WillTravel

But what if they want to send me bonus money? OK, this hasn't happened for four or five years, but you never know . . . . I haven't seen it, but it seems these might be related to some current crop of TV commercials, based on a Google search.

I get Priceline ad emails at more than one account, so I've gotten several with the title "You aren't a mama's boy, are you? Name Your Own Price on Hotels from $60/night". The text of the email has nothing to do with "mamas' boys", and is just the standard encouragement to bid for hotel rooms because "cheap" prices have been found in the listed cities. But the subject is so stupid that I am turned off. I wouldn't say it is offensive (although some might say so), just dumb. I thought they might be spam or phishing emails purporting to be from Priceline, but the headers seem to match to Priceline.com . Has anyone else gotten these?

In Edinburgh, I like to be close to High Street (also called the Royal Mile). If not there, at least close to Princes Street. If you are in this general area, almost all Edinburgh attractions are quite walkable. (For reference, I think just about the very best located hotel is the Radisson SAS.) Priceline's City Center zone, which includes this area, is quite large. So you may end up on the edge of town, and not in easy walking distance. I'm fairly sure that you would still have good public transit if you ended up on the edge, but I would fully investigate this angle first. If you choose the West City Centre zone, you may be near two major art museums, but not much else. You should also carefully investigate the public transit options from there. I would not recommend Airport/Southwest, but you could look into the public transit options. I strongly suggest booking a backup option. The problem is that your budget is so low that it's just more than enough for two hostel beds. At this late date, you may not be able to book these, but look at the Premier Travel Inn and the Travelodges in Edinburgh. Also, the central Ibis hotel. You need to figure out the price of your lowest-priced acceptable option, so that you will have an idea about how much to bid. My concern is that $100 is just not going to be enough (although it's possible).

Hoping to hear an update from the original poster! This would only work for some nights of the original poster's stay, but it's a pretty good deal for a 4* hotel: http://ca.deals.travelzoo.com/worldwide/361413 We are going to be in Paris from March 21-24, and I booked this hotel on www.hrs.de for 80 Euros per night including breakfast: http://www.parishotelmarciano.com It appears you can get a 70 Euro rate without breakfast for a 3-night stay. It's definitely not a 4* hotel. I'd say a mediocre 3* hotel, although recently refurbished. However, the location works well for us on this trip. Hotwire lists a higher rate for a 3* hotel in this area, and from reviews of what I think the hotel is, I don't think the Hotwire hotel is any better.

The very best method is reading what people have posted, if anything is available. The next best method is to look at vacation packages and try to match the star level, and in the case of Hotwire, the amenities. This is not perfect, but it works reasonably well. Another thing you can do is look at Expedia or other hotel booking site and try to see all possible hotels in the defined zone. Here's another method, although it is of somewhat limited usefulness. Often, when people book a Priceline or Hotwire stay, they end up reviewing the hotel on TripAdvisor, and then they say in their review that they booked the hotel through Priceline or Hotwire. So just do a search like this (using the TripAdvisor search feature): http://www.tripadvisor.com/Search?returnTo...;q=Hotwire+Rome Then you get a bunch of reviews that have Hotwire mentioned in them, and many of them are Hotwire hotels in Rome. You can also do a Google search like this, restricting the results to Tripadvisor.com: http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=Ho...r.com&meta= Both methods have false positives, but maybe this will help someone. I am still trying to figure out what the 3* hotel in Amsterdam is that I posted about on another thread, using these methods, and all the others, but have not succeeded. (It's not a big concern, because as I posted in that thread, I doubt it's a worthwhile deal. Now I'm just doing it for curiosity!)

I know what you mean about the area, but if you haven't been here for a year or so, you will find the area is becoming more upscale, at least several blocks away. For example, the Belltown area has some new condos and some interesting-looking cafes, and a few blocks away there is a new Pan Pacific and a Whole Foods market. You are about one block from a bus stop which will give you a 4-minute bus ride into very central downtown Seattle, and the walk is not so bad anyway.

Thanks for looking. I think you are probably right. I thought that maybe this meant there were no hotels at all in this little Priceline North Amsterdam blip for CC/MQ, but I looked a little more and I think that Bastion Hotel Amsterdam/Centrum-Noord might actually be a 3* (or possibly 2*) hotel that is in that tiny area. I think my feeling here is the same as for Hotwire - I just do not feel entirely comfortable with either the zone or the possibilities. At least Hotwire does not have this little northward blip, though. I'll update after our Amsterdam stay with whatever we decided.

The Amsterdam City Center/Museum Quarter zone has an edge that pokes north, into the area of North Amsterdam, which you can reach by a free ferry from behind Centraal Station. So it's not the end of the world if you end up there, but I wouldn't consider it central Amsterdam either. What I am trying to figure out is if there are any 3* (or 4*) hotels in that tiny little northward fork. The one I am concerned about is the 3* NH City Center North (not to be confused with the NH City Center). You can see the NH City Center North location if you go to maps.google.com and enter this address: Distelkade 21, 1031 XP Amsterdam You can see the City Center/Museum Quarter zone if you go to Priceline and set up an Amsterdam bid, and click to see the zone map. So if you compare the two, do you think the NH City Center North is included in the CC/MQ zone? I can't make up my mind, as the Priceline map is so unclear. Priceline also has a North zone, and I'm unsure whether the NH City Center North fits in that zone. This hotel is definitely a Priceline hotel, as it shows up in vacation packages (and numerous NH hotels have been won in Amsterdam).

HOTWIRE has a 4* for downtown Seattle - PikePlace Market for $129 that works for 2 adults and 2 children. I haven't tried to figure out which one it is. Of all the options, I think this would be most attractive to me, because all the 4* options are quite central, and you would be sure of enough beds (assuming two of you are children). The downside would be no free breakfast, and no suite. For most Seattle downtown hotels, you would be fine getting two beds, but there are a few reported exceptions. I have personally had a good track record getting suite-style hotels with 2.5* Priceline bids, but it's also quite possible you could be "upgraded" to a less desirable 3* hotel. So if you were up to this risk, then bid for a 2.5* hotel. One thing that makes me wonder, though, is that the Pike Street Suites (formerly Summerfield Suites) have still not finished their conversion to become Homewood Suites, so I think there may be fewer suite options available on Priceline than before.

How many of you will be staying in the room?

I just remembered the Travelodge by the Space Needle has a free breakfast, so that could be it also. This is one low-end Seattle hotel I haven't stayed at, but I am sure the Springhill Suites is much nicer than this one too, and I wouldn't say the Travelodge has the neighborhood to recommend it.

Because this is only 2*, but has a complimentary breakfast, I might guess Inn at Queen Anne. However, no guarantees, but the other ones I can think of in the Space Needle district would be better than 2*. The Springhill Suites is much better, but the Inn at Queen Anne is in a nicer neighborhood (not that Springhill Suites is bad - but it's more of a deserted downtown area).

The Holiday Inn is in the south zone and is rated 3.5* on Hotwire (4* on Priceline). The Crowne Plaza is a 4* on Priceline, but I don't know about Hotwire. It has better reviews than reported for the mystery hotel. Thanks for the ideas. The laundry thing does seem common with some chains, but I can't think of a chain 3* that would fit these criteria.

Other details: TripAdvisor 3/5 (not great), and 160+ reviews, including December 2007. I know of two 3* hotels in central Amsterdam that I can get for 68 or 74 Euros for these dates, so for the most part, I doubt Hotwire can do better. I don't want to get a 4* hotel (or 3* for that matter) on Priceline, because I don't like the locations of some possibilities. However, I am quite intrigued by this Hotwire offering. There are so few hotels in Europe that have laundries available to guests. When you click the laundry icon, it says, "<amenity names only please... not descriptions>" The Albus Grand is a 3* hotel offered in Priceline's vacation packages, with no amenities. I wrote to them and asked if they had a laundry available to guests, and they said no. The de Roode Leeuw is another 3* Hotwire package offering, and it has an ironing room for guests, but no laundry, so far as I can see. I looked, and I could not find any 3* hotel that has coin-operated washers and dryers for guests. The Marriott does allow guests complimentary use of a laundry room, but it's a 4* hotel. So - in summary, I am very curious to figure out what the hotel is, and in the event it was a well-located, nice hotel (knowing you can never know for sure with Hotwire), I might be interested. But I'm not interested in getting a random 3*, with the way the zones are set up. I tend to think this laundry icon is a mistake on Hotwire's part, but if it led to an erroneous purchase, what would be their response? Any ideas - I have to say that curiosity is motivating me too, and it's quite likely I wouldn't consider the hotel a good deal once I did find out, but if anyone has any thoughts, I'd be glad to hear.

Priceline Hong Kong has bidding in New Delhi, but would you really want to take a chance?

I may have overbid this. I started with $40. A few hours later, I decided to add a rebid zone and bid $45. Because my bid for February 08 had required $50, I probably jumped up too quickly. But I can't complain in any event. This hotel is not quite so nice as the Doubletree or Hilton, but it is more than satisfactory, and very convenient for the airport. Bid through the SavingsBarn.com link.

For location, the Hotel Edouard VII would win by far, for me. The reviews on TripAdvisor are pretty good, too. But if you are looking for the top hotel experience, it's really hard to tell which would be best. Have you seen this site? It might help with comparisons or offers: http://www.luxury-paris-hotels.net/

I saw a thread on Fodors which reported that the Ramada Budapest, formerly a 3* Priceline hotel, is now a 4* Priceline hotel. The bidder was not very happy with either the hotel or the location. Previously, all wins had been for "nice" 4* hotels that were very central. I checked on Priceline's retail product, and the Ramada is showing up as a 4* hotel.

That could well be the case with the Hilton - as noted previously, HOTWIRE is often not a great choice in Paris. The Sofitel Trocad

I'd guess the Hilton Arc de Triomphe, but that's just a guess since that hotel has a pool and is in the right area. I'd also go to the Accorhotels.com link (there's a BetterBidding support page link) and look at the Sofitel options. I notice you asked about an April stay as well. Did you change your dates?

So far I haven't stayed at any hotel at any level, or even hostel, that wasn't clean (although I may not have the eagle eyes of some). I think German hotels will tend to be better in standard than in some other countries. Some experiencess with 3* and 4* hotels: Our 3* hotel in Cologne where we have stayed several times has very friendly staff, free use of computers with Internet in the lobby, and a good if not extraordinary breakfast. The rooms are fine, but they just aren't "sharp", in some way I find hard to define. The 4* Four Points by Sheraton across the street from that one has sharp rooms (although the lobby could be improved), but you have to pay for the breakfast (15 Euros per person and it is really good). There is no free Internet. The staff was very concerned that my preferences for newspapers, etc. be met, but they weren't conversational in the same way as at the 3* hotel. So between these two hotels, I'd choose the 3* option, but the 4* one has a lot to recommend it too. The 3* Mercure den Charit

I'd consider those to be pretty good prices, considering the season and the constraints. Given that you want to include SEA and ANC, how about using Alaska and going to EWR? Is that possible? The 8:55 departure is not bad at all - it could easily be 6 AM!

I think this is a good hotel with a good location and good reviews, but it goes to show why Hotwire is not necessarily the best deal. You can get the same hotel for 93 Euros, including breakfast, for a double/twin room on the Best Western site for your dates. The Hotwire rate, once taxes and fees are added, comes close to 90 Euros and with no breakfast or guaranteed choice of bed type.

This is a really well-situated hotel. The main drawback for some people is that the standard rooms only have queen beds. Most London rooms easily allow you to choose a two twin bed room on arrival, but this one does not. www.thegrandattrafalgarsquare.com

If the Opera-Grands Boulevards one is the Tour D'auvergne, then you can book it directly for almost the same price (99 Euros per night) when taxes and fees are included for HOTWIRE : http://www.booking.com/hotel/fr/hoteldelatourdauvergne.html or here: http://www.hotel-tour-auvergne-opera-paris...ervation_en.htm