Bernard

Goods points. The Gaithersburg property is a Comfort Inn. I can get a AAA discount which should get the price around $85. Breakfast is a good benefit but offset by $9 a day in Metro fares. I'll keep trying for a Priceline deal in the inner area (using the link of course) as there's no urgency yet.

Thanks for your help folks. I've been studying winning bids for a while and it seems $80-$90 should be ample for a 2.5 to 3 star property in the areas closer to National Mall so I've been bidding at that level. I appreciate that for a longer June booking this is probably too far out. It will be my first visit to DC and although I'm not on a really tight budget I'd like to pay a lot less than rack rates. I don't want to split the booking either as I'd lose the best part of a day of sightseeing. Before I got on to betterbidding and priceline I was looking at a hotel in Gaithersburg MD within walking distance of a metro station. I can get that for $89 a night including breakfast via priceline (not name-your-own-price). It's 30 minutes each way into downtown Washington.

I've been trying bids from $80 - $90 in the closer areas over the past couple of weeks: Convention Center, White House, and so on. I see a win just got posted for $85 for two days in July. I can't seem to get a winning bid in and the problem is probably the longer stay of 1 week. Should I leave it until closer to the day or there a strategy I should adopt? For a longer stay will the winning bid price be substantially higher than a 1-3 day stay?

I'm staying in NY from 7th June 2010 to 14th June (my second visit). This seems to be longer than the typical stay for a Priceline bidder (most seem to be 3-4 days). It includes a weekend. Does the length of the stay and the weekend mean a higher bid? I read elsewhere that weekends are more easily let and so attract higher rates. I've been trying bids at a rate I don't expect to win (not over $100 so far) mainly to get practice at bidding/re-bidding and to see how the system works. I've been looking at MTE, ESB, Chelsea and I don't mind Downtown/Financial District -- I believe the rates are better than mid-town, and it's less noisy. I would think weekends would be quieter too, being a business-oriented district. Thanks.... Bernard Australia

It will be 7th - 13th June. I know this is a long time off but I see successful bids have been posted for The Roosevelt for the 1st week of June at acceptable prices. .I'll be shooting for MTE or points south. Not much interested in Times Square area.

Thanks for the advice folks - helpful. What is the likely difference, if any, between the tariff for one and two in a room? If there was nothing in it I could just book for two at the outset. I can always ask for twin beds when checking in I suppose. Which raises another question which I think has been canvassed here before: How likely am I to succeed in a bid for a 7 day stay? I got the impression shorter stays are better in Priceline as they are preferred by hotels. I haven't many bid notices for NY for week-long stays.

Not sure if this is the right forum but here goes. I'm going to bid room a room for a week in NYC shortly, looking at 3* through 4* properties. I'm travelling solo but a Texan friend said he'd come up and join me for a weekend, i.e., 2 of the 7 days I'll be there. I guess the room will have twin queens. Should I just 'sneak' him in or advise the desk? I would think room service would notice if the extra bed was used but would they care? I think I read here a while back that hotels charge a premium for an extra guest. I guess much depends on the individual hotel and its vigilance and policies but general guidance would be appreciated. I could bid solo for 5 days then again double for 2 days but that would almost certainly give a different hotel - and valuable holiday time wasted changing. Bernard Melbourne, Aus.

Thanks for the heads-up - that was a question I was about to ask. I guessed it would be pointless booking months in advance but I wasn't sure what the timeframe was when hotels would be looking to fill unsold inventory. I haven't used Priceline yet and my US trip is in 2010 - I'm just hanging around here to pick up tips and tricks and get a feel for how it works.

I can open priceline.com directly from a browser window but not via the link at the top right of this page. It re-directs to -- http://www.anrdoezrs.net/click-1492259-10395953 then displays an error message 'problem loading page'. Any suggestion about what's happening? Thanks...