bnebased

I like the approach, but point out the A North is a free rebid at 4*, giving you the opportunity to do 4 bids a time. Agree with the Amrath, and am staying there later this week, bought by a conventional (non-bid) site at a good rate. What I don't understand is the title: $64. GBP294 is about USD460, suggesting that the right figure is about $100.

Motivated by $7 bonus money I bid via the PRICELINE link (and researched via the HOTWIRE link) to eventually get this at $132 + $7. After an extended sequence of bids using free rebids I got it after previously failing at $130 + $7 (without any counteroffer). I had not planned on bidding this early, but the bonus money induced me to do it now. I know I might have saved money by splitting the bid, but did not want to move mid stay, unless the saving was big enough. I failed for the cheaper weekend days 9/28-10/1 4* at $70 + $7. I also tried for 3.5* cheaper and failed for 9/28-10/3 at $104 + $7. I am happy with the hotel. When compared with open sites the saving seems to be as little as $250 total and versus what looks like the same hotel on HW about $100. All in all, it seems to me that the PL benefit is still there, but is declining relative to my past wins.

Date in heading is wrong (?date of post?)

Beware, this is a long story. All bids and research were done using BB HOTWIRE and PRICELINE links. Successful bid was on 6/27. I wanted 11 days in or near NYC in September. I had no idea how best to go about it. I did not want to split the bid (I have done that before; too much wasted time.) My top prefs were 4* Hyatt or Westin in Jersey City with next pref the 3.5* Sheraton Lincoln Harbor Hotel. Sadly the Sheraton is classified as 4* by Hotwire, so that obscures any hints as to Hotwire prices for my top prefs. I have stayed at various Jersey City hotels via Priceline bids over time, including my top prefs. (That was years ago; bid were reported way back then, but no longer obvious on BB web site.) I started bidding on 6/7 for 9/18-9/29. Hotwire told me that a 4* in (Hoboken - Jersey City - North Bergen) was available for as little as $143 per night. (Price varied during June, generally $143 to $149, but spiked to $178 during the month.) Anyway amenities suggested the Sheraton. Using a judicious selection of rebids I tried 4* on Priceline ranging from $100 to $145, with no success or counters. I tried again on 6/8 bidding from $142 to $150 with the same result. Next, on the same day I tried 3.5* from $120 to $127, with same result again. Priceline sent me a bonus money offer ($5 per night up to ten nights) valid for 24 hours on 6/27. I had no clue if I could effectively use this for an 11 night bid so decided to move my dates to 9/18 to 9/28. (Hotwire again offered its 4* for $143.) I tried 4* on Priceline ranging from $130+5 to $155+5, with no success or counters. Next, on the same day I tried 3.5* starting at $122+5 planning to go up by $2 twice then $1 to $130+5. Up to $126+5 same result as before. All these results were effectively instant. At $127+5 it gave me the please wait message for a while (?5 to 10 mins) before accepting. So I got it at the best price available on PL that day :) Next step is five nights in Washington DC straight after this, but that will be another story. A quick remark for the mods: the Priceline interface for using bonus money has changed again (since I last used it). I hope I accessed it from the BB site correctly to get affiliate benefits. Anyway I did access both HW and PL a pile of times from BB during this successful adventure.

The topic title has a typo: 5* should be 4*

Needed 2 more nights in Amsterdam. This time I bid first at $96, rejected; added rebid at $98, rejected again; next rebid at $99 accepted. So, on the day that seems minimum acceptable. No counters on rejected bids. All bids via BB PRICELINE link.

Inspired by other peoples' successes in April at $100 I bid first at $92, rejected; added rebid at $95, rejected again; other rebid at $98, rejected; final rebid at $100 accepted. So, on the day US$100 was close to minimum acceptable. No counters on rejected bids. All bids via BB PRICELINE link.

After 5 failures with all bids via BB PRICELINE link, I succeeded at $70. History (with bids about 1 day apart): $53 failed; $58, counter $73; $61, counter $76; $64, counter $79; $67, counter $87; $70 accepted.

Started 2 days ago using BB link for each bid (and free rebid). $85 rejected; $90 counter $115; $94 counter $119; $98 counter $123; $102 accepted. I had seen "randomish" counters before; this is the first time I have seen increasing counterbids like this (but perhaps just random or are they tracking my behaviour?)

I wanted six nights in Paris. Guided by this priceline win I used the betterbidding PRICELINE link to try for the Marriott. Bid $95 for (St. Germain - Latin Quarter - Montparnasse); rejected with $120 counter. Added (Batignolles - Montmartre - Republique) and bid $100; rejected no counter. Switched via BB link to (St. Germain - Latin Quarter - Montparnasse) + (Opera Quarter West - Jardin des Tuileries) and bid $105; accepted. BTW, has anybody had a PL success in (Opera Quarter West - Jardin des Tuileries)? Whoops: price and date missing from title and I don't know how to edit that. Details are $105 ... 8/13/11-8/19/11

Yes, there are indeed taxes and fees, prepaid to Hotwire. In this case: Hotel rate per night - Hotwire hot Rate:Nights:Rooms: 1 3 $127.00 Subtotal:Tax recovery charges and fees: $59.34 $381.00 Total price: Total charges to your credit card $440.34 $440.34 As I understand it the actual taxes are 6% of the real hotel charge in EUR. I know that PL shows a hotel room price which can differ substantially from what the hotel charges. I don't know about HOTWIREW. If the actual hotel charge was about $127 then the taxes would be about $22.86, meaning a HOTWIRE fee of about $36.50, which I think is surprisingly high (but no deal breaker for me). Hiding real charges in fees is a common ugly practice in my view. I also believe that Amsterdam city charges the hotel a 5% fee on the real accomodation rate. I expect to be charged in EUR after my stay, at which time I figure to know what HW paid the hotel (in EUR). Thanks for your good wishes. Yes I expect that the NH hotel will be pretty good and that the Amrath will be better. ( I couldn't get Amrath for the whole five days at an acceptable price. Best I saw was about EUR260pn.)

I wanted Amsterdam from 5 Jun to 10 Jun, which looks like a funny time since it includes the Dutch election. This seems to make bidding a tougher challenge (both NH Amsterdam Centre and Movenpick City Centre are not available for regular bookings for parts of the period). So I broke the stay into two parts to get prices acceptable to me using the links for both PRICELINE and HOTWIRE bids (a pile of them). End result: PL 2 nights; HW 3 nights. (here is the Priceline win) I used HOTWIRE as a guide during my PRICELINE bidding and kept seeing what looked like Grand Hotel Amrath (amenities as shown by BB: Smoke Free Rooms Fitness Center Pool(s) Restaurant(s) Business Center) coming up at $125-$129 (variations due in exchange rate variations of EUR/USD, I guess, unless HOTWIRE plays games with me). I end up paying in AUD, so will see what it comes to for me in due course. Anyway very satisfied with price given the hotel reviews I have seen.

I wanted Amsterdam from 5 Jun to 10 Jun, which looks like a funny time since it includes the Dutch election. This seems to make bidding a tougher challenge (both NH Amsterdam Centre and Movenpick City Centre are not available for regular bookings for parts of the period). So I broke the stay into two parts to get prices acceptable to me using the links for both PRICELINE and HOTWIRE bids (a pile of them). End result: PRICELINE 2 nights; HOTWIRE 3 nights. (here is the hotwire purchase) The PL bid succeeded after $67 failed the previous day. I had bid up to $109 for 5* and $83 for 4* for all sorts of break ups of 5 to 10 Jun.

But is the heading correct? (ie, did you get it as a Hotwire 4*)? I find that hard to believe.

Now I really am confused by this. My experience suggests that HOTWIRE star ratings are usually not less than PRICELINE, but occasionally more. This hotel seems to be what has turned up on PL as a 5* ; eg: Priceline Amsterdam and Priceline 5 star hotel Since I am currently bidding (via the PRICELINE link) for Amsterdam from 5 Jun to 10 Jun, I wonder whether PRICELINE has downgraded it too? My planned stay seems a funny time (which includes the Dutch election) and it seems to make bidding a tougher challenge. It looks like I will need to break the stay into two parts to get acceptable prices.

Used link to bid $65 for 5* Frankfurt (West) on 01/28/10; rejected. Added East and immediately rebid $67. Very happy with result (at most one dollar too much on the day).

Happily ensconced in Hyatt JC for the next fews days, via previously reported bids. Wanted one more night in the district and gave up on Hyatt as impossible. Bid thru PRICELINE link for EWR plus various free and nonfree (ie, preferable) areas. Started at 60, counter +17; 62; 64, counter +17; 66, counter +17; 68 accepted.

Already got this hotel for $100 06/13/08-06/16/08 and decided it would be nice to get 2 extra nights. Failed on that at $148, but did get this one night at $75. Will try for 06/17-06/18 later (currently high on Hyatt website and not available via HOTWIRE).

Bid thru PRICELINE link yesterday and today. Yesterday $80 rejected, counter +$22. Tried $85 with rebid, rejected. Today $90 rejected, counter +$22, rebid $100, accepted. Delighted with hotel, slightly disappointed that others got cheaper acceptances reported on this board for similar dates :) Interested in knowing about taxi from EWR