Travelling

Has this hotel been downgraded from 3.5* (which is what it's showing as in the hotel lists)?

My previous bid of $78 was rejected and I'd used a number of free rebids to get this far. Throughout my bidding, I was getting counteroffers of $90 so I'd started reducing the gaps between bids as I sensed I would be getting close. This contrasts with my previous weekday stay win at $94 at the start of my trip posted previously. Originally, I'd planned to stay in the Santa Monica/Venice area (I think I'd bid up to around $200 for a 4* there) and the published rates generally seemed high so decided to stay close to the airport and just travel up to those areas for the afternoon/evening. Radisson Hotel At Los Angeles Airport 6225 West Century Boulevard Los Angeles CA 90045 Room Subtotal: $80.00 Taxes & Fees: $20.04 Total Charged to Card: $100.04

My previous bid of $92 was rejected and I'd used a number of free rebids to get this far. Throughout my bidding, I was getting counteroffers of $107 so I'd started reducing the gaps between bids as I sensed I would be getting close. Before this, I was bidding on 4* up to $100 without any luck or counteroffers. Radisson Hotel At Los Angeles Airport 6225 West Century Boulevard Los Angeles CA 90045 Room Subtotal: $94.00 Taxes & Fees: $22.31 Total Charged to Card: $116.31

I had tried bidding 5* in the Berlin East zone up to approximately $115 without success (I was hoping to get the Hilton so I could use status benefits which are usually included in Priceline bids). This was my first bid at a 4* and I got the Maritim Proarte Hotel straight away. It looks to be in a great location, slightly mixed reviews but on the whole I am very pleased for the price. I never like getting success on a first bid as it makes me wonder if I could have started lower still (although I expect the overbidding here was minimal). Offer Price: US$60.00 Rooms: 1 Nights: 3 Room Subtotal: US$180.00 Taxes & Fees: US$23.91 Total: US$203.91 Maritim Proarte Hotel Berlin, Friedrichstrasse 150-153, Berlin, Germany

I first bid at $45 and got a counteroffer to add $9. I added a free re-bid zone and upped my bid to $48 - and bingo! I'm indifferent about this one. The hotel is on Bath Road (where most of the airport hotels are located) although it's slightly outside the free bus zones around Heathrow (where you can travel to/from the airport for free). Having said that, for $48 (well $64 once you add taxes/fees) I'm certainly not complaining and it'll certainly do the job for an overnight stay before my morning flight. Full details: Doubletree By Hilton London Heathrow South Heathrow Airport 745 Bath Road Cranford United Kingdom Offer Price: US$48.00 Taxes & Fees: US$16.89 Total Charged to Card: US$64.89

This was won a week or so ago. Just logging into my Priceline account now shows the hotel as 3.5* which suggests it has been downgraded from 4* since I bid and won. I entered 4* into the header above since that was the rating level when I bid. $70 was my second bid (my first bid of $65 was rejected).

I'm glad to hear postings are still useful after the stay. As luck would have it, immediately after posting my praises of the hotel and Priceline win, I checked my credit card account to find they'd charged me for the room on checkout. However, I called the hotel and they immediately realised the error and refunded the charge (including, I assume, the $10 car park fee which I should have paid so I've actually ended up a little better off than expected).

Apologies this posting is after the stay (but I hope it's still useful). We stayed in Burlington on a Priceline win a few days before this bid and liked the town so much, we decided to stay again on our way back from Montreal (I didn't get chance to post this while I was away). I secured the Hilton on the first bid (bidding a day before the stay itself) - according to the Hotwire listing there was a match for the Hilton on Hotwire for $79 so I was thrilled to get it for $50 on Priceline. Hilton Burlington Burlington 60 Battery Street Burlington, Vermont 05401 Check-In Date: Wed, Apr 27, 2011 / After 03:00 PM Check-Out Date: Thu, Apr 28, 2011 / 12:00 PM Your Offer Price Per Room, Per Night: $50.00 Subtotal: $50.00 Taxes & Fees: $12.95 Total Charges: $62.95 I have Hilton status and was offered an upgrade to a Lakeview room on the top floor and breakfast included for two guests. There was free WIFI with a code (I'm not sure if this was a Hilton status perk or offered to everyone). The hotel is in a fantastic location and I didn't expect status benefits so was really pleased.

Thank you. The website states the refurbishment will be finished on 3 April but I like the idea of trying to get a recently renovated room (as I assume some have been updated more recently than others).

Thank you, I'm definitely looking forward to it. At first I read some mixed reviews about the property but I understand they are due to finish their refurbishment in the next few weeks (hopefully before my stay!) By the way, thank you for moving my Burlington win to it's correct home. I did know Burlington was in VT, I just got a little carried away creating all my new posts for this trip in the same place!!

Le Centre Sheraton Montreal Hotel Downtown - City Center 1201 Rene Levesque Blvd West Montreal, Quebec H3B 2L7 Check-In Date: Mon, Apr 25, 2011 / After 03:00 PM Check-Out Date: Wed, Apr 27, 2011 / 12:00 PM Your Offer Price Per Room, Per Night: US$82.00 Subtotal: US$164.00 Taxes & Fees: US$37.72 Total Charges: US$201.72 (Previous bid of $81 rejected. Regular counteroffers received on earlier bids. I had also bid the other central Mntreal zone at a similar price with no counteroffers but then realised Le Centre is very close to the Bell Centre where we are attending a concert and luckily, Le Centre came up!)

Radisson Hotel Boston Copley Square - Theatre District 200 Stuart Street Boston, Massachusetts 02116 Check-In Date: Sun, May 1, 2011 / After 03:00 PM Check-Out Date: Mon, May 2, 2011 / 12:00 PM Your Offer Price Per Room, Per Night: $69.00 Subtotal: $69.00 Taxes & Fees: $17.70 Total Charges: $86.70 (Previous bid of $67 rejected. Counteroffers received on earlier bids, previous bids of $60, $65 and $67.)

Sheraton Burlington Hotel And Conference Center 870 Williston Road Burlington, Vermont 05403 Check-In Date: Sun, Apr 24, 2011 / After 03:00 PM Check-Out Date: Mon, Apr 25, 2011 / 12:00 PM Your Offer Price Per Room, Per Night: $55.00 Subtotal: $55.00 Taxes & Fees: $13.40 Total Charges: $68.40 (First bid - I wonder how low I could have gone...I guess I'll never know!)

The Westin Copley Place Copley Square - Theatre District 10 Huntington Avenue Boston, Massachusetts 02116 Check-In Date: Fri, Apr 22, 2011 / After 04:00 PM Check-Out Date: Sun, Apr 24, 2011 / 12:00 PM Your Offer Price Per Room, Per Night: $88.00 Subtotal: $176.00 Taxes & Fees: $34.78 Total Charges: $210.78 (Previous bid of $87 rejected. Regular counteroffers received on earlier bids.)

It's also interesting that when I do a search for my dates (9 Jan - 10 Jan 2011) the same two hotels come up (identical icons) but the Hotels.com is cheaper ($97 excl taxes, $112 incl taxes) compared to the opaque Hotwire offering ($100 excl taxes, $121 incl taxes). It's a good theory about the different rooms. I stayed here several years ago and from reading things since then, there does seems to be a big variety of different rooms (I suspect this is because they are privately owned and so differ quite a bit). I haven't started a new thread as I am not planning to use Hotwire or Priceline for this stay now.

Thank you for the reply - my previous posts should all be updated now. You are correct that there are more amenities shown when I click to open the pop-up window. The full list is: Condo, Suite, Near Beach, 1 Bedroom, Kitchen, Shuttle, Daily Housekeeping, Air-conditioning, 24h Front Desk, High Speed Internet Access, Boutique Hotel I also notice (from pushing the reservation to the next stage) that there is a additional resort fee payable and the Tripadvisor rating for the hotel is 3/5.

A bit late in the day posting this (apologies, this was a successful bid at the very last minute) but I bid on Priceline and got the Coast Plaza Hotel and Suites. I bid $50-something per night for the three nights. Unfortunately, I can't access winning bids as far back as April 2009 in my Priceline profile to provide more detail. I think it was a 3.5* rated property on Priceline.

I continued bidding for this up to the date of travel, but once I had the back-up at the Cosmo, I bid a little lower than previously and so probably had little chance of securing a Priceline win. I've now stayed twice at the Cosmo and speak very favourably about the hotel compared against the price and quality of other htoels in Manhattan. Having said that, the location for me is a big plus - I like staying in that area and the very easy access to numerous subway lines is a real benefit.

I am curious what the following hotel could be. 2 nights, 2 people: 1/10/11-1/12/11 Central South Beach area condo 3.5* $75 Condo, Suite, Near Beach, 1 Bedroom, Kitchen, Shuttle, Daily Housekeeping, Air-conditioning Any ideas you have would be most welcome.

I was pleased to get this for $105 for one night for the Saturday over the New Year weekend. The best I could see on Hotwire was the Sheraton Beach hotel for $169 which I thought was a lot so I started bidding on Priceline at $100 and immediately got a counteroffer asking to bid $25 higher. I had umpteen free rebids at the 4* level so just kept increasing $1 at a time, getting the same counteroffer ($25 higher than my bid) each time. Eventually (but sooner than I was expecting), I got the Westin for $105, details as follows: The Westin Beach Resort, Fort Lauderdale Ft Lauderdale Beach Area 321 North Fort Lauderdale Beach Boulevard Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33304 954-467-1111 Check-In Date: Sat, Jan 1, 2011 / After 03:00 PM Check-Out Date: Sun, Jan 2, 2011 / 12:00 PM Your Offer Price Per Room, Per Night: $105.00 Taxes & Fees: $20.52 Total Charges: $125.52 The funny thing is I stayed here about 7 years ago on a Hotwire win but it was the Sheraton Yankee Trader then!

Thanks for the reply. I'd rather stay more central than JFK if possible as we will probably want to go out in the evening when we arrive. I have just booked a cancellable backup at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Tribeca for $215 plus taxes which is okay for one night (we stayed here a few years ago). In many ways I prefer this location to a lot of the Priceline areas further uptown (midtown doesn't quite do it for me). There are several subway lines right by the Cosmo and some nice neighbourhoods within walking distance. I'll continue to try PRICELINE but HOTWIRE is showing less and less as the date nears so I'm not hopeful.

On 25th, we arrive at JFK so will either subway or taxi it to the hotel. After the one night stay, we're planning to get the train to Philadelphia, which I think will be from Penn Station. Thanks for your help.

Sure, will do. Do you have any insight into how I can make my bidding more structured given what I am trying to achieve? I realise saying I'm relaxed about the location and price doesn't help but for a one-night stay where we won't arrive until about 9.30pm and leave early-ish the next morning, I can probably live with most things.

I have been bidding (a bit randomly I'll admit) for a room for one night on 25 May. I'm relaxed about the location and start level. I am spending four nights later in the week at the Club Quarters Wall Street and so it would be handy if I stayed there so I could leave some luggage while I am elsewhere between this stay and the later one (there's only one night inbetween). I've bid up to the following with no success/counteroffers: 3.5* Downtown to $180 (to "target" the Club Quarters) 3* Chelsea to $150 3* MTE to $125 3.5* MTE to

I posted a priceline win at $79 for the same hotel yesterday. Our bidding histories were identical, starting at $75 (reject), then trying $77 (reject) and being successful on $79. I guess we'll never know whether the magic number was $78 or if we nailed it exactly with $79!!