She Told 'Em "This is Our Home For Now, God Bless This Cheap Hotel"

I know I'm not the only grad student whose bank account is getting the shit kicked out of it by the job market, so check this out. Nick Treanor writes with this tip for people going to the APA:

I just used priceline to book a hotel for the APA, and it turns out that I got the official APA spillover hotel, the Renaissance Harborplace, with a bid price of $75 (rather than the $120 or whatever the APA rate is for a single). Note also that while priceline only guarantees one bed, nothing should stop someone booking a room through priceline from putting two, three or four people in a room.

A couple things to note for first time priceline users: bid for a four star in the Baltimore Waterfront zone. Start low, around 60 or 65 bucks. If your bid is rejected, add one other Baltimore zone at a time to get the chance to rebid, and up your bid $5 or so. So long as you're only bidding on a four star, you needn't worry about getting stuck in another area of the city, since no other area of the city has a four star hotel that has a contract with Priceline. There is no guarantee you'll get the Renaissance Harborplace, but whatever you get will be a four star in the area. (A friend of mine just followed this advice however and got the Renaissance for a $75 bid.) Finally, a very important note: You have to pay up front with priceline, can't cancel, and have to show up in person with ID and a credit card. That means if you get no APA interviews or whatever you're stuck with the room.