Kilrathi

Thank you for your help! We booked through your link to HOTWIRE and it turned out to be the Hospes Madrid.

Thanks - I clicked both links and ran my search on HOTWIRE. It's just for the night of February 23 (check out on the 24th) of 2013.

I'm seeing a listing for a 5* hotel in Madrid in the "Padro Area - Atocha Train Station - Retiro" area for $179 in February 2013. That's a new area to me - last time I was looking on Hotwire in Madrid, that area looked more or less to be in the "El Centro - Old Madrid" area, I think. I ended up staying at the Westin Palace that time and was quite happy. The location for this new hotel looks good but I was wondering if anyone had any insight as to what it might be (because, for example, I'd much rather stay at the Westin or something near the Prado than at the AC Melia Princesa). No amenities are listed, which is also new to me - other hotels listed in Madrid do show them, but not this one. Is that a new Hotwire "feature"? I'll keep an eye on this option and report back but I'm curious as to others' experiences in Madrid lately. Edited to add - it mentions 4.5 stars on TripAdvisor but elsewhere it says they're still gathering reviews for the property, so maybe it's somewhere new? Also, any thoughts on a 5* for $143 in the Royal Palace - Plaza de Espana - Old Town area? Amenities for that one are Fitness Center, Restaurant, Business Center, Laundry, Hi-Speed Internet Access and and Accessible Path of Travel. Thanks! -Kilrathi

You were correct in your ID - it was indeed the Sofitel Liberdade. Thanks for your help! In the end, it was $103 for 9/19 that showed up as a 5-star hotel in the main "A" city center zone in Lisbon. I did use the Better Bidding HOTWIRE link to make my purchase.

Thanks, I do think that hotel would be a nice fit (and apologies for the long delay in responding - ended up not booking originally due to some uncertainty over the travel plans). Out of curiosity, what are you basing that guess on - I assume it's the handicapped facilities? The "near beach" is still throwing me, since while I'm a big beach fan I want to make sure we're actually in Lisbon proper since this is more of a city vacation than a beach one. It claims to be 0-2.5 miles from the city center, so I assume we'd be fine, but just don't want to book into some far-flung beach suburbs. The price is still available and actually dropped to $103/night recently. I'm tempted to give it a shot since it seems like a 5 star hotel at that price is a pretty good deal by any measure. -K

I just ran the search again - Lisbon, 2/0 adults/children, 1 room - for 9/19/12 for one night and the same $106 price showed up, including the "near beach" amenity for the 5-star. Here's the complete list, including all accessibility options: Near Beach, Fitness Center, High-Speed Internet Access, Accessible Bathroom, Airport Shuttle, Restaurant(s), Accessible for the Blind, Accessible path of travel, Handicapped Parking, Smoke Free Rooms, Business Center, Free Parking, In-Room Accessibility, Roll-in Shower I'm curious about the "Near Beach" amenity, since there aren't tons of beaches to my knowledge in Lisbon proper (though it's not far by commuter rail) and, as nice as beach sounds, that's obviously a bit of a different locale than being downtown in the heart of the tourist/business district. Amenities for the four-star (still listed at $63) are: Fitness Center, Restaurant(s), High-Speed Internet Access, Accessible for the blind, In-room accessibility, Wheelchair Accessible, Accessible bathroom, Roll-in Shower Edited to add: just for curiosity's sake, I ran a "show the names" search and it's showing the 5-star Eurostar Das Letras hotel as available - but no "near beach" and slightly different amenities (things like "Front Desk, Elevator/Lift and Concierge"), so maybe the $106 is for a new 5-star (or do they purposefully change around the amenities between the "hidden" and "named" options to keep things less clear - I just checked and none of the named 5 stars list "near beach" or otherwise exactly overlap with the listed amenities)? Thanks for any thoughts!

I followed the HOTWIRE link from this board for a room for 9/19/12 in Lisbon, Portugal. It's showing me $106 for a five-star hotel and $63 for a four-star. I only see one hotel listed on the Betterbidding hotels list for each category and I'm wondering if these look the same or might be something new. In particular, I'm interested in the 5-star. Amenities are: near beach, airport shuttle, smoke free rooms, fitness center, restaurants, business center, free internet and a variety of accessibility measures. Does this look like the Eurostar Das Letras? The four star has fintess center, restaurant, high-speed internet (not marked as free) and accessibility options. Any thoughts on these? I'll be looking for another hotel in Lisbon a few nights later, too... any thoughts as to whether Hotwire or Priceline is the way to go? Certainly seems like $106 for a five-star or $63 for four stars is a good deal! Thanks in advance!

Thanks for the updates -- one important thing to note is that the Warwick is now listed as 3.5 stars on Hotwire (per an email they just sent me today, along with a refund of $25 "Hotbucks" or something per night). That's something that should be noted on the hotel list. Thanks, too, for the tips... I did rule out the Sofitel but must have just missed the Warwick (and miscounted the reviews for the Helmsley). In any case, I'm happy with the Warwick and really appreciate what a great resource this site is!

I just booked the Warwick hotel in New York for the period of 1/11 - 1/15 2009 for $149 via Hotwire (using the BetterBidding HOTWIRE link, of course). It was listed as a 4 star hotel with Restaurant, Fitness, Hi-Speed Internet, Business -- same as the Helmsley Park Lane and Sofitel. I have to admit, I was a bit disappointed since the Warwick wasn't listed on the BetterBidding list and I thought we'd get the Helmsley and thus stay on Central Park, but this looks nice according to the reviews. It's worth noting that it showed up as a TripAdvisor 4 out of 5 with 320+ reviews, which sounded like the Helmsley, too. -Kilrathi

It was via PRICELINE and showed up as a four-star hotel.

Sure, I just did that. Forgot to finish that one up, but I've posted the results on that thread just now.

As a follow up to this, we ended up getting the Holiday Inn London Kensington Forum for $120 a night. Nice place, and a welcome change from the Tara Copthorne Kensington where we've typically ended up via Priceline.

I'm trying to bid on a hotel at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport on PRICELINE. I see that there are airport hotels listed on the Better Bidding Priceline list but when I click the name your own price link on PRICELINE, it takes me to the standard "pick a neighborhood" screen for Paris, which doesn't help since I need to be out by the airport for an early flight. Am I missing something? It looks like there's a $106 four-star hotel at CDG on HOTWIRE, so I'll go that route if need be but given that that's not a huge discount over what I'm seeing on PRICELINE's named-hotel listings, I'm wondering if I couldn't priceline into something cheaper if it's possible to do so. Any advice? I'll use the BB links to bid once I get this straightened out either way. Thanks! -K

Hi -- I'm wondering if anyone has a general sense for how pricing trends work on Hotwire and Priceline, depending on timing. I'm sure it varies by season and location, but generally am I better off bidding far out (and hoping a hotel is giving a low rate just to get someone in the rooms asap) or waiting 'til right before (which doesn't satisfy my urge to plan but could theoretically see deals as hotels scramble to fill rooms that are still open) or somewhere in between? Specifically, I've been looking on Priceline and Hotwire for an upcoming trip to the UK (11/4 to 11/9) and I'm not seeing the same deals as I have in the past (last May, Pricelined for $90 or so into Tara Copthorne then last week at the Tara Copthorne for $120 via PL and Holiday Inn Camden Lock via Hotwire for a steal at $59 -- it's $165 now, for next week). This time, I've bid up to $120 for a four-star in Kensington and other areas, which in the past would have netted me a spot at the Tara Copthorne (far from my favorite hotel, but it works and the price is right), but thus far no real luck -- something around $80/night for the Holiday Inn near Earl Court but that seems a bit far out. Am I better off trying to land something in the next day or two, despite the seemingly higher prices, or should I just wait 'til next weekend or just before the trip and see what shakes out? Any advice based on what you guys have generally seen in terms of lead time would be a great help! Thanks! -Kilrathi

The hotel's fine -- definitely one of those large "PRICELINE" hotels where they have a whole variety of upgrades and ways to pay more, but we found that the location was central (though frankly there are a lot nicer places in Amsterdam than Dam Square... pretty much anywhere, imho, since it's a bit chaotic, but the centrality really is nice). The rooms were fine and it was definitely worth the price we paid when we were there a couple months ago; I think you'll be pleased you booked it.

Hi -- Just reporting a win for the Copthorne Tara Kensington on Priceline. $120/night for the nights of October 14-16. I got this same hotel a few months ago for under $100, but given the prices I was seeing on HOTWIRE, PRICELINE and Booking.com I can't complain, and it's a fine if not super-central or nice hotel... like a lot of the ones you find on Priceline, it's a big hotel that has high rack rates and clearly caters to people on Priceline, since there's an array of ways to either upgrade your room and/or pay through the nose for internet. Still, Kensington's not a bad place to be and it's easy to get into the more central parts, and the price is right. For the record, I was also offered a five-star (unnamed) hotel for $211/night after my first $120 bid in the central area on Priceline -- can't remember what PRICELINE calls it, but it was region #6. -K

Thanks for the tips. I looked at the TripAdvisor rating on the Westin and it looked good, so I figured I'd give it that $252/Louvre-Marais a try, and it is indeed the Westin. I appreciate the thoughts as to how to figure out the other hotels, but it seemed like a lot of cross-referencing this time... So, I'm all set -- feel free to add this to the calendar of bookings: 10/8/08-10/10-08 at $252/night from Hotwire for the Louvre/Marais district in the Westin Paris on the Rue de Castiglione. Love the site, keep up the good work. -Kilrathi

Hi -- I'm going to be in Paris next week and am looking at HOTWIRE before trying my hand at PRICELINE. A few weeks back, I was able to Hotwire into the Hilton Paris (Eiffel Tower) which we really enjoyed and I've also gotten Marriott Rive Gauche, Concorde Lafayette and Pullman Rive Gauche via Priceline. Looks like it's a tougher market than usual, though... not much showing up on HOTWIRE. I did find, though, a few hotels: 4 star Louvre/Marais - $255 - fitness, resto, business center, laundry -- looks like this IDs as the Westin? 4 star Champs-Elysees-Trocadero - $239 - resto, business, laundry, internet -- this doesn't fit any on the ID page (Hilton has a spa; Le Meridien has no laundry) - ideas? 4 star - Eiffel Tower/Invalides - $309 - internet - the only hotel listed in the area is the Hilton Paris, though it has more amenities. Is this a new one or maybe the Hilton? If it is the Hilton, bummer it's twice what I paid for it a couple weeks ago! 4.5 star - Champs-Elysees/Trocadoro - $346 - fitness, resto, laundry, internet - no 4.5 stars listed on the ID page. Ideas? All in all, it's a bit of a bummer that prices are high... must be higher (or convention?) season! Booking.com is showing high prices, too... may give it a whirl with PRICELINE but, honestly, I'm a bit worried since I'd like to be more central this time than either of the "Rive Gauche" hotels that Priceline likes are. Any suggestions? Anyone having better luck on Hotwire or Priceline (the Priceline front page is talking about a 4 star in the Eiffel Tower area for $142 that someone just won, so maybe that's worth a shot... or else it's the Pullman!)? Thanks! -Kilrathi