PapaCat

Rejected at 41, 46, and 51. Accepted at 55. Rebid zones were Airport, East, and West.

There is no doubt that the Toftrees "golf resort" is badly in need of updating and renovation, but it certainly works for me as a basic and tolerable 2* hotel. I have stayed there three times myself and my wife an additional time solo. While I would call the rooms drab and fading and the service middling to poor (they accidentally charged my cc once for the room pline had paid for but fixed it quickly), it's not bad and I certainly have never found it unsafe, unclean, or unsleepable. Now, that said, I obviously never stayed during peak times and did not have noisy neighbors. It is a bit of dump, and I don't eat at their buffet, but I'll settle for this rather than pay $150+ a night. I certainly would never pay rack for this place, but at the $40-42 a night range, it's tolerable. With the Motel 6 on North Atherton having switched over to a higher-price brand, the number of marginally acceptable hotels to be had under $80/night dropped to pretty much the Super 8 on South Atherton, which can be a bit hit or miss. Now, almost any of the other 2* priceline hotels in State College are far and away better than Toftrees (or Super 8) and if you can get one of the very few 3* rooms in the South zone, you are in very good shape. So my strategy is to bid 3* South for 40 then go up with the free rebids to 47, 55, and 62. If that fails then I quit out and start over with 2* South at 40 and then if that fails add 2* North at 42. Toftrees "resort" is a very common hit in the 2* North range, so just be aware you more likely than not will end up here if you bid that zone at that level. If avoiding this place is important, do not bid 2* North in State College; stick to 3* South or just pull the trigger on the Super 8 or look to Hotwire. That said, I and others have scored some very good deals on other 2* North hotels (in the cluster of newer hotels on Waddle), but it is definitely a gamble. Still, I have never had an experience at Toftrees as bad as the Tripadvisor reviews report. (I do have to wonder if some of those reviews are so harsh because people were fleeced at $200+/night rates in event weekends.)

Number of Rooms: 1 Number of Nights: 1 Room Subtotal: $40.00 (USD) Taxes and Fees: $10.94 (USD) Total Room Cost: $50.94 (USD) Final one to report from our recent wins here. This was bid at 2* but upgraded by Priceline to 3*. This is one of my favorite hotels in the area. Note that State College is divided into zones and this zone right now is the only one with any 3* hotels.

Number of Rooms: 1 Number of Nights: 1 Room Subtotal: $40.00 (USD) Taxes and Fees: $10.94 (USD) Total Room Cost: $50.94 (USD) One of many recent wins in this town, which is split into four zones now, though only 3* or 2.5* South zone can be bid with any free rebids.

Number of Rooms: 1 Number of Nights: 3 Room Subtotal: $126.00 (USD) Taxes and Fees: $20.13 (USD) Total Room Cost: $146.13 (USD)

One of many in our recent run of State College rooms. As always, BB + PRICELINE is an unbeatable combo. Number of Rooms: 1 Number of Nights: 2 Room Subtotal: $84.00 (USD) Taxes and Fees: $15.56 (USD) Total Room Cost: $99.56 (USD)

Hotel was a bit outdated but fine. A little street noise and some construction across the way, but otherwise quiet. Clean, garage parking $6, free internet, reasonable breakfast on site. Noise from halls will travel to rooms as there is a large gap beneath each door, but halls were quiet on my stay. Perfectly fine at this price, but I have certainly stayed at much nicer Holiday Inns.

rejected at 35 and 40. Accepted at 45. Excellent price for a single saturday night stay. total w/ taxes and fees of 59.20 used the BB PRICELINE link, of course

Started bidding at $55, went up in $2-3 increments, rejected all along the way until $75. Accepted at $75. Could have gotten a 3* for cheaper, but I am hoping for a very solid night's sleep and a little extra comfort. As always, I used the BB PRICELINE link to start my bidding.

Wow. That place was pretty awful. Ridiculously loud with some kind of bar / nightclub attached to the hotel. People partying in their rooms and the parking lot until all hours of the morning. Front desk completely useless... They didn't even bother answering the phone. Anyway, it was a room and a bed, and cheap, so...

Emergency last-minute need for one night here and no rebid zones resulted in a possible overbid but based on other wins here I would say that it probably would not have gone much lower than this. Needless to say, won on first bid. Hotel reviews are pretty scary but I guess we will see. It's one night and can't be much worse than the Best Western in Hagerstown MD last week.

Very specific price limits for this trip. Tried 4* Downtown to 67, rejected. Tried 3.5* Downtown to 63, rejected. Tried 3* rejected at 45, 47, and 50. Accepted at 55. A great hotel at a fantastic price. Not a bid for the record books, but we are certainly very happy. As always, I start each round of bidding using the BB PRICELINE link.

Rejected at 40, 42, 45, and 48. 5 nights total incl. taxes and fees $298.50. Outstanding deal. Acceptable reviews on TripAdvisor, though nothing amazing. Should be fine for our purposes. At this price I certainly am not going to complain. Used the BB PRICELINE link, of course.

$74 is your most likely break point based on previous reports.

Best Western Grand Venice Hotel 431 Dual Highway Hagerstown, MD Rejected at 35, 40, and 43. Accepted at 44. Note that the Frederick area is split into two zones and Hagerstown has no free rebids (the other zone, Frederick proper, is higher star), so this took me a few days to do the rebids. 56.14 after taxes and fees. Bestwestern.com wanted 75, so a good deal. Used the BB PRICELINE link to start the bidding, as always.

Was shopping for anything decent on the island and below central park. Had tried a number of bidding strategies at lower prices for all zones south of central park (not UWS/UES/Brooklyn etc.). Rejected at 88. Accepted at 93. 118.33 with taxes and fees. Was offered extension to another night but would not let me extend backwards to the previous night (the previous night anyplace on the island was reject up to 110, used HOTWIRE for a good hotel in Newark instead as we are driving in and can just park and take the NJT in). As always, I used the BB PRICELINE link.

Hilton Newark Airport 1170 Spring Street, Elizabeth,NJ,07201 Amenities Airport Shuttle Fitness Center Pool(s) Restaurant(s) High-speed Internet Access Check-in Sat, May 15, 2010 Check-out Sun, May 16, 2010 $69

Started with $35, rejected but offered free rebid for $44. Declined free rebid, added Corona for $40, accepted. Total including taxes and fees of $51.99 Very happy as I need a place to clean up and get some sleep before our flight home from Coachella and this is perfect. Will be such a welcome sight. Thanks! As always, I used the BB PRICELINE search box link.

Rejected at 55, 65, 70, and 75. Was running out of rebids so jumped to 85. Accepted. Total for 3 nights after taxes and fees was 306. Used the BB PRICELINE link, as always. Thanks, as always, to the BB community for providing all the info that helped me put together a strategy.

Rejected at 35, 38, and 41. Accepted at 43. 56.46 after all taxes and fees. Used the BetterBidding PRICELINE link, of course.

Given the tons of reports here on failing at 72 and 70 but succeeding at 74 and 75, I just started my first bid at 74. Given that this is high season, I was expecting a rejection, but first shot out it was accepted. I was especially concerned about needing 8 nights in a block, but I lucked out! Here is the total breakdown: Room Cost (avg. per room, per night): $74.00 (USD) Number of Rooms: 1 Number of Nights: 8 Room Subtotal: $592.00 (USD) Taxes and Fees: $84.32 (USD) Total Room Cost: $676.32 (USD) This rather nicely makes up for my failure to get a decent deal on airfare. This hotel is rated #13 out of 354 on TripAdvisor.

Oh, I should add that I did use the new Matrix2 search function at ITA and the best fare anywhere within 300 miles of me to any airport within 50 miles of AMS that fits the dates I am obligated to be in Amsterdam was coming in at $1300 from an airport almost a four hour drive away.

Well, I decided if I was going over $1,000 it would have to be for a 1-connection flight, so I tried everything I could with dates and airports keeping myself to only one connection and bid up to 1200. Still failed. It kept kicking back 1292 for my less desirable dates and 1342 for the more desirable dates. I think I will just book directly through my preferred airline (KLM or Delta) for 1400 and get a nice short 1-stop flight on exactly the dates and times I want. I love priceline for hotels, but for airfare they fail me almost every time. By the way, the difference between a 2-stop flight and a 1-stop flight would be somewhere between 6 and 9 hours, based on what I have seen for available schedules for the cheaper 2-stop flights.

Tried playing with the dates a little and bumped my bid up to 990, still no luck. Priceline keeps kicking back a 1294 counter-offer.

Thanks for the info. The trip is one I must take and I only have a small amount of flexibility on dates (I have to be in the city June 29-July3). I may just have to wait in hopes the airfares come down some in the remaining months before the trip. I have tried hotwire, ITA, kayak, mobissimo, and all the standard travel sites. Best I have found is just under 1300. That fare just seems awfully high. Thanks again for the help.