Here's what Priceline says for Boutique:
Usually smaller and more intimate, boutique hotels offer a different experience than your typical hotel. These unique, and often historic properties are well appointed with designer soft-goods, upgraded amenities and eclectic designs.
Due to their historic nature, rooms may be slightly smaller than standard hotels and may only accommodate one bed. Boutique hotels cater to the customer and tend to provide a more personal level of guest service. Creative restaurants, room service, fitness centers and business services are some of the amenities and services offered.
Boutique hotels will have the following amenities:
Remote Control TV with Premium Channels
Telephone with Voicemail
Radio Alarm Clock
Iron and Ironing Board
Hairdryer
Business Services
Restaurant
24 Hour Front Desk
So a Boutique does have a restaurant, but may also lack some of the amenities of a 3*. Priceline does place Boutique between a 3* and a 4*, but I don't know if that is justified in many cases. I think Hotwire's method of adding a star rating along with a Boutique designation is better.
In the US and Canada, I think the difference between 2.5* and 3* on Priceline is that 3* has a full-service restaurant and room service whereas a 2.5* only guarantees breakfast service. If you go to Priceline and look at the descriptions of the ratings, that seems to be the difference. Note that the list of amenities required for a 3*:
Remote Control TV with Premium Channels
Telephone with Voicemail
Radio Alarm Clock
Iron and Ironing Board
Hairdryer
Business Services
24 Hour Front Desk
Restaurant
Room Service
For a 2.5*, these are required:
Remote Control TV with Premium Channels
Telephone with Voicemail
Radio Alarm Clock
Iron and Ironing Board
Hairdryer
Business Services
24 Hour Front Desk
(Note that breakfast isn't mentioned in the list of amenities, but it is mentioned in the Priceline text description.)
Also note that these lists of amenities do not apply for hotel rooms in Europe. There, the list is much shorter for each star level.
I can't say for sure why some places qualify as Boutique, but it seems to be that if the hotel can portray itself as "cool" or "funky," but it lacks the amenities needed to be 3*, it can still be a boutique. Maybe it should really be a 2*, but it qualifies for something a little extra.
The Edgewater does not mention a fitness center on their web site (that I could see), but if you look elsewhere on the web, other sites say it does have one. This is the hotel which used to allow fishing out the windows a long time ago. That was stopped, though, after a few nasty incidents.
Using the savingsbarn link to PRICELINE is nice for the board, so you can start by going there if you like.
Do your first 3* bid in the University zone.
If that doesn't work, close down the browser.
Open it again, going to the savingsbarn.com site.
Make your 4* bid in the Downtown zone only.
If that fails, you can then use your free rebid zones.
I haven't checked this area, so I don't know how many free rebid zones you have.
If you go to Priceline.com and prepare a bid for say Florence, Italy you do not get a Suggested Price. If you go to Priceline.com and prepare a bid for Paris, France, you do get a Suggested Price. If you try this with several European cities that are known to have had successful bids, you will see they all have suggested prices when you enter a bid price.
So far in my limited experience, European cities that have never had reported successful bids do not seem to have suggested prices. I tried this with a few cities (Genova, Italy and Gothenburg, Sweden, and Oslo, Norway and Helsinki, Finland all failed to show any Suggested Price), but did not submit any bids. I suspect that you will never succeed with a Priceline bid in these regions, but you will get a lowestfare screen. This is only a hypothesis, however.
I'm not planning another trip at the moment - just wishfully thinking!
Of course if you do see a suggested price, you should probably ignore it no matter what city you are bidding, as Priceline is just giving you some sort of highly inflated rack rate calculated by an algorithm known only to itself.
Enter New York City as your city.
You will get a list of all the zones in NYC, but these aren't what you want.
Scroll further down the page and you will see New York Airports.
Click on that, and it provides you two separate zones - JFK and LGA.
I would be tempted to just check in by myself, get the 2-bed room, and then have everyone slowly bring their stuff in. If they didn't mention an extra charge when you asked for the 2 beds, it's quite likely they won't charge it.
Lots of hotels will work out such a situation with you and not charge you any more, but they aren't obliged to do so. A hotel in DC (or NYC or San Francisco, etc.) is probably more likely to charge extra for extra people than say a hotel in a small town.
Under the Priceline T&C, they are within their rights because you agreed to double adult occupancy. I would consider bidding for another room, although it might end up being in another hotel.
It wasn't clear to me from what you said whether they told you on the phone they would charge you more or if you inferred it from the web site. Have the staff stated that specifically?
The name your price concept is being extended. I don't know if you can get a good deal or not, and what the shipping rates would be if you got one.
www.priceline.com.hk/ema/www/promo/hk/eng/hp/promo.jsp
The following is not specifically related to the above inquiry, but I thought I would post it anyway. I read today that hotel occupancy rates in NYC have risen to 80%, which is now equal to June 2001 occupancy rates. I get the impression there has been an upwards trend in Priceline hotel rates in NYC, and this might be why.
I sometimes see Utell rates on Orbitz, but I'm not if sure they are the same rates that you can get from the Utell site. In any case, it sounds like it is best in any case to book straight from Utell, rather than deal with Orbitz' cancellation policy.
Priceline books for double occupancy, and in the US prices often do not vary much between single and double occupancy. That is often not the case in Europe - a single room can often be substantially cheaper than a double room. So I think Priceline would often be at a disadvantage if all you need is a single room (besides all the other factors relating to Priceline in Europe).
Close down your browser. Go to the SavingsBarn site. Enter your next bid, keeping in mind what you have done already. If you accidentally do repeat yourself, Priceline will let you know.
I don't know the zones well enough in your area to know if you have any more options right now, or if you have to wait.
I also don't have the experience that Priceline cuts me off for another 72 hours if I accidentally make a duplicate. I just have to wait until the original 72-hour period is up.
If you are doing one of these complicated, lengthy strategies, figuring out the 72 hours can get a bit tricky - probably easiest to assume it's from the time of your very last bid.
I have practiced this recently. You cannot unselect a zone from the rejection screen. However, as thereuare said, you can start a new bid from scratch and choose a different selection of zones. It does take a fair bit of extra time and effort when you are doing multiple rebids that involve a lot of zones, and of course you have to be very careful each time you re-enter your information as it is easy to make a mistake.
I would be curious if Priceline has consulted with psychologists to help encourage overbids with their interface :).
I don't mean to over-complicate the situation, so disregard the following example if you like. I tend to like complex math problems, so this is actually fun for me. If you find this a chore, just stick to a simple strategy. The worst that will happen is that you spend a few more dollars.
Say there are three zones: A, B, and C.
Suppose you are willing to stay
in a 1* hotel in zone A only;
a 2* hotel in zones A or B;
or a 2.5* hotel in any of zones A, B, or C.
All zones show they have up to 2.5* hotels.
I might bid them like this (say a 2* is my first preference when considering the probable price and quality):
Bid for a 2* hotel in zone A.
If that fails:
Start a new bid, and bid for a 2* hotel in zone B.
If that fails:
Start a new bid and bid for a 2* hotel in zones A and B.
If that fails:
Start a new bid, and bid for a 1* hotel in zone A.
If that fails:
Start a new bid, and bid for a 2.5* hotel in zones A and C.
If that fails:
Start a new bid, and bid for a 2.5* hotel in zones B and C.
If that fails (this will be your last chance):
Start a new bid, and bid for a 2.5* hotel in zones A, B, and C.
RNH, there are good reviews on TripAdvisor:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g1..._de_France.html
The thing is when you bid on Priceline, especially in a large city like Paris, you can't be sure what hotel you will get, although you can specify the star level and zone. If you want to bid for a stay in Paris, you could post some details about your planned stay on another thread, and anyone who can will do their best to help!
How did all the stays go? Most importantly, did your friends end up with air conditioning that worked?
It now appears from posts elsewhere on this board (see http://www.betterbidding.com/index.php?act...T&f=174&t=1890& ) that Priceline does not guarantee air conditioning even at the 5* level, so this is definitely something to consider when doing a Priceline booking for a European summer trip. Still, I can't imagine that almost any 5* hotel would not have A/C, but I guess you would be out of luck in respect to getting a refund if A/C was not functioning properly when you arrived. It does appear that quite a few 4* hotels in Europe do not have A/C at all (no real idea of the percentages).
Moving around among three places was not a big deal. There is a free downtown Seattle bus service that took us within a couple blocks of each place. After 7 PM, though, the service is not free.
October 11 is a Saturday, and I think I have read that Saturday night check-ins can be more difficult to get on Priceline (at least for some areas and some star levels). It's also possible inventory has not been released yet.
The form had an entry for booking agent - mine said Priceline.com. So presumably the same form could be used for Expedia or Hotwire or whatever other agent. I can't say for sure, but I think other people have been charged at the rack rate for this one night's stay, rather than the booking rate. Given that the price I paid was perhaps 1/3 of the rack rate, such a penalty could be considerable if you had to leave early.
I just remembered this incident from this weekend.
When I checked in at the Summerfield Suites (a Wyndham property), I was given a form to sign which said that if I checked out one or more days early, I would have to pay for an extra night's stay. I saw that the staff was just going through an obligatory ritual, since I only had one night's stay. So I signed it.
However, if I had been staying two or more nights, I think I could have rightly refused to sign. When we initial our agreement with Priceline, we do not agree to pay one extra night's stay if we check out early (or at least not to my recollection). So the hotel is trying to add extra terms and conditions to the agreement after the fact.
Has anyone ever seen this form, either at a Wyndham property or elsewhere? Has anyone refused to sign?
I think the reason the hotel has this agreement is that the hotel is not paid for all of your nights if you check out in advance. So they do lose revenue. That's my educated guess, based on various things I have read. Anyone know for sure?
(Seattle downtown zone on Priceline)
We arrived around 2 PM, and got checked in right away. I asked the clerk if it was a busy weekend, and she said they were full. Apparently the Mariner baseball games were more of a reason than the Bumbershoot festival. We had requested two double beds ahead of time, and that is what we got.
The room was normal-size, with two dressers, a night table, a chair, and a standard bathroom. The worst I can say about the room is that the decor is totally nondescript. It was perfectly acceptable. This is not a motel - there are no exterior entrances to rooms (at least so far as I saw). There is an attached restaurant that serves standard food.
The location is still within the area I consider acceptable in downtown Seattle. It is about two blocks from Westlake Center. I don't like the location of the two 1* Travelodges as well as this location. I knew I was taking a risk by bidding 1* that I would end up in one of those Travelodges and I'm not sure I would take that risk again.
This hotel does appear to have some association with Starwood (as the hotel web site at http://www.sixthavenueinn.com indicates). The only indication in the room, though, was that one of the TV channels is devoted to promoting Starwood hotels. I suspect that Starwood only wants upscale hotels to have prominent affiliations with Starwood and thus downplayed the branding in this case.
(Seattle downtown zone on Priceline)
We got here at about 10 AM Sunday 8/31 and knew that we probably would not be able to check in right away. No problem, as they took our luggage. I told the staff we'd be back around 11 PM. The lobby is very nice. It doesn't have chandeliers, but has a modern, pleasant decor.
When we got back, we were assigned Room 501. This is a 1-bedroom suite, with a kitchen, sitting area with desk, sofa, two coffee tables, armchair, a TV (and some sort of game device) in a wall unit, and then a separate bedroom with its own TV. There was a balcony with a sliding glass door that extended all along the area of the living room. It opened onto a courtyard facing the apartment building next door. I've read some reviews of people who got noisy rooms overlooking the freeway, but this was not a problem in our case at all - it was very quiet. There were various interesting prints on the wall that appeared to be related to Seattle's aviation history. High-speed Internet access is available for a fee (I think it's $9.95, but check). The suite looks like it is pretty new - I suspect the building is less than five years old. I have several friends who have 1-bedroom apartments that are smaller than this suite. The bathroom was standard and had many more towels than I am used to getting.
Sadly I had to disrupt the decor and pull out the sofa bed. This is the only drawback of this arrangement - not getting two standard beds. My daughter had the bedroom and reported that it was extremely comfortable. Next time if we get this place you can be sure I will insist on trading! I had no problems sleeping on the sofa bed, however. We requested a delayed checkout of 1 PM, and that was granted with no problems.
There is a complimentary breakfast buffet. This features several types of sweet rolls, breads, bagels, and cereals, along with the standard accompaniments, as well as a comprehensive and well-laid-out assortment of fresh fruit. Nothing will match the breakfast buffets I had in Scandinavia, but this was pretty good.
Parking is $18/day with unlimited in/out privileges. I didn't have a car, but read this in the brochure. This is actually much cheaper than most hotels in downtown Seattle - some are as high as $36, I think.
I read in the brochure that Summerfield Suites has two plans: the 1-bedroom suite and something called a studio suite which has the same features, except that the bed is not in a separate room. I don't know what the usual suite for Priceline guests is, but we may have been lucky to get the 1-bedroom plan.
The sad thing is that this might be a hard hotel to get on Priceline. Priceline will often "upgrade" you to a 3* if you bid for a 2.5*. The cheapest 3* in downtown Seattle seems to be the Holiday Inn, which is way less convenient and I strongly suspect it is of lower quality. There are also other 2.5* hotels in downtown Seattle, and I don't know if they are as good as this one. But in my opinion, this hotel is a better deal than many 4* hotels.
I've been having trouble with bidding on the Priceline HK site in the last couple days. I sent an email to customer service. Here is the main part of the response:
We apologize for the inconvenience caused. The error messages you received are due to our system upgrading work. The database would be up from 1/Sep/2003.
What happened is that I put a bid in, and got a response that a hotel would have accepted my bid, but that I needed a new credit card. Then my next credit card got the same message. So far as I could tell, there was nothing wrong with my credit cards, thus I sent the emails. I now doubt the bids were actual winners - they were quite low rates.
So any bids you try on the Priceline Asian sites before September 1 might not work out regardless (they really should put a notice up if this is widespread).
That's good to know about the A/C in Victoria, then, even at 1* hotels.
That makes the Empress situation even more ridiculous then, I agree! A few years ago I stayed at the Queen Elizabeth in Montreal, but I didn't notice the A/C because it was January then :)
Edit: I looked up Travellers Inn and the Dominion Hotel. Both of these also have A/C. (The Travellers Inn says they have it in "most" rooms.) That suggests that A/C is indeed the norm for Victoria at all levels, just as it is for most cities in North America.
3* Radisson Hotel Toronto Mississauga
in Priceline Hotels - Canada
Posted
I get to be first. Congrats!