Priceline Hotel: 4* London (Regents Park - North London) The Colonnade London

[vanpoodle]

Scoped out PRICELINE EXPRESS Deals first to see which zones had the best deals for my dates. Chose not to bid on Kensington this time because the Copthorne Tara and the Olympia looked like potential wins -- that zone was coming in at $130 anyway, while Regent's Park was at $109. (if Kensington is coming in as considerably cheaper than the other zones I will sometimes risk it if other more palatable hotels are coming in cheaper than the Tara and the Olympia on the retail side). The other zones I like, Mayfair, City, Bloomsbury, Notting Hill and Westminster were in the $140+ range. I bid on RP with permutations and combinations and got my first counteroffer of $115 when I got to $88. Then I worked the other more desired zones up to $110 just to see if one of those gave me a counteroffer before I focussed on RP.

 

I also checked out the retail side of Price.Line to see if I could guess the hotel since the one in Express showed a guest rating of 9+ which is highly unusual. I know that NYOP doesn't always use the same hotels as Express, but chances are better than 50/50 that they do. There was this hotel in the zone I'd never heard of called the Colonnade that only one traveller had posted a review of and gave it a 10! Went to Tripadvisor to check it out and guests there seem to like it slightly better overall than other hotels I had stayed at in London and liked perfectly well (but certainly no 10s across the board!).

 

I was going to work the RP zone until I got to $5 below the PRICELINE EXPRESS price because I have a coupon that would have given me a $5 a night discount. When I got to $102 my bid was accepted and it was the Colonnade. It is in a really lovely residential area near Little Venice and not far from Paddington -- walkable. I have gone for canal walks in that area and now realize that I have walked past it. It's a very small hotel. Quite unusual for a winning bid since NYOP in London typically sticks to the big chains.

[thereuare]

Congratulations on your success!

Nicely done! Glad to see you're pleased with the outcome and looking forward to trying out this property.

Thank you for sharing your win with the board and helping us add this property to the Priceline Hotel List.

Please use the requested PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your future travel purchases.

Enjoy your stay.

[ikelmay]

Thanks for all the information - I'm about to start bidding for a visit later this year and you've given me some really useful strategies.

 

[John Lin]

thank you also for detailing your strategy. i'll try that as well (to use PRICELINE EXPRESS to get additional info).