LglBlonde

Oops - I thought when you said the two properties were in Delaware, you meant the hotel was in Delaware - did you mean those zones were in Delaware? Sorry! :)

Wow - that is a coincedence that a highway 40 and a highway 74 intersect in Wilmington, Delaware as well! I just assumed he meant I-40 (closer to the hotel it's College) and US 74 (Market Street)! :) Should this be moved to Delaware instead of NC?

Total price $188 - VT - $99 - diff of $66 x 2 = $132 refund - should have been a $55 net rate. Following the lead of Treycass - I attempted to book Hotwire's 2.5 star in the DT zone of FLL - sure enough it was the Amerisuites on 17th Street. I submitted my DTD request w/ the mistake of only sending the Valuetrips.com website price and not actually having a confirmed (cancellable) reservation with them. I booked Friday night 2/3 and received the following email today: I am sorry to advise after reviewing the information you submitted, we have determined that you are not eligible for a refund under the Low Price Guarantee, because the rate you provided is not shown unless a reservation is completed and credit card information entered. The Terms and Conditions for the Low Price Guarantee state: The Low Price Guarantee applies only to non-qualified rates available to the general public in the same hotel, on the same dates and for equivalent room types as were booked by the Hotwire customer. The Low Price Guarantee does not apply to membership or corporate rates or special discounted rates including AAA, AARP, employee, military, government or convention rates. At first I attempted to call HW - but was placed on hold so long - and in the meantime, I realized I needed to confirm w/ VT before "making my case." I sent the VT submit form about 9 am this morning (Sunday 2/5) but have not received confirmation and I'm not even certain they work Sundays. Looks like 1) I've learned a $138 lesson; 2) this is due to the fact that previously, I used the hotel's own website for my DTD requests - which have LIVE inventory as opposed to "request" inventory. If I can get the VT response prior to this evening, looks like I'll be disputing w/ my CC company.

Great - now after reading through the post below it appears it won't matter if I'm able to get VT to confirm before tonight. I'm glad I used my MC and not my debit card to book as I may be disputing this with my CC as well if I can get the VT confirmation in time. I am soooo upset - both at myself and Hotwire! I had not seen the post below (obviously) - only this one!

Yes, I believe I may have learned this the hard way - an expensive $133 lesson. I've now tried to book the VT and am awaiting confirmation. My 48 hours will expire tonight at some point. I'm wondering if VT even works weekends!! When I'd previously used DD - I had submitted the hotel's own website price w/o booking (some were nonrefundable!) and that had worked fine.

Treycass: When you provided your submission to Hotwire - did you actually go through w/ booking with Value Trips or did you just send them the page with the Rate where you can actually make a "reservation request."? I tried the same for 3/22 and Hotwire has DENIED my Double the Difference Request b/c they say the rate required you book w/ a credit card?

WillTravel - thanks - it's TravelAxe. It's impressive.

I know we have the Hotel Checker here, but I once used a website I thought I'd found on here and you type in your dates and the city and up pops a matrix with every booking agency known to the web w/ each hotel so you can compare side by side. It's very comprehensive and I believe it involved downloading some software to your system. Please help!

Wilmington, NC - appears to currently have only one zone. Courtyard Marriott - (near College Road & Market Street) 151 Van Campen Drive Wilmington, NC 28403

Amenities include Casino, Pool, Restaurant and Spa. Dates are 3/19 to 3/24. Could this be the Orleans? It appears to be the only 3/3.5* in the area that the Spa icon has come up? Maybe they are supressing icons? help please!

1) WiFi - not just in the lobby, but wireless in the rooms as well! 2) Good Comp Breakfast (Residence Inn, Hampton (okay), Amerisuits (not bad), Hilton - Executive Level) 3) Comp Hor'deurves/beer/wine (Residence Inn, Hilton - Executive Level) 4) Free Parking 5) QUIET ROOM!!!!! It shocks me how many times I've not been able to sleep on a business trip b/c some buffoons next door are hollering until 1 and 2 a.m. - (specifically at an Amerisuites and a Townplace Suites!)

It was in my Raleigh book... Use the index to find it.

Update: I checked HW's prices today! Dramatically lower - $11.95 for Econ and $13.95 for Compact. Last week I believe it was 20.95 Econ and $24.95 for Compact. (I wonder if this drop has to do with being very close to a 30 day window on the rental since our pick up is 11/12.) We went with the $13.95 compact. I booked 2:30 pick up and 3:30 drop off. I think we'll be okay - saved $20 this way too after taxes & fees. $57.03 total for three days + one hour. We got Hertz - which is actually in terminal counter & Walk to Car. Several at RSW (Budget & Avis) have in terminal counters, but shuttles to cars... interesting. Here's link to my post: Fort Myers Car Rental HW beats PL here b/c HW allows a one hour grace period. So I booked 3 days one hour for a three day price. PL considers 3 days one hour to be four days. Even if I got a PL bid of $11 a day (either Econ or Compact) accepted for 4 days would total $72 and 3 days would total $55, so I don't think I did half bad on Hotwire, and the stress of whether a bid will get accepted is now gone as well as whether I'd get the rebate from HW.

3 day(s) @ $13.95 per day Car Sub Total:$41.85 Taxes and fees: $15.18 Total Price Car Total Price With Add Ons And Savings:$57.03 Insanity - Orbitz.com is showing $51/day for a Compact for these same dates/times! Total of $182.94. Now that's some big-time savings! :)

Thanks Scorp. RSW is Fort Myers - I'm under the impression it's not all that big of an airport, though it has been about 5 years since I've flown in and out of there. However, I think all rental car companies for RSW (for PL & HW) have in-airport counters, but shuttles to actual cars. So you are saying that the time won't start "running" until we are physically in the car and taking it on our way, as opposed to when we are at the counter, printing out the contract. In that sense, it may make sense to use 3 p.m. as a good median time.

Our arrival at RSW airport is at 1:30 p.m. on a Saturday. (Nov. 12) Our departure is Tuesday about 5:30 p.m. (Nov. 15) I'm trying to determine a way to only pay 3 days of a rental car without inconveniencing us too much? I know most places allow a one hour grace period. Bid 3:00 p.m. and try to pick up the car early? Put in 4:00 p.m. drop off and be a little late? But if we do this on both ends would we be charged the extra day anyways? Thing is - Hotwire shows $20.95/day for our dates = $119 for four days or $89 for three days. We could use the $30 rebate (have E.com card from 2005 but not used HW rebate) - bringing price to essentially the 3 day price. And I'm doubtful I could get a four day rental in this tough market on PL for less than $90! Suggestions??

No problem -in fact - in my first post - when you link to my reported "win" - you'll see what I was saying about 2-door full size!

Possible, but I would not bid mid-size if I required a four door - it'd be quite risky. Avis does not have a class called "Mid-Size". https://www.avis.com/AvisWeb/rentalsupport/...COUNTRY_CODE=US Avis has: Subcompact (2/4 door); Compact(2/4 door); Intermediate (2/4 door); Standard (2/4 door); Full Size (4 door); Premium; Luxury, etc. PL has Economy; Compact; Mid-Size; Standard; Full Size. Therefore, one would assume a Mid-Size PL bid would entitle you to an "Intermediate" vehicle at Avis. Avis lists an Intermediate as a Pontiac G6 and a Standard as a Chevy Monte Carlo. The example for a "Full-Size" is a Chevy Impala. Therefore, yes, I believe we were upgraded, in fact, upgraded 2 PL classes. It's not uncommon for this to happen when the vehicle type reserved is not available. And, I really think this information has changed since we bid & went (August) b/c I specifically remember a category called 2 door Full Size on both the website and at the desk, which I thought was odd.

I'm with Dahammer - just keep your PL win hush-hush and don't worry about it. I do not think you are obligated in anyway whatsoever to use the wedding party rate! In fact, the hosts can't tell you where to stay! What if you had friends or family in town and opted to stay with them instead? Would that be rude?

Update - at Avis, a Mid Size is actually a "Full-Size 2 door." They did not have any of these and we got a "Full Size 4 door" at no extra charge - which was a Chevy Impala, not a bad car actually. They also offered us a convertible for $10/day but we declined. Extra driver was no charge. They also had a prepaid gas option at the going rate of about $2.55 a gallon @ 17 gallons = $42. You either had to do prepaid gas or return the car full. Katrina hit while we had the car and gas went up 50 to 60 cents, so we did not do too badly!

Good suggestions here - I'd also check hotwire.com to see what their prices are for your dates - which are a good parimeter for PL. You can usually beat hotwire by a buck or two on PL. Also, the suggestion about getting a better price closer to your dates is very accurate. Here is my MCO bid for mid-size @ $15 - we got Avis. (We did not care if we had a compact/standard or Mid-size.) http://www.betterbidding.com/index.php?act...&f=186&t=15661& Also - buyer beware - a "Mid-Size" at Avis is essentially a 2 door Full Size. So I'm not exactly sure why you would want a 2 door - but we did get upgraded for free to the "Full Size" which is a a 4 door - and had a Chevrolet Impala.

Have you checked the going rate for the Renaissance? You may also want to check the Crowne Plaza - when it was a Holiday Inn Sunspree it also came up as a 3* in Asheville. If you post the going rates and sources, I think we can figure out what your max bid should be. :)

Good idea - I pretty much have them all as well - I'll remember that for our next PL stay!

At the Courtyard in Carolina Beach, NC - my husband and I have had two PL stays. On the first, though I called multiple times, I was told that we could *not* have a NS King room and they only offer two Queens for PL customers. And the whole, we can't change the reservation stuff. When we checked in, our clerk was experienced and gave us the two Queens - :o Second stay, about a year later - same thing - called and called and they said, nope, we can't change your room NO matter what. Matter of fact, say I'd talked to "Linda" everytime. When we arrived, "Linda" was working, but helping another customer and sent another clerk to check us in - clearly one less-experienced.... So, I politely asked for a King NS and it was granted to us by the lovely younger clerk. :) In fact, she even had us "initial" the PL rate - which was a couple of bucks lower than we'd paid. What is funny is that two days later, we had to "re-check-in" b/c we had a split stay on PL - and "Linda" re-checked me in - She kind of gave a funny look since we had a King room, but there was little she could do at that point! :)

1Venus - did you complain the room was dirty? I've gotten a room w/ crumbs on the floor etc at somewhere just like a Fairfield Inn, and they were extremely apologetic and moved me immediately.