Romelle

PRICELINE only guarantees a room for two people. Not bed type. It isn't an option as you are bidding. After you win, you can make a request to the hotel directly, but the hotel has no obligation to do anything. Some do grant the requests, but some don't. You are actually talking three people for this trip. You might want to consider HOTWIRE instead, as that lets you specify number of people beforehand. You could look at the reviews of NYC Times Square hotels here and see how people have reporting the bedding situation. It might give you some odds at least of getting what you would like to have. Romelle

Very nicely done on the bid-splitting. While you are a newbie here, you obviously aren't a newbie to PL bidding. You probably already know this too, but if you tell the front desk when you first check in you that you actually have two bookings, they most likely will be willing to block the same room for you for both. You got an amazing deal in Amsterdam. Romelle

You might try entering a nonsense city name in Priceline - i.e. xxx. That will take you to a screen that says: Please confirm the city name or airport code for the location where you would like to stay. If you are having trouble spelling the name of the city you want, click here to see our complete list of cities. The "click here" is highlighted and is a hot link that will take you to a full list of available cities in Priceline. I was going to suggest also trying Hotwire for Utrecht, but it seems they don't currently have any offerings for that city. Very loosely, bidding with Priceline can yield a better deal than Hotwire, but Hotwire might be able to yield a better deal than the retail side of Priceline. A moot point though when Hotwire doesn't carry the city. Romelle

Dawn - As a fellow banee, please let me be the first to welcome you here! If you've read back though other posts in this thread, often people really aren't sure just why they have banned. I have learned that sometimes the ban comes off and you can look. But if you try to logon, you get banned again. Also, there are various anonymizers that let you look anyway. They can be a little slow, but work for a quick peek at something. In any case, this site is a lot more tolerant and welcoming. I also slowly learned there is a lot more content here than I realized at first. Take a careful look at the various hotlinks and tabs. Different organization. but it is all here. So - glad to have you with us. Romelle

Priceline only guarantees a room that will hold two people. After winning, you can contact the hotel directly and make a request for bed types. While they try to accommodate you, there are no guarantees. Your luck is better at the higher star levels. One 3* place always gives a queen bed. If you want two twins, you have to pay another $10 a might. I believe Hotwire would operate the same. No guarantees, but you can ask and they will try. Romelle

Good work on booking the back-up. Now you can continue to bid more comfortably. I am assuming you know exactly how long you can try, before you can't cancel the back-up? Hotel rules regarding that can vary a lot. Do read the fine print. For the record, if Priceline lets you bid at both the one and two star levels, that means they have rooms at both those levels currently. Just because no one has reported wins here doesn't rule anything out. Maybe you will get to report a new hotel here! Good luck!! Romelle PS - Check the "My Rewards" area on PRICELINE. Some people are reporting a bonus there. You have to register for the program, and the current bonuses are expiring April 30, but still worth checking. $5 a night for up to five nights. It is in "My Profile" on PRICELINE.

You get to do the math and translate that US$130 per person into a rough PER ROOM PER NIGHT rate..... My first thought was $130 x the four people you might put in one room and that will buy a really fine place. Then I realized there are 3 or 4 nights in each of the different cities. So - ??? Might also think on budget per city.... I think Paris will be the most expensive with Rome a close second and then London. So you might even go for a nicer place in London, or lower your standards in Paris?? Romelle

May I second brianc_li's comments. The hotel industry is taking a hit with the economic downturn right now, just like lots of other industries. They are indeed offering some great deals for bidders. Live it up! It probably won't last. I've bid on a lot of different hotels in a lot of different places. Have never gotten a sub-standard room. Have always at least been satisfied, and sometimes downright ecstatic over what I scored. Yes, people have reported bad luck, but I think it must be fairly infrequent. Romelle

I'll try to answer what I can, but for quicker and better response, you want to be posting in the Hotels - Washington (State) - Hotwire area for the ID request, and probably also for the general questions about the Seattle areas. Downtown Pike Place is a great area. Central to it is this amazing "market" where they sell whole fish (especially salmon), fresh flowers and gorgeous produce. The market is called Pike Place Market. Lots of odd little restaurants and shops around the perimeter. Historical buildings. A tourist draw because it is so interesting. Seattle has good and inexpensive public transportation including an overhead train that could take you to other areas of interest. Bus from the airport downtown. If you are arriving very late, you might consider an airport hotel for your first night? They all have shuttles back and forth from the terminals, and are a lot less expensive than the downtown hotels (1/3 to 1/2 off?). They are very competitive, but quite driven by cruise ship schedules and other things, so the savings can vary a lot. Hotwire is a good way to go if you want to have a pretty good guess as to the hotel you will get beforehand. If you are open to any hotel within the star level you are bidding, you might save a few $US with Priceline. I'm not the expert on ID'ing so you will probably have to post in the right place for that. They also need the dates you were looking at, and since a little time has gone past it might be a good idea to recheck the rate. Romelle

MadFlyer - I'm guessing when you typed the above you actually meant Hotwire instead of Priceline since you were talking of entering the number of guests??? Zionstorm - you don't mention your budget? That might help direct some of the advice you get here. Also, any particular areas of the different cities you want or don't want? Depending on your flight schedule, sometimes with a very late arrival or a very early departure an airport hotel can be a good and inexpensive option for the first or last night. That can be true in London and Paris, but Rome airport hotels tend to be pretty expensive. I'm always suggesting/touting public transportation, but with a group of seven, you might find some of the van/limo services to be cost effective. And while I haven't stayed in the London School of Economics, I have stayed in similar type places in other cities, when I had problems finding regular hotels within my budget. It worked well for me. Romelle

I hope you will let us know what you end up doing? I'm always curious as to the end of a story. Romelle

Did you look at HOTWIRE offerings? I see they have rooms in three different small towns roughly in the area. There were none specifically in Bryce Canyon though, but these showed up when I just used Bryce. These might not work for your plans, but thought I'd just mention them in case. The median Pric.eline 2* price for your date is showing this morning as $139, and $89 for the 1*. Hotel pricing can change so much one always has to just use most current information. I'd guess PRICELINE doesn't have a lot of historical pricing information for a smaller city like Bryce Canyon, so putting in or taking out just a single number could really change things. And there could be some event occurring that would also change things. Romelle

You are sort of running out of time. Maybe you could make the cancelable back-up reservation as suggested, and then comfortably continue bidding up until the last minute (or at least until the deadline for canceling)? Romelle

Sorry, but PRICELINE doesn't show hotel amenities. Might be why Hotline can get by with typically charging a little more. Romelle PS- But, welcome here! Hope to hear more from you.

Oops. Weren't we the helpful little bunnies. Just a little late. Romelle

While I agree with thereuare's suggestion to take a look at Hotwire, thought I'd add my experience with Spokane in case any of it was of any use to you. Last fall I bid via Priceline and got Red Lion Hotel rooms on two different dates while bidding in the 3*s in downtown Spokane and the airport. One bid was won at $49 and one at $59. It was before I started posting here. Since I was planning to rent a car, downtown Spokane was OK with me, as well as the airport. Apparently the airport hotels were more expensive as I ended up winning in downtown. While the Red Lion River does not consider itself an airport hotel, it offers every 1/2 hour shuttle service to and from the airport. On the return side of my trip, I ended up dropping my car off in the evening, taking the shuttle to the hotel, and then back to the airport in the morning so I could avoid the driving. I can't speak for other hotels, and don't know your particular plans, but thought I'd post this in case you really aren't tied to an airport hotel (and maybe get lucky and get a downtown one with shuttle service anyway?). You are way early now, and hotels really don't have a good reason to offer any bargains. Assuming you don't go the Hotwire route, if I were in your position, I'd just calmly submit bids maybe every couple of weeks for something like $50 to $60. Spokane North doesn't have 3* or higher, so can be used for a free rebid. You could first bid $50 on the airport zone, and then add Spokane North and bid $60. Or if you could use downtown also, you could bid first that, then the airport, and then that free rebid. If you start getting too close to your departure time, whatever your nerves can handle, then could be the time to start exploring higher $$ levels. The hotel was really nice. Clean, quiet, comfortable, etc. and I was treated very nicely. Beautifully landscaped. There was regular shuttle service to and from the airport, every 1/2 hour as I recall. There are two Red Lions in the area, just across the street from each other. Both are 3*s. Good natured shuttle drivers. Spokane is a relatively small city and these two hotels are only about 8 miles or under 15 minutes from the airport. Romelle

Many people have reported here when getting Edinburgh hotels via either via PRICELINE or HOTWIRE. But I don't see any reviews? I looked under Edinburgh, Scotland and United Kingdom but struck out totally. Unless I'm missing something, there aren't any reviews yet for Scotland hotels?? Maybe some of you will be so kind as to provide some reviews for this and other future bidders? Romelle

You might try plugging your dates into HOTWIRE to see what is offered there. That will give you a rough idea of what bidding on PRICELINE might take. Also, you could try the dates of other people's wins to see the difference. Romelle

Can't say it is a terribly exclusive club, but welcome nonetheless! It took me a while to find everything here, so I'll mention the stuff I managed to miss initially. Under the Support/Travel Links is a whole list of hot links that will route you to useful places and also help support this board. I didn't even think to look for good old Delta there, as well as Restaurants.com. I find the whole HOTWIRE ID'ing offered here pretty interesting. It makes working with PL even easier, as you have more information before you act. Since I hadn't encountered it before, I hadn't realized the usefulness of it. The Priceline and Hotwire Calendar of Wins (link in center of page) can be very handy. And those PRICELINE MAPS are amazing! Even in typing this, I noticed another feature I'd been not seen before. Take your time looking around as this board will have some good surprises for you. Glad you are here. Romelle And isn't it interesting that TOBB doesn't have the equivalent of this thread!

If Priceline lets you select and bid at the 3* level, that means there are 3* rooms available even though no one has reported winning them here. If you look at the retail (direct purchase) side of PL, the 3* offerings there are at least indicative of what might be won through bidding. Not a perfect correlation, but it will give you a pretty fair idea as to what could be won. You might also keep an eye on the star ratings for PL vs Hotwire. I see on the retail side that PL has two Edinburgh Express HI's and both are rated 2*. You didn't mention how Hotwire rates the Express HI it is offering? Romelle

There are a number of different reasons why your $102 bid was not accepted although earlier ones were. As thereyouare mentioned, rates are date specific. To prove this to yourself, get on the web site of the hotel won, and check their rates for your dates versus the dates at which the other people won. Or get on Expedia and look at a two week span of time. Expedia shows rates by individual day so you can see how things change. Or, maybe the hotel that offered the lower rate just filled all it's rooms, and you actually are competing for a different hotel. Or, the relationship between the dollar and the euro became less favorable to the dollar. Athens hotel rates are based in euros, and if it takes more dollars to buy euros, then it will take more dollars to win when dollars are worth less. Or maybe the offering hotel just decided to raise it's rates since it was filling quickly and figured it could get more money. Or ?? You might try entering your dates in Hotwire to see what it says (top of page here, left hand side). If all else fails, and you can't find something within your budget, you can of course consider the 4* hotels. If you want to keep bidding 5*s until the very last minute, one good tactic is to make a cancelable reservation so you have a safety net. It is always possible there will be some last minute deals since one of the main ideas of PRICELINE is to fill otherwise unfilled rooms. These aren't necessarily offered until the last minute. Romelle

Nicely bid, especially ignoring that counter-offer. The time frame for bidding again used to be 72 hours, but now is 24. Also, using another computer doesn't change anything. The reason yellowdog mentioned linking through this site for your bidding is that it generates a tiny bit of revenue for the site and helps keep it in operation. A good thing IMHO. Besides the links to PRICELINE and HOTWIRE at the top of the screen, there a whole bunch more under the Support/Travel Links tab. No, definitely not good to start out with your highest rebid, also IMHO. Priceline has rooms in their inventory at set prices. Sneak up from the bottom gradually to nail the best deal. It is complicated, but there is a lot of discussion about whether an overbid might yield one a better hotel. Some logic to it, but the jury is still out. I've only been to Dublin once, but loved it. The Book of Kells was incredible (as was the Guinness brewery). Have a great visit. Romelle

Hajar - I can't speak for Asia hotels vs Canada hotels, but I know European 4*s are sort of like US 3*s so people from the US tend to bid more on the 4*s in Europe. 3* European hotels may well be very nice, but when visiting elsewhere, people want to be a little surer. For Asian hotels, the 5* ones are very luxurious, but are often much less expensive than similar properties in the US so people take them just to get a chance to enjoy such poshness and luxury. And kalo93406 - that $22 rebid offer is a very common number. Unless you are flat out of bids and time, ignore it and keep inching upward $1 or so at a time. You might even see PL keep giving you the $22 rebid offer on your higher bid. But you most likely will get a hit by the time you are 1/2 way up (not a sure thing, but usually). Romelle

There is a lot of discussion on when to bid in the general areas, so I'll leave that alone and just recommend you read it. PRICELINE FAQ is a good start, but it would also be a good idea to browse through the other FAQs, and spend some time reading Paris results to just get a feeling for the situation. The short answer for when to start bidding is now, as soon as you've done some research and figured out your general strategy. Cities are different though as to when the hotels add rooms to PL inventory. Paris sort of has the reputation of waiting until the last minute. So, you might well do some bidding now, and might even score something, but might have to be patient. For this sort of situation, it usually is a good idea to make a cancelable back-up reservation that would do the job, and then stay at your bidding until just before you have to cancel, hoping to score a better deal with the bidding. With something at least workable tied down, you will be much calmer as you work at finding a better deal (nicer place, less expensive, ??). But I can address your questions about traveling alone as a single woman. I do it all the time, have for years, and you can see from my profile that I'm a 67-year old grandmother. The hotels offered by Priceline are major hotels and tend to be in safe, well-lighted, clean areas. Paris is really expensive, and I'd guess $100 won't buy a 4* there in August, so you probably will have to work for a 3*. I exercise reasonable caution. No expensive jewelry, try to look as native as possible, don't stand on street corners reading a big map, walk briskly like I know where I'm going, etc. Lots of articles on this. I'll just say it really has never been a problem. For a quick look at what you might be able to find, try the HOTWIRE link up at the top of the page here. Hotwire sometimes rates hotels a little more generously than PL, but it will at least give you an idea. Typically, one can do a little better (10%??) bidding on Priceline. You are traveling at a great time. Because of the economy and the more favorable exchange rate, prices have been really low. With Hotwire, this board also has an interesting feature. Often someone can identify the hotel offered, based on the amenities and sometimes the TripAdvisor rating. If you see something that looks possible, you can post back in this Other Country Hotwire area asking for ID help. Supply your dates, all the amenities (including the additional ones you have to click through to find) and any TripAdvisor rating information. Long answer - but I'm avoiding cleaning my garage. Romelle

There is a wonderful old fort to explore, you can ride the ferry across the bay to the Baccardi factory, you can go snorkling, .... tons to do. I picked up the Lonely Planet guide book for ideas and addresses and maps and such. Romelle