4willow

Followed theruare's bidding advice in SAEMon25's earlier post, using the PRICELINE links and succeeded with this hotel - very pleased, thanks.

It does show on the confirmation as the Marriott Bethesda - it's the Pooks Hill Road property.

Started at $60 for 10/31 only and was invited to try again at $75 which is a good price for any of the potential hotels in this range, so I bid that and got the Marriott Bethesda and then extended the stay with 10/30 at the same rate.

I was taken by surprise on this! Having seen Nortica's priceline win of $75 at the 2.5* Comfort Inn, I tried a couple of days ago offering $65 for a 4* (which was naturally refused) and I decided to wait until today to see if I could get it for $70. I offered $65 for a 3* in Revere/Logan, expecting to have to add a 2.5* and up the bid, but it was accepted immediately for the Four Points.

Using the PRICELINE link here, I started with Downtown at $65 (at which I got an offer to continue for another $17); I added Bothell at $67, Lake Union at $72 and finally added Lake Union at $75. Having established which hotel was being offered, I made another set of bids for Apr 26-28 & also got those at the Westin for $75.

I went through the PRICELINE link this time with a starting bid of $65 which was rejected with an $83 counter offer. I added zone 9 and bid $70 - another reject - so I added zone 6 and tried $73, still no go. I then added zone 3 and bid $75 which was successful. Thanks to everyone for the tips and information.

As a 'newbie' Priceline bidder and a non-US resident, I had no end of trouble bidding - partly because Priceline.com only permits US and Canadian addresses and partly because I didn't read the appropriate priceline tips on work-arounds. So, apologies to theruare for not bidding through the site PRICELINE links this time, but I also need a Seattle downtown hotel for a few days, so I'll do it properly for that!