karfypie

hey, thanks for the reply again. I tried bidding up to $100 for 3* with no luck, I got the counter offer of $116 which is to much for us. Instead I booked the HI santa monica hostel so 2 beds in a dorm for $43 each a night. Rather than waiting and carrying on bidding we just wanted to get it sorted. Its obviously not as great as having a room of our own but is fine for us as we're young and used to hostels. Thanks for all your help and I will recommend your site to any friends who I know are booking hotels. Katharine

Ok so I just tried 2.5* hoping to get Marina International: $80 rejected added 2* $85 rejected added 1* $92 rejected so now have to wait 24 hours The cheapest I can find for the marina international for the same dates is $126. But they won't accept $92 hmmm. Any thoughts? Just wait a bit longer perhaps and hope rooms don't full up? Maybe they are holding out for people to pay the higher prices. I used your PRICELINE links for each bidding session, thanks. Katharine

hey, I tried again a bit earlier today. I went for 3* and put $90, rejected and given the you can bid again for the same if you raise it to $116 offer but rejected that. Then bid $93 adding lawnsdale and $96 adding inglewood, rejected. Might just try the 2.5* now...

The courtyard is $169, the erwin is $210 and the holiday inn at $230. The marina del rey is fully booked now. Thanks for your advice I think will go for $92, then $94 and $96 when I can bid again after the 24hour block out or maybe leave it a few days and have another go. Like you said it may be that since it is a busy time already they just don't need to discount and will sell out anyway. Yes I will use your PRICELINE link, thanks. Katharine

Hi Colfax, Thanks for your reply. I just tried $90 and was rejected but a message came up that said: Usually you have to wait 24 hours to bid again but for a one time offer if you up your bid by $26 to $116 you can bid again. I clicked onto the next page to see how much it would come to with taxes and charges and it was $276 which is just too much for us. With $90 it came to $216 so probably $90-$95 is our max. So I guess that is the minimum they are willing to accept, what do you think? $116 seems a lot if the price is $169 for the dates. I think will do what you suggested and wait a few days and then rebid. When you said that the price is $169 and so my bid of $85 seemed realistic, are bids accepted for about half the rack rate then? Thanks, Katharine

I just bid for santa monica: 2.5*- $65 rejected then added 2* as there didnt seem to be any the list but was a bit of a gamble at $75 - rejected then added 1* at $85 and rejected So it seems the cheapest for santa monica area is more than $85, any ideas what the range would be? We may have to stay in a hostel if we want this area. Any suggestions for surrounding areas? Thanks, Katharine

Hi there, Am looking for 2 nights accomodation for 9/9-9/11 for santa monica area. So far I have bid 3* $70, then added inglewood then $80. Both were rejected. Do you have any idea what price range could be accepted for a 3 star? Am happy to bid for 2.5*, i think venice on the beach is full for those dates so would just be for the marina international which is fine. Are there any LA rebid zones for a 2.5* or do you have to wait 24hrs to rebid at a higher price? I used your link to PRICELINE and will continue to do so. Thanks very much, Katharine

Thanks very much for your replies. I had a look on the hotwire website through your link and thought that was a great option. I was going to book that one but then got an email from last minute.com giving a voucher for 15% off a hotel booking so used that to book the Travelodge at vermont sunset. Compared to the hotwire rate it gave a saving of $28 so did that. Sorry to not book through your links but I do all my searching through them and will also post a new thread about santa monica and have bid through your links. Thanks! Katharine

Hi thereuare, Thanks very much for your reply, it was very helpful. Sorry for the delay, I've taken the last fews off of doing anything as got tonsilitis. The Travelodge hotel you said that you think is the one listed on Hotwire looks good. After reading some of the other recent threads, the one about bidding in west hollywood-bev hills and hollywood I decided to have a bash at the same strategy. I guess to see if it would be possible to get something a bit nicer than the Travelodge, even though this is a good backup. So I just tried bidding for 3* West Hollywood-Bev Hills for 7th-9th sept: 1st- $65 (reject) 2nd -$75 after adding inglewood (reject) 3rd - $85 after adding lawnsdale (reject) Then I tried the same with same prices for 3* Westwood-Century City, rejected. Then tried Hollywood 3* up to $75. Just wondering what you think would be accepted for these areas for a 3*? Maybe it is just way out of my range. Or do you think I might have better luck closer to the dates? Or should I try a different zone? For those two dates looking to see Hollywood sights and Universal Studios, we will have a car. Thanks again! Katharine

Hi there, I've been looking through the forum and reading about the hotels listed under the star ratings in different areas and on trip advisor but feel I need a bit of help/advice. Me and my friend will be in LA from the 9/7 to 9/11 so 4 nights. We are thinking maybe it could be a good idea to stay either one or two nights around hollywood area as we want to see kodak theatre and universal studios etc and then stay the other nights near the beach, so santa monica, venice or MDR. This is just an idea, so can change this depending on suggestions/advice. We really have quite a limited budget. At most we can spend $100 per night for 2 nights and then the other 2 need to be $80 per night or less so a total of $360 (with this including tax) being absolute maximum. It doesn't matter how the $$ are spread over the nights just cant go over that amount. We also will have a car so would be good to have free parking or to not have to pay a high fee for parking. Does this seem like a realistic figure to do this with? I was looking at the 2* hollywood, and the two hotels that have come up on priceline, the Super 8 and Ramada widely differ in how much they cost. The Ramada is coming up at about twice the cost of the Super 8, about $170 to $81, would that just mean you would be much less likely to get the Ramada than Super 8 with a lower bid? The Super 8 didn't seem to have that good reviews however on tripadvisor. Could anyone help with a strategy with suggesting how/where to bid? I'm a bit confused by all the different districts listed in LA even though I've looked at the map, so if there is a district nearby to the ones I've suggested that could work please suggest it especially as we have a car. As it seems santa monica is an expensive area so maybe we could stay somewhere else but we could reach it easily in that car. We just dont want to spend masses of time in the car however, that was why we were thinking stay in hollywood for a night or two and then near the beaches. Thanks for any help, let me know if there is any other info you need! Katharine