Oktoberfest advice, please

You may find it a challenge to get lodging in central Munich at a reasonable price at this late date. Be flexible in either price or location.

We have stayed at Hotel Metropol in Munich and can recommend it. It’s close to the train station, which is one stop from Oktoberfest on the U4 line. It’s advertised as an 8 minute walk from Theresienwise. I would expect prices to be high during this time.

Was just there. I did a scrapbook #23 for the contest and I have Oktoberfest as our pre tour activity with a few pictures.

Get the Oktoberfest App. The official one. Read the rules. They are enforced and everyone follows them.
We stayed at Motel One, about a mile away. We walked back and forth.
All the hotels jack up their prices. There are no bargains.
Bags-- no backpacks. Small purses only. They do check and oversize bags will have to be checked in the luggage area outside the gate.
Go early and you can get into any tent you want. It's also easy to score great food, enjoy it and relish the scene. The app and various blogs talk about the "personality" of each tent compared to how you look at the world. We were definitely Augustiner people. We enjoyed a couple of other tents, but this was our favorite.
Because we went early, we went into all the tents to check them out. 10-3 is a great time to wander about for food and beer.

You can get into the tents at night if there is room, however, they are jammed but very "festive."

I bought a Drndl from Munich online and my husband had liederhosen. Many people dress traditionally. It's all part of the scene. You don't have to, but why not? There are places to buy clothes in Munich, and they were jammed and many sizes were gone. https://www.trachten-angermaier.de/
If you are taking a train, be aware that many of the stops around the area may be closed for crowd control. If nearly everyone is getting off the train, get off and follow them.

We ate and drank in the morning and early afternoon. Went back to hotel, took a break and then went back at night. It's a very cool night scene there just to wander about and look at the lights.
It's alot of fun.

You say you want "a few days in the Munich area." If "area" means outside Munich, and you don't need multiple days in Munich itself, there are good base-town choices, with less pricey accommodations, that could be used as a springboard for visiting Munich. What towns in the area do you plan to visit over those few days? Maybe one of those destinations would work well. Augsburg is one option. So is Landshut. But whatever town you choose, it should ideally give you access to your other destinations.

Use booking.com to view Munich hotels. I am seeing a few hotels with a room with a shared bathroom for $200 a night midweek during Oktoberfest. Prices only go up from there.

The Oktoberfest App definitely makes sense. The very high hotel prices have been discussed :-( But what I want to mention is the first Saturday (September 16th) and Sunday (September 17th).

On Saturday the Oktoberfest tent owners (Wiesnwirte) will do a parade. They come on magnificent horse-drawn carriages (accompanied by Munich's Lord Mayor, the Prime Minister of Bavaria and so on). You can simply stand on the street along the route and watch.
https://www.oktoberfest.de/en/information/events/parade-of-the-tent-patrons

On Sunday the traditional costume and hunters’ parade will take place. Also fantastic to watch. Possible to stand on the street and watch as well.
https://www.oktoberfest.de/en/information/events/the-traditional-costume-and-hunters-parade

If you can't find lodging in Munich, stay in Augsburg, about 50 miles west of Munich. There are frequent trains to Munich and you can walk to the fest grounds from the train station.

Visiting Oktoberfest during the week with two people will not be an issue. You might need to spend some time walking through a tent (or tents), but two people can easily find a place to sit down and make friends. Ask me how I know.... I have been leading groups to Oktoberfest since 1993 and certainly getting into a tent on the weekends can be tough, but during the week it is not an issue. Just wander until you see what you like.

Hotel prices in Munich during Oktoberfest are overly inflated for the convenience of being close. With that said, there is a great family run hotel, Hotel Alfa (enter link description here), that is 1 block from the Haupbahnhof and will probably cost you about 250 euro for a double. Also about a 15 minute walk to the Theresienwiese.

Big thanks for all the advice! Your ideas have really helped us. We had a happy bit of news in the last few days -- an old friend of the family lives 35 minutes from the main train station in Munich; he has offered us 2 nights at his place. He's been to the Oktoberfest many times and will give us the lay of the land. So we'll stay with him when we first get to Munich, then spend a night at a hotel near the train station. (I love that idea of going to the fest early, then walking back to hotel to rest and returning to fest grounds in the evening.) So excited that this "bucket list" event seems to be taking shape for us.