Before my recent trip to New York, I Pricelined my hotel, as I always do. Normally, I travel there myself, and can't imagine any other way but Priceline, as I consistently get 3-star hotels for $100. Let's face it, if you're like me, and use a room there to take a shower and sleep for seven hours, it's all about price/value.

Well, this time, I was taking my family (including children six and eight) for Easter weekend to see Lion King, etc. Imagine my horror when my three-star hotel for $110 in the Central Park South district came up as Ian Schrager's Hudson. I immediately logged on to Fodors to read one after another review ripping the daylights out the property. Imagine my further horror upon contacting the hotel, only to be told that price only covered their 150 square foot one-bedded closet. Well, it was then I discovered the biggest flaw of Priceline; traveling with family, they can't guarantee you two double beds. Major flaw, but a subject for a different thread. Suffice to say, I wrote a long missive to them letting them know how many potential customers they are cutting out by not addressing this shortcoming.

I had no choice but to pay the negotiated $50 upgrade to a 350 sqaure foot double-double. Still, I was concerned. Bottom line, we liked it a lot. It was one of the most interesting hotels I've ever stayed in, and in a world of sameness, was a welcome respite. The room and bathroom were a fine size, the help accomodating, and the beds very comfortable. My kids thought it was great and loved the funky furnishing and lighting. The location is also very good. On Saturday night, the place came alive with one of the livliest scenes in New York. Although it is not our style, it was fun to watch and observe a cultural aspect way different from what we are used to here in Maryland. Yes, the music was loud, and some older folks checking in seemed horrified. Wrong place for them.

All in all, a great value for $160. Imagine my delight when the hotel forgot to charge me the upgrade fee, and I walked out paying $220 for two nights!

Glad that you had a nice trip and that you enjoyed Hudson. I have stayed there before and I really like it; sure the rooms are small for us that really wasn't an issue. I think that somewhere in the Priceline FAQs it states something about not guaranteeing a room that will accommodate more than 2 people; you were lucky that they could even offer the reasonably priced upgrade on a holiday weekend (and luckier that you were not charged!).

Will you be posting a report on the rest of your trip?

Glad it all worked out for you. It is often written here & certainly on biddingfortravel.com that Priceline for NY is only max 2 per room. You were very lucky they were able to accomodate you.

Hi Margie- Yes, I was quite aware of thr Priceline caveat of only guaranteeing that the room sleep two. However, every time I have used them, I was always asked if I wanted a king or two doubles. As I posted, it is a MAJOR flaw in Priceline. They are eliminating the WHOLE category of family travel. I'm sure there are hundreds of thousands of people not wanting to chance what just happened to us. We were lucky. They need to fix that problem, because it's a great service that could be even better.

As far as the rest of the trip, it was pretty standard New york-with-kids stuff. Climb on the big rock at the south end of Central Park (five minute walk from the hotel), Natural History Museum for dinosaurs and more, the Met for the Temple of Dendur and hit the big artists for the kids (they love Vincent, and Picasso, and Degas thanks to the most most wonderful children's books I have purchased; those by Lawrence Anholt), stroll thru Times Square with a stop at the Toys-r-Us superstore, dinner at Mars 2112, went to the Circus at the Garden, and saw Lion King. Got tickets on eBay a couple months back for face value, third row center, absolutely amazing. We also were very lucky in that a friend of a friend is one of the stage managers, so we got a backstage tour after the show and met Josh Towers (adult Simba). My wife especially liked that ;o).

The weather was great to fair, and once again New York proved to be one of the great places to visit on the east coast. If you don't like New York, you don't have a taste for experiencing all facets of our country, but that's OK. Like my Dad used to say, "That's why they make chocolate AND vanilla".

Sounds like you had a great time! The backstage tour of Lion King must have been fun.

< "That's why they make chocolate AND vanilla "> and that's why NYC has fabulous black & white cookies (aka halmoons)!

Priceline will NEVER fix this "problem" because they are buying excess "run of house" hotel inventory. Heck, in most cases you can't get a hotel to commit to room type when you pay full rate.

I always recommend that a family of 4 just get 2 rooms to be safe. If that's not possible, you're taking a chance (however small) of a major misstep.

edit, edit, EDIT! Why can't Fodor's install an edit feature? It Half Moon cookie I was referring to - not halmoons