gleff

Have recently been offered 4* Arlington hotel with Restaurant, Pool, Fitness, Smoke Free, Hi-Speed Internet, Business, Spa Now, the only Smoke Free used to be the Westin. And the only Spa used to be Palomar. So I figured either Palomar was now showing smoke-free (plausible, I didn't think they offered smoking rooms) or Westin was now showing spa (plausible, they do list 'in-room spa' on their website). (I was pretty sure it wasn't the Hyatt, having added both non-smoking and spa) Never been in a position to take the plunge, where I didn't care about which of the two I'd get until this morning. And I got Palomar. So we can update the Palomar hotel list to show non-smoking.

I believe this is a new, previously unreported hotel. 4* capitol hill/convention center rejected @ $90, scored at $100. Nice, hip, trendy hotel .. though fwiw its restaurant Poste offers pretty good food but some of the worst service in town. sorry to have been absent from this forum for so long...

Bid 4* all NYC zones up to $135. Then bid 3* starting $100, $5 at a time starting with MTW. Wound up in MTW @ $125. Your Offer Price: $125.00 Number of Rooms: 1 Number of Nights: 3 Subtotal: $375.00 Taxes & Service Fees: $72.38 Total Charges: $447.38

Have never used PL for airfare either, friend asked me today what kind of routings PL uses on connecting flights, e.g. Bay Area to Seattle would a connecting routing necessarily be through PDX, would soing South first to LAX be a possibility, or could DEN or SLC be possible as connecting cities? In other words, how out of the way will PL route you?

Prepaid rate at Hyatt.com was $149 for this hotel. Started @ $52, adding $5 at a time, rejected @ $67 and then hit @ $72. Your Offer Price: $72.00 Number of Rooms: 2 Number of Nights: 1 Subtotal: $144.00 Taxes & Service Fees: $32.20 Total Charges: $176.20

Was definitely worth $35, but honestly wouldn't pay much more. As a PL customer I was assigned to one of the motel 'wings'. I picked one relatively close by, though, to limit walking time - the person at the desk showed me a map of the property and made a good suggestion. I asked about a towers room, was told I could have one for an additional $10. I might have taken it but they didn't have any king beds available (hotel turned out to be pretty full, and it was already past midnight). I did order room service breakfast in the morning, part of the order wasn't taken correctly and thus not delivered (or charged). Mentioned this at checkout and the whole breakfast was taken off the bill. Toilet in the room ran for awhile, quite loudly, after flushing... furniture was clearly worn... This was not a high-end property by any means but fit the bill for a late night arrival at SEA with plans to drive East the next day.

Yes, the St. Anthony. And two blocks from the morning meeting, so perfect.

Your Offer Price: $65.00 Number of Rooms: 1 Number of Nights: 1 Subtotal: $65.00 Taxes & Service Fees: $18.54 Total Charges: $83.54 Started bidding 4* @ $60, rebid $5 at a time to $80 w/ no luck. Westin & Hyatt were going for ~ $169 on their websites. Started again with a 3* bid @ $55. Priceline countered @ $70, I declined. Rebid @ $60 rejected. Rebid @ $65 successful.

Yes, this was my first bid. Lowest rate @ Marriott.com was $209/night for this property.

Your Offer Price: $65.00 Number of Rooms: 1 Number of Nights: 2 Subtotal: $130.00 Taxes & Service Fees: $30.30 Total Charges: $160.30

Bid 4* downtown or Copley Place 65, 70, 75 and then hit at 80. Your Offer Price: $80.00 Number of Rooms: 1 Number of Nights: 3 Subtotal: $240.00 Taxes & Service Fees: $40.48 Total Charges: $280.48 Marriott is available online @ $139 (first night) and then $229 (second and third nights) so I'm happy @ $80. In this case I wonder if splitting the bid might have gotten a hit for the first night @ 65, though of course it would have risked getting two different properties. Like I said, happy in any case.

I bid it just a few hours before I posted. Indeed, I was happy with the win. :) Alas, no, not for me. I'll be on the other coast at the time!

So the Grand Hyatt might have been available for less. It's better to do completely separate bids for downtown and Capitol Hill/Convention Center. So if you bid Downtown, with rebids, up to $135 you know that downtown is actually a free rebid for the Capitol Hill zone at that price.

Bid up to $150 in all NYC zones for a 4*. Before getting accepted at $130 I bid 3* MTE, MTW, UM-CPS, MTS unsuccessfully up to $125. Got accepted for 4 rooms @ $130. Bid again and got a 5th room. I realize there's another hotel in the zone and it could have had availability at the same rate, but I decided to take a chance.

Btw, the Henley Park Hotel was available for $149 on Quickbook, that was probably my next best case. So this was a $50 savings.

Bidding strictly 4* in the Capitol Hill/Conv Ctr zone, and this is a particularly pricey night... the prepaid internet rate for the Hyatt is showing $339. Several properties sold out in the city, and otherwise quite expensive. Previous bid was $95, rejected. Your Offer Price: $100.00 Number of Rooms: 1 Number of Nights: 1 Subtotal: $100.00 Taxes & Service Fees: $21.74 Total Charges: $121.74

Prices generally high over this set of days, previous bid was $140 which was rejected. Honestly looking for a 4* anywhere in Manhattan. Your Offer Price: $150.00 Number of Rooms: 1 Number of Nights: 4 Subtotal: $600.00 Taxes & Service Fees: $112.97 Total Charges: $712.97

And when you do get Priceline to promise a refund, better check to make sure you get it... I emailed PL this morning about my missing refund, got a reply back in a few hours:

Rejected at $60. Heh - I hadn't seen this hotel was sold out. It wouldn't be the first time I scored an otherwise sold out property via Priceline... a year or so ago I nabbed the Grand Hyatt downtown for $100 (one night) when the World Bank was in town and the Grand Hyatt wanted over $300 with a 4-night minium and the downtown Best Western wanted $600....

Thanks, I do feel a little better. Though I may have overbid $10 or so (possibly) I'm still happy... 4 rooms, and the alternative for me was the Wyndham 3.5 blocks away for $229. So this is a real $500 savings.

Bidding for a friend, scored a 3* in Palm Beach (Hilton Oceanfront Resort) but the hotel was full when they arrived late at night and were walked to a lesser property for the first night. (Hilton gave them an oceanfront suite for the second night.) Emailed Priceline and was told I would be refunded the first night. However, it's been 21 days and the refund has not yet appeared on my card... Btw, I was not banned and have had several successful bids since then.

Enroll in Hilton HHonors with Gold Status (it's a promo for Citibank Chairman's Card holders) http://www.hiltonhhonors.com/processLandin...spx?lp=chairman If you're an existing HHonors member you still have to call with the promotion code to get the status (CTCH is the code, call 1-800-HHONORS)... or you could open a new account with Gold using this link and then merge the two. Once you've created the new account, log in online, choose 'member services,' and select 'combine multiple accounts.' Add your existing account into your new Gold one.

Take a survey (www.outback.com/feedback) on your recent experience with Outback's curbside takeaway and they'll send you a gift card for a free Bloomin' Onion. You'll be asked for a passcode. 4720 is for my local Outback. Passcode 2217 is another.

Just starting looking today, bid without too much research :) and didn't hit what I was looking for.

Yes, it was. (I'm lazy sometimes and go for what I think will hit rather than trying to get the absolute rock-bottom price.)