Tiki

That's not bad considering it's Oktoberfest. Have a great time!

I noticed that prices had come down a bit on the normal hotel product so first tried 4* South for $45, then added North for $50, rejected. Went back to BB PRICELINE link, tried new bid for 3* South $45, got offer of adding $13. Added North and bid $50, got hotel! This is about one week before Oktoberfest but there is some kind of bottler's conference going on beforehand. Subtotal: US$50.00 Taxes and Service Fees: US$16.19 Total Charges: US$66.19 Only a couple reviews on TA but it seems OK for a night and only a few stops from the train station and Marienplatz.

I just copied what everyone else has been getting this hotel for, got it on the first try! I used your PRICELINE link. Subtotal: US$55.00 Taxes and Service Fees: US$17.84 Total Charges: US$72.84

At least I helped someone! Good onya!! :) I did more research, it looks like the Hotwire properties are all Starwoods and Priceline seems to favour Marriotts in Munich except for King's Central as a 3*. Since I am an SPG member, I went back to SPG.com and found that I could get the Four Points ONLY on 13 Sept for points, it is fully booked the 14th which is why it didn't show up the first time I looked. So looks like PL is out for Munich this time. Booking.com shows Kng's Central for 220 Euro and Marriott Courtyard for 349 Euro so they already put up their Oktoberfest prices on 13 Sept--greedy buggers! :) The Renaissance is still only 179 Euros on Booking.com so it hasn't been inflated yet and I don't know why I couldn't get it for their usual PRICELINE price, historically it went for $65 up to $135 for Oktoberfest. I think the Four Points is a better location for transportation to see the sights and close to the main train station.

OK, I am convinced Priceline hates me. I bid Munich up to $65 for 4* ONLY on the 13th Sept (Hotwire has a 4* for $82 that day) and rejected. So I tried for 3* having seen other people post winning bids for $55, I tried that in Munich South, then added Munich North and tried $60 and nothing. Hotwire has 3.5 * for $84 and 2.5* for $79. So it looks like there is cheap inventory on that day but I can't seem to nail it. HOTWIRE 4* amenities: Fitness Centre, Pool, Restaurant, Business Centre, Hi-Speed Internet, Spa 3.5* amenities: Comp Bkft, High-Speed Internet, Restauarant 2.5* amenities: Restaurant I never used HOTWIRE but their booking fees are ridiculous! If anyone can help me narrow down the Hotwire hotels, I would appreciate it, that 4* might also be a PL hotel. I will have one more go at this tomorrow, then give up and book something else. For Vienna, I went and booked a double in the Strawberry Hostel in town, I would rather have a good location than a higher star level out in the boonies and spend money commuting. I'm using www.booking.com for all the bookings I made in failed Priceline attempts, except I can get a Happy 30 Ibis in Nurnberg on the 14th Sept.

No luck in Vienna. I went up to $90 for a 4* and $65 for a 3*. They kept throwing me back to their non-opaque booking screen.

Yes, I think you can cancel a C&P without penalty but I haven't tried. I doubt anything cheaper would open up with that auto show in town, things will just get worse. The plot thickens for Munich! I was messing around on Hotwire and I discovered that rooms are still cheap on 13 Sept but on 14 Sept is when they take a HUGE leap upwards in anticipation of Oktoberfest. So now I am thinking of just bidding for the 13th and on the 14th hopping a train to Nurnberg in the evening. The 15th is in Rothenberg and we would have just gone direct from Munich there but if we can't get cheap hotels in Munich, we have to look at other options. The train is about 2 hours so we would still have the whole day to see Munich. I don't think PL serves Nurnberg but there are some good deals on Booking.com. For Vienna, the cheapest pensions are around $75 a night, PL wins start at $82 for the Renaissance historically so I guess we will just take a punt and if we don't get anything, use Booking.com.

Well I tried first 4* ranging from $45-60, in $5 increments, then tried 3*, couldn't even get the Leonardo which other people seem to get, once again went to $65. Frankfurt has one of the world's largest auto shows happening around that time and Germany makes an awful lot of cars. All is not lost, I did manage to get the Sheraton Congress booked on Starwood Cash and Points, I am in shock I could even GET an award room at this time, but if Priceline had worked out, a normal Frankfurt room goes for $40-45 and I would have saved the Starpoints. The reviews on Trip Advisor are OK and there is a tram outside the door to the city center. Paris actually was easier than I thought-I stumbled onto a deal at Ibis "Happy 30" and got an Ibis in Bastille (near Marais) for 59 Euros! I don't think Priceline would have beat $75 USD equiv in Euros so I grabbed it. Not every Ibis/Accor offers Happy 30, it's a pita to check each hotel for the dates one by one and the one in Bastille had the nicest location. I bid Munich at 4* levels up to $55 and 3 * up to $55 with no luck and I am locked out until tomorrow. No Ibis Happy 30's in Munich and the Starwoods here aren't offering Cash and Points-probably cutting it too close to Oktoberfest which is annoying because I have no interest in Oktoberfest at all. I'll have another go at Munich tomorrow and use your link. Not sure if I should also go for Vienna or wait a bit because there is nothing special happening there in Sept (no trade fairs).

I have more reason to worry about Frankfurt, the most common "win" the Moevenpick is booked out from the 14-17 Sept. https://www.moevenpick-Hotels.com/en/pub/reservation.cfm The Marriott and Westin are also booked out. So far, the Intercontinental 527 Euro, Le Meridien 467 Euro, Holiday Inn 249 Euro and 3 x Sheraton 147-376 Euro are available and the Leonardo 3* for 259 Euro which I see people winning (but gets bad reviews on Trip Advisor) are also available. I usually research what other people are winning the available hotels at and then try a few lowballs and come up to what the others bid.

Our trip is in Sept which seems to be a popular convention time. A couple days ago, I successfully lowballed a 4* in Amsterdam, then was going to hold back a while before bidding on the other cities. I did some research and found major events close to my travel dates. Munich: I want 13-15 Sept, Oktoberfest starts 19 Sept and I don't know how far in advance people arrive. Frankfurt: I want 16 Sept (preferably near the airport as flying on 17 Sept), there is a huge Auto Show from 17-19 Sept. Thankfully Vienna appears to have no special events close to my dates of 11-13 Sept. I am still undecided whether to use PL for Paris as I might just go for a cheapie 2-3* in the Latin Quarter for the French style hotels rather than international chains. This is currently over 6 months before the trip and normally people advise waiting until closer to the date. I don't even know when European hotels load inventory. NH Hoteles apparently loads early but they don't serve any of these cities. I am mostly worried about Frankfurt and Munich because of the special events, any advice appreciated!

It's been a long time since I used PRICELINE but I was encouraged by all the other recent bargains being posted. I lowballed Amsterdam at $55 a night, expecting to be told to take a hike. PL came back with a counter offer of $64 a night which was lower than the previous reported win for $67 so I took it. I normally wouldn't book THIS far in advance but there appears to be a major conference in Amsterdam starting 10 Sep (IBC whatever that is) so I didn't want to risk everything being booked up. The hotel seems to be close enough to the tourist sights, will check it out on Trip Advisor. A backpacker place would have cost $28 USD a night for a dorm bed x 2 beds which is what we were looking at prior to these awesome PL deals so I'm really happy we are staying in a 4* for just a few $$ more than a backpacker dorm! The hotel says 150 Euros on the NH webiste. Room Cost (avg. per room, per night): $64.00 (USD) Number of Rooms: 1 Number of Nights: 2 Room Subtotal: $128.00 (USD) Taxes and Fees: $23.48 (USD) Total Room Cost: $151.48 (USD) ***I used your PRICELINE link, Theruare!

Long time, no see! I am adding a data point for Aussies. I used my Aussie based Amex with the US state of Alaska (AS) as my address and 99999 zip code. I successfully bid for an Amsterdam Hotel.

The room we were in on the 9th floor was very clean and no signs of rock star (or other) stains on the carpet! D

I was really happy with the service here. They let us check in early (around noon) despite the 3pm check in time and we got a nice king room. No PL hassles at all! We parked the car for the day-$28 and could have had in/out, but chose to use public transport to avoid parking hassles in the city. The cable car stop is just 2 blocks away and it takes you to Chinatown. All the FW attractions are only a short walk away. Nice large room and bathroom. Staff were friendly and happy to help tourists with local info, lots of maps and brochures in the lobby. We had booked in advance for Alcatraz-good thing as there were a lot of people waiting in the stand-by line. Even though we only had one day here, with careful planning we got to see the main places we wanted to see. I would recommend this as a good 3* hotel and for $56 it was a steal!

Royal Kona Resort Overall, we loved this place and would definitely stay here again. There was a line and about 10 min wait to check in-staff are very friendly and will take time to answer questions when you check in-hence the line tends to build up. No PL discrimination and we got a beautiful king room 3rd floor in the main building right on top of the lobby. Our balcony had a sea view and we could hear the waves crashing on the shore. We could also see the luau area. We are not overly finicky people and I had to look hard to find the peeling wallpaper others had complained about-I never would have noticed it if it hadn

We checked in around midnight. For future reference, there is a city bus from the airport around 11:20-11:30 ish, don

In Los Angeles, the West Hollywood zone, formerly part of Hollywood has now been merged with the Beverly Hills/Westwood zone. The only hotel I can confirm making the switch is Hyatt West Hollywood-now in WH/Bev Hills/WW zone. Very annoying when they merge zones like this!

Well folks, you can't win them all! I had a go starting at 32 and going up to 34 starting with Eureka, then added Arcata and Fortuna with no luck. So I booked the Motel 6 on their website for $41.37-it's actually in Arcata not Eureka-the Eureka one didn't have the internet special and was about $45. I started with 1* off the bat to save time-we only need an overnight crash pad-if the trucks wake us up early-no worries, we will be early and beat the crowds to the Avenue of the Giants. Other than Motel 6, the only other 1* I can think of would be Econolodge and it had an internet AAA rate of $56-if they would accept an Australian version of AAA card I had put a PL limit of $34 to consider the PL booking fee of roughly $7-if I couldn't get lucky for under that then I go to Motel 6. At least we can console ourselves at the Calistoga mud baths the following day and we got the FW Hilton on PL for $56 before (see separate post below). Anyway, I thought this might be helpful for people heading up that way to know they aren't going to sleep in Eureka/Arcata for less then $45 incl tax.

I have done it 3 times-once per day since I noticed it on the home page-nothing. I have been scrtaching the same 3 planes each time with a different result everytime. Nothing! I think if you do it 10 times in a row with no luck the least they can do is send you a William Shatner bobblehead!

What I was doing was getting a price quote on vacations from Kona airport to Honolulu KOA and HNL. Interisland airfares are more stable than those from the mainland. Then I would see which hotel was the cheapest in each star category for each repsective zone. From what I have seen, PL draws on their normal hotel inventory when compiling a vacation package adn I think hotels can opt out of vacations if they wish. So you may get a hotel through normal booking that didn't appear in vacations. But the only times I have seen PL NOT give the cheapest hotel in vavcations on a hotel bid is if the hotel website is down-but in that case it wouldn't appear in vacations. A few weeks ago when I was doing my daily check, starwood/sheraton website was down and there were no Sheratons listed for Waikiki until it came back up. Odds look really good for you to get the Radisson if that is what you want at least 98%. If you are coming from the mainland USA you might also think about flying direct to a neighbor island like Maui or Kona/Hilo because there are fewer hotel options there and that makes it easier to predict what PL will give you. Then book a vacation package from either Maui or Kona to Honolulu and then you can choose your hotel. I would have done that except I am from Australia and we only have flights from here to Honolulu. Aloha!

Usually the Radisson comes in at $52. You might try $50 and if rejected add a rebid zone and go to $52. I did heaps of research for my own Hawaii trip and prices have been fairly stable the last couple months. Look at Priceline vacations before you bid a hotel to see where the Radisson relates to other 3* hotels in that zone and if it doesn't show up then it is probably fully booked. I monitored PL vacations for weeks before bidding as I was targetting the Renaissance Ilikai and waiting for the price to drop-it didn't and I found out there was a convention there. Good luck!

This requires a lot of time and research so it is probably only useful to those who enjoy the game/challenge/strategy aspect of Priceline as I do. I can't be the only one who gets a rush while waiting for the PL computer to search hotels and give their answer! If you are in a hurry and just want to book something and go, it is not for you. But at least it is a game everyone can win by the money they save! 1. Know the purpose of your trip and your bottom line. If you are going to be out sightseeing all the time, maybe all you need is a place to crash at night. A 2* or 3* would be enough. If this is your 2nd or 3rd trip and you have already seen the sights and want to relax and be pampered you will be happier with a 4 or 5* or resort. Look at the average of other people's bids in your city for each star level. For example in Waikiki, people are currently getting 4* for $90-95, 3* for $52-60 and 2* for $42. Big gap between 3 and 4*, BTW-a 3.5* category would be nice! Consider incidentals such as parking and if the commonly used hotels are near public transport or do you need to hire a car/taxi? In Waikiki, the only 3* in a suitable location for us was booked by a convention so we knew we wouldn't get it. The others were some distance from the main bus terminal. The 4* Prince was only 5 min from the bus terminal but at current rates would have cost $329 with taxes and fees. Although 2*s are not commonly sought after, someone had gotten the Ohana Maile Sky Court for $42 and that came to $148 including taxes and fees. For an extra $181 in pocket I am prepared to walk a little bit further to the bus station. 2. Research past history on this board at the time your are travelling to determine seasonal fluctuations. When do prices tend to be high and when do they start to drop? Still looking at Waikiki, I noticed that last year the Prince went from $85 before Easter to $75 plus $10 PL bonus then to just $75 about a week after Easter. So I held off bidding until after Easter, then started bidding at $70 up to $82 with free rebids-no luck. It could be the nearby conference affecting my particular dates, others may still get it for less on different dates. Even if I had gotten it for $75 that is $261 incl taxes and fees so I had to decide do I want a posher hotel or more money to spend on activities? In this case $261 - $148 came to $113. To put that into perspective-if you use Entertainiment Book you can get admission to Polynesian Culture Center and Alii Luau for 2 people for $131. I chose to spend on activites for this trip. 3. Start monitoring both hotel websites and online agencies like Expedia for hotel prices as far in advance as possible. I have noticed that in Hawaii, rates tend to be seasonal and don't fluctuate too much. They set their rates at the beginning of the year and have an "internet special" which they will pull if the hotel books up early. This is what happened with Rennaissance Ilikai-a 3* Waikiki north used by PL and my original preferred target. If they don't have an internet special, they probably won't be giving inventory to PL on those dates. You can also use Hotwire as a gauge if you are able to identify hotels by amenites offered. But PL is always cheaper in the end than HW so I don't know why HW doesn't get a clue and lower their prices! If hotel rates seem really high for the season, check if there is a conference or major sports event in town for your dates. 4. Use PL vacations to determine which hotels participate with PL and where they rank in relation to each other in their * levels. I have noticed that for Waikiki, PL almost always assigns the cheapest hotel showing in vacations for hotel bids. The few times that didn't happen, (someone got Beachcomber instead of the usual Radisson for 3* south zone), the Radisson wasn't in the vacation package list for that day so either it was sold out or their website was down. Beachcomber is a wildcard for Waikiki since it doesn't seem to participate in vacations. Before I bid, I checked vacations to see which hotels were cheapest and got 4* north-Prince, 4* south-Marriott, 3* north-Ohana Waikiki Village, 3* south-Radisson Prince Kuhio, 2* north-Ohana Maile Sky Court, 2* south-Park Shore, 1* north-Polo Inn, 1* south-Aston Honolulu Prince. These 1* hotels cost more than the 2 stars so I knew if I bid 1* I would get upgraded. The Radisson location didn't suit me, couldn't afford 4*. Ohana Waikiki Village location was OK, but it didn't have a spa pool, Maile Sky Court did and location wise was equal to the Village but cheaper so I set my target at 2* Ohana Maile Sky Court. 5. To determine my bid and get rock bottom price. OK, target set and previus bidder got OMSC for $42. I have plenty of time so last Sunday started at $38-reject, added Ihilani and tried $40-reject. No more rebids so wait 72 hours. Last night tried $41-reject, added Ihilani and bid $42 and got it! Target-Bullseye! And I can be absolutely sure I didn't over bid even by a dollar! 6. Thoughts on rebids-I did have a few tries at the 4* Prince before changing my mind and going cheaper. Don't just bid what everyone else gets it for-in this case $95. If you have 3 free rebids and you are bidding 4*--3 x 4 = 12 so you would be pretty safe to start your bid at $12 less than the "going rate" and raise your bid by 1$ per star level for each free rebid. So if you want the Prince, start at $83 and raise each rebid by $4-you may get lucky! If you have heaps of time before your trip it doesn't hurt to throw some real lowballs in-you may really get lucky and if you don't you have time to wait out the 72 hour lockouts and try again. I tried this with bids between $68-82-wasn't lucky. You win some, you lose some and in the end I was happy with what I got. So there it is, I hope this will be of some help to others looking for hotel bargains and thanks to all the administrators who provide this forum so we can all learn from each other!

After heaps of research, I finally decided to go the el cheapo route and go 2*. We can use the extra money for a luau. This hotel is $69 on the Ohana website and $58 on Expedia, very tall (good view I hope), and hasa pool and spa. It should be fine for our needs as we have a heavy sightseeing program planned. Details: Check-In Date: Fri, Jun 4, 2004 Check-In Time: After 03:00 PM Check-Out Date: Mon, Jun 7, 2004 Check-Out Time: 12:00 PM Your Offer Price: $42.00 Number of Rooms: 1 Number of Nights: 3 Subtotal: $126.00 Taxes & Service Fees: $22.74 Total Charges: $148.74 I will post some bidding strategies tomorrow from work.

Wow, that's food for thought-compare TOTAL price including tax and service fee of Hotwire to Priceline. I know PL's per room/night rates are cheaper but they might have higher fees. Thanks, you guys!

We will be there 17 June only for 1 night. I saw your post under hotwire hotels so you will be there before us. There are other hotel review sites you can look at. www.epinions.com www.tripadvisor.com If you really want the Bel Age, you can try lowballing it as your trip is over a month away-you might get lucky.