shneebs

Happy with this price, although it is only $2/night cheaper than the Express Deals 4* that was available on their site (@$87/night). There are lots of free 4* re-bid zones available in the Ottawa area, so I started at $55/night and went up in $5 increments. Had to go all the way to $85/night before being accepted. Shneebs.

I won the 4* Montreal Marriott Chateau Champlain on my last free re-bid @ $125/night. (July 4-6, 2013) I have been bidding daily for a few days now - increased my max bid (at end of free re-bidding)from $95 -> $102 -> $107 -> $112 over the past several days. All of this time, there has been a PRICELINE EXPRESS Deals price of $134/night available (just went up to $135 yesterday). Then I read today's post of someone winning the same property, with dates one week later for $100/night. I checked the "Express Deals" section and for the same dates, I saw $105/night for what appears to be the same property (4* with 9+ rating plus free internet...) With the Express Deals price currently at $135/night for my dates, I suspected that I might not win unless I went to within $5-10 of the Express Deals price. Today, I started at $101 and bid in small increments up to $125 - my 2nd to last free re-bid was at $122 which was rejected, and finally won at $125/night. This should be a good indicator that acceptable "Name Your Own Price" bids are not far below the "PRICELINE EXPRESS Deals" price... I used the BetterBidding.com PRICELINE link to make my bid. Thanks! Shneebs.

$60 first bid accepted for 4* in Halifax - got the Westin... Should have started lower! lol... one night only - checkin Friday, check out Saturday. I used the BetterBidding.com PRICELINE link to make my purchase. Thank you, Shneebs.

Used Priceline link and started at $50 based on previous poster's experience. First bid accepted. Wish I would have tried $40 first! Still a great deal as lowest rate on their website is $109.... a savings of 54%. Check-In Date: Friday, April 3, 2009 Check-Out Date: Saturday, April 4, 2009 Hotel Name: Courtyard By Marriott Bangor Your Offer Price: $50.00 Number of Rooms: 1 Number of Nights: 1 Subtotal: $50.00 Taxes and Service Fees: $13.47 Total Charges*: $63.47 Shneebs.

Just a general question: As I recently posted in the Chicago Hotwire forum, I'm looking at booking hotels for a group of people for the Chicago Marathon weekend... Downtown prices are outrageous right now, but Hotwire prices look more reasonable. CTA would be our preference for travel (vs. renting a car or taking cabs), so proximity to a CTA stop is important to us. I just noticed something while looking at Google Earth last night: As far as I can see, all Priceline 4* locations are pretty much adjacent to a CTA stop! Am I missing one? The Hilton O'Hare is by the O'Hare stop, and the rest are at the next one (Rosemount). This includes the Hyatt Regency, Westin, Doubletree and Sofitel. For my dates, I'm looking at $89/night at the Hilton, so maybe I could score $20/night cheaper on Priceline?.... Can anyone think of a 4* ORD Priceline location that ISN'T near a CTA stop? Thanks in advance, Shneebs.

Here's another idea that might be considered a little on the "shady" side... Since I read that there is a big doctor's convention on the same weekend as the marathon, I found the convention's website... Their hotel rates are fairly reasonable for downtown (relatively speaking) - in the $200 to $250/night range. I went through all the steps on their website, right up to "reserve now", and it didn't ask me for any confirmation that I was registered... What are the odds I could get in on their rate and not have someone question me on it? The only reason I didn't go through with the reservation for now is that they want a $175 deposit to hold the room... Has anyone ever tried a similar strategy - successfully?! :) Shneebs.

I looked at Evanston... I didn't find any deals to compare to Hotwire ORD pricing, so that probably isn't going to work for us. And no, we're not driving - we're flying in from Canada. :) 4* ORD Hilton/Westin is probably our preferred option so far. The question now is whether to wait and see if anything better comes along (and risk the 4* ORD option selling out / disappearing), or buy now and then hope we don't see any better deals after our money is spent! Shneebs.

We've thought about that, but the two "high price" nights are smack in the middle of our 6 night stay, so if we really wanted to isolate the high cost nights, we'd probably end up staying downtown on the nights of the 4th & 5th, back to the airport on the nights of the 6th & 7th, then back downtown on the nights of the 8th & 9th... I really don't think changing hotels twice during our 6 days would be much fun. Our flight is early on the 10th, so staying near the airport on the night of the 9th actually makes sense.... So to answer your question, if I were going to consider splitting my stay, the arrangement that would probably make the most sense would be to stay downtown for two nights (4th to the 6th) and then go back to the airport for the remainder... What to do... what to do... Oh, and any guesses on the Hotwire 2.5* hotels in ORD North? Shneebs. p.s. Not sure how much correlation there is between Hotwire prices & Priceline winning bids, but I just punched in each of the two night groups on Hotwire... prices are still high downtown. Apparently there is a huge doctor's convention on top of the 45,000 people who run the marathon... Best downtown prices are as follows: Oct 4th to 6th - $214/night - 3* NMA Oct 6th to 8th - $266/night - 3* Loop Oct 8th to 10th - $169/night - 4* NMA

Hello all, A group of us are going to be in town for the Chicago Marathon... would love to stay downtown, but prices are too high for my blood... probably going to have to settle for an Airport hotel and take the "L" into town each day. Because of this, Priceline is probably out since at least with Hotwire, we can make sure we get a place with an airport shuttle. I'm currently leaning towards the 4* Westin/Hilton options listed below - 2 people to a room - both are either at or near an "L" stop, and price reasonable. Looking for help to ID the two 2.5* Hotwire listings in bold below. Best options that I see on Hotwire right now are: 2 people to a room: 4* ORD North -$89/night (match for either Hilton O'Hare or Westin O'Hare) Amenities: Shuttle, Gym, Pool, Restaurant, Business Center & H. S. Internet -or- 2.5* ORD North - $74/night (no match in Hotwire list on this board) Amenities: Shuttle, Free Breakfast, Gym I'd expect this to be probably a Holiday Inn Express, Residence Inn, other? (Note: Best downtown option for these dates is $229/night for 2 people - match for Club Quarters in the Loop) 4 people to a room: 4*ORD North - $149/night (match for same as above) -or- 2.5* ORD North - $86/night (no match in Hotwire list on this board) Amenities: Shuttle, gym, pool, restaurant and laundry facilities (or a 3rd option: 3* ORD North - $89/night with Amenities: Shuttle, gym, pool, restaurant, business center and laundry facilities) (Note: Best downtown option for these dates is $369 - too much!) Any words of advice? We've already tried renting a condo - we're too late for that... all the good ones are gone... B&B's seem full too. We do have a cancellable booking at the Residence Inn O'Hare - 2 bdr rooms for $199/night which is pretty good, but it is a bit more of a pain b/c not as close to an "L" stop... Thanks in advance, Shneebs.

Well, it depends what you call a "good location". :) I think it's pretty decent... It's about 3 blocks south of Madison Square Garden, and only about a block from a 7th Ave subway stop. The name of the hotel is "Holiday Inn Express Chelsea" but apparently some would argue that it's not in Chelsea, but in fact north of it... Apparently the neighbourhood is not the greatest, but definitely not horrible... I guess I'll find out for myself in a few more days! :)Shneebs.

I figured that would be hoping for too much to have them price-match themselves... oh well... I just had quite a shock - just looked again on Hotwire... the price is now at $156 for my dates for what appears to be the same property!!! So this means that so far today, the price has been $77 (what I booked for), down to $75, and now up to $156! (All assuming this is the same property of course.) I had no idea the prices fluctuated this quickly! Shneebs.

Hello again, Amenities listed for the Holiday Inn Express Chelsea were: - Complimentary breakfast - Fitness center - Business center - High Speed Internet Access Shneebs. p.s. I just looked again, and now the price is down to $75/night! Is there any kind of price protection on Hotwire? I'd love to save another $2 off/night! lol...

Hi folks, My first post, but I think you'll find it quite useful... I just purchased the 2-1/2 * in Midtown South for Feb 8-12th for $77/night, and the hotel was.... Holiday Inn Express! This hotel is very well reviewed on Tripadvisor, so for my money, this is a screaming bargain! A tip for you when trying to identify hotels: take note of what the hotel's amenities are, the location, the star level, etc, etc.... then go to the Hotwire Packages section of their site, pick your same dates, but make it a package with a car, and then it will list prices, but this time it shows the hotel names! I used this method, and was getting a very low rate for Holiday Inn Express - showed the same location & amenities as the "unknown" 2-1/2 *, so I rolled the dice and got the hotel I was expecting. This is the 2nd time I've used this method with success. Good luck to all... Shneebs.