Michael NOLA

First attempt. Probably bid too much but the place looks nice. Also, it wasn't on the Priceline list, so the moderator may want to add it.

Just needed one night in NO. Figured I'd go for 4 star. Using the PRICELINE link, my first bid of FQ$60 was rejected. Added DT and lowered to $50. Got the Sheraton on Canal.

Won this on my first try leading me to believe that maybe I bid a bit too high...not sure. Used the PRICELINE link up above. Still in all, not a bad deal for a hotel going for $249/night on Expedia.

1st bid : $69 for 4 star FQ...no dice, but got an offer to raise my bid by $17...didn't do it 2nd bid : $ 72 added NO East...not accepted 3rd bid : $ 75 and added NO Westbank... accepted taxes and fees of 19.72 for a grand total of $94.72 Halloween night in the French Quarter!

Meeting friends who are staying at the Westin Copley Place. I tried booking a room for $219 per night via Hotwire for a hotel that appeared to be the Westin...however, when I got to the end of the transaction, HOTWIRE told me that the hotel was no longer available. This led me to PRICELINE (via the handy link at the top of the page). Decided I'd start low and work my way up. First bid : Back Bay $159 - rejected. Second bid : added Brighton/Brookline and bumped up to $170- rejected. Third bid: added Medford-Somerville and bumped up to $176- rejected. Fourth bid: added South Boston and bumped up to $186. ACCEPTED. And at the hotel I wanted. Expedia has this hotel priced at $429(what!?) per night for these dates.Thanks BetterBidding and Priceline. Price Per Room, Per Night: $186.00 Subtotal: $558.00 Taxes & Service Fees: $86.80 Total Charges*: $644.80

I was hoping to get a deal in the FQ, but I don't mind DT. Started my bidding for 4* FQ at $55. Rejected. Added a free rebid zone, and upped my price to $60. Rejected. Did this for the remaining free rebid zones, increasing my bid by $5 each time. After all my free rebids were exhausted, I only had DT/Conv Center remaining. Thanks to this board, I saw some DT wins in the $55 area. Lowered my bid to $55 and was accepted by Le Pavillion. Expedia price is $129. Awesome.

They did give me the option to extend my stay. I considered doing that, but I think the fine print said that you can only extend the option by the number of days for your original bid, i.e., 1 day for me for a 30 dollar savings. If I had been able to extend thru Monday, I probably would have done so, but I'm keeping Gild Hall.

Wanted to stay in a different area of the city for this trip. I've got a room booked at Gild Hall in the Financial District(via Quikbook) for $199 5/23 thru 5/26 and needed a one nighter for Thursday 5/22. First bid (via your PRICELINE link) was 4* DT/Soho for $150. Got an acceptance offer if I added $25 to my bid. I declined and added a rebid zone and bumped it up to $157. No dice. Added one more rebid zone and up to $160 and got the Millenium Hilton.

My first bid for a 4 star in the Downtown Convention Center area for $77 was met with a re-bid option. It asked me to raise my bid $22. I opted out, added New Orleans East into the mix and raised my bid to $85. Won. Tripadvisor reviews look good. Looking forward to it.

Looks like Le Pavillion to me. A wonderful hotel at a great price. Tip: Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches and milk every night at 10pm in the lobby.

Thanks. Looks like I may have missed out on a deal, since it isn't listed today. :)

Searching Hotwire today for a New Orleans hotel for 4 nights (Feb 2 thru 6). I came across a 4 star in the downtown area with the following amenities: Boutique Pool Business Center Internet The only boutique on the master list is the Hotel Monaco, which was a 4.5 star and is actually now called the Hilton on St Charles. But a pool is not one of the features here. Trying to figure out which hotel this could be. Thanks for any help.

First bid.... MTE 4* 140 bucks.... Prices were really high for this weekend about 3 weeks ago. HOTWIRE had no 3 star listings less than 219. Glad I was patient. I've read nice things about the Barclay. And only a few blocks away from Grey Gardens!

My stay is now just over a month and a half away..... Hotwire prices for 3 star hotels are still over $200 a night, while the only 4 star showing up (looks like the Intercontinental Barclay) is $281 per night. I guess we picked the wrong time for a trip. We'll probably be sticking with our "standby" reservation at the Affinia 50. The reviews on Tripadvisor are really good and the price was just a bit more than the Barclay, but we will all be able to stay in one suite...Can anyone recommend any restaurants near 50th and 3rd?

Prices in New Orleans are finally coming down to reasonable levels again. $75 for one of the best hotels in town. First bid of $70 for CBD 4* was rejected. Rebid using free rebid zone West Bank and bumped up to $75...accepted...Taxes & Service Fees: $19.29 Total Charges: $94.29

After consultation with the friends, splitting the bids is an option. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks for your help.

Splitting the bids would be ok with me, but my friends may not like the idea. Then again I'm the one making all the arrangements, so they don't really have a say..hehe.. We are going to New York on vacation. No set plans yet. We'll catch at least one Broadway show, maybe do a couple of "tourist sites" (museums, Rockefeller Center, etc). We've all been there before and know that Midtown-ish is the area with all the tourist stuff. We also love the Villlages and Chinatown/Soho. We have another group of friends meeting us there on Thursday the 8th of June thru the 11th so that would be a good date to do the split I suppose. Unless you have other ideas.Thanks.

Hi, I'm trying to arrange hotel reservations for myself and a married couple. We will be in town June 4th thru the 11th. We are willing to stay anywhere in MTE,MTW,UM/CPS, MS, or Lower Manhattan, prefereably 4 star, preferably under $170 a night. I've been using the usual Priceline strategies, looking for 2 rooms, inching up from a starting point of $120 and I've gotten as high at $155 a night without any luck. I'm considering lowering my star rating to 3 star and taking my chances. Do I need to try splitting my bids ? Should I consider on the same path til I reach my max? Any advice would be appreciated. I've booked a backup room which would accomodate all 3 of us (although I'd really prefer separate rooms). Seems like rates have gone up a lot in the last year or so.

I'm trying to plan a trip to New York City for May 31-June 6,2006 to celebrate my 40th birthday with a group of 8 to 10 people. Looking for a 4 star MTE on Hotwire brings me a $306 per night rate. That is about $100 a night more than I was hoping for. Am I jumping the gun on this or have hotel rates in New York gone up that much? Aa a more affordable alternative, I'm considering changing the vacation spot to Toronto where a 4 star in Downtown Toronto is going for $91 per night. Different city, but what a savings. Any thoughts or insights on things to do in Toronto? Or should I just wait it out and hold on for NYC ?

Yes...that's correct.

Bidding for a 3* in the Houston Hobby area for 5/27 and 5/28. I tried $40. Rejected, but they wanted me to offer $52. I waited the 72 hours and rebid at $48. Won. Marriott Houston Hobby Airport. Guess I can cancel that Holiday Inn Express suite for $105 a night :)

Initial bid was $30 for 3 * Del Mar...Rejected Next bid was $32 and added Coronado (thanks to the previous posts) Accepted! Offer Price : $32.00 Number of Rooms: 1 Number of Nights: 4 Subtotal: $128.00 taxes+fees: $22.95 Total : $150.95

This was kind of a rush...First I bid $110 MTW...no dice.... then I added MTS to MTW for $120...no luck again... I then went up to $130 and added UES and got The Marriott Marquis, right in Times Square where I wanted to be all along!! I'm really excited. Thanks for the assistance! :) As for Avenue Q, I haven't seen the show, but I have the cast album and there could be some stuff in there that may be objectionable for children. At 16 though, she's almost ready to see R rated movies alone. I doubt that puppet sex can be that provocative.

So what sort of strategy should I attempt?

I don't see anything on the 4 star Priceline MTW list that wouldn't be acceptable. In fact everything on the 4 star MTE would be great too (except the UN Millennium). The Sheraton looks good to me and the Intercontinental would be fine too. I'm not (too) choosey. :)