Lo Cash John

My co-worker booked the Days Inn in Pineville through Priceline. He didn't bid but booked the hotel outright through Priceline. I think his price was $42/night and honestly the room he got was worth every penny. The overall property is no-frills for sure but the room is clean and decently appointed for a business traveler. In the previous week he bid as high as $65 or so a night and got the Baymont Inn on MacArthur Dr. While it is a 2.5 or 3* property, he stated the Days Inn was a better value for the money spent. My own experience has been that Alexandria is a pretty "dumpy" area and given the choice you're better off staying in Pineville to the north. Last week I booked (not bid) the Super 8 on MacArthur Dr for $44/night. Ahhhh, never again. It was clean, but rather worn and out dated. The carpet was pretty stained in the room and the immediate area is rather "shady". Again, I'm a business traveler so sometimes these things don't matter so much considering the hours I work. Had I bid and got it for something like $20-$25/night I'd have felt better about the deal. Just knowing that you have to travel to Alexandria makes me say "I'm sorry to hear that".

The property looks liek it was an older property thats been refurbished recently. Each floor is decorated with a theme to it. I'm on the second floor which has sort of a tropical theme with a touch of a post modern furniture look. The beds are VERY comfortable and the pillows are great also. The TVs are flat screen and have a pretty good selection of channels. The bathrooms are very nice and the showers are AWESOME!!!! I noticed on another hotel review site that some people complained the showers are to complex. I can only guess these people still insist on using an old fashioned home phone because them new fangled "car phones" are to hard to use. I dunno.... There is a restaraunt on site but I haven't yet tried it. Also there's a very nice looking pool area but since it's January I haven't bother checking it out any further. One other note, the building is right off the interstate. It's possible the rooms on the interstate side may be a little noisey, but I'm on the pool side so I don't know for sure.

A coworker bid the following: Bid place on 1-30-12 Set dates: 1-30-12 thru 2-5-12 Zone 1 (Best Deal) 3 star (Best Deal) Bid $50 Offer not acceptd but Priceline offered him the option to raise his bid to $58. He did and got the Radisson Inn also.

Choose: Placed bid on 1-25-11 Dates: 1-30-12 thru 2-6-12 Zone 1 (Best Deal) 3 Star (Best Deal) Bid $50 and got it.

Set my dates, choose the zone (which happened to be the BEST DEAL zone), choose 3 star and bid $50. Ended up with the Radisson Inn. About the hotel. This is an older property as the building archatecture has a funky mid 60's through early 70's vibe to it (I dig it!). It has been renovated and is pretty darn nice. The front desk staff are all REALLY nice and very pleaseant. I've been to hotels where Priceline bidders are looked on as second class citizens but this was not the case at all here. Each floor is decorated with a theme of sorts. My 2nd floor room is a sort of a beach cottage them and features sort of post-modern decor. On some other hotel sites I saw where had complained about the shower being very complex to use but I disagree. The shower is amazing, especially for a hotel! There are multiple jets, you can adjust pressure and temperature seperatley and it's very spacious. The beds are comfortable and the choice of TV channels is very good also. I will continue bidding 3 star in this area and hope to keep hitting the Radisson Inn. I highly recommend it.

Choose downtown area, 3 star, bid $50 and won. Previous week I had bid as high as $65 and did not get anything in the downtown area. Must have been some event in town.

Just logged in, set my dates, choose Downtown Mobile, 3* and bid $46/night. Got it right away with no tweeks. BTW, I was already staying in this property for $61/night from a previous bid. A very nice property in the heart of Mobile, AL. There is a lounge on the 17th floor but it's FULL of smokers (yuck!!). The restauraunt on the 1st floor smells REALLY good but I have yet to try it out. There are many little street cafes and bars within a few blocks and overall the area is very nice.

Set dates. Chose Mobile downtown bayfront area. 3 star Bid $55/night and got it first time.

So the stay at the Easy Rest Inn went a little better than expected but I'm still very unhappy with HOTWIRE and will let them know about it. First things first. The hotel property looks rather run down, however it appears the owner is trying to fix it up with a meager budget. Approaching the property the general area is run down and I noticed a couple of cracked broken/window on some of the rooms. The main sign out by the interstate is is missing it's lenses and would lead most people to think the propery is out of business. Entering a checking in, the girl at the front desk was VERY nice and helpful. I got my key and headed to the room (without bags) to look it over. I carried a small flashlight and used that to check various nooks and crannies for bed bug signs. No signs of the creepy crawlies, but you could tell the vacuum cleaner is not frequently or thuroughly used here. The carpet more or less looked ok, but in the very corners of the room or right up along the baseboards was not as clean. The bathroom appeared clean but the tub/shower was quit old, the curtain had some small tears and the water took an honest 5 to 6 minutes (I timed it) to get hot enough to shower. The bed was ok, but not great. Same with the pillows. Luckily I can sleep just about anywhere. The furniture looked like late 70's or early 80's hotel furniture with about that much wear and tear. The TV was an old tube style and many of the channels came in fuzzy. The AC unit was your basic "window rattler" but it did keep the room cool (not hard this time of year). So when I bought the room through Hotwire I paid $39.99/night for 2 nights. Considereing the banner on the side of the building said $39.99/night I'm still trying to see where Hotwire saved me one cent...Oh wait, they didn't!! So, since I was stuck with the room for 2 nights and it seemed (just) clean enough I carried my stuff on in. My work plan changed a little and I stayed in Pensacola 2 extra nights. Rather than move I bought 2 more nights at the Easy Rest and when I did, they only charged me $29.99/night! Nice bargain yes, but I'm still pissed and Hotwire. As I said, the girl at the desk was very nice and friendly but that doesn't change the fact that the property is not up to 2 star level. If Extended Stay America, Fairfield by Marriott, Microtel, Studio Plus, etc are examples of 2 star brands, the Easy Rest comes in at about 1/2 star. With an influx of cash this property could come up but I don't think the owner is looking to make it that nice. There are several other equally shabby hotels on the same road so I suspect this property is about as nice as it's going to get.

I just checked with HOTWIRE and the amenities listed are: complimentry breakfast, pool, business center and high-speed internet. I am actually in the Penscola area right now so I may go look at the property tonight. If necessary I'll take your advice and contact Hotwire. I'll report back here and let everyone know how this works out.

Well, after being a long time Priceline bidder and being happy 99% of the time, I decided to try Hotwire. This site promotes it quit a bit and after looking over the Hotwire website I figured it very similar to Priceline. So I set my dates and destination of Pensacola, FL. Hotwire gives you a list of hotel stars and prices and you can sort by price, distance from city center, recomended, star, etc. So after looking everything over I decided to look at their list of hotels that does show the names. They also include a tab you can look at to get an idea of what brands are in what star level. I looked everything over and figured lets try a 2*. There was one listed as "Best Deal" or something so I went with that. I committed to buy it for $39 and wham-O I get the Easy Rest Inn. Huh??? I don't recall that name on the list. So I went back to the hotels by brand list and searched for "Easy Rest" and guess what? It's not there. So then I Google Street View the address and look around. At first I thought I was looking at some housing projects, then I realized this was the hotel. NICE!!! :) So, just as a test I called the hotel and ask for the walk-in rate. How about $39/night!! Some savings Hotwire!! :) Now I've booked 2 nights into a bed bug farm, didn't save one friggin penny and I'll probably have "room service" knocking on my door all night wanting to know if I need a "date". If the place looks as nasty in person when I get there, I'll go stay somewhere else. So %#@ Hotwire!!! :o Thanks for selling me a room you don't even have the balls to actually list on your site because it's so dumpy looking!! I'll stick with Priceline from here out. Even when staying in a 2* from a priceline bid, I always ended up with a hotel that was listed on the priceline site with a buy it now price. That way you can get the feel for what MAY come up in an area and decide to raise your star or not choose that area. Hotwire sucks!! :)

I just stayed there last week 10-2-11 through 10-8-11 and was VERY pleased with the property. The rooms were nice and well appointed, the TV was excellent and the staff was very friendly. I was working around the clock so I never had a chance to check out gym or pool but my coworker said they looked top notch. There is a fairly upscale restaurant on site but I never did try it out. This may be pickey but the mattresses did not seem as comfortable as Marriott's. Not bad at all mind you, but not quit Marriott. The pillows however were awesome! This may be an older property but it is very well maintained or recently remodeled. Next time I'm in the hell hole known as Lafayette I'll be looking to stay at the Hilton.

Just scored the Day Inn & Suites Conference Center for $51/night on the first bid. I'll be back into this area next week so I'll try bidding even lower and see what happens.

I got the Counrty Inn & Suites in Pensacola West for $58/night. It took several tries and re-bids to get that so I don't recall what all I had to do. Sorry. Based on other prices I saw listed on this forum, it seems like the prices really fluctuate or are on the rise.

Choose 2.5* Lafeyette area (zone 1) Tried $35 Fail Added zone 2 Tried $41 Fail Added zone 3 Tried $48 Got Best Western Lafayette Inn. Comments about hotel: Rooms are small! In fact these are the smallest rooms I've ever seen in a US hotel INCLUDING Microtel! The appointments look nice enough and they do have flat screen TVs, mini-fridges and microwaves in every room. Beds are comfortable, but certainly not memory foam. The Winngate in the area is a 2.5* and has a walk-in rate of $61. Next time I may just go to the Winngate rather than try bidding for 2.5* in this area.

Bid history: Set dates from 10-1-11 to 10-5-11 Choose 3* and the Lafayette metro area (largest zone on the map) Tried $40: FAIL Added an extra zone. Tried $45: FAIL Added a third and final zone. Tried $50: Got the Hilton on Pin Hook NOTE: My coworker just bid $50 for the same dates in Lafayette and got the Courtyard by Marriott near the airport.