interpol

It's the Best Western Atlantico...I messed up the subject line before and it looks like it got "fixed" but deleted the name of the hotel.

This is tripadvisor's top-ranked hotel for Madrid. Expedia rate plus "09NOV10"coupon code priced a single room with twin bed at $441.23 for five nights. Cheapest available on the hotel's website for the same nights is $856.17, $770.56 with an AAA discount.

I ended up booking a different hotel through non-opaque means.

Searching HOTWIRE for Barcelona on 2/5/10-2/10/10 I came across a 4.5* hotel in Les Corts-Sants for $105 a night. Amenities are Fitness Center, Restaurant, Business Center, and Internet. No 4.5* hotels have previously been reported for this zone, but the amentities match that of the Melia Barcelona, which has been reported numerous times as a 5*, most recently in September. Searching various other dates in January and February I no longer see any 5* listings for Les Corts-Sants. So perhaps the Melia has been reclassified? If it is the Melia, it doesn't represent a huge savings compared to booking through their website (about $13 a night), so I'm holding off on it, but just wanted to alert people of the potential change.

Bids of $72 and $76 were rejected before PRICELINE accepted a bid of $80. Total including taxes/fees for four nights is $380. Cheapest available from their website for the same nights is $753.

Bid $79 for 4* in Richmond (Downtown) on PRICELINE and was accepted immediately.

I'd been trying every couple days for the past six weeks to get a 4* in USE/USW for up to $120 or a 3* for up to $100. Was starting to get antsy and it doesn't seem that anyone has gotten a great deal for September yet, so I decided to get more aggressive. Bids of $100 for a USW 4* and $107, $117, $130, and $144 for USE, USW, and various combinations of Civic Center and Lombard Street were rejected. $100 and $110 for 3* in USE/USW were also rejected. Hotel website is selling those dates for $300 a night, so still a pretty good deal.