this site.

On another note, do prices usually go up or down the closer to the date or does it differ depending on time of year.

Thanks in advance...

[AaronJB]

Welcome to the site.

Prices vary based on the day/traffic/hotel; there's no way to know if prices will come down or ramp up closer to your dates. Additionally, it couldn't be much closer to your actual date of travel, so I would recommend not waiting.

How many rooms/adults/children are there in all? Are you only staying 7/31?

Thank you for using the site's HOTWIRE or PRICELINE links to start your purchase.

[Samsonite]

Sorry I missed some valuable info... I will go back and edit the post ;-) We are planning to stay from July 31-August 3 or 4th. We need 3 rooms in total. Each family has 2 adults and 2 children.

Thanks for taking the time to respond to the post

[dahammer]

because it is close to your dates of travel and also because you will need accomodations for 4 to a room (priceline guarantees accomodations for 2 to a room, its up to the hotel to accomodate your quad request) I would take a look at HOTWIRE.

Please search the Jersey City and Secaucus zones for three rooms and report back with the exact dates of travel, price per night per room, star level, and amenities for the listings that are of interest to you.

good luck, watch out for the state troopers on the NY Thruway, they are in the ticket writing mode these days!!

[Samsonite]

Secaucus - Meadowlands

3star

july31-Aug4

Ammenities: Fitness, resturant, business, internet

$72

------------------------

Secaucus - Meadowlands

3.5 star

july31-Aug3

Ammenities: resturant, laundry, internet

$82 (This one seemed to dissapear ;-( )

---------------

Hoboken - Jersey City

2.5 star

july31-Aug3

Ammenities: Fitness, pool, resturant, business, golf nearby

$99

How would one know if parking or breakfast is included?

On another note, 2 of the families would be willing to chance getting a room with only one bed. Does this change anything? I read some reviews on Embassy suiites and it seemed like a decent place to stay but this is not available through hotwire...

[AaronJB]

If anyone in the party is willing to take the risk of one bed, then you could attempt to use PRICELINE. However, if one family is not willing to take one bed, then they would have to use HOTWIRE to guarantee bedding for the whole party. That would likely lead to the group being split between two different hotels.

[thereuare]

When searching HOTWIRE above are you searching for 3rooms/6adults/6children?

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

[tommac]

My name is Tom. I have lived in this area all of my life. Personally I would make sure that you do not include Jersey City as an option in your search result. Jersey City is NOT new york or does it have any touristic benefit. An argument could be had to stay in Hoboken ... although for a tourist trip to NY you want to stay in manhattan.

The thing is that there is absolutely nothing to do in JC. No bars, no music, no restaurants. Nothing. Hoboken has a ton of stuff but still nothing compared to Manhattan.

What JC is:

Jersey City is a dangerous place with one of the highest per capita murder rates in the country. it is inconvenient to get from Jersey City to NY and the Path train is over crowded, dirty, often late, often not functioning and just overall inconvenient for someone on vacation or for business.

Jersey city is a very dangerous place and has a very corrupt and rouge police departments in the US. It is probably one of the least pleasant places to stay in all of the US.

If you are going to stay in NY for tourism I would try to find something in Manhattan. Times square has most of the hotels but is really tourist central you will pay a premium on everything. In my opinion NY is all about places like: tribeca, west/east village, soho, st marks. For museums stay on the upper east side.

I think even brooklyn may be a better bet than Jersey City. DO NOT STAY IN A HOTEL IN JC. If you do it is at your own risk. If you decide to stay in JC ... please post something about your experience here.

[dahammer]

Tom, please don't hold back, tell us how you really feel. I'm sure there are rough areas of Jersey City, just as there are in every major city in the US.

I've stayed at the Jersey City Hyatt at least 5 times, the Doubletree twice, the Candlewood Suites twice, and the Courtyard twice, and yes, even the Holland Motor Lodge....once...... and I am alive and well to tell about it.

If Jersey City is as you describe, why would corporations such as Westin sink multi-millions into a new hotel?

Do you have any recent Hotel wins that you could post?

[thereuare]

Tom, perhaps you don't like the development that has take place in Jersey City and are trying to discourage its success, but it sounds as if you have not been to the Waterfront area of the city in quite some time, and you should, as it is quite lovely.

While i wouldn't necessarily be opting to hang out in Jersey City in lieu of Manhattan if i was visiting from out of town, there are plenty of restaurants and bars near the JC hotels to keep a guest occupied, as well as an established and growing community of musicians and artists. Is the PATH train crowded? Yes it is, at times (and it woudln't be if the area was as awful as you make itout to be), but if i have to stand for a 15 minute ride it's not that big of a deal.

I know the Jersey City that you speak of and that is not the Jersey City that we're refering, and you can read the opinons of those who have chosen to stay here vs. Manhattan:

Hyatt Regency on the Hudson1

Hyatt Regency on the Hudson2

Westin Jersey City

[thereuare]

Samsonite,

What did you end up doing for this stay?

[Keoni]

Ok folks,

I am from Washington DC, previously identified as the Murder Capital of the US. To try to change our image our professional Basketball team name was changed from the Bullets to the Wizards. Having said that, like Dahammer, I have stayed in Jersey City in the Waterfront area and had no qualms about moving from restaurants and bars back and forth to the Hyatt, Courtyard, and Marriott. I found the PATH to be convenient, not crowded, and never had to stand between Exchange Place and either WTC or Midtown or reverse. As someone stated, there are scary areas of DC just like I am sure there are less than desireable areas of JC, but the PRICELINE hotels are not in that area. The JC area is my personal preference when visiting the City as I have done on at least 8 different occasions!

Regards, Keoni :)