lwitchel

Unfortunately the usual bid numbers were just not working. I started at $41 and worked up at single dollar intervals over several days and finally hit at $60. Check-In Date: Thursday, March 22, 2007 Check-Out Date: Friday, March 23, 2007 Hotel Name: Hilton Ontario Airport 700 North Haven Avenue Ontario, California 91764 909-980-0400 Your Offer Price: $60.00 Number of Rooms: 1 Number of Nights: 1 Subtotal: $60.00 Taxes and Service Fees: $14.73 Total Charges*: $74.73

I did not have a bad experience (I was only there one night and am a pretty flexible traveler) but I definitely got a "Priceline room" - a handicapped accessible room with a king bed and a second room with - of all things, a meeting table accommodating eight. I can't say I cared much - I was basically there to sleep, but it was an odd room and handicapped accessible bathrooms tend to be quite cold. Next time though, if they give me room 131 again, I'm finding eight people and having a meeting! The location is very convenient for theater (The Wang Center is around the corner) and Chinatown (get the world's best Vietnamese Sandwiches at New Saigon Sandwich just down the block at the corner of Washington and Kneeland.) The train/bus station is only a 10-15 minute walk up Kneeland as well. Wifi Internet access is free in the lobby and $9.95 in the room, but as I was on the first floor, I discovered that lobby access worked in my room. You need to ask at the desk for an access code.

I just came back from a stay here (2/1-4/07, $44/night bid) and my experience was much as zbenye's. I like a firm mattress so that was an asset to me. The room decor is uninspiring but clean. The location is very convenient if you're going to the Opera House (about five minute's walk down the hill on Van Ness) The hotel also has an exercise room with good cardio equipment but only dumbbells and a bench for weight training. I wouldn't aim here for a romantic weekend, but given the included extras and the solid quality it's a great value-for-money pick.

4* to $82 rejected, went to 3* - $59 got a $17 rebid offer. $62 rejected, $65 accepted. Check-In Date: Saturday, February 10, 2007 Check-Out Date: Sunday, February 11, 2007 Hotel Name: Doubletree Hotel Boston - Downtown 821 Washington Street Boston, Massachusetts 02111 617-956-7900 Your Offer Price: $65.00 Number of Rooms: 1 Number of Nights: 1 Subtotal: $65.00 Taxes and Service Fees: $15.88 Total Charges*: $80.88

Bidding for my parents on the night before the Flower Show. Per this thread, there wasn't any 4* inventory at $80, but obviously the Hyatt has released rooms. $65 accepted on first shot. Check-In Date: Saturday, March 3, 2007 Check-Out Date: Sunday, March 4, 2007 Hotel Name: Hyatt Regency Philadelphia At Penns Landing 201 S Columbus Boulevard Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19106 215-928-1234 Your Offer Price: $65.00 Number of Rooms: 1 Number of Nights: 1 Subtotal: $65.00 Taxes and Service Fees: $16.75 Total Charges*: $81.75

I was bidding in both the Civic Center and Cathedral Hill zones, thinking I would either get the Opal or the Ramada and wondering which it would be. Bidding up from $40 in $1 increments. $44 hit, and it was the Opal - though in two different zones these hotels are not that far apart - about equidistant from the Opera House (which is where I need to be.) Check-In Date: Thursday, February 1, 2007 Check-Out Date: Sunday, February 4, 2007 Hotel Name: The Opal San Francisco 1050 Van Ness Avenue San Francisco, California 94109 415-673-4711 Your Offer Price: $44.00 Number of Rooms: 1 Number of Nights: 3 Subtotal: $132.00 Taxes and Service Fees: $27.72 Total Charges*: $159.72

The hotel has a $99 prepaid, nonrefundable rate on their website. I started at $55, then $60, then bid up by $1 increments. $64 rejected, $65 accepted. Check-In Date: Friday, February 23, 2007 Check-Out Date: Sunday, February 25, 2007 Hotel Name: The Westin Grand Hotel Washington Dc 2350 M Street NW Washington, District Of Columbia 20037 202-429-0100 Your Offer Price: $65.00 Number of Rooms: 1 Number of Nights: 2 Subtotal: $130.00 Taxes and Service Fees: $26.49 Total Charges*: $156.49

President's Day weekend so rates were slightly higher. 4* to $70 rejected in both NMA and Loop with no counter offer. 3* got $17 rebid offers at $60. Bid up by $1 increments, also used 2.5* as a quasi re-bid because it wasn't getting any counter-offers and I had a hunch I would get what I did. 3* $67 NMA and Loop rejected, 2.5* $68 same zones accepted and upgraded to 3*. Check-In Date: Friday, February 16, 2007 Check-Out Date: Monday, February 19, 2007 Hotel Name: Club Quarters Central Loop Chicago 111 West Adams Street Chicago, Illinois 60603 312-214-6400 Your Offer Price: $68.00 Number of Rooms: 1 Number of Nights: 3 Subtotal: $204.00 Taxes and Service Fees: $40.55 Total Charges*: $244.55 I've stayed here. It's small for a couple, but good for a solo traveler. The location is good, the rooms are clean and comfortable (if with double beds and showers rather than tubs) and there's free wi-fi and a fitness center.

LGA or JFK (NOT EWR) to SFO is showing up on Expedia or Travelocity (NOT Continental.com) for $158 r/t - $195 total. This is probably a fare mistake where the one-way price got loaded as the full price. I have a feeling it will vanish in a few hours. There's a similar fare BWI-HNL posted here so there may be a few others out there.

This was a surprisingly tough bid, probably because the Doubletree is sold out as are most of the other Lloyd Center properties. I worked my way up from $34 to here. $68 was rejected yesterday. Prepay on the Sheraton website is $120/night. I'd like to pay less, but I think I'm in a better area to be a tourist than at Lloyd Center. Check-In Date: Friday, October 13, 2006 Check-Out Date: Monday, October 16, 2006 Hotel Name: Four Points Sheraton Portland Downtown 50 Sw Morrison Portland, Oregon 97204 503-221-0711 Your Offer Price: $70.00 Number of Rooms: 1 Number of Nights: 3 Subtotal: $210.00 Taxes and Service Fees: $36.37 Total Charges*: $246.37 Edited to add - I should have checked the Sheraton's special offers more carefully before I bid. They had a Stay 2 nights Get 1 free on a $130 per night rate - which would have been $260 + tax. I still saved some money, but it starts to become a tossup between a 15-20% savings and Starpoints for paying a little more and booking directly. Oh well!

I was bidding for a friend and had the time to bid over several days here so only used her two preferred zones (Kensington and Bayswater). Started at $60, got a $103 counteroffer. Bid at $5 intervals, then $3, then $2 and $1 intervals starting at $90. Rejected at $91, Hit at $92. Check-In Date: Thursday, November 16, 2006 Check-Out Date: Tuesday, November 21, 2006 Hotel Name: Copthorne Tara Kensington Scarsdale Place Kensington London, United Kingdom 44 20 7937 7211 Your Offer Price: US$92.00 Number of Rooms: 1 Number of Nights: 5 Subtotal: US$460.00 Taxes and Service Fees: US$94.09 Total Charges: US$554.09

Sorry about the late posting - I bid on this at the last minute for my brother. Moving upwards from $85 to $120 I was down to two free rebids and no time to wait 24 hours, so I upped $10 to $130 and was accepted. Check-In Date: Saturday, September 9, 2006 Check-Out Date: Monday, September 11, 2006 Hotel Name: Hyatt Regency Boston One Avenue De Lafayette Boston, Massachusetts 02111 617-912-1234 Your Offer Price: $130.00 Number of Rooms: 1 Number of Nights: 2 Subtotal: $260.00 Taxes and Service Fees: $43.76 Total Charges*: $303.76

Given the information on Hotwire, I decided to split the bid. I bid up at $1 intervals from $68 and sure enough, got the Hilton Financial District at $74. I've made a fully cancelable reservation at the King George Hotel for the night of the 22nd - it is $119 - $136 with tax. Now, to see if I can beat that. Check-In Date: Friday, October 20, 2006 Check-Out Date: Sunday, October 22, 2006 Hotel Name: Hilton San Francisco Financial District 750 Kearny Street San Francisco, California 94108 415-433-6600 Your Offer Price: $74.00 Number of Rooms: 1 Number of Nights: 2 Subtotal: $148.00 Taxes and Service Fees: $29.99 Total Charges: $177.99

Thereuare - To avoid PSP air fares, I flew jetBlue to Ontario. It's about 1 1/4 hours drive away (traffic is not so bad once you're that much out of LAX) and the best part is jetBlue goes non-stop. I went last March for $236 r/t

No - according to that link there is nothing available for the night of the 22nd.

Hey folks - I got a great deal NYC-OAK when UA loaded in the mistake fares a few weeks ago and made an impulsive and happy decision to go to SF for my birthday (travel dates are 10/20-23). Little did I realize that Oracle World begins October 22 and vacuums up 7000 hotel rooms. The situation doesn't look impossible, especially this far out, but I wondered if anyone had any suggestions. So far I've bid 4* USE to $75, 4* USW to $85, and 2.5* Civic Center to $45 (to see if I could get the Ramada as a standby) - all rejected. Several hotels are sold out the entire weekend (the JW Marriott, all the Hyatts, the Hilton SF). Other hotels have availability on 10/20-22 - the Renaissance is $189 for those dates (sold out 10/22), the Meridien is available the whole weekend for between $219 - $312 and the Kimpton Hotels run about $270/night. I'm pretty sure the Hilton Financial district is showing up on Hotwire for $107 on 10/20-22 so I should be able to get it on Priceline if I chose to split the bid. I can probably stay with a friend the last night if it came down to that, but I'd prefer a hotel room. Should I be splitting the bid this early out or will things only get tighter? What do you think? Gracias!!

Bid yesterday at 2.5* from $55-58 rejected. I bid today at $60 rejected, so I went to $65 because I hadn't seen any accepted bids in Seattle much lower than $70 for a while, and was surprised when I hit - I was also upgraded to 3*. I appreciated Willtravel's advice from earlier that the best deals in Seattle had been 1-2 months out. Check-In Date: Friday, September 29, 2006 Check-Out Date: Monday, October 2, 2006 Hotel Name: Renaissance Seattle Hotel 515 Madison Street Seattle, Washington 98104 206-583-0300 Your Offer Price: $65.00 Number of Rooms: 1 Number of Nights: 3 Subtotal: $195.00 Taxes and Service Fees: $36.77 Total Charges: $231.77

I was getting similar counteroffers as with this bid - here's the bidding history: 5/4 Mayfair offered 70 counteroffer 132 5/5 Mayfair offered 85 co 132 Bloomsbury offered 55 co 114 (hiatus to work on the other bid referred to above) 5/10 Mayfair offered 80 co 134 West offered 65 co 134 Blooms offered 55 co 112 May Blooms offered 95 no co 5/11 Mayfair offered 90 co 192 (so the other inventory at 132 must be gone) West offered 70 co 134 Blooms offered 55 co 112 May Blooms offered 100 no co West Blooms offered 102 - accepted My method in London now is to do the first bid of each session in a zone as a lowball bid principally to find the counteroffer, and then rebid accordingly. I also thought (Lord knows why) that I would probably get the Hilton Euston again. I should realize that Priceline inventory in London is a huge grab bag. Check-In Date: Wednesday, May 31, 2006 Check-Out Date: Sunday, June 4, 2006 Hotel Name: The Cumberland Great Cumberland Place London, United Kingdom 44-870-333-9280 Your Offer Price: $102.00 Number of Rooms: 1 Number of Nights: 4 Subtotal: $408.00 Taxes and Service Fees: $84.14 Total Charges: $492.14

This took some work. I was targetting either Mayfair or Bloomsbury with Westminster as an outside alternative. Mayfair had a $189 Counteroffer on bids, Westminster $140, Bloomsbury $114. I bid in the following sequence each time - Mayfair Bloomsbury Mayfair Bloomsbury Westminster Westminster Bloomsbury Mayfair Westminster Bloomsbury I started lowballing at $55, then $70 and increased by $5 to $90 without success. At $90 I went up by $2. At $102 I made myself a note to increase by $1 per bid and hit it on the next bid at $103. London Euston Plaza Hilton 4-star Check-In Date: Wednesday, June 7, 2006 Check-Out Date: Saturday, June 10, 2006 Bloomsbury - Marble Arch 17 - 18 Upper Woburn Place London, United Kingdom 44-207-943 4500 Check-In Date: Wed, Jun 7, 2006 Check-In Time: After 03:00 PM Check-Out Date: Sat, Jun 10, 2006 Check-Out Time: 12:00 PM Your Offer Price: $103.00 Number of Rooms: 1 Number of Nights: 3 Subtotal: $309.00 Taxes & Service Fees: $65.34 Total Charges: $374.34

I don't know if it's in every room, but my room at the Copthorne did have a refrigerator in it. The hotel is close to the Kensington High Street station and the room I got was just fine, about on par with the Holiday Inn Kensington Forum.

via Flyertalk, I've got this up on my blog, but I want to make sure more people know about this. Museums from Maine to Delaware are in this promotion - including the MFA and the Gardiner in Boston, the Guggenheim in NY, the Philadelphia Museum of Art. All free for two with an MBNA or Bank of America credit card. So take someone you love to a museum!

Apologies, I can't cut and paste this as I was helping a friend over the phone. He got the Westin Times Square on the first bid at $105 - as has been said before, Sunday night is the slowest night in NYC and rates drop.

Boston is compact. Changing over to the green line to the Copley area from the Red line is no real hassle, as is walking. Best of luck. I'm not sure what to do either. I have a back up reservation at the Days Inn way out on Soldiers Field Road (hard to get to except by cab) and if I can't get something better I may just skip the weekend.

I'm trying for the same dates in Boston - the prospects are not good right now. There is a convention of oncology nurses in Boston and it seems that every hotel room is vacuumed up. The Park Plaza is showing rates of close to $300 for their "Priceline" economy doubles. You may have more difficulty in Boston than Cambridge. I'm hoping that rooms start to open up closer to the date with last minute cancellations.

inpd - It's not high at all for that zone - Mayfair is more convenient for tourists than Kensington, and hotels in Mayfair usually go for more - you got a great deal.