SuntanD

I am hoping to secure a 4* room for no more than $80. Maybe a 3.5* is an option - I'm not sure if it is or not. Will await your response and guidance. Thank you.

Done - my apologies!

Please disregard - we changed our cruise date and am now leaving from Miami. Thank you.

I have tried for a month now to get a hotel in downtown Miami for our pre-cruise on October 31st in both 3.5 and 4*. I have bid all the way up to $70 with no success, which is discouraging because I have seen many winning bids for a 4* in the downtown area for $55. I have used Priceline numerous times and have never had any trouble securing a room. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you, D

We did use the betterbidding.com PRICELINE link to do this bid.

Your Offer Price Per Room, Per Night: $44.00 Subtotal: $44.00 Taxes & Service Fees: $13.11 Total Charges*: $57.11 Checked Marriott homepage, price per night was $139.00, so very happy with win.

I have been trying to bid on 3* hotels in Fort Lauderdale for the past two weeks. Where this is for a pre-cruise, I have been focusing on Downtown - Beach and North areas using my one option for a 4th rebid, (no 3*). I have bid up to $90 which I thought was right on the mark after reviewing the posts. The crunch is on as we fly out tomorrow morning and tonight is my last kick at the can. First, is there anything happening this weekend that availability is down? Am I missing other suitable areas that are workable for a pre-cruise? I am not an expert on Fort Lauderdale or the zones as I have never cruised from there before. Any information or strategies you could offer would be greatly appreciated! D

Times Square was our first choice, although we did have other zones we were interested in. Started bidding at $150 - rejected added Zone 1 - bid $155 - rejected added Zone 2 - bid $160 - rejected added Zone 3 - bid $165 - rejected added Zone 4 - bid $170 - accepted Your Offer Price Per Room, Per Night: $170.00 Subtotal: $340.00 Taxes & Service Fees: $65.60 Total Charges*: $405.60 On the Westin site the price is quoted at $379 per night. We got two nights for less than what it would have cost for one booking directly with the hotel. Very pleased. :) D

Around $400. tax in would be lovely! D

Thanks for responding thereuare ... In all honestly, I would like to see at least a 40% savings, otherwise I might as well go for the Hotwire Limited rate, which by the way went down $5 today to $539. Thanks! D

thereuare ... the dates of travel are July 30th to August 9th. The best fare available is $511 plus the applicable taxes for a total of $622. You can purchase on Hotwire for $544 (taxes in) per ticket - HOTWIRE Limited Rate - still not knowing which airline or times until it is accepted, which is somewhat of a savings, but not much. For the same terms and conditions I thought it would be worth a try to bid on the flights on PRICELINE. Thanks for your assistance ... D

I want to bid on airfare for my son and his girlfriend to come from Indianapolis to Halifax, Canada this summer. Since I will be paying on my credit card and using a Canadian address, do you foresee this being a problem? Again, you are not able to enter your correct address, thus going back to the old rules of CA 99999. I'm just wondering if under these circumstances my bid would be accepted, and that there would be no issues with the E tickets coming to my email address here in Canada. I'm a regular in the hotel bidding, (thanks to all your help) but really need some assistance being a newbie in the airfare game. If you have any advice as to bidding ... where to start, etc. please share. Again, just a tad bit nervous about it as we are talking bigger dollar figures here compared to a hotel room. Thanks, D

First bid accepted for a 3* at $50.00 using the savingsbarn link. Number of Rooms: 1 Number of Nights: 1 Subtotal: $50.00 (US dollars) Taxes and Service Fees: $15.57 (US dollars) Total Charges: $65.57 (US dollars)

Forgot to mention, accessed through savingsbarn!

thereuare, thanks to your many previous posts and assistance, we were able to secure the Crowne Plaza for the nights we required. Crowne Plaza Hotel Ottawa 101 Lyon Street Ottawa, Ontario K1R 5T9 613-237-3600 Your Offer Price: $80.00 (US dollars) Number of Rooms: 3 Number of Nights: 2 Subtotal: $480.00 (US dollars) Taxes and Service Fees: $83.07 (US dollars) Total Charges: $563.07 (US dollars I followed your recommendations to a T and we are extrmely happy with the outcome. In the past I have always been successful on my first bids, thus this has been a real learning experience for me. The best rate we could have secured for this property was $144 a night. Thank you!

I guess what I'm asking if I was to just go on Priceline.com and book a hotel at the noted price, is this the same inventory used for Name Your Own Price? If there is availability on the Priceline site, is it safe to say that you will get one of those hotels on a successful bid?

thereuare, one question before we proceed. When bidding on a hotel, is the inventory more reliable on the Priceline site or the EasyClickTravel site? Meaning what hotel you may be securing. Thanks!

For $10 or $20 a night more, we'd definitely go for the 4* - I'm assuming you mean on top of the $75 that we're already up to. The $144 and $149 rates I quoted you earlier are the government rates that we're able to secure, not Priceline's.

Yes, we are. Will await your next plan of attack. Thanks!

We haven't as yet secured a hotel for these nights. By researching the hotels in the location we want, we are looking at a price of $144 - $149. Thus, I guess a maximum bid of $100. would still be a savings on our part.

thereuare, I have been bidding every day as you stated above. Am up to $75. with no luck. I know it is the Police Memorial weekend, so I imagine it all comes down to supply and demand. Anything else you can suggest ... or just keep increasing the bid $5. every day? Thanks!

Yes, thereuare, I am opting for option 1. If two parties have to change hotels after the first 2 nights, not a problem. As for maximum bid, everything I've seen posted thus far has been averaging around the $60 - $65 mark for both a 2.5 and a 3*. Of course a 3* would be a bonus, but we would all be extremely happy with a 2.5 in that price range. Thanks!

thereuare, I am trying to obtain four (4) rooms for two (2) nights September 28 - 30 in downtown Ottawa as we have to be in the vicinity of Parliament Hill. I have reviewed the previous posts, but would like your assistance in a bidding strategy as I see there are no re-bid zones. We would be more than happy with a 2.5 or 3*. Also, two of the four rooms are required for an additional night, (third night) but I would assume I would have to bid separately: 2 rooms for 2 nights, and 2 rooms for 3 nights? thus we would risk the chance of not all being in the same hotel. The other two parties may just have to secure the third night with the hotel we are successful with. Thank you for your continued assistance.

thereuare, I am going to try to make contact with you on-line tonight on AOL, Thursday, August 16th to see if we can finally make some progress with this. Appreciate your time!

thereuare, I must not be getting it. I access Priceline through Savingsbarn, enter Ottawa for the 28 - 30 of September, hit name your own price and then come to the next page where it shows the four zones. This is where I get stuck - every zone I check off shows all 4* and below highlighted. Nothing is greyed out like when I have previously bid, thus I can not figure out what star ratings are available in each zone. Can you help me now?