mbstone

Same day, Sunday night. Bid South Strip 4* $55 (hoping to get PH). Counteroffer at $80. Added Boulder Strip free rebid zone and bid $59, accepted.

Your Offer Price Per Room, Per Night: $59.00

Subtotal: $59.00

Taxes & Service Fees: $13.51

Total Charges: $72.51

***AW SHUCKS *** I forgot to use my $25 bonus that expires on Thursday.

Stayed 2 nights March '09.

Property is a 12-story indoor atrium-style (think Hyatt Regency Embarcadero) design. Room we got was a Handicapped room, it featured a separate living room w/ sofabed, desk, chair w/ottoman, TV; also wet bar, coffeemaker, microwave, refrigerator, wireless internet $10/day, nintendo & toy internet. Bathtub/shower with rails; hair dryer. King bed, TV in BR. Ample TV channels and PPV. You will be offered a self parking hang tag which is $11/day (valet $14/day), politely decline as there is free overnight street parking approx. 50 yards from entrance just beyond periphery of hotel parking lot (hotel info book says, "All parking surrounding the hotel is available free of charge for our hotel guests.") Coffee shop in lobby features breakfast buffet, 6A-11A, $16, kids $8. Room service 6A-11P. Restaurant 6A-10P, bar until 11P. Pools/jacuzzi/sauna/exercise room 6A-10P, small indoor htd pool, main htd pool & jacuzzi outdoors, poolside service available. Gift shop 6A-10P; business center 24H. Luggage carts; bell service 7A-11P. About 1.5 mi to Disneyland, if you didn't rent a car for your trip to L.A., don't whine about airport or Disneyland shuttle services or the lack thereof. National Sports bar adj. Other shops/restaurants in vic (Block of Orange; Anaheim Resort zone). Near Anaheim Amtrak/Angels Stadium/Honda Center arena.

Same-day bid, Fri night

Started Disneyland 3.5* $43, counteroffer at $55

Started new bid instead, added Seal Beach free re-bid zone, 3.5*, $47, accepted

Room $47.00

Subtotal: $94.00

Taxes and Services Fees: $19.49

Total Charges: $113.49

Last time I stayed here they forgot to charge my CC for incidentals. Wish I had used the minibar more....

3 mi from IAD on Dulles Access Rd. Room service 6A-10P, reasonable+$2+18% mandatory tip. Sparse room service menu selection. Food arrived cold but was OK after being sent back for reheating. Restaurant, lounge 11A-11P/12A weekends. Meeting/banquet facilities. Business center, exercise room 24H. Indoor pool, jacuzzi 6A-11A and 4P-10P weekdays, 8A-10P weekends, lifeguard. Rooms feature HDTV, local, basic cable + 2 HBO. TV channel flip takes 8 sec/channel. PPV movies with pause. Sleep mask, earplugs, and sound effects CD provided, but curtains won't black out room. Free parking. Free wireless internet in room. Most ice machines broken. Telephone in room broken. Coffeemaker. Free airport shuttle, reservation required. Numerous shops, restaurants, fast food in vic.

Property located near US 50 and Gallows Rd. Standard Residence Inn studio room featuring kitchen with microwave/stovetop/refrigerator, no oven. Free breakfast buffet 630A-9A. Free dinner M-Tu. Elevators, interior corridors, underground garage. Coffeemakers, free wired internet. Ample TV channels. Pantry, exercise room, laundry, business center, meeting room all 24H. Outdoor pool, jacuzzi closed for winter. Steps from shopping center featuring 24H CVS Pharmacy (24H pharmacy); sports bar/restaurant; deli; Chinese + Sushi restaurant; Pho restaurant. Near main post office, Fairfax Hospital.

3* at 41, upgraded to 3.5*\

41 + 11.67

3* Tysons Corner $48, rejected

added East Falls Church, thought it was a free rebid but no, $51, accepted

4 nights @ 51+ 31.50

Extra night 51 + 12.91

This Marriott Courtyard used to be a Sheraton Four Points. It is a high-rise vertical concrete slab-construction building, in other words it is slightly different from your average Courtyard in that it wasn't designed as a Courtyard, in fact it doesn't have a courtyard. Most other properties of the property are the same as other Courtyards: great bed, sofa, desk, coffeemaker; our room featured a 40-inch LG HDTV, and there is a patch panel on the work desk that contains power outlets and numerous inputs and outputs of the HDTV, for example you could plug your laptop into the patch panel and use the HDTV as the screen, or you could plug all kinds of other devices into it. On to the more mundane stuff. Numerous TV channels; PPV. Restaurant, bar, meeting/banquet rooms. Room service, so-so, $7-22+$2+20%, 6A-11P. Snack pantry 24H, business center 24H. Pool, jacuzzis 6A-11P, exercise room 24H, guest laundry 24H. Free parking. Near shops/restaurants. Nonsmoking hotel. Rooms have sliding glass doors leading to balconies, they are permanenty locked, presumably so you won't jump. The ice and soda machines are hard to find, they are located on the fire escape on the other side of the door marked "Stairs." The ice machine area has an open balcony, so if you came to the hotel with the intention of ending it all, you were wise to use PL and save your estate a few bucks, but you will have to leave your room and walk down the hall to the ice machine.

As I understand it, this property was rebranded, it used to be the Sheraton Four Points Monrovia, you might want to update the hotel list

Your Offer Price Per Room, Per Night: $55.00

Subtotal: $55.00

Taxes & Service Fees: $14.51

Total Charges*: $69.51

Started with W Covina at 57 3.5* looking for the Pacific Palms, rejected

added free rebid zone of Monrovia-Duarte went up to 63, 3.5*, rejected

finally 55 3* same zones

First is Courtyard, second is Radisson

I would go with PRICELINE and bid 70-72 for 3.5* before trying either of these

The OP has presumably, by now, found the drop-down menus with the pickup and return times.

It should be mentioned in any discussion of PL rent-a-car times that the bid should always specify a return time that is the same as the pickup time.

You might only need the car for eight hours, but what if you later decide you want to keep it for the full 24? All car prices are computed in 24-hour intervals. You do not get any greater availabilty or lower accepted bids by specifying an interval less than 24 hours. If a successful bid is for 18 hours, the contract will say 18 hours; if you then return it in 22, you will get dinged for a late fee. So why would you specify anything less than 24 hours?

Nice job, thereuare! That must have been a lot of work. Thanks for the time you spend keeping BetterBidding pulled together.

Amen.

Mrs. mbstone has a handicapped placard and we parked overnight in the handicapped space without being hassled (which is the law in California, but some hotels have illegally tried to charge for parking in the hotel's handicapped spaces)

We did NOT have a bad experience at this property. Quite the opposite. Bid $49, others have gotten recently for $44.

Property is located 1 mi N of SNA near SR55/Macarthur and is easily confused with other Doubletree properties in the immediate vicinity.

Elegant lobby with lots of marble. Large banquet/meeting facilities, in fact you have to walk past 30 yards of banquet rooms to reach the guest elevators.

No PL attitude; cookie given. No bell service, carts avail. Garage parking $14/day. Restaurant, bar. Restaurants/shopping within 1 mi. Room service 6A-11P except 2-4P, quick and tasty, prices vary, reasonable to less reasonable+1.50+17%. TV, local+13 basic+HBO; PPV; wired internet, claimed as $10 but not charged; toy internet. Wireless internet from first floor, also claimed as $10 received free at times, we were on 2nd floor. Business center 24H w/free workstations/printers; gift shop. ATM. Exercise room 24H. Microscopically tiny pool, must be seen to be believed, slightly smaller jacuzzi, 7A-10P. Coffeemaker.

Great king bed; room otherwise sparsely furnished with desk, chair, older TV, upholstered armchair had broken springs which caused me to sink into the chair and almost hit the floor.

Recategorized by PL as 3.5* on 9/22/08

Total $63

Navigating the treacherous waters of non-Anaheim PRICELINE hotel bidding I have once again managed to avoid Garden Grove and Buena Park.

Any Hyatt win on PL is a treat, and you will always be treated as a welcome guest. This property is HARD TO FIND even if you have a GPS, but it is near the Fair Lakes Mall and many shopping and dining opportunities. Restaurant, bar; free parking; exercise room 24H. Indoor pool / jacuzzi, hours vary from day to day (probably because of the silly Va. requirement that there has to be a lifeguard). Room service 6A-11P+$3+20%, nearby McDonalds 24H. Local TV+17 basic cable+HBO, PPV, wireless internet, toy internet. Was not charged $10 internet fee stated on login screen (I will double check my CC statement).

Architectural peeves: Light switch outside bathroom means you have to wake your SO to use it. Rubber curtains did poor job of blacking out room for this West Coast resident who hates being awakened by Eastern Time sunrise, bring your own gaffers' tape.

This property is 3.5* effective 9/22/08

Glad to hear the property is 3.5* under the new PL regime.

Seemed to me they sell to a lot of tour groups like the 4-H club, church groups, etc. and this could fill them up at random times.

With the new ratings system and the concomitant extra rebid opportunities you should be able to get as many cheap Fairfax and IAD hotels as you like...

Plus tax it came to $56

This is just too easy. It can't possibly last. Any halfway experienced PL bidder will be able to pin the tail on the donkey, as it were.

A good list of brands and their respective new PL star levels is on Flyertalk. The most significant changes are that the good 2.5*s (Courtyard, Residence Inn) are now 3*s and the crappy 2.5*s (Holiday Inn, Guest House) stay 2.5*s.

On the other hand, your average crappy airport Hilton has gone up to 3.5* because it has all day dining.

TYA, maybe there is a way to globally find and replace all occurrences of "2.5*", "3*", and "4*" in threads posted prior to 9/22/08 to read, "Old 2.5*", etc. - ?

It has gotten to the point where I use my cell phone camera to take pictures of the unused water 100% of the time, it's become part of my hotel routine like checking the drawers.

$65+16.69=81.69

New rating system raises Residence Inn from 2.5* to 3*, un-poisoning the LGB zone.

You won't get the Guest House or Holiday Inn which are currently 2.5*, and the Marriott LGB hasn't come up for eons.

Game, set, match.

Looking to get the infinitely more desirable Doubletree LAS, I bid on the LAS Airport zone not knowing that I could get Zonked with the Henderson Courtyard (see negative review).

Received this property bidding $51 for 2.5* LAS. Property is not near LAS but is north of Henderson. Property address is on Green Valley Parkway but be cautioned that it is not near Green Valley Ranch.

Catty front desk clerk refused request for king bed, saying all PL guests receive two double beds, and that this is a requirement of PL that the hotel is not allowed to change. What utter BS.

This is one of only a very few times in my long PL experience when I have felt less than welcome at a Marriott property. I have never been refused a bed type request at a Marriott property, and I have never ever been flat-out told I was being punished for being a PL guest. If you can't treat PL guests like guests, don't sell rooms via PL. I left the check-in counter feeling, quite frankly, soiled by the experience, creepy, and scared to be in his hotel.

I would also note that the property is several miles from LAS by car (but it is under the approach path and NOT soundproof). It is far away from nearly all Las Vegas attractions. There are, however, numerous restaurants in the vicinity including Joe's Crab Shack next door.

I would be less inclined to bid the 2.5* LAS Airport zone for fear of again getting this execrable property.

This unremarkable Homestead/Extended Stay property is located in an industrial area in south Alexandria (1 mi W of Eisenhower Metro station). Front desk, 6A-11P. Wifi, $6/stay (after dealing with idiot front desk clerk who didn't know how to issue the code). Kitchenettes. Was not charged extra for king bed as at some other Homestead/ESA properties. Heater not quite hot enough to overcome winter. Limited maid service. Passes to health club (3 mi) available. No pantry - vending machine has sodas, candy, cup of noodles, no restaurants or civilization near property, bring groceries. Basic cable + HBO + Showtime. Laundromat. Metro trains, movieplex 1 mi to E.