I am planning on using Priceline to get hotel accommadations for NYC but it asks me to pick an area or two in which I would like the hotel to be in. Since I have no clue about the layout of NYC, can you guys give me a heads up as to which two areas I should pick? Also, I'm wondering how much lower than a rack room rate or an internet rate, should I bid? The areas they have listed are as follows: Midtown East, Midtown South, Midtown West, Soho/Lower Manhattan, Upper West Side, and Upper East Side. And, yes I do plan on doing the whole tourist thing...which I'm sure will play a part in the location issues. Thanks in advance for your help!

Jenn:
Please use www.biddingfortravel.com
This is a bulletinboard for all issues regarding Priceline bidding. It will answer al your questions, including what hotels have comeup, what price people have gotten winning bids for, what hotles, or airline intineries, and how to bestaccomplish the bidding process. There is no better information for priceline bidding than this site.

If I were going to NYC as a tourist and wantred good adjacency to moderately priced dining choices, subways and Times Square area/theatre district, I'd start with midtown west, then midtown south and midtown east in that order. If I wanted a more neighborhood like feel (an area that is more residential and not as many big office towers etc.) I'd choose upper west side and uppewr east side in that order (more moderately priced dining on west side and more subways). If I were planning to spend much of my time in soHo, TriBeca and the Village or was looking (maybe) for the best price, I'd choose lower Manhattan. Some prices there may be lower due to 9/11 issues but if you end up in a property that is in some parts of lwer manhattan it may not be nearly as convenient to subways and will take longer to get to the things you may wish to visit as a tourist. Dining options are also limited in evenings once you get down near or in the financial district.

Just seconding the post recommending biddingfortravel.com. I haven't paid full price for a hotel room in over two years, and never bid without reviewing that site. Someone there recently got the Waldorf for $100/night... and that's one of the more expensive successful bids I've seen for NYC.

Read the site, do the recommended research, and you'll do well.
Good luck.

I would not select Lower Manhattan right now. If you end up in a hotel near Ground Zero, you'll have to deal with all-night noise and lights from the work going on.

re: Priceline: I have read on many message boards that you want to avoid the Hotel Pennsylvania at all costs, everyone hates it, and that it is in "Midtown West" on Priceline.

I think it can be avoided in a Midtown West request IF you hit the right number of stars, but I don't know what that is--if Pennsylvania is 3, ask for 4, or whatever. But anyhow it is consistently despised, and very big so rooms are often available.

I just reserved 4 nights at the Millennium Broadway, a 4 star hotel half a block from Times Square, for $90 per night the third week of March thru Priceline. Bidding For Travel told me how to bid on Priceline based on my desires for a 4 star in either Midtown West or East. Prior to this, the lowest price I could find for the Millennium was $239 per night.

I also bid on two rooms in NYC (4*) and rec'd the Broadway Millennium. However, you must read the biddingfortravel.com boards to understand the process, and especially in NYC, where I have learned that the administrator's advice is very helpful, i.e. she notes that it is risky to bid on ONE room only if your party consists of more than two. We are a family of 5 (parents, three older teens) -- I bid two rooms, hoping to get two beds in each room. Well, I did get two beds in each room, but at this particular hotel, when you get two beds in a room, they are two TWIN beds. This is common in NYC where space is tight, and has never come up before in my PL experience. Just details you need to be aware of before you bid. (Not that I would have bid three rooms, it isn't worth it, and probably would've received a hotel with two beds in each room if I had, then would've had too many beds!! haha).

Not all the hotels in NYC can only fit two people. I have stayed at the Waldorf-Astoria, Roosevelt, and Marriott World Trade Center (now gone, of course), which all had two double beds in each room and gladly brought a free rollaway for a fifth person. I know this is not the case in the Millennium (king or two "large" twins), but we only have two people this trip. I'm sure you'll have no problem getting a rollaway at the Millennium.