Romelle

When I clicked on that Downtown Disney link above, it showed available - 7:30 pm Central time. Just FYI. The deals can pop on and off. If you still don't see it, and it could meet your needs, it definitely is worth trying some more times later. Romelle

The 7% off Price.line NYOP (in red up above) is good through the end of today. That might let you push your bidding a bit? With the "disappearing" hotels, you might consider making a cancellable back-up reservation at Refundable Rates.com Romelle

The very best source of information is usually a local, or someone who has traveled to/from that area a lot. Hopefully somebody on this site will chime in. If that doesn't happen, my personal favorite application for figuring out how to move my body from one place to another is www.rome2rio.com. Romelle

You may have already checked this one, but just in case ... there are tons of reviews on THIS SITE. Romelle

You could bid via Priceline up to the level of the Frontier deals and see what happens? With the bidding of course you can't choose time of day, so maybe you'd choose to bid up to a little lower to account for that potential inconvenience. Romelle

If you are liking the hotel the HW and PE will probably give you, the numbers to compare are the bottom lines after the fees and taxes are included and after you've included the current $15 off for HW (described at the top of the page and in the moderator's signature). Not just the $ bid amount. Romelle

I'm a member, not one of the board officials that does the "educated guesses". But it looks like there are lots of repeats in your lists. As near as I can tell from looking at just the lists of amenities, the 2 offers on 24-25 and 25 alone are the same. They also are 2 of the 6 offers on the 24th, but on the 24th 4 other hotels also present offers. Maybe you could first just get the educated guesses as to the 2 repeating offers. Then, if you like one of them, go with that for both nights. If you don't like either of them, then you might try bidding, since to go with the offers, even if you pick a different hotel for the 24th, you are still stuck with one you don't like for the 25th. And you have the inconvenience of moving. Romelle

You do need to continue your request in your original thread, but to keep you in motion - there really are currently 12 Anaheim rebid zones at the 4* level. There are instructions as to how to find them HERE. Substitute 2 hours for the old 24 hours. Or - get into the Priceline bidding area and start clicking down the list. If 4* or higher lights up, unclick the one you just clicked. When you are clear at the bottom, it should show 12 zones clicked and only up to the 3.5* level biddable. Lots of people then post their list back and somebody double checks it for them. Highly recommended. Romelle

The 2x means "second time". I think in this case it was for reading your messages (maybe there are new ones there if you've already read the starting ones?) and answering all the questions in the posts. Or maybe you weren't going through the recommended links here to do your research? The more specific information the moderators have, the better they can help. Romelle

I'm a member, not a board official. I had the same first reaction to Bidding Helper as you did when it just took me to PRICELINE. Then I poked around a bit and realized I needed to click those other things in that row just below the search info you enter - Hotwire, Hotwire Easy View, Priceline Express, and Hotels by Name - to get to the other places. The beauty of the application is it lets you bounce back and forth between the different options and compare things, all without reentering your initial request. There are other changes since 2010. You can now bid every 2 hours on Price.line, vs the former 24 hours. PRICELINE EXPRESS is new, very similar to Hotwire in that you can see the amenities before you accept the offer and the pros here can often give you an "educated guess" as to what hotel you are likely to get. Hope you are able to work something out. Lots better tools today. If you return with the added information requested above I'm sure you'll get some good help. Romelle

In case you aren't aware of it, you now can bid every 2 hours. Romelle

And in the excitement of getting ready for the trip, don't forget to bust that back-up reservation! Good Luck!

From the Priceline site Help: "Can I add nights or rooms to my hotel reservation? If you made a reservation using our Name Your Own Price® or Express Deals service, you can go to your Check Status page to see if you can add rooms or nights to your reservation for the same low rate. If you do not see the Add Nights/Add Rooms banner on your Check Status page, and the hotel still has availability, you can use our Retail reservation service to book additional rooms or nights for the current retail price." You can only add up to as many nights as your original reservation. Three possibilities: 1-you can add at the same rate 2-you can add but the rate is higher 3-you can't add. And no way of knowing which possibility until you've made the original reservation.

IKEA is right next to the Mall of America. Walkable, although one has to be careful crossing streets. IKEA is always a fun shop, but also you can find some really reasonable/good/healthy meals there. Click here. If you sign up to be part of the IKEA family, you can save even more on some of their meals. Romelle

You've got just over a week. Sometimes a good thing to do at this point is to make a cancelable back-up reservation. Both you and the person you are helping can then comfortably keep looking for the better deal. There is detail on how to find cancelable rates in the blue PRICELINE BID REJECTED?? up above. Romelle

Have you tried the MAPS and HOTELS.com site mentioned a couple times here? It also is in the Tool Box up above in the header. It is remarkably powerful for searches. You just enter where you'd like to be (address, city name, airport code, ??) plus your dates and a radius for the search. When the list of possibles and the map pops up, you can thin things down with the various options - price range, star level, etc. You can see where the various hotels are located, which will help with your desire to be on the beach. And you can click on the hotel names for lots more information. A bit of a learning curve, but well worth it IMO. Romelle I'm a member, not a board official.

I hope you take time to try "Maps and Hotels". Thereuare put a link in his response or you can find it in the "Tool Box" up above in the header. It is pretty amazing after a short learning period. You can put in your dates with a center of Minneapolis, one of the stadiums, the airport, an address or lots of other things. A radius (it is about 10 miles from the center of Minneapolis to the center of St. Paul). The results show on a map. After you get the results, you can use a slider bar to toss out all the places over your budget, plus the really inexpensive ones that might be scary. You can also unselect the lower star ratings. Then you can move around on the map and see what might work. If you click on the name of a particular hotel in the left hand list column, a box will appear on the map spotting the hotel and providing some more detail. I'm pretty sure you'll see some more possibilities. It really is an amazing tool. Romelle PS - FYI - I'm a member, not a board official

I live in the general area. The MSP Airport-Mall of America zone is probably the best possibility. Most of the hotels in that zone run shuttles to the airport and the Mall of America. However, I can personally vouch for the fact that not all of them do. The exception I managed to hit was on a bus line though, and the front desk automatically handed out a bus schedule map and information when I asked. It was only about 10 minutes on the bus to the Mall of America, and then I was on the light rail line. t is hard to put numbers on, but you'd probably be at least 90% safe for having shuttle service available. With a taxi as your Plan B. The Downtown St. Paul zone would be a secondary choice. There is light rail service from there along University Avenue to downtown Minneapolis. That run takes almost an hour, but there are interesting places along University Avenue for a hop-off/hop-on lunch or something. While most of the hotels are clustered downtown and along University Avenue, there is always the risk of getting one on an outer edge of the zone map. The ones members have reported are in the downtown area, except for that Kelly Inn. Your Plan B would then be either taxi or bus to intercept the light rail. You'll have to decide what sort of savings you need to make the risk worthwhile. Romelle

The second amenity in one of your last two is "Boutique hotel". That would be the Boutique property. The $105 one. Romelle

Have you tried the Bidding.Helper up above? I used it with your dates and did stumble upon a Hot.wire $72 2* in Arlington. It did throw in free breakfast. You might find something better fitting your needs, but it is a start. You have to click the different options separately to see what is offered. It starts with the bidding page for Price.line. You are probably tired of seeing that one. If you see a possibility, you can post back here with all amenities and receive an educated guess as to what hotel you might receive. Also, you can see what other bidders have received in the Hotel Lists above (tip - Arlington, VA is in the District of Colombia part of the lists, not Virginia where I first looked). Romelle

From your title: The lowest bid number is found by first carefully researching rates for your particular dates via Bidding Helper (above), hotel web sites, Hotwire, Priceline Express, and other general sources (lots on the Support Page above). Then starting below the best number you find and working up gradually. During high seasons the discounts tend to be less than in low seasons. I've received bids with only the $10 to $20 savings. As far as "the best star rating", that depends upon your personal taste/needs/budget. Or were you asking what is the highest (best) star number? That would be 5*, although in many areas there aren't hotels that go up that high. And sometimes there might be hotels in the area at higher star levels, but no inventory available for Priceline bidding. Currently the highest star level available for Priceline bidding and on Priceline retail (direct purchase) is 3.5*. Or were you asking what is the highest Guest Rating? The highest I've seen is 9+, although there might be a 10. The 7+s you see for several star levels in Melville are the minimum you'd receive if you bid that particular star level. 9s are really rare. 8s are very good. 7s are solid. I'd have to have some other reasons before I'd go for lower guest rated choices. Romelle

Try using a different login ID if you have an alternate. These things can be iffy. Romelle

For searches, there is also my personal favorite - the nearby airport 3-character code. In the case of New York City and some really large cities, you might first be taken to the specific airport outside of the city (and its surroundings), but then it is one more click to the actual city. The airport code works well for those of us who can't spell, or don't want to type long city names. Romelle

I'm a member, not a board official, but to move your process along a little bit: You can now bid every 2 hours, rather than the 24 hours. I think all Priceline meant was that you could submit a bid for the same zone(s) and star level as you had done 4 hours ago. You could raise the bid amount, lower it, or leave it the same. Sometimes hotels have given new room inventory to Price.line so even a bid at the same or a lower amount could make sense. Philadelphia has lots of zones at lots of different star levels, so even with "little flexibility" there probably are bidding patterns that would let you make quite a few bids just in one session. And therefore explore a range of rates all at once. If you post back with your dates, desired zones and star level, plus some indication of your maximum budget, I'm sure you will be given a bidding pattern that will let you do the job effectively. The reason for the budget number is so you aren't provided with a pattern that is higher than you'd like to try. If you aren't yet familiar with free rebid zones, it would be good to study up on those here: Priceline Re-Bidding Explained Romelle

You could try directly on the particular hotel's web site checking a day at a time for your possible travel days. Or using Hotwire or Priceline Express the same way. Sometimes you can pick up the pattern that way. I just looked at Saturday nights on the hotel's web site, but it seems the first serious dip is November 7. Rates were either much higher or simply no availability in October. Romelle