hopecookies

A few things to say. Montparnasse is its own zone these days, zone 14. I actually started at 115 and went very slowly with the goal being the Marriott Rive Gauche because I've stayed there twice before. After winning I went to Aiglon's website and noticed that they had a sale in the summer from their own site for the lowest level room (non-renovated) for $155/night, so I only really saved $20/night over publicized rate. That's not a reflection on this site or any other bidding help sites, or even Priceline. But to compare, there was also a hotel in the Bastille on Hotwire that went for $113/night (which my best guesses would have been like a Best Western, which in reality is a 3* but Hotwire calls 4*). So instead of paying the $22/night premium for the Marriott, I ended up just paying the premium for being close to the metro. The final difference with tax was $180 between my win and what the Hotwire possibility would have been. So, I'm just here to warn people about winning Aiglon on Priceline. What exactly is Aiglon's lowest level room? It basically looks like a Best Western. Location is great but I just want to warn people out there searching for the Marriott Rive Gauche in Montparnasse... you might end up with Aiglon.

Your 5* bids are way too low. Also, not very many individuals have won 5* bids. Availability is low I believe. As for 4*, OQW and OQE is pretty hard to grab at $115. Look around to see what people have won in that region, the price is never that low. The most affordable bids in those two regions was won at Melia Vendome Boutique (according to various forums), and usually around $140. You're going in a period that's almost the start of the slow season so who knows. As for the Champs - Arc de Triomphe region, nice area, your bids are realistic and in line with past winners. But if you're realistic, and you plot a map of all the hotels that have ever been won in the 4* category, you'll see they're all at least, 3 or 4 metro stops from the dead center of Paris (we'll say Jardin de Tuilleries). Think about that. That might be walkaway one way, but it's a long walk 30 min or more. Do what everyone suggests: get a refundable reservation that doesn't take your CC number up front, so you'll have a ressy just in case. Then play around with the bids. i also suggest thinking more about taking the metro. It's really really easy, and clean.

i'm later in september, but i saw someone reported $105 for mid-September.

Thanks for the tip about the Paris Visite pass. I'll probably spring for that, just to save confusion on getting tickets every time I need the metro. 30 euros is essentially 45 bucks and man, that's a pretty penny for 5 days!

Cool, thanks for clarifying that. I get confused about how the bonus cash thing works, so basically they accepted a bid of $110. I tried right after seeing your post and get rejected for the same rate. haha. I just can't win on PL.

so you had $20 in bonus cash? so does that mean you paid 85 and bonus cash brought it up to 105? or you paid 105 and bonus cash brought your bid up to 125? man i bid yesterday afternoon and struck out. congrats on your success!

congrats on your bid! 105 is a great price for that property. i guess Marriot's prices change often... b/c I just went to their site to check out rates for Dec 26 check in date and then Dec 28/29/30 check out dates. And every one, the adv purchase rate was 149 Euros and best available rate is 179 Euros.

What I find to be quite useless about the Priceline Winning Bids is that they don't tell you the dates. Winning prices for August are vastly different than say in September. For the summer, plenty of people won in the St Germain area for around $100 to $130, but in Sep/Oct, the only winning bid I heard for St. Germain was $181 for the Pullman Montparnarsse. All this to say, don't go by the winning bids that PL gives you. It's better to look at the Calendar of Wins or check the forum to see what people got in Paris. Also if you look at the hotel lists, you can kind of guess which hotels it might be. There's only like three or four per zone per star level for Paris.

ah that's a shame you can't use the marriot gold with that. the pullman is supposed to be a nice hotel too, and you're still fairly close to the center of the city. so i think it's still pretty good!

Awesome, thanks for the heads up! Any tips on how to stack the offers? In PRICELINE it seems to suggest that one has to use either the 20 or 42 dollar offer.

ah yes, standard advertising craziness on Marriot's part. The website for the results will say "Prices starting at: ...." You are correct, when you actually click in to view the rates, they are at 269 euros. The main idea is the same though I think, the 'starting point' is much lower during the off season. For the dates the OP stated (9/10 to 9/13), the rates are far from what they are during the slow season.

Research the dates in HOTWIRE and see how much it's going for there. It'll give you an idea of how close your bid might be. Also OQW and OQE are the hardest to win, obviously. As for the Latin Quarter, two of the hotels that are won the most are Marriot Rive Gauche and Pullman Montparnarsse. Check those respective hotel sites, see what the retail rates are.

Marriot Rive Gauche is the one to aim for on PRICELINE, especially if one follows your advice abt Marriot Gold! :) Here's the thing, present going rate on Marriot is 209 euros (~$300) for the nights you specified. Here's where you can play with math. If you tried $150, that means that basically they aren't going for it at 50% off of rack rate. Also gotta know that in August, rack rate have been as low as 133 euros (~$190). People have won $100-$120 when rates are that low. Suppose that even if it's $190 => $100, you're looking at 47% off. If you take 47% off of $300, you end up with $159. You could start your next round of bidding at that if you're comfortable. Someone else won in the Eiffel Tour area, and got the Pullman for $185. I haven't been comfortable going that high, but my guess is if you want success, start at $155 using the multiple bid methods, increment by $5 or $10 til you get almost to 180. Note that if the rack rate in August differs than in September, perhaps they have confidence the hotel will be at XX-% capacity and they might just not offer as big of a discount as in August.

the Marriot Rive Gauche is in the St Germain area. I want to know how to be marriot gold too please!

I've been trying Paris too. But about the other person who won a 4* by the Eiffel Tower... The Pullman Tour Eiffel is in a more centrally located area. So that's good for you. The Pullman Rive Gauche is farther from the center of the action. The difference in price probably reflects that.

rejected for St. Germain today at $131. Checked hotwire for the second week of Sept, and the cheapest 4* was $257 in Bastille. I probably need to up my bid drastically to win at all on Priceline.

Not sure what's going on in that area. But I looked around at winning bids for August and for the St. Germain area they were around $100. If you check hotwire for August, you'll see the prices at that time are much lower than around Sept/Oct. My (uneducated) theory now is that it's either: a. this is a busy time of the year for hotels in Paris b. there's a string of large conferences going on c. unreleased rooms haven't hit Priceline. I don't think any of those things are more true than another. In the realm of possibilities, I guess any or a combo of them could be true. Romelle has good advice. Definitely check hotwire first to see what kind of deals they have, and adjust your bid accordingly. I looked at Hotwire for 9/27 to 10/3. I selected only the zones (via map, zones A through J plus zone O) that are completely within the Boulevard Peripherique (which is pretty much the border of Paris proper, outside of that you might need a diff metro ticket). Then the best price for 4* is $249, North of Champ Elysees. So use that as a frame of reference. If you really want to use Priceline, maybe your $157 needs to be closer to what Hotwire has?

hi Romelle, I clicked on that link to Expedia and saw the promo, but it said travel by 8/31, and it only said $50 gift card for 3 nights instead of $150. How did you get that deal? Thanks. I see you post a lot and your info has always been helpful. I would chim in on this except I have no experience with Istanbul. Good luck tho!

hey man, stick to it. i just started learning how to bid on priceline too. haven't had any luck either, although i'm looking in a diff area than you. misery loves company! keep us updated though.

hey i'm running into the same problems. I've been trying mid-September. basically I'm coming to this conclusion... with supply and demand... Airfare goes down in Sept after summer season, so the people traveling at that time hit the wall of more competition for hotel rooms. More conferences and things like that start up in the fall too. I've been trying for 4* Paris w/o selecting La Defense, and been coming up empty up to $135. also, your bids for OQW and OQE are too low. The winning bids I saw for OQW were all above $140.

yup, the amenities were: ***** AMENITIES ***** Fitness Center Restaurant(s) Business Center High-Speed Internet Access also i didn't know i can't ask a second question until i answer something like this. and there's definitely a pool at the Washington Hilton, although Hotwire did not say this.

and here's my bidding history, all 4* bids $100.00 St. Germain $105.00 St. Germain, OQW $110.00 St. Germain, OQE $115.00 St. Germain, Montmarte $120.00 St. Germain, Montmarte, OQW $125.00 St. Germain, Montmarte, OQE $130.00 St. Germain, OQW, OQE $135.00 St. Germain, OQW, OQE, Monmarte

After seeing winning bids in the forum for Paris 4*, I notice the most popular result is for: St Germain-Latin Quarter-Montparnasse Marriott Rive Gauche. Lots of the winning bids have been around $100 and some as high as $150. I'm looking to go for a long weekend in Sept, from a Thurs to following Tuesday morning (so I can take advantage of flying out Wed night and flying back Tuesday night for cheaper fares) To give myself a good chance of winning, I bid above the medium price for winning bids in this area. I bid St. Germain-Latin Quarter-Montparnasse for $135 and came up empty. Is September just a really busy season and I have to up my bid? Should I keep waiting since I'm a good 5 weeks from September?

The Washington Hilton also has a pool. They even have life guards at that pool. I don't know why Hotwire doesn't list that, maybe so they can make it harder to guess. Do the other 4-star hotels in Dupont Circle have pools? When I booked on hotwire, they only listed restaurant(s) business center high-speed internet access fitness center

nice. i booked for june 1 - 3, 4 stars in the Dupont area and got the Hilton instead. My price was 91 so i guess that extra 13 per night gets one to the Omni!