travelguy2

Tried $70 and was offered $82. Instead I added Balch Springs and got the first rebid at $74.

Offer Price:
avg. per room, per night
US$ 74.00
Rooms:  1
Nights:  2      + Add nights for the same rate!
Room Subtotal: US$ 148.00
Taxes & Fees: US$ 31.06
Total Charged to Card:  US$ 179.06

Best rate on the hotel website is $136 so this is about 40% off. Very nice!

At first I bid $18 and I got the "you didn't win, but we'll let you raise your bid" message. So I raised it to $19 and got this!

I used the betterbidding link to bid.

Your Offer Price: $19.00 (per day)
Total Rental Days: 3
SubTotal: $57.00
Taxes and Fees:  $51.60
Total Rental Car Charges:      $108.60     You saved 77%!*

I saw a price of $32/day for a minivan available on Hot.wire, and decided to try bidding on Price.line instead.

Your Offer Price: $27.00 (per day)

Total Rental Days: 9

SubTotal: $243.00

Taxes and Fees:  $138.41

Total Rental Car Charges:      $381.41

This was an incredible deal as the lowest price we could find conventionally for those dates was $784.

I used your PRICELINE link to begin bidding.

Your geography is a bit off. Neither the Hyatt House or Drury Inn is located in either of the zones you cited.

DOLLAR rent a car on their website has a special to rent a mid-size SUV for $33.95 a day. This is the cheapest car rental I found for Denver as all the others were unusually high.

Thanks, that's a great tip. This is far lower than anything I've seen at Denver recently. It seems to be an especially pricey summer there.

They also have other variations such as a premium car for $32.99 a day, standard SUV or convertible for $45.99 a day.

I did use the HOTWIRE link! I forgot to mention it in my post though :)

Regular price from Sheraton was $119

Amenities:

Smoke Free Rooms

Guest rooms at this hotel are always smoke-free.

Fitness Center

Guests have access to exercise equipment; an additional charge may apply.

Pool(s)

Property offers at least one pool area; hours and dates of operation may be seasonal.

Restaurant(s)

Property offers at least one restaurant on the premises; hours and days of operation may vary.

Business Center

Guests have access to business equipment and services; an additional charge may apply.

High-Speed Internet Access

Guestrooms are equipped with high-speed Internet access; an extra charge may apply.

Accessible for the blind

Braille or raised signage

Accessible for the deaf

TTY for telephone, visual or flashing fire alarm and vibrating alarm clock

Accessible path of travel

<amenity names only please... not descriptions>

In-room accessibility

Accessible path from the room entrance to the window, the bed and the bathroom; accessible hardware and minimal resistance to open the door; accessible temperature controls and window coverings

Accessible bathroom

Raised toilet, hand-held shower and grab bars at the tub and toilet

Handicapped parking

<amenity names only please... not descriptions>

Roll-in shower

Bathroom has a roll-in shower

I'd recommend calling Priceline back. They can't expect you to pay for a 4* if you only got a 3*. I'd demand that they reimburse you - explain to them that you're going to do a chargeback (for not providing the paid-for service), if they don't. And it will be PRICELINE, not the hotel, whose pocketbook is hurt by that. So they ought to listen.

Anecdotally, and completely from my own experience:

I don't think it's that uncommon to find Hotwire rating a hotel higher than Priceline. (Generally 1/2 star to 1 star higher)

I do find it is much less common to find Priceline rating a hotel higher than Hotwire. Not to say it doesn't happen, but the opposite happens a lot more. IME.

Even a "just the basics" hotel will be over $100/night in that part of Manhattan then.

Frankly, even a "fall-apart roach motel" might be $100/night.

If your budget doesn't allow for more than $100/night, I would suggest looking into staying either:

a. On the weekend, in a part of Manhattan that empties out on the weekend and may have better hotel deals (specifically lower Manhattan)

b. On the weekdays, stay across the river in NJ near a Path station - you can be in midtown in 15-20 minutes and will save a lot on your hotel.

As far as splitting weekend and weeknight, as I noted above some parts of Manhattan tend to have much less activity on the weekends and you may find better deals there. The parts of Manhattan you mentioned are in demand all week long and, while rates may be lower on weekends, they aren't going to be low enough to get into your price range.

A 9 day stay may be difficult, especially in that week which includes spring break for some parts of the eastern US.

If you are willing to switch hotels, try plugging in different dates into Hotwire and seeing if you get lower/higher rates for some days; it may make sense to split the trip into 2 (or potentially more than 2) segments.

I'd try throwing some low bids on Priceline as well. It can't hurt, as you are so far out that you have plenty of time to try. Of course, you may also be so far out that you're not going to get much.

From looking at old posts on the board, what did prices look like LAST year around that time?

After 3 days of being denied and rebidding, finally got this hotel.

La Quinta Inn & Suites Loveland

Loveland

1450 Cascade Ave, Loveland, CO 80538

970-622 8000

The lowest rate on the hotel website was $104, so we are saving about 33%. Not the best I've ever done on Priceline, but this is move-in weekend at nearby Colorado State U. and a lot of hotels in the area are sold out, so I consider it to be as good as I could expect.

Prior bids of up to $85 for Fort Collins 3.5*, $81 for Fort Collins and Loveland 3*, and $65 for Fort Collins/Fort Collins North/Loveland 2.5* were all rejected.

I used your PRICELINE link to begin the bid.

Another way to avoid it would be to bid other zones. Are there other zones in the area that have acceptable hotels at the 3* level? You also could just only bid higher star levels if that was within budget.

Originally bid $50 on a 3*. Got counter offered at $60. Added a rebid zone, bid $52, and got upgraded to this 3.5*.

Very good deal as the lowest rate on the hotel's website is $149 for this date.

Used the PRICELINE link to begin bidding.

Won on the first bid.

Lowest rate direct from hotel was $219!

I won this on the first bid through the PRICELINE link. Maybe I could have gone lower?? Who knows. Anyway, it's a nice savings as even Hotwire was showing $21/day for this car, and as you can see from the note below it's a huge savings over booking conventionally.

Your Offer Price: $15.00 (per day)

Total Rental Days: 3 days

Subtotal: $45.00

Taxes and Fees: $28.61

Total Charges: $73.61

Lowest Published Price: $197.32

Total Savings:* $123.71 (You saved 63%)

There must be a lot of extra cars available in Denver that weekend. Hotwire was showing prices of $8-9 per day for everything up to full size, so I started bidding really low on Priceline.

$6 for Economy was rejected, but this was accepted.

Your Offer Price: $7.00 (per day)

Total Rental Days: 5 days(4 days and 8 hours)

Subtotal: $35.00

Taxes and Fees: $37.08

Total Charges: $72.08

Lowest Published Price: $100.36

Total Savings:* $28.28 (You saved 28%)

The winning bid email also indicates I could upgrade to mid-size for $1/day more or full-size/standard for $2/day more. Food for thought if you're considering bidding those cars for these dates.

This looks like a new hotel for the list. It's been reported as a win on Hotwire before but never on Priceline. Looks like it has good reviews - free breakfast, internet, shuttle...should be a good stay.

Bids of $35 and $37 earlier were rejected.

Your Offer Price Per Room, Per Night: $39.00

Subtotal: $39.00

Taxes & Fees: $12.51

Total Charges*: $51.51

Price on the hotel website is $79 for the same night. I used the PRICELINE link to bid.

I'm aware that I can't bid on specific hotels and am willing to take that gamble. However, after further research I've narrowed it down to the following zones and hotels I'd be settled with: Waikiki City Central (Courtyard Waikiki Beach, Aqua Aloha Surf or the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani ), Waikiki Marina Area (Hawaii Prince Hotel, Aqua Palms and Spa or the Doubletree Alana).

OK, so you're aware you can't bid on specific hotels. But here's something else to consider: if you bid in those zones, you are NOT guaranteed to get one of those hotels you just named. You could get ANY 3* (or whatever level you are bidding) hotel in that zone - and those are likely not ALL of the 3* hotels in those zones. Did you get those off the hotel list on this site? If so, be aware that this list is only a list of hotels that someone has reported winning in the zone, not a comprehensive list of ALL 3* hotels in the zones (since hotels and zones are constantly changing, maintaining such a list would be a ton of work). There's always the possibility that you could get some other random hotel that no one's ever won before.

That's one reason I personally try not to bid lower than 3* on Priceline, because I figure that even if I get some random hotel, if it qualifies as a 3* it probably won't be terrible (although I've been wrong about that before too, on occasion :))

Okay I just wanted to add that I think $60 is very reasonable since I just researched and found I could book the Aqua Palms and Spa for $80 a night with my AAA discount.

Try searching some of the other 3* bids in this forum for those areas, that will be your BEST indicator of what is likely to be accepted.

hi all,

looking to pickup from MIA Airport (miami) 9am 10/15/2010

looking to drop-off TPA Airport (tampa) 5pm 10/18/2010

so i guess it is a 4 day rental. thanks!!

it has to be airport. hotwire is showing $24.35 with Enterprise for total of $170 (including all fees and taxes)

Not sure what you are asking. You cannot make a PRICELINE name-your-own-price bid on a one-way rental, it's simply not allowed. What are you trying to do?

Your Offer Price: $15.00 (per day)

Total Rental Days: 7 days

Subtotal: $105.00

Taxes and Fees: $38.59

Total Charges: $143.59

Lowest Published Price: $309.69

Total Savings:* $166.10 (You saved 54%)

Well, I actually had a reservation somewhere else for about $200, so it's not really a 54% savings...but still, a very nice deal!

I used the PRICELINE link to bid.

Previous bids of $45 and $47 were both countered to add $15. Instead I waited another day and got it for $50.

This is about 1/3 off the regular rate of $76 on the hotel website. I used the PRICELINE link to bid.

Previous bids of $75 and $80 were both countered with "add $20". I declined and waited another day and got it for $82. This is about half of the going rate of $159 on the web site.

I used the PRICELINE link to bid.

Your Offer Price: $23.00 (per day)

Total Rental Days: 4 days(3 days and 17 hours)

Subtotal: $92.00

Taxes and Fees: $62.16

Total Charges: $154.16

This replaced a reservation I already had for $192 total which was by far the lowest I could find on these dates conventionally.

Previously, I'd had bids of $22 for compact and $20 for economy rejected. I also had $22 rejected for midsize the day before.

I used the PRICELINE link to start bidding.

Originally tried for a compact at $11...got a counteroffer at $14, so decided to try $13 for a midsize and got it.

Total with taxes and fees is $161 for the week...this replaces a midsize reservation I already had with Budget for $198 for the week!

I used the PRICELINE link to make the bid.