doublehelix

Free Internet In Public Areas Indoor Swimming Pool No Smoking Rooms/Facilities Fitness Center Handicapped Rooms/Facilities Business Center Spa Restaurant Free Internet Access Swimming Pool I haven't used PL nor betterbidding.com for some time, and I'm thrilled at the upgrades you've made around here while I've been away! I used the Bidding Helper tool to find a PRICELINE EXPRESS deal, and the 100% hotel match it offered was exactly what I got. It was like magic. Part of me wants to travel again just so I can use the tool again! LOVE IT!! Self-parking was $19/night, which should not have been surprising since "Free Parking" amenity was not listed for this hotel. But it surprised me anyway; at least it's competitive for the area, and the in-and-out ticket was easy enough. I've stayed at other hotels with elaborate, error-prone processes toward the same goal, so at least it was done well. The location is spectacular - right next to the Lancaster Central Market, plenty of restaurants and parks and drugstores and stuff within walking distance. And a short drive to several area attractions. In my PL review, I mentioned that the pool (though spacious) is old and tired. They've installed a vinyl liner to extend its life, and closed the hot tub completely. It really needs to be replaced. The pool room itself, and its furnishings, were in good condition. My kiddo didn't even notice the pool's age and we loved swimming in it anyway.

Alas, the summer got away from us. No amusement parks for 2016. Sigh.

Desired zone: Downtown - White House Desired star rating: 3.5* Max price: I was looking to beat the PRICELINE EXPRESS deals by hunting for the floor in NYOP. I used your Bidding Helper tool to start bidding at $150, adding $10 increments with free re-bid zones. Landed a $200 rate that beats the lowest available Express deal by $6/night. A pretty small savings, but a savings nonetheless. Offer price:$200.00/night Number of rooms:1 room Number of nights:4 nights Room subtotal:$800.00 Taxes & fees:$156.52 Total charged today:$956.52 This hotel doesn't include free breakfast, but rooms have kitchenettes! Since we're driving and not flying, looks like I'll be whipping up french toast and such things to fuel up for sightseeing. Now to find a place to park the car for these four nights... Hmm.

Yep, one night stay. 2.5-star or higher, I think, to make sure we have the pool/wifi amenities. Acceptable zones: not sure how to answer that part, cuz I want to be sure we're within 20 minutes drive time to the park. Not knowing the area, I was hoping you might have guidance about how flexible we can be on the location question. Otherwise I'll say the Langhorne zone is our starting point. And budget: $90 total including taxes and fees.

We have flexibility on dates (any Fri-night in August) and really just need a hotel that has a pool and free wifi. Our kids are so little (ages 2 and 4) that it doesn't matter what the bed configuration is. King, doubles, cribs, rollaways, we could make anything work. I don't really know how to do a price exploration with FLEXIBLE dates. Thereuare, I have seen your previous posts about visiting this park regularly, so my hopes are high. Haha! Where should I start?

I can't believe we're only going for one night - too much fun to be had! We have a concert at MSqG the night of 4/12, and hafta head home the next day. At prices like these, maybe we should take a vacation week to visit the rest of the sights! It's only a 3 hour drive from our front door. Thanks Betterbidding! Started at your Bidding Helper page to get this great PRICELINE EXPRESS deal. Guaranteed Amenities: Pets Allowed Business Center Restaurant Fitness Center Non Smoking Room price:$102.00/night Number of rooms:1 room Number of nights:1 night Room subtotal:$102.00 Taxes & fees:$28.57 Total charged today:$130.57

Started at the Priceline link on this site. bid $25, rejected. Free re-bid $28, rejected. going to try again tomorrow, and also comparison shop with weekly and daily rates on other sites. Stay tuned.

I bid again for 2.5* up to $100 without winning, then closed the browser and bid for a 3* at $110, $120, and finally winning at $135. Noteworthy was that Priceline offered me a free re-bid opportunity (with no need to add more zones or change anything) after that first $110 bid. The screen said it was a one-time opportunity to re-bid if I was willing to bid $154. I passed on that offer and I'm glad I did. We do need to be at the airport at 5 AM, so the proximity to the airport is a definite plus. I wish I had explored the surrounding areas a bit more, but I let the week get away from me and anyway I was so tired of planning this part of the trip... I just took the easy way. And I'm paying for the convenience; this is an expensive room, you're right! Jen Doubletree Hotel Jfk Airport Kennedy Airport (JFK) 135-30 140Th Street, Jamaica, NY 11436 Check-In: Tue, Jan 15, 2013 Check-Out: Wed, Jan 16, 2013 Number of Rooms: 1 Number of Guests Per Room: 2 Number of Nights: 1 Room Subtotal: $135.00 (USD) Taxes and Fees: $37.99 (USD) Total Charged to Card: $172.99 (USD)

I decided to try again for a 2.5* .. Bid $55, $60, and $65 with no success. I still would prefer the 3*, but I'm flexible. The betterbidding New York hotel list shows that Ramada Plaza JFK is in this 2.5* category but there are several indications this awful hotel may be closed: yelp says it's closed, Expedia shows the hotel but won't book any rooms there, no winning bids reported on this forum since 2006, and the JFK airport website doesn't list it at all. But the Ramada website still makes it seem open, so it's a little odd. Before re-bidding tomorrow I will try to confirm one way or the other. Jen

Looking for a 3* at JFK airport for January 15th, one night. I don't know if I can get this for less than $100, but I'll try. I started with the PRICELINE link at the top of this page, naturally. Bid $65, rejected. Added re-bid zones to try $70, $75, and $80 with no success. Will try again tomorrow. Jen

I got up to $25/day and found no success. Prices for these dates are just sky-high everywhere -- I couldn't find a rental for less than $200 total at any of the major car companies. I didn't have a backup reservation because the prices were just insane. Taxis proved to be sky high too -- today I used one for a 15-minute drive and it was $40 one-way!! Unbelievable. So I changed my dates to 2/15 - 2/18 and saw the rental prices plummet. The total price for this THREE day rental was almost half of the price I was seeing for the TWO day rental! I started with the PRICELINE link on this board, as always, and started bidding at $18 for my standard car. The bid was not successful, but I was presented with a promise that my bid would be accepted if I was willing to increase my bid to $24/day. I accepted the offer, and won. And still got the Standard car I wanted. I'm happy. Even at my targeted $35/day for the original two-day rental, I was expecting the taxes and fees to bring the price up to $100 or so for the whole rental. This three-day arrangement means I will have to pay for an extra night of parking at my hotel ($16), but the total price ($110) isn't too far from my original budget. All in all, it's still way better than the $200+ price tag I'd have paid for a regular reservation. AVIS Your Offer Price: $24.00 (per day) Total Rental Days: 3 days Subtotal: $72.00 Taxes and Fees: $38.49 Total Charges: $110.49 Thanks, BetterBidding! ~Jen

I started my bidding a couple of weeks ago using the PRICELINE link on this board, as always. I started at $10/day for a standard car, and used the 24-hour re-bids to get up to $21 with no success. I'm never quite sure what the difference is between Standard and Mid-Sized cars, but I haven't tried bidding for anything but a Standard so far. I don't really want to go more than $35, and definitely don't want an Economy car. Any advice on what I should do from here? I was planning on continuing the 24-hr re-bids between now and the 16th, in increments of $2. Does that seem like a reasonable approach? Thanks, ~Jen

I'm a bit rusty. I let the agent at the Alamo counter talk me into spending $130 more for an upgraded vehicle. (shaking head) He told me that the Standard Car I'd reserved would be only a 4-cylinder vehicle, and that such a car would be risky to take into the Colorado mountains. He offered an SUV for $25/day extra, but knocked it to $15/day when I whipped out my National Emerald Club Executive loyalty card. I wish I had stuck to my original reservation - I hate spending extra. If I had thought about it more carefully at the time, I would have realized: that he was describing Economy Cars, not Standard Cars I had the right to go look at the Standard Car selection to decide for myself whether it would be "risky" highway driving, even in the Colorado mountains, is something that small cars do every day, comfortably if the weather turned (it never did during our trip, thanksfully) they'll close the highway or we'll decide to stay put anyway - a special car isn't going to make us drive any differently the SUV we got was a small one, with the same engine power as any Standard Car they could have given us it was all just a profit-motivated scare tactic: "you'll be going to 11,000 feet!" was referring to the altitude at the peaks of mountains - cars don't drive on the peaks! They drive on the roads that are 5000-8000 feet above sea level in this part of the country, broad and spacious. I'm not angry, because I did understand and agree to the extra charges before the rental. But I am kicking myself for letting myself be convinced by faulty logic. I'm using this experience as a learning occasion. ~Jen

Started by using the PRICELINE link on this board Then won the first try for this rental Your Offer Price: $15.00 (per day) Total Rental Days: 7 days Subtotal: $105.00 Taxes and Fees: $61.83 Total Charges: $166.83 All told, the toal price averages out to less than $24 per day, so that's a price I can live with for sure. Got our hotel for free with reward points... so now to buy lift tickets for this ski vacation! ~Jen

I bid $13 for this rental at first. Priceline presented a screen saying that my price was not accepted but that an increase to $17 would secure my car right now. So I bid $17 and got it. After taxes and fees, the one-day rental will cost $33.12 And as always, I started my search by using the PRICELINE links at the top of every betterbidding page. ~Jen

Started at the PRICELINE link at the top of every betterbidding page Aimed to get 2.5* in mid-Manhattan for $100 or less. Bid $80 Central Park South Empire State Building Area Hell's Kitchen Midtown East Midtown West Times Square - Theatre District ...rejected Added Coney Island and increased bid to $90 ...rejected Added Upper West Side and increased bid to $100 Accepted and upgraded to 3.5* Affinia Shelburne Empire State Building Area 303 Lexington Avenue New York, New York 10016 212-689-5200 Your Offer Price Per Room, Per Night: $100.00 Subtotal: $100.00 Taxes & Fees: $26.81 Total Charges*: $126.81

Back in April I bid these dates at $12 for a standard, then $14 for a full-size, and $19 for a premium. All were rejected at the time. But now that my dates have drawn closer I bid again a few dollars higher (guided by recent wins posted in this forum) and was accepted on the first try: Your Offer Price: $15.00 (per day) Total Rental Days: 3 days Subtotal: $45.00 Taxes and Fees: $26.83 Total Charges: $71.83 Lowest Published Price: $134.17 (USD) Total Savings:* $62.34 (USD) (You saved 46%) Started at the PRICELINE link on this board, of course. The thank-you page on Priceline's site offered me an upgrade to a Full Size car for $2/day additional, but I didn't take them up on it. I found it interesting that the offer did not appear in the confirmation email; a time-sensitive "upgrade" I guess. Or maybe an attempt to get impulse spenders to spend. Thanks Betterbidding, ~Jen

I was aiming for a 3* hotel in the Red Bank - Middletown area. I started at the Priceline search box on the top of every BetterBidding page, of course. Bid $35, 40, 45, 50, and $55 over several days and re-bid zones... and when none of those attempts were successful I decided to book a room with Marriott Rewards points instead. ~Jen

The flights are booked now, and the PRICELINE bidding was successful! Gaylord Palms @ $75 (plus taxes, plus resort fee, brings the actual cost to about $100 per night). And as always, I started out by using the PRICELINE search box at the top of every betterbidding page. I love this board. ~Jen

Not standby, no. I'll get a confirmed seat, but only if a number of other aspects of my trip fall together. And I won't know until the 24th if it's all going to work out. I'm using others' nearby dates as a guide, and I'm aware that it's not always possible to replicate their results. After exploring past wins more thoroughly, I'm still comfortable with my $78 price ceiling for a resort in this area. Thanks, ~Jen

Hello Better Bidding folks, I'm looking for a Resort in the Disney Maingate - Celebration area for 3/24 - 3/26 I saw someone else on this board got the Gaylord Palms for $78 on their first bid - I would be happy with this result but would appreciate your bidding advice to make sure I'd be getting the best possible price. Consider $78 as my maximum then, I guess. What bidding strategy do you recommend? Since my flight arrangements are still uncertain, I won't attempt my bids until the morning of 3/24. Is there anything unique to making same-day bids on Priceline that I should be aware of ? ~Jen

Bid $65 for 3* hotel in the JFK zone. Got it on the first try. I'm always a little annoyed when it happens that way -- makes me feel like I could've gotten a better price. Still, not bad for a last minute room. ~Jen

Started at the PRICELINE link to support this site, bid $70 for one three-star night in the JFK zone, and it was accepted immediately. I saw other bidders get other dates in this zone and even at this same hotel for $15+ less than that, so I probably could have spent 10 more minutes on this task and saved even a bit more. But I'm a Marriott fan, so I'm pleased with my good fortune at getting the only Marriott property in this zone at a price I'm willing to pay. Thanks for your years of service, Better Bidding! Keep it up! ~Jen Your Offer Price Per Room, Per Night: $70.00 Subtotal: $70.00 Taxes & Fees: $22.72 Total Charges*: $92.72

5-star hotel in Central Strip This hotel features the following amenities: Casino Fitness Center Pool(s) Restaurant(s) Business Center Golf Nearby Tennis Nearby Spa Services

I had to re-read the thread on re-bid zones because Priceline's made some changes to their interface... it wasn't clear to me how to tell which zones were free re-bid zones. After that I did try a bunch of re-bids a few days ago and was up to $95 for these dates without success. Then I decided that I was unwilling to accept the Trump as a possibility and so I gave up on Priceline. Used your HOTWIRE link to nab the Wynn for $165 per night.Thanks for your helpful reminders. ~Jen