WillTravel

What are the amenities? It might be the only reported 5* (I haven't checked), but it's certainly not the only possible 5* hotel in this zone. Check Expedia and a few other sources, and you will likely find some other possible candidates. Usually, Priceline or Hotwire rates preclude any chance of upgrade from other affiliations, but it's worth a try, as some do succeed.

Given such a sparse description, most 3* hotels would qualify. Two known 3* options in this zone are Hotel Neva and Best Western Folkestone Opera, but they haven't been reported with these exact amenities, and there could be any number of others. With TripAdvisor being 4/5, that's pretty good, but I would seriously think about whether you want to commit to a nonrefundable 3* hotel you know very little about.

There may be exceptions, but it's already bad enough in big cities that Priceline often includes outlying areas in the central zones. With smaller towns, often with no zone maps, you could really be shunted to a far-off location. For various locations in the Netherlands, I've often seen good rates at these sites: www.bestwestern.com (and I know there is a BB link for this too) www.hotelbooking.com www.booking.com www.hotels.nl www.edenhotelgroup.com In my opinion, Leiden or den Haag would be excellent places to stay, among many others, I'm sure, but those are both very nice places.

Based on your post, and this hotel's reported rating, did you mean to put 4* in the title?

In many cases, the hotel knows instantly, but I'd give it a couple days, and then email or phone. You can then politely ask for your room preference also.

With two adults and two children, I'd either bid for two rooms on PRICELINE, or use Hotw.ire and enter 2 adults and 2 children and search for 1 room, or employ some other strategy to get a quad room. The standard London PRICELINE hotel room will fit two adults, and no more. If you book conventionally, Holiday Inn often allows two children free under 18, but double-check on that. Holiday Inn Express includes a free breakfast. I agree with blindman about the car issue.

Thanks for the report. Because this is so close to Seattle Center, I've thought it might be a good place to stay. I've even gotten free nights through the Best Rate Guarantee program, but ended up cancelling them in favor of PRICELINE bids (for higher-starred hotels), so I've never actually stayed here. Sounds like it's just as well. I think this is a 2* hotel on HOTWIRE in the Space Needle zone, so buyer beware.

Right now I see $59 for 3* in the Kensington zone on HOTWIRE. I'd grab that now, if 3* is okay with you, which it seems to be. Actually, I might take the 3.5* for $95. But no need to bid higher, given what HOTWIRE offers, in my opinion.

Does the Marriott rate allow three people, or did you book two rooms? I wouldn't use Priceline for Amsterdam if you want three people in the room. If you are getting two rooms, how about 4* bidding? That said, one reason I did not use Priceline for Amsterdam is that I didn't want the Moevenpick (4*). It seems like a great hotel, but not in a great location for getting back late at night.

You're getting down to the wire! The Riverbank Plaza is 4*, so you could get it with bidding 4* in the Westminster zone. HOTWIRE has a 3* in Bloomsbury-Marble Arch for $115. I'd try to figure out what this is, and use it as a ceiling for your last set of bids, or whatever the lowest-priced acceptable hotel is when you next rebid. I think HOTWIRE's fees are a little lower, so keep the total cost in mind.

I think this sounds like a great hotel. I thought this was in Mayfair-Soho, did you add that zone at the end of your bidding?

Two sites that I find very helpful are www.hotelscombined.com and www.hrs.de .

I would start by booking a backup. Personally I wouldn't want the Vatican area, because some hotels could be quite far out. But it's a lot better than the West area, for convenience.

The only real thing you can say about the price choice is that the higher you bid, the more likely you are to win. I think there's an FAQ about figuring our your rebid zones. The important thing is to check each zone separately and see what star level it goes up to.

Why do you pick those two zones? Eiffel Tower - Grenelle - Montparnasse has some hotels that are somewhat central, but some that are very far out. Opera Quarter East - Les Halles is pretty central. Many people have succeeded with St. Germain - Latin Quarter - Montparnasse, and that seems to be the zone that generally has the lowest price 4* hotels. Did you want to exclude that zone? I think your hoped for price is not realistic, but you can try. I'd suggest booking a cancellable backup, though.

Paris: For walking, I'd say Opera Quarter East-Les Halles is the most central area. If you got the northwest part of St. Germain-Latin Quarter-Montparnasse, that would also be really central, but it's very unlikely you'd get a 4* hotel there (and maybe not a 3*). Eiffel Tower-Grenelle-Montparnasse includes a portion that is really not central, but part of it is quite central. But I wouldn't risk it. Champs Elysees-Opera Quarter West will mostly give you hotels that aren't very central, but okay with the metro. For Bastille-Bercy and Batignolles-Montmarte-Republique, parts of these would be somewhat central (but not extremely) and parts would be quite uncentral. La Defense-Neuilly is definitely far away. If you really want a centrally located hotel, the best bet is to book it directly, or maybe use HOTWIRE in a few very specific zones, or stick to 4* in Opera Quarter East-Les Halles. As for what to see, what interests you?

It could be the Westin, although those amenities are not the same as reported previously. If your budget is $200 USD, that's only about 125 Euros, which a lot of people seem to be paying for centrally-located places that are in the 2* category. Which is more important to you - central location, or a 4* hotel?

I couldn't find a previous review for this. We stayed here in February 2007, but our stay was so short, and I was so tired, that I didn't think I could make much of an assessment. Everything worked fine, and it's possible somewhat more worn than the Hilton and the Doubletree. But one nice feature is that it has a mattress where you can turn a dial to decide how firm your mattress will be. My daughter loved this. We stayed here again in March 2007. I asked for a room with two separate beds, and for the first time ever, a Priceline hotel could not meet my request. Perhaps it was because this was the Friday evening just as spring break was starting. As a mother and daughter, it's just a strong preference to have two beds, and not an absolute necessity, so we made do with a comfortable king bed. The dial feature is available for each side of the bed, so the two sides can be different. It's possible that if I had asked for a cot, I would have gotten one, but I didn't try. Other than that, I'm still hard-pressed to give much of an evaluation, good or bad. I think we possibly had a nicer room this time, although the last one wasn't bad. If you get this hotel, you will be fine.

I stayed here in February on a Priceline reservation. The first room I was given was either occupied, or just not cleaned. I thought it was occupied at the time, but in retrospect, maybe it just hadn't been cleaned. Anyway, I went back to the desk to complain (I had gotten a scare thinking what would happen if the guest had been there), and got a double deluxe room. The lounge is a nice place to spend a bit of time and a good place to get a quick, light, late dinner. They have computers that are free to use in the lounge. Everything worked fine. So this was a good stay in the end.

As someone indicated in a different post, this was likely the Golden Tulip Apollo, which has come up with these icons, even though it does not have a bona fide coin-operated guest laundry. We ended up staying at the 2* Hotel Armada, booked through booking.com , for 49 Euros per night including breakfast, for a twin room. I was a little nervous about whether an Amsterdam 2* hotel would be too sketchy, but the hotel seemed family-oriented, rather than drug-tourist-oriented, and it has a friendly staff and clean rooms. The location was really ideal. The hotel has had some renovations lately, so I felt it was probably justified to overlook many of the previously bad reviews. It's definitely only a 2* hotel, but I liked the location better than anything I was likely to get with PRICELINE or HOTWIRE, and of course the price was right. The problem was that getting a better hotel in a location that we liked just as well would likely have meant spending 2x or 3x more, and I could not justify that.

I just got back from Paris! Anyway, I can't say about the Le Meridien Etoile personally, but it is not centrally located. However, it is on Line 1 of the metro, which is not so bad. Given you want a central hotel, it's probably not a good choice. And from what you are saying, it's quite likely Hotwire 4.5* hotels would suit you better than either Priceline 4* or Hotwire 4* hotels. It's a long shot, but sometimes Intercontinental has special deals for their Paris hotels, through the Intercontinental website (I think BetterBidding has a link). I'd be very happy staying at the one by the Opera house, and it's also reasonably close to the Louvre. But most likely, this means spending a lot more money. My personal preference is that I'd prefer to be near the Louvre than the Eiffel Tower but both could be good. They're about 2.5 miles apart.

Thanks for posting this. Like you said this hotel also has a Laundry icon, and it offers laundry service, but it does not have a coin-operated guest laundry like Hotwire says that the icon means. If you are interested, you could ask Hotwire and see if they award you some HotDollars or some compensation for not getting what you were promised. The reviews seem reasonably good for a 2* hotel.

That's great. What site did they use to get that?

Yes, you should get two beds, although one may be a sleeper sofa, and I think even a rollaway is possible. The bottom line is that you can demand to have sleeping accommodations for three people. So you could even choose two adults and a child, which is sometimes cheaper.

No, you won't automatically be rejected. I did an 8/29 - 9/2 bid 11 months ahead for downtown Seattle (but for 2.5*). The more likely problem is that because this is a very high demand time in Seatle, you may have to pay a lot, certainly more than in low season. The other problem is that you are seeking a pretty long stay, so you may be more successful (but no way to tell ahead of time) with two shorter bids. Have you looked at HOTWIRE for your dates?