MisterBill

Do you realize that neither of the hotels you mentioned offer a free breakfast? HGI says they have breakfast available but they never say it's free. Courtyard breakfast has never been free (which bothered me when they first opened many years ago before I learned to avoid them). The Hyatt Place Washington DC/National Mall mentioned above seems to serve breakfast sandwiches as part of their free breakfast. I guess you could dump the bread and just eat the egg and meat. Personally I think your specific breakfast requirement is going to be a real crap-shoot trying to blind bid on a hotel. You could end up disappointed when you don't end up with a place that has what you need.

This is a past win (bought it on 9/28/12), but I wanted to post it because this property has not been mentioned here previously. This was for graduation weekend and I had checked for a room back in June but the prices were around $80. When I noticed that the Express Deals price had dropped, I decided to bid again and got it for $37. They list Red Roof Inn at 2 stars. There is no way I would consider it that. There are no refrigerators in the standard rooms and no breakfast (or coffee in the rooms). They claim they are no smoking but my room smelled like someone had smoked it in, and I've seen other reviews online saying they had the same problem. Since my son has graduated I won't be going back there, but I would think twice about bidding two stars again for fear of getting this dive. Oh, and they charge you $1.50 a day for the safe deposit, and have to ask to have it removed when you check out. On my previous stay last August, I was at the Days Inn. That wasn't great, but it wasn't as bad as the Red Roof. That said, knowing that I was paying $37 for a hotel room during graduation weekend made the stay bearable.

Actually, New Castle IS a free rebid because they only have 1* hotels there. Interesting that they do not have the Hilton cheap anymore.. for the longest time that was available for $45-50 (and Priceline would show 3* as "best value"). Now they have label that on the 2*. I've stayed at the Hilton and the Fairfield Inn. The Hilton is obviously much nicer but no free breakfast. The Fairfield's breakfast isn't great but it's free. I recommend avoiding the rooms in the back near the highway, they were rather loud the time I stayed in one. Last week I got the Fairfield Inn for $40 for a stay in late August. I had a $5 per night coupon that was good Wednesday only. I decided to try $35 ($30+5) and got rejected. I could have tried $38 on my second try but I was afraid it would not be accepted and then I would have had to add another zone I did not want but that did have 2* hotels, or wait 24 hours when my coupon was no longer valid. So I went to $40 ($35+5) and got it.

My daughter has been bugging me to get her a hotel for her vacation this summer with a friend. I got one of those 24 hour bonus cash deals from Priceline so I got an extra $5 added per night. Bid $110 (+5) for 4* in White House and got it accepted on the first try. She wanted to be near the White House in case she gets a tour for the morning they have to leave town (they are heading to Myrtle Beach afterwards) and wanted a nice hotel so I went for 4*.

Started my bidding the other night with the PRICELINE link here. I bid $40 for 2 rooms for 2 nights, 3* in airport zone. Got rejected but PL offered to let me rebid with no other changes if I upped it by $10 to $50. I figured that meant I could do better so I waited a day. They would not let me redo that bid unless I made it $50 so I had to start fresh. Bid $45 and got the Doubletree on the first try. Not sure how walkable it is to the light rail (I assume not more than a few blocks, if that) but they say they'll shuttle you there (and hopefully back, I sent them email to check) so it's not a big deal. I wanted to stay near the airport since we are arriving at midnight, and need to get a car to drive to Vancouver on Saturday morning. I have tickets for the Mariners game on Friday night so we can take the light rail around on Friday. And we get free chocolate chip cookies :-).

The reservation was for October 9-11. It's University of Delaware's parents weekend. We had rooms for $45 ($25 in my case since I had a $20/night coupon) and I would not be surprised if all of us were bumped (we discussed the booking on a college discussion website and at least one other person has reported that they were bumped and the rep told me they were calling several people). In theory I got $50, $10/night for up to 5 nights. But it's only a coupon, not a refund. And I would be a lot less unhappy if they gave me a comparable quality hotel. I talked to the PL person (sounded like out of the US) until I was close to blue in the face (as did the other person who reported their experience) and their response was that our only two options were to take the hotel they were offering, or cancel the reservation. I am pretty sure they could find us a better hotel, but not at the $45 that we paid, and presumably PL was not willing to eat the cost of a better hotel for us. I did post a comment on the hotel's Facebook page. :) Oh yeah, and I've had the reservation since early August. So this is a matter of shedding the cheaper reservations (on the hotel's part). Not that they booked too many reservations and forgot to stop taking them.

I had made a reservation at the Christiana Hilton for next weekend through Priceline for $45, which was a little higher than I had paid on recent stays but still a great deal considering it is parents weekend at the local college. I just got a call from Priceline "quality control" telling me that the Hilton was overbooked for next weekend and was cancelling my reservation (as well as many others, it seems). They moved me to a Quality Inn (2*, I might ad) in New Castle, which is an extra 10 minutes from where I need to be. Because I have no choice, I decided to accept the new reservation but I am NOT happy about it. I did get PL to give me a $10 coupon for a future hotel stay, but it does not make up for my inconvenience (and really being pissed, the Hilton is a great place). I've never heard of anything like this. I will admit that I haven't read the PL T&C but are they allowed to do this? HHow can the hotel do this for a paid in full reservation?

The Hilton seems to be coming up for all Newark wins these days. We stayed there for $39 in July and it was very nice, much nicer than the Fairfield Inn we stayed at in April. The only downside is no free breakfast. I booked it for $45 for Parents Weekend in October, and several other UDel parents also booked it for the same price.

Moderator, please fix the topic of this. I guess the 2nd line should have had the rate and dates. The dates are truncated, it's 4/16-4/18. If would be nice if editing the post allowed one to change the topic as well!!

Started at $30 in Newark at 2.5* and that did not work, then added the zone in MD that has nothing other than 1* for $35 and still no go. I finally went down to 2* and increased my bid to $37 and was accepted. Best rate for the hotel is $79 and my other non-PL option was the Ramada for $52 plus taxes and we much prefer Fairfield Inns. I was afraid I would get the Days Inn if I went to 2* but obviously that did not happen. Yes, I probably could have retried $35 at 2* and then gone up to $37 with the other 1* zone but decided not to bother. I had originally been going for just one night (Friday 4/17) but then decided to add another night at the beginning on the last bid since it avoids a 5 hour drive to get to MD at 9am.

Thanks for the info. I signed up for Select Guest and had noticed the free Wifi but not the free beverages. I think we may just go to the zoo and skip the Metro. I read a review somewhere that suggested that street parking was available and the parking ticket cost less than a day of parking at the hotel. I'll see, although even $30 for parking at the hotel isn't that bad with the price I paid.

Needed a room for next Monday night, I have Tuesday covered thanks to Days Inn's price guarantee free night policy. Decided to try for someplace nice since the other night is free. We have to be in College Park, MD for a school tour on Tuesday morning so Adams Morgan area seemed convenient (plus good restaurants for dinner). I had not been able to find anything decent below $150+ even with my corporate discount. Decided to try $70 on my first bid for 4* in Dupont Circle-Woodley Park, figured I'd bid it up after that. Much to my surprise (shock), it was accepted. I do see that there was an accepted bid posted here from several months ago for $69, but I figured I would have to go up to $80 to be accepted. Your Offer Price Per Room, Per Night: $70.00 Subtotal: $70.00 Taxes & Service Fees: $17.52 Total Charges*: $87.52 They're even offering to extend it a second night for the same price but I'd rather have the free room at DI. Hotels.com price for the Omni is $186. I just signed up for their frequent guest program I used your PRICELINE link. Oops, I guess I needed to include a date range for it to show up in the calendar and cannot edit the title. Please correct it for me. Thanks.

I meant show me a RECENT posting with a low priced bid winning. 6 weeks is not recent in the PL world, as you know.

It worked because he got a 3* EWR hotel for $55. That always seems to work. it's the 2.5* @ $50 part (which is all that I quoted) that is not working. Please show me a posting with a winning bid for a 2.5* Elizabeth/EWR for under $55 ($59 for the Elizabeth zone).

Sadly, this does not seem to be a winning strategy lately. Not sure what's going on, but the 2.5* Elizabeth hotel(s) are up to $59 needed to win, at least based on the last two posts here ($59 for me, $63 for someone else). The airport properties are less money, but they charge for parking, breakfast and Internet, if any of those are important to the bidder.

I've been trying to get a room for 8/5 since we have an early flight the next morning. My earlier bid of $56 was rejected. Rather disappointed since I had seen winning bids of under $50 for this not too long ago. But this seems to be the going rate now, since there was a $63 winning bid posted here earlier. At least I do not have to pay for parking like I would at the EWR 3* hotels. Your Offer Price Per Room, Per Night: $59.00 Subtotal: $59.00 Taxes & Service Fees: $16.84 Total Charges*: $75.84

Including for the night you're sleeping there! At least with County Inns that night is free.

Wow, that is pretty ugly. I really would like to get this hotel for my upcoming stay because of the free parking and Internet but $63 is $15+ more than others have reported getting it for in the past. I'm up to $54 and rejected for 8/5. My travel agent who has access to PL wholesale tells me I won't be able to do better than $59 but you couldn't even get that (he claimed it was $59 for all days he looked). I don't want to add EWR because I would likely get a 3* hotel there and have to pay for parking. Not sure what to do... I could just have my TA buy it for $59 (of course there is no guarantee it's the Country Inn but that seems to be what everyone gets in Elizabeth). I assume that adding a zone like Jersey City is safe at the $60 range since there is little chance of getting a room there at that price.

Does anyone?? If you want to leave your car, they make you pay an inflated Sleep and Fly rate. I guess the EWR hotels might let you leave your car there, since you're paying for parking.