dc3

PRICELINE EXPRESS was showing 4.5* at 60% off for $160 (guest favorite at 9+). PRICELINE EXPRESS did not show that one beyond the 15th. Best regular rate is $400 so the 60% off confirmed that it was likely to be the Marriott. It's a small zone so it was an easy guess. Decided to try a bid. Used your link. I took the $5 a day insurance. The first bid was accepted at $150. PL offered to extend the stay but it was rejected. I had noticed that the PRICELINE EXPRESS version kept disappearing and reappearing before I bid. After my bid was accepted I went back to Express and it was gone. BTW - opting for Phoenix North on the bidding site had the "best deal" by the 4.5* box. I went back to PRICELINE EXPRESS to try for two more nights in another zone and saw West Mesa had a place for $90 (3.5*) with good a chance of its being the Marriott. But I don't want to go to West Mesa.

I was looking in the area on Priceline Express and a 3* with a 9+ rating kept appearing for only $86 per day (but only if a full week was selected) at a 74 % discount(!). Based on the price and the BB lists, I figured it was the Courtyard Marriott Salt River, which is in Scottsdale too. I decided against it because it looked to be in a pretty bleak location. I could be wrong of course about the quality of the location and it might come up again.

If you look at the Google Reviews for that hotel, you might be concerned. A response from the Director of Marketing could be interpreted to say that people who use on-line booking sites will not always get what they want. Instead, she suggests that you consider booking directly with them and tell them what you expect ("we will do our very best to match your expectations"). I am surprised that Priceline would be willing to deal with such a place. You could point this out to Priceline if you want them to follow up. You can see for yourself by entering "Scottsdale Plaza Resort" in Google and clicking on the reviews.

The price plus tax and fees was $55. I was rejected on a bid for a 3* at $40 where I noticed the total was also $55. So Express has lower fees than NYOP. The description included a pool and fitness center as well as breakfast and free parking. This place shares ownership, parking and staff with the Homewood Suites.

Bid up from C$130 in C$5 increments - lots of free rebids available at 4* level. Counteroffer at C$173 after C$140 bid (but Express deal was C$168 for same level). Priceline fee near $12 in addition to taxes.

I used the PRICELINE link here to get started into the Priceline site. An Express Deal was available for $148 for 5* and the description made it clear it was the Conrad, which is what I needed. I tried bidding up to $145 with no success, so I used the Express Deal option and it was indeed the Conrad New York. I used my Hilton HHonors number at check-in and they gave me free internet and a delivered newspaper. Although this seemed like a bargain, I then found that the regular price was about $190 and it allowed for no-penalty cancelation. I should have checked the regular price first. The hotel lived up to the good reviews.

I'd think it would be better to combine the HOTWIRE section with Expedia secret deals because it then is posted within a region and gives information comparable to what someone using Hotwire would post - the prices and property should be the same or very close. The general area you suggest is unsorted and not worth the effort.

Based on my purchases on Expedia, the 3.5* is the Hotel Gouverneur Place Dupuis. The Holiday Inn Midtown came in as 3* though it's listed as 3.5* here.

I was trying for a couple of trips to Montreal using Priceline bidding without success and also saw nothing of interest in Express Deals. Hotwire was not much better but Expedia.ca, in its opaque section had some low prices for 3* and 3.5* properties. These were not matched on Hotwire or Expedia.com so I went for them. This board has no place to report the details of such successes but they would be very similar to Hotwire reports. The amenities are listed in the same way. As of now, I am not posting them but it's worth considering an expansion of this board to include these sorts of things - including Priceline's no-bid opaque section. I wound up with both places for more than 50% off the best price on the hotels' web sites, including pre-paid options, so these deals should not be ignored. It would be nice for this board to expand its sources.

Bid for 2.5* and won on first bid - upgraded to 3*. Fee is $8.50 and then there's tax. I saw a PRICELINE EXPRESS deal for $65 for 2.5* in the same zone. Includes breakfast, internet, parking but dinner is only included M-Th. Summer discount expired yesterday.

I can confirm that the Westin Prince is in the North York East zone and it is the only hotel I know of in that zone that would be 4*. The bidding site shows a 4* in that zone.

I used the PRICELINE Quick Quote link on this page. The Kingston area now has two zones, waterfront being the smaller one in the downtown, which I wanted. It is no longer possible to get a lot of extra zones for rebids as previously since both Kingston zones are up to 3*. I saw Hotwire was at $97 for 3* that looked like the Radisson. So I bid $85 and got the Residence Inn , which seems to be the highest rated place in Kingston. It includes breakfast and internet but parking is not free. Taxes and fees add $14 per night. The Marriott site is quoting $169 per night. I felt pretty smart then I saw that Priceline is offering a PRICELINE EXPRESS Deals sale and when I filled it in it offered me a 3* for the same dates for $87 per night. My guess is that an $80 bid would do the trick.

I use the PRICELINE link on this page. Bid 60, 70, 80, 90. Prepaid rate on hotel site is C$170. With taxes and fees PL is US$219. Hotwire has a 4* for $105 with Indoor pool(s) Smoke Free Rooms Fitness Center Pool(s)Restaurant(s). Business Center High-Speed Internet Access

Used the link from this site to PRICELINE to place the bid. First try of $70 was accepted. Best rate for advance booking on hotel site is $132. HOTWIRE was $95.

Is the Sutton Place really 5*? In reality it's not quite 4*, if that. The regular price for advance pay booking is $120. Please confirm that Priceline reporting this as 5*.

There is an error in the heading of the post - the successful bid was $70 not $68.

I used this site's PRICELINE link to start. I had been bidding for this zone for a few weeks. I also noted from Hotwire that more deals do not become available as the date gets closer (I've noticed in the past that some places, particularly Marriott affiliates, open up for bids two weeks out). I logged in and saw that there was now a 3.5* in the TF zone and that level had the "best deal" icon. The Sheraton had been 3* in previous posts. I bid $65 and received a counteroffer to $78 and did not take it. Now, Hotwire has a 3* for $76 (with 100 % satisfaction!) and it could be the same place but Priceline is usually at least 20% lower. So I added the Hazlet zone and bid $70, which as accepted, which makes me think that Hotwire is for another property. The advance purchase (no cancel) rate on the Sheraton site is $125 and the rack rates are $160-180. Government rate is $118. This is a lot of information because this is one of those zones that comes up rarely and I had little to go on. Priceline's bid reports for the region only showed recent wins in Neptune-Wall.

Thanks for the good wishes. To be clear, if I use information from your site to make a bid, I always use your link. In this case, the information I used was directly from Priceline so I used their link. To be helpful to others, I posted the result here and if others use this result they should use your link. This should be fair enough.

I used the PRICELINE link from BetterBidding and was limiting myself to this zone with a few rebid possibilities and getting nothing. Priceline offers a bid notification for a location, star level and price under "deal preferences". So I requested $170 for 3*. They notified me that someone had been successful at $150. The total is $188. The best regular rate is $299 on Marriott.com and $434 (+$67 tax) on Expedia.

I find it gives the most recent, based on my own bids. As a test, note that I posted a 3* in National Harbor in the Washington DC Priceline thread on this board. Then look at the list on Priceline's Deal Preferences and you will see that what I posted is all that there is in that zone - it's tough because things are sold out most of the time. I did another post on BB for a much more popular area (Monteal) and it is on PLDP as well. My suggestion is to go through the Deal Preferences section carefully and understand what it has and what it doesn't have. If I hadn't posted my National Harbor bid, then there would be no current information on that zone on BB but the result would be there on the Deal Preferences and if I had requested alerts for that zone I would have received one. My guess is that the information on Deal Preferences is most useful in less popular zones. You can usually count on major areas getting some posts here but if you want to go to a less popular place, then you have a new alternative. There's nothing to lose by looking and I believe that from what I see they post low bids if they are there.

Red Roof Inns, the cheap sibling in the Accor group (along with Motel 6), doesn't offer WiFi or breakfast. Take a look on Hotwire and when you see 2* with laundry as the only amenity, you can guess who it is. Since Priceline doesn't list amenities when you bid, there is no way to be certain. If there's a McDonald's or Starbucks nearby you can use theirs, like the locals, or go to a local library.

If you have a profile saved on Priceline, you can log into Deal Preferences. It tells you prices of recent wins by locations, zones and star levels. If there are multiple wins it gives you the most recent one. You need to try it to see. Also, you can set up a very specific alert for a zone or zones and star levels as well as an expiry date. There is a flight fare notification system. I tried it for hotels and it works for what it claims. What it does not do is tell you the hotel that was won or the specific dates, which means that Better Bidding has more information. The advantage of the Priceline Deal Preference system is that you will be sure that every win is being posted while Better Bidding depends on reports from volunteers like you.

I always bid via the PRICELINE link. I had bid 4* and 3.5* up to $95 in Convention Centre zone. Lowered to 3* and to $80 (includes $5 bonus) was counteroffered to $95. Decided not to accept. Did a combined bid with Downtown. This was not a great strategy but there are no free rebids at the 3* level in Montreal. The right thing would be to start the dual zone bid straight up since the two downtown zones are really very similar and too large to make a real localization. Le Nouvel has a special rack rate for those dates of $106. Hotwire is not showing very much at all so I couldn't use it as a gauge. I usually get the Delta Montreal at this price.

Non-opaque information today 4-star hotel in National Harbor - Oxon Hill - Hotel: Westin This hotel features the following amenities: Smoke Free Rooms Fitness Center Pool(s) Restaurant(s) Business Center High-Speed Internet Access Golf Nearby

In case you're interested. Today for the same trip: DCA: full size $16, economy $37 BWI: $15, $42 IAD: $49, $44