mrxow

I was looking at participating hotels in downtown LA for some possible bids later this year and saw the Wilshire Grand as a likely win at 3*, but when I went to look where it was and get info from their site, it appears this place is going to be or has been demolished to make way for some new skyscrapers...

I think the 2.5* Orange County (Fullerton-Brea) Holiday Inn Express is now a Best Western...

This hotel is listed as having been downgraded to two star. Fortunately this person listed the bids they made, though. They did get accepted while bidding for a 2 star, but based on the numbers they were bidding, it doesn't necessarily mean that it has been downgraded. Does the zone list 2.5 stars as an option? This person bid 55 for a 2.5. Then 50 for a 2. Then 60 for a 2. They could have been upgraded to 2.5 but neglected to report it. The first bid over 55 for 2 or 2.5 was the last bid for 60. Isn't it possible they could have had an accepted bid for 2.5 for anywhere from 56 to 60?

Thanks. I don't think it is in the Goleta zone per the title line, though. You started with Goleta but added the regular SB zone.

This is no longer a Red Lion. It is called the hotel Rosedale. It isn't clear if it participates in PRICELINE or what star level.

Hell no. It would be stingy to say you want the 5* for $50. Not more than the lowest price you can see. Who knows what they might take. But you have a lot of time. And it looks to me like the season you are shooting for should be the lowest price season they have. It isn't summer. It isn't shoulder season. It isn't Christmas. The weather in early November can't be all that great. And the hotels can't be all that full. And you have LOTS of time. So GO FOR BROKE!!! Start low and work your way up every 24 hours. You have a very good chance of setting the record for the lowest win at a 5* in Budapest. Don't give your money away!! I'd start at $50 and work up. You will never get the 4* you don't want if you always bid 5*. It may take a few minutes a day for a few days, but chances are you will get what you want with this much time in advance and the dates you are looking for...

Hey, didn't realize somebody else actually commented on this. Perhaps bidding 3* is the way to go in this zone, ESPECIALLY AFTER THE STORY I AM ABOUT TO TELL... I know this might end up being a long post, but stick it out - it will be worth it... So I have stayed a few times at this hotel. One long stay was when I was stranded there the first time ever that Las Vegas airport was snowed out. I am self employed and didn't mind so much, but I was stuck in this place for a few days in December a few years ago. So I stayed in this place several times. It had some high points and some low points. But the price couldn't be beat. Yea, for a few bucks more, perhaps you could stay in a significantly nicer place. Generally that would be enough to bid 3*. But after my story, I wonder if anybody on here will bid less that 3* EVER AGAIN!!! I am a little bored at the moment. I knew I needed to make this post at some point, but just haven't gotten around to it. But here it goes... You wonder why, sometimes, we get the deals we do on Priceline... So... I was flipping through the cable channels a year ago or so. Stopped on one of those true crime shows. I would have kept on channel surfing, except I happened to notice they were talking about Detroit airport. Then they showed a picture of the outside of a hotel lobby. It looked awfully familiar. Then they showed a picture looking down a hallway. It looked awfully familiar, too. I didn't change the channel. This hotel has two wings. One seems more assigned to people involved with events there. The northern wing is closer to the ballroom areas, so I figured that was more likely to be assigned to people who are involved with meetings or parties or whatever. I was always given a room in the southern wing. I think both wings have 3 floors. From my recollection, I was assigned the third floor on all occasions but one. I think on one reservation I had a second floor room. I didn't think anything of this. Often people with mobility problems - older - request ground floor rooms. Having no such issues, a 3rd floor room was great with me. I did notice a lot of airline personnel at this hotel. but they seemed to be largely assigned to the second floor of the south wing. So, I am watching this true crime show. And they are talking about a serial killer. And they are showing pictures of a hotel I recognize. But they are identifying it as a Hilton, I think. I have no idea what it is called now, two years later, but whoever owns the "Metropolitan" hotel didn't build it. Unless it is a front company for Hilton or whoever owned it ten years ago. Anyhow, some crazy MOFO attacked an airline stewardess on the north side of the third floor of the south wing of this property about ten years ago. The cable TV show had pictures of the crime scene. These were not remade pictures. I recognized the furniture. I recognized the view out the window to the north wing (closer to the banquet rooms). They showed pictures of the bloody bathtub where the guy tried to clean himself off. They showed a picture from the entrance of the room with her dead, slashed body laying on the bed with the furniture I recognized and the view out the window that I recognized. I am not sure if I stayed in that room or not. They gave the room number - 357? something like that. If I didn't stay in that room, I stayed in the room next door. Honestly, I think I stayed in the exact room on one occasion. After that show, I realized why the flight crews were always going to the second floor. I bet they know all about what happened up there on the third floor, south wing, north side. They talked in the show about how they thought the guy hung out in the stairwell. They thought he looked through the stairwell window and waited for the stewardess to open her door and rushed out and pushed his way into her room before she could shut the door. And that was the end of her. I remember using that stairwell. The ice machine on the 3rd floor was out of order. I went to the second floor ice machine, down that stairwell, to get some ice. Like I said, though, it turned out he was a serial killer, and somebody who heard about this murder recognized some similarities to the murder of his mother a number of years previously. My recollection is that they were able to catch the dude(I am from CA) who was responsible. Not sure about that. Not sure of the year of this event - think it was about 2000. But the point is, I got assigned to that "area" of the hotel on 80% of the reservations I had there, at least. Unfortunately, people are killed or off themselves intentionally (suicide) in hotels all the time. And locals know about it. And I am sure it has some effect on reservations at these properties. But we priceline users have no control of where we end up. Sometimes we apparently end up where people "in the know" are too freaked out to stay. Personally, I am fine with it. If that makes a hotel cheaper for me, it is all good in my estimation... But it is ia good story, right? Anything similar on this site? :)

There is a big parking lot with security patrols at the end of the Green line in Norwalk. You can park there for 72 hours for free. If you buy a day pass from there, the green line will take you to LAX. The train doesn't go right into the airport - you have to take a shuttle bus. It runs pretty regularly, though, both for tourists and airport employees that use that method to get to the airport for work. If you will be gone less than 72 hours and your flight times work with the metrorail operating times, you only have to pay for a one way ticket each way and have no parking costs. The green line also runs into the Redondo Beach area. I don't know what the bus situation is from there to likely Priceline hotels. With a day pass, you can transfer from the Green line to the Blue line, which will get you to downtown Long Beach, where there are a lot of Priceline possibilities. Or north into downtown LA. The Red line from there will get you to Hollywood. There is also a line that runs to Pasadena from Union Station downtown. If you come into Burbank airport, there is a metrolink station across the street that will get you downtown. Also if you buy a Metrolink ticket, it is valid as a day pass on metrorail and buses. If you park at some commuter metrolink stations, which run as far north at Oxnard or Ventura, up into the Antelope Valley to Palmdale and Lancaster, out into the inland empire to San Bernardino and Riverside and south to Oceanside, and ride the Metrolink into LA you can get around that day on your metrolink ticket as a transit day pass. I don't know how close the metrolink gets to Ontario airport, but I imagine getting into downtown from there by rail can't be too difficult.

Not only is the trolley nice to use to get certain places, they have free parking at some of the outer trolley stops. I am not sure of the time limits - might be 24 hours in some places - but if drove to SD in a car, then just needed to store it overnight, especially if you want to use the trolley or buses anyhow to get to TJ or other places, you can leave it at a commuter stop and pay the $2.50 to get downtown or get a day pass to do other things. The Quallcom stadium has 5000 spots that are available to people using the trolley, but you have to make sure you are not parking there on an event day. There are spots at lots of other trolley stops, though. Not all stops are free parking, though. But the closest ones with free parking are just a few minutes on the trolley to downtown. http://www.sdmts.com/Trolley/Petco.asp#Parking Parking is free downtown on Sunday and there is no street sweeping. So if you park at 6pm on Saturday you can park until 8 am on Monday morning. On some holidays, Monday is free, too. Even during the week, it is free to park overnight on the street, but be careful of which side of the street to be on with the street sweepers. And when it says no parking "Tuesday" that means you can't park overnight on "Monday night". If you do want to park overnight on the street, it is best to arrive downtown at about 5-5:30 or maybe even a little earlier and spring for the buck or two in the meter. After 6 it is very hard to find a place. If you have to park a little further away from your hotel than you might like,and if you are going to be up late, spots will open up after midnight at some point when people who work in the restaurants and stuff and had been parking on the street all evening finally go home. I have seen people park in some yellow zones after 6pm apparently without problem. Definitely 15 minute green zones only apply to 6pm mon-sat. Really they don't enforce anything a whole lot down there. I see people breaking the rules all the time and very few parking tickets handed out. Some places don't charge a whole lot to park during the day, but at night or overnight it gets a lot more expensive. I haven't tried it yet, but it would seem you could pay the low day fee then move to a street spot with no sweeping the following morning as it gets close to 6pm. Also, if you have to park in a spot with sweeping the next morning, like I said, spots will open up after midnight on the side you want when people leave. The sweeping times are 3-6am. But the sweepers come through at the early end of that period and people start parking in those areas just after 5am sometimes. By 6am, often many spots are filled up already. You can park for free in Horton Plaza for three hours. You just have to go in and validate your ticket at one of the machines in the mall. I think you can get a couple of hours free at the seaport village or whatever it is called. You have to get validation, but if you are going to pay to eat, perhaps pick something up there. You can park for a bit in the underground Ralph's parking lot when you are shopping. So if you need to run to get something anyhow, sometimes that can be helpful to not have to feed the meters as much. It is also free to park during the day up at Balboa park and buses run downtown from there. There are some free spots to park during the day up the hill from downtown, too. And some bridges up there have no meters. They fill up early though with people who commute into downtown to work. If you are heading to SD by car from the north, and you won't need your car while you are down there, you can also park at some of the Coaster stations for free, up to 72 hours in some places. It might cost $4-$7 to get downtown, and the same to get back, but you will save some gas, too. The coaster starts in Oceanside, 35 miles north of SD, where they have lots of spaces. Some of the other stations on the way down have free parking, too. If you buy a Coaster ticket, you get a free ride once you get downtown on a trolley or bus, too. So you can walk across the street from Union station to the trolley station and hop on without paying any more and get closer to your hotel. Also, if you take the trolley to the coaster station when you leave, I think you qualify for a discounted coaster ticket by arriving at the coaster station by public transport. That is all I can think of at the moment - hope to see some other ideas on this thread!

This entry came up in a search of Orange County Priceline using sheraton as the search term - perhaps it is in the wrong place?

This win is reported as a 3* in the title, but it appears to actually be a 3.5* bid and win. Thought perhaps it was an upgrade, but it doesn't look that way.

I was doing a little research for some upcoming stays in the inland empire of California and noticed that Priceline now has two zones for Ontario - and east zone and a west zone. The hotel list may need some updating...

I just signed up for a promotion I thought I would share. It is with Wyndham rewards and Sun Country airlines. The deal is you stay at three different Wyndham brands between now and the fall and you get 100 UFly points with Sun Country, which is enough for a free round trip in the lower 48. It is a smaller airline and their destinations are limited, but they fly to LA, Vegas, Boston, Dallas, Tacoma?, about 2 dozen places in all. You could do one night at Travelodge, Days Inn, Super 8, Knights inn, Howard Johnson or other places that might run you round 50 bucks. So for under $200 you could have 3 hotel nights and a round trip airline ticket. Of course, you could stay at a Ramada or a Wyndham, too, but the cost of the ticket would go up considering you could bid for nicer places like that for a lot less. The only downside I see is that the points won't be deposited to your account until after the promotion ends in the fall and the points have to be used by March. Also, I think most flights would have to be through their hub in Minneapolis - no non-stop cross country flights I don't think. Alternatively, you can do the same thing and get 10,000 spirit airline miles - almost enough for some tickets I think and I don't think those miles would necessarily expire. I am not sure if they would let you do both promotions. I doubt it... Anyhow, though I would mention it.

I am stuck because of weather and ended up in this hotel again. I got a peek at the hotel's paperwork sent to them by PL. I bid 40 per night, for 3 nghts, but the paper said the total the hotel got was $117. They had not taken a $38 bid previously and I never tried $39. Maybe they would have taken $39, and PL pocketed an extra buck a day? I also wanted to mention that this hotel charges an energy fee. It is $2.75 per day, I think. I don't know if other area hotels do the same or not, but you might want to call them and find out to determine what to bid and whether it is worth bidding 2.5* only to save a couple of bucks when you are going to be hit with an extra charge at this hotel.

Actually, I did drive to Ann Arbor the last time I was there. Nice town. To clarify, it is plenty close to restaurants if you have a car. But walking would suck. It's just a place to crash for the night to me, so it is adequate and I didn't go for a higher star level and better location...

Did not take $38. Did not take $30 for 2*. Stayed once before. Room just ok. Lobby nice. Not close to restaurants, kind of down a side street from main hotel zone, but serve food in hotel which was ok and reasonable considering the portions. $12.45 taxes and fees

I don't know if O is one that does it, but if you get to Vegas and still don't have tickets, there are a couple of places that have offices for last minute tickets. If they have availability, certain Cirque shows offer reduced price tickets at these offices. You might be able to find the offices, but not the listings, online. Tix4tonight or something like that is one of them. I think there are at least two. Or at least there were. One of the offices is at the M&M "museum" near the MGM. I know downtown on Fremont there is one or two in some of the hotels. I think there was one on the strip just south of Koval. There was one in the Hawaiian Marketplace on the strip, too. Things change, though, so where they are at and what is offered I can't say...

Interesting, though Munich did not seem to appear on the list I got, so doesn't seem to necessarily be complete and leaves one still wondering what other places one might be able to bid. For the person asking the question in the first place, Amsterdam and Rotterdam were the only two Netherlands cities listed...

Yea, but the Euro goes farther than the dollar and all the difference in cost goes to taxes which the government would have to collect from you in some other way if they didn't collect it on gas. Your other taxes would have to be higher to make up the difference if your gas was the same price as ours and the government wanted to maintain the same levels of spending on services. Energy should not be wasted, but it is wasted in the US all the time. Having that high price has encouraged more efficient cars and transportation systems, too, compared to the waste and sprawl we have to contend with here... :)

There is nothing wrong with the Embassy Suites there. I don't know why it would get mixed reviews. Good breakfast. Nice rooms. Standard Embassy Suites design. The Summerfield suites are very nice, though. I don't blame you for trying for it. Anybody who needs a hotel at MIA should consider bidding 2.5 for the chance to stay there. Unfortunately you can end up at the Holiday Inn, though, which is a 3 star so you can't avoid it. At least you got the Embassy Suites. Far, far, far, far better than the Holiday Inn... Only downside is $10 parking at Embassy, when I was there last year, versus free at Summerfield and Holiday Inn. :)

It's about 20 cents a gallon more where I am at, but I have a Shell Mastercard and they give 5% back, so that is about 18 cents at current prices. Some Shell stations around here cost more, but others are at the low end. With the 5% back they are unbeatable. I don't understand why everybody that can qualify for one doesn't have one... I did see an offer for 7% off for 6 months at 76 stations if you apply for one of their gas cards (not a credit card) There is a $35 maximum benefit. So that is only $500 worth of gas - 130 - 140 gallons I guess? Not a whole lot of gas for me. Not sure it is worth the trouble... But the Shell Mastercard is a winner.

Name your own price options in Europe seem to be limited to only specific, generally larger, cities. I was thinking myself that it would be nice to be able to know where all the name your own price cities are, as you save so much money considering the exchange rate, it might be a good idea to plan a trip to Europe around the cities where you can bid on PL. I think there used to be more options for bidding in Europe. I could swear that I got a hotel through PL in a town near Frankfurt that no longer seems to have a zone. I was going to try to figure out where it was and add it to the hotel list, but it no longer seems possible to win that hotel. It seems they have consolidated their operations there as far as bidding goes and limited it to large, popular metropolitan areas. It would still be nice to know where those areas are. I don't know if anybody has any idea how to find that out. Obviously the major cities are going to be covered. The question is: are there any smaller areas which allow bidding? I don't know. It doesn't seem that way from the limited attempts I have made to see where bidding was available. For instance, you can bid in Munich, Frankfurt or Berlin(I assume, haven't tried) but attempts in smaller areas take you to retail booking pages only. I don't know if there are other places in the Netherlands that offer bidding. There may not be. I could not find anywhere on PL pages that indicate where you can bid when I looked a few months ago. It seems you have to just find out by trial and error. If anybody knows any different, please speak up.

While the Wyndham has been reported, the Marriott and Hilton are more frequently won, at least recently. Here is a link to some search results that might give you an idea of what to do... http://www.betterbidding.com/index.php?act...2Bresort+-Aruba

You can designate resort, but not which resort. Resorts are pretty much going to be on the beach. San Juan is one big zone, though. If there are resorts in other parts of San Juan you could end up there. These are the resorts that have been reported: Caribe Hilton El San Juan Inter-Continental San Juan Marriott San Juan Resort Wyndham Condado Plaza It appears that the Hilton and Marriott are the most common wins lately, so it doesn't look like PRICELINE is for you. Maybe HOTWIRE would work, though.

Funny that you ask since I just did a little test for another thread and came up with 8 bucks for the first night and 1.25 per night after that. That was on a cheap 34 dollar bid, though, so they might charge more for higher bids. Just try bids at one night, two nights, three nights, etc. (don't go through with the bid, just see what the taxes and fees are) then subtract out the bed tax for the amount you are bidding (often 10%) and you should be able to get an idea of what they charge. It isn't a lot for the discount you get.