ahallbetterb

I did use your PRICELINE links. Thank you!

Checked Hotwire and Priceline Express. Both had a 3.5 star hotel in "Moda Center - Lloyd District - Convention Center." Hotwire had one for $101, Priceline for $97. I figured it was the same hotel - either the Crowne Plaza or the Doubletree. Priiceline's amenities listing was more vague, but Hotwire's gave it away: self-serve laundry which the Doubletree doesn't have. (Not shown on Priceline's regular hotel page for the Crowne Plaza, but the hotel's own website lists "Self-service laundry.") I was hoping for the Crowne Plaza anyway - I am familiar with both it and the Doubletree. I decided to try bidding for a 3.5 star with Priceline's Name Your Own Price. I first bid $87 - no go but got a counter-offer for $101 to bid again immediately. Instead, I started a new bid (adding Beaverton - no 3.5 star hotels there) for $89 and it was accepted, for two nights at the Crowne Plaza. Total with taxes/fees was $218.98. Hotel's best flexible price on its website was $179/night. (Doubletree was showing for basically the same price.) This done two days before check-in.

Last-minute "Name Your Own Price" bid for Berlin, same day: bid $60 for 4/13 - 4/15 (3 nights); rejected but opportunity offered to re-bid at $70. I declined. Instead, I re-bid $65 for the first two nights 4/13 - 4/14 and was accepted at the Maritim Proarte Hotel Berlin. Then bid again for $64 for the final night 4/15, also accepted at Maritim Proarte Hotel Berlin. Based on the most recent bids recorded here, this is the hotel I was expecting to get. (Listed same day at a price of 88.16 Euros/night on the hotel's website or about $122 USD/night at current exchange rates.) Priceline.express offer for these same nights was $67 yesterday and up to $74 today before I bid.

Need a room near Gare De l'Est train station for 5/16/2013. I had been bidding a couple of weeks prior but advertised prices were higher then - bid of $100 failed. Now I'm in Paris and need the room for tomorrow night. For some reason, prices fell a lot since I started looking weeks ago. I was going to book the Holiday Inn for $128 advertised price, but that's non-refundable anyway this late. I decided to try $95 on Priceline one last time and this time I won the same Holiday Inn (figured it would probably be this hotel if any). Total with tax/fees is $111.44. So I saved about $17 - non-refundable either way, sweet! I used the BetterBidding PRICELINE link.

If it were me, I'd bid much lower than $111 on PRICELINE. If you get the NH for, say, $80 (and people have gotten it for lower than that), isn't that plus $5 for the shuttle still better than $111 for the Hilton?

You can't avoid a certain hotel with PRICELINE bidding if the hotel is in that zone at or above the star level you are bidding. Why do you want to avoid the NH? Do you have to be in the airport zone? Train from central Amsterdam is fairly quick to the airport, only 15-20 minutes.

Worked my way up (after several days of bidding) to $84. Counteroffer of $102 if I re-bid immediately. I ignored it. I bid $88 the next day - accepted. Total with taxes and fees: $105.71 USD Best available rates on their website: Refundable: 219 Euros (229.34 with taxes) Non-refundable: 197 Euros (206.40 with taxes) Given that my best refundable rate with all taxes in USD is $329.95 and I paid $105.71, I'm very very happy!!! I used the BB PRICELINE link, of course.

4* downtown, failed at $82, added Coral Springs, raised bid to $86. Success. Total cost with taxes/fees: $104.02. Best available refundable rate: $149. Used BB link to PRICELINE. Sorry, could not edit botched title - dates are 10/23/2011 - 10/24/2011.

Started bidding for 4* for this single night, 10/15, for the downtown zone. Failed bidding up to $80 after adding other zones without 4* hotels. Bid for 3.5* up to $72 for downtown, failed. Finally bid $60 for 3* and failed. Added "Fort Lauderdale - Airport North" zone (no 3* hotels), raised bid to $68. Bid accepted for the Crowne Plaza Hotel Ft. Lauderdale Airport/Cruise Port. Total price $83.65 with tax and fees. Hotel's regular refundable rate was $149 when I bid. I used BetterBidding's PRICELINE link to bid.

Bid at $54 failed. Free 4-star rebid with North Miami and $55 accepted. Total $69.90 with taxes and fees. Used your PRICELINE link. Cheapest refundable rate on Hyatt website was $129/night for same night.

Lots of 3.5* free rebid combinations for PHL. Started at $45 for PHL, failed there, added Trevose at $50, failed; new bid and did PHL + Cityline (no 3.5* in Trevose or Cityline), won at $55. Total of $70.45 with taxes and fees. Same-day bid. Hilton's advertised rate on their website was $149.99 for this same night.

To clarify, the Hilton isn't walkable to/from PHL (well, not practically). It's not attached like the Marriott is. But it's very close; the shuttle gets you to/from PHL in about 5 minutes.

The two known 2.5* hotels in this zone are the Courtyard by Marriott and the Hyatt Place (former Amerisuites) a half mile away. Courtyard was $89/night for these two nights; Hyatt Place was $79 for first night, $119 for second. Having stayed at the Courtyard before and seen the former Amerisuites, I was hoping for the former but willing to risk getting the latter. I had a couple of free rebids but I got it immediately with my first bid of $45. Total price with fees was $107.21. Note that when logging into Hyatt website and modifying the reservation (bed and smoking preferences), rate shown was $42/night (the price Priceline paid) so I overshot my bid only $3/night - not bad. Their total with tax was shown as $92.40 with tax, so Priceline's fee here was $14.81, FYI.

MetroFi is a company that has setup wireless networks citywide in several US cities. They have a "free" network and "premium" network. The free one is ad-supported; it plops a banner ad at the top of your browser window. You do need to register for it - once - but after that, I think it's easy to sign on/off. I've used it only once. MetroFi was much-touted in Portland about a year ago when they first were contracted by the city to build it. It was supposed to provide free WiFi to residents all over the city who couldn't afford internet service. Unfortunately, I've had trouble finding a strong signal for MetroFi that I can reliably pull in. I've SEEN the network SSID numerous times, all over Portland, but usually I can't connect to it. Speaking with friends, I find I'm not the only one with issues - it's commonly known to be a flop in Portland. The other day I was at a Starbucks near the Hilton downtown and I picked it up (I already subscribe to T-Mobile hot Spot so I didn't need MetroFi anyway). I tried it out. I had a strong enough signal I guess because I finally was able to sign in and use it. As a last resort I guess it would have been fine. Banner ad taking some of the screen space away was annoying, though. Portland has enough free WiFi hot Spots without MetroFi that there's really no need to put up with it if you can move somewhere else. (FYI, if you got the Hilton via Priceline, if you get on a LOW floor, I'm guessing MetroFi might come in for you.) Personaltelco.net for example provides free coverage in several parts of Portland, often at coffee shops that they've worked with. There's PersonalTelco WiFi in Pioneer Courthouse Square (Starbucks there too). P.S. Nice to see you on the dark side, Colfax! :-)

Have you managed to pick up MetroFi's free WiFi yet in Portland? After months of trying I finally got it downtown on Sunday. In many places in NE Portland I've picked up the network but been unable to log in... I imagine many people don't use wireless at hotels so it's probably not the front desk's first consideration in assigning you a room. But hey, it's a great excuse to ask to be moved anyway, in case you get a crappy room!