NYC hotel advice using Hotwire
 

Hi everyone,
My husband and I and two teenage daughters plan to visit NYC in July. We have already purchased tickets to see Wicked. We found the Hilton Garden Inn on broadway for $242/nt using AAA. After reading the suggestions on the board for Hotwire, I decided to give them a try. They are offering a 4*hotel in the theatre district for $183/nt. I believe the hotel might be either the Crowne Plaza or the Millenium based on the posts on betterbidding.com. My question is should I take today's Hotwire rate or wait until it is closer to the dates of the trip. Will I get a better deal?

I would wait. Is the Hilton Garden Inn cancelable? If so, book it now and cancel if you change your mind. For the past two summers or so, hotels such as the Westin Times Square, Millennium Broadway, and Omni Berkshire have shown up on travelzoo for under $200.

If hotels continue the current trend, and the economy doesn't experience a surprising rebound, you should be able to get a hotel on hotwire for pretty cheap (by New York standards, of course.)

Also, New York hotel rooms can run pretty small. I'd suggest taking a look at the Affinia group hotels -- many rooms are suites, so you'd have a little more space. Plus, their double bedded rooms are often two queens, which is nice if you have to share a bed.

$183 for a HW 4* doesn't sound that great. [Hotwire 4* are equivalent to 3.5* on Priceline and elsewhere.]

I'd at least try some bids on Priceline for 3.5* or 4* properties up to around $150 and see what happens. You have time.

Which Hilton Garden Inn are you talking about? I don't think there is one on Broadway. There's Times Square on 8th ave. Is that what you mean?

Priceline is not an option for a party of 4 in NYC. The hotel you're seeing on Hotwire is most probably the Crowne Plaza. While it's had a recent renovation, it wouldn't be my first choice. I agree with bethke. I'd take a wait and see approach keeping a rreservation that's cancelable.

Thanks everyone for responding. You are right that the Hilton Garden Inn I am referring to is the one on 8th Ave at Times Square. I'm sorry I got the address wrong. I will book that as it is cancelable.

I wish I could use Priceline but I need to be guaranteed two beds. What are the summer rates like in NYC? I've read on the boards that fall is very expensive. Is summer cheaper than fall? $183/nt seemed pretty good compared to the other rates I had been seeing.

Crowne Plaza looked good on the website. The pool seemed like a plus for the kids. Are the hotels you mentioned - Westin Times Square, Millenium Broadway and Omni Berkshire - nicer than the Crowne Plaza? I'm just looking to get the best value and am trying to stay under $200/nt if I can. We don't need a lot of frills. We just need a clean place with two decent sized beds.

Thanks!

Rates tend to go down in the summer, when it's only tourists who won't pay business-traveler style for a hotel room. With the sharp drop in European tourists that I'm seeing, I would not be surprised if rates were down. I don't think you should count on $150, though it's possible if the economy stays down. People are finding rates of $139 or less right now for hotels like the Grand Hyatt. July is usually a more expensive than February but significantly less expensive than the fall.

I am new to all these sites as travelzoo, hotwire, orbitz, etc. I have never used them but seeing the prices that they offer, it is quite remarkable.

Some questions for those in the know:

1) since fall is usually more expensive than other times, do the prices drop during this time as well on these sites?

2) are these sites reliable?

3) how soon in advance will I be able to see good rates and decide that this is good enough to book now?

4) can one cancel these bookings? how are they paid for?

Many thanks!!!!

In response to an earlier question about the Westin, Omni and Millennium: yes, I would say they are nicer than the Crown Plaza. I LOVED the Westin when I stayed last summer.

For questions about the name your own price feature of priceline, and for using hotwire, definitely do some exploring on betterbidding.com (hotwire) and biddingfortravel.com (priceline.) Both are non-refundable, so it's good to know your stuff.

Orbitz is nearly identical, IMO, to travelocity and expedia. I also like kayak.com for hotel searching.

Travelzoo is just a really great discount site, where you often book directly through the hotel, with varying cancellation policies.

bargains, if the pool is a big draw for you, the Crowne Plaza is the only Times Square hotel with that amenity. If you're happy with the hotel and the bed setup, then go for it. I think you will see rates like that or perhaps less for other hotels that may be nicer, but they won't have a pool. When exactly are you coming? If it's around the 4th, there are always sales.

While the Hilton Garden Inn TS is not as nice a hotel as the Crowne Plaza, their 2 bedded rooms are 2 queens rather than doubles and the location is not smack in the center of all the congestion.

For flame

1) since fall is usually more expensive than other times, do the prices drop during this time as well on these sites?
Prices drop based on supply and demand. When hotels see they have a lot of empty rooms, they'll run sales on travelzoo or elsewhere to fill rooms. When the economy was strong, there were fewer sales in the fall. Things have changed.

2) are these sites reliable?

I'm not sure what this means. Do they ever make a mistake? Sure. When purchasing on a 3rd party website, it's always a good idea to confirm your reservation directly with the hotel. Some of the sites (like Hotwire and Priceline) require you pay on purchase and are not cancelable. If you don't realize that when clicking to buy, you might think that's not "reliable." Some people wind up bidding too much on Priceline. That's not Priceline's fault, it's theirs. You must read carefully before attempting this.

quikbook.com is a site you didn't mention that usually has good deals and many rates that are fully cancelable with no penalties.

3) how soon in advance will I be able to see good rates and decide that this is good enough to book now?

Who knows. Best to either check daily or sign up for email alerts on sales.

4) can one cancel these bookings? how are they paid for?

See above. It really depends on which website you're talking about and which offer. Read the fine print before clicking.

I've been bidding on Priceline unsuccessfully for May, but will keep trying almost every day.

I am looking at the current successful bids on biddinfortravel and using those as guides.

Bidding $110 midtown east

$115 for Times Square

$120 for midtown west

As I've said, not successful as yet, but the dates are a bit out, so am willing to wait. With the economy being the way it is, the rates may even come down. I just saw a winning bid of $112 for a 4* in Times Square on BFT! That's a fantastic price to get for NYC! (BTW, I only bid for 4* for NYC)

Have a backup reservation just in case.

Also, as per another thread, I called the Radio City Apartments, but they told me that they are fully booked for my dates because people start booking a year ahead of time! But...she said to keep calling back because there are always cancellations.

In other words, if you want to get a good rate in NYC, you'll have to work at it and keep trying and trying.

mclaurie, thanks for your answers. I guess I am still not sure which of these various sites are those where you "bid" for a room (what does that mean really?) and those which you don't. Or are they all like this?

And if I make a reservation through a site like this, I pay them? And then double check with the actual hotel that they have my reservation made with one of these services?

Sorry for all the questions and appreciate all your answers!!

Flame, there are different types of sites:

Expedia sells hotel rooms where you see the name of the hotel and the price, and once you "buy", it's not refundable.

Quikbook sells hotel rooms where you see the name of the hotel and the price, but most of their rooms ARE refundable (they tell you when they're NOT).

Hotwire sells hotel rooms where you do NOT see the name of the hotel, just the price, and you have to do some digging to figure out what hotel it might be. You don't find out what hotel it is until you hit "buy", and once you hit "buy", there are no refunds.

Priceline sells hotel rooms where you see neither hotel name NOR the price. You select the area based on their map, and the star rating, and you name your price, which they either accept or don't. Using Bidding for Travel and Better Bidding, you can get an idea what hotels are being "won" by other bidders, as well as bidding strategies.

Both Hotwire and Priceline also have features like Expedia.

Travelzoo is a site that just collects other people's discounts and posts them once a week. You don't actually buy anything from Travelzoo itself.

Kayak is also a "collector", but not necessarily of special discounts like travelzoo -- it just lists all the prices it finds for hotels in the city you select. Again, you don't buy anything directly from Kayak.

Each of those "types" of sites has various competitors.

Hope that helps.

easytraveler, I hope you're just 2 people and I hope you know about free re-bids. I have a feeling you don't. There are a number of free rebid zones for 4* hotels in NYC- upper east side, Chelsea and more.

mclaurie, bethke, rrkwan, and Doug,
I took your advice and went ahead and booked the Hilton Garden Inn but will continue to look on Hotwire and elsewhere for a better deal. I agree that the queen sized beds would be great but I am hoping to get the cost lowered a little.

Betterbidding.com says that the Hilton Garden Inn is offered as a three star hotel on Hotwire but I will have to do my homework on betterbidding so I don't get the wrong hotel. They also offer the Washington Jefferson Hotel with the same number of stars. Is this a good hotel?

The Crowne PLaza looks good in the photos, a step up so to speak for less money but they only offer double beds. I guess I have time to wait and see. I'm not sure if I should factor in the pool since there are so many things to do at night in the city that we might not even have time to use it. The dates for the trip are 7/15 - 7/19 so we wouldn't qualify for any 4th of July promotions.

One other quick question - my girls are 16 and 19 and are anxious to go shopping in New York. Where would you suggest we go where things are relatively reasonably priced? The 5th Avenue shops are nice to look at but are way out of our price range. One daughter has celiac disease so we are planning a trip to Soho to check out a gluten free restaurant called Risotteria. What is the shopping like in Soho?

Many thanks for your help!

bargains, the girls might enjoy shopping at "Century 21", which is sort of the granddaddy of discount department stores.

http://www.c21stores.com/#/home/

sf7307 - many thanks!!! for the wonderful informative post. Appreciate it much !!!!!

I think the Washington Jefferson is a dump with very small rooms and bathrooms. Do you know about the reviews on tripadvisor.com? Most every hotel is reviewed there and there are "travelers photos" posted on the review page.
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev..._New_York.html

You can't really buy a certain hotel on Hotwire unless there's something unique about it (like a swimming pool) that makes it a dead giveaway on Hotwire. As you discovered, the HGI Times Square would have the same icons as the WJ and I wouldn't touch it.

I think your best bet is to sign up for emails from travelzoo.com and maybe also Hampton Inns since several of their hotels have 2 queen beds. The Affinia Dumont and Affinia 50 also have suites with 2 queens and would be great if they had a sale (which they usually do). So maybe sign up with affinia.com

As for shopping, H & M is a really popular place for inexpensive but trendy teen clothes. They have several locations. I think discount stores like Loehmann's, Daffy's, Filene's are better for clothes than Century 21 (which is a madhouse and better for accessories).

Soho is fun for shopping. There are a lot of chain stores like French Connection, A/X Armani and Anthropologie which have locations elsewhere, but it's fun to walk around in Soho and the time you're coming, there should be plenty of sales.

Hotwire's star ratings and "neighborhoods" are related to Expedia. Expedia doesn't always require pre-pay; hotwire does.

I signed up for travelzoo and affinia.com. I couldn't believe the deals on travelzoo. I bet we will find a great deal as the trip approaches. Many thanks for the great tip, mclaurie!

I was only looking at hotels in the theatre district because we have the tickets for Wicked. Can you reccommend other central areas worth staying in as well? We plan on visiting the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island and aside from that the girls just want to shop. Our last trip was Washington DC so they are not interested in going to museums plus our time in the city is limited.

Thanks everyone for the shopping tips. I read that Union Square has a lot of stores they like. Is it worth spending some time in that area?

Yes to Union Square. There's a Filene's there and in the same building DSW, the shoe discounter. There's also a nice view from the top floor of Filene's onto Union Square. Try to go on a day the greenmarket is going to have a look.
(monday, wednesday, friday & saturday)

I think a good enough price at a great hotel is worth traveling for. See what comes up and then decide. I would also sign up with Hilton and Marriott and join both of their rewards programs. The Doubletree Guest Suites in Times Square (Hilton) is one of the most popular family hotels and the Marriott Marquis is too. You might well find prices to match what you've got athe HGI and these are nicer.

Other than the Upper East Side (east of Central Park, above 60th Street) and Lower Manhattan (south of Canal), it doesn't really matter where your hotel is as you stay in Manhattan. And even then, a lot of people don't find it too inconvenient to stay way downtown in the Financial District/Battery Park City area since most of Manhattan's subway lines converge down there. But just be aware that it's still a relative ghost town after dark. The subway makes it very convenient to stay almost anywhere, and you could even look at hotels in Brooklyn and Queens if you really need to save money.

Just avoid most New Jersey hotels. The trade-off in price savings is not worth the extra travel time.

Just a small correction - Risotteria is on Bleecker Street between 6th and 7th Avenues - which is in the West Village, not Soho.

Doug Stallings, do you think it is safe for two women to take the subway at night in Manhattan? I have always been hesitant to do this...

I'm 25 and took a solo vacation to New York City over Christmas. I took the subway back to the hotel (in Tribeca) from the theatre every night for 3 nights (around 11-midnight), and I never felt unsafe. If the subway seemed a little empty, I would get on the car that had the conductor. I always made sure I knew where I was going, and what exit from the platform was best. Bad things happen, but for the most part it is perfectly fine to take the subway after dark.

I would not hesitate to tell two women to take the subway at night. If you find yourself on a train, you'll see that they are pretty full up until midnight (as are most of the stations in Manhattan), even during the week.

After 2 or 3 am, the crowds thin out dramatically, and then you might want to make sure you get in car where there are several people. But the subway system is as safe as any part of the city.

Ironically, most of the headline-grabbing subway crimes in the past few years have happened during the day. So it's not that the subway system here is completely free from crime, but I think you're as safe in the train as anywhere.

While the subway in Manhattan is very safe we don;t take it after about midnight - just because the trains run so much less frequently - perhaps every 20 minutes - and you would be home by cab by the time the train arrives.