WillTravel

If these are really good well-located 3* hotels, then it would be a good deal. If these are mediocre, poorly-located 3* hotels, or worse, then I think it would be a not so great deal. Most likely if you look hard enough, you can find a 3* hotel in both of those zones for the same price or less and you would know what and where it was. The 4.0/5.0 on TripAdvisor hotel does look promising. With so little to go on, there's no way to be sure about what those hotels are. What you could do is check with Hotwire's vacation package (create a fake one), and look at the 3* hotels that come up for a package that covers those same dates. (I'd try New York-Paris for ease.)

I know you liked the hotel and didn't request a refund, but a response like this would make me want to dispute it with my credit card company! That might force them to look at the map. I had a similar situation with Hotwire, and it took them a couple days to resolve it, but they did, offering me either $50 HotDollars or a refund (this was prior to the stay).

Keep an eye on SolMelia.com - their 4* hotels are often the ones that come up on Priceline as 4* hotels, and they often have special offers. Note that GTA Hotels.com has some central 4* Madrid hotels for under $145 USD per night, including taxes and breakfast, for your dates.

I don't know how employee benefits work, but the TripRewards hotel brands, including Days Inn, are all owned by Wyndham Worldwide. See the brands there.

It is tricky, but I think it might be the Le Meridien Montparnasse, although that has only 200 or so reviews at the moment, if you count all languages. My reasons are: So far as I can tell, that's the right zone, although Hotwire's maps are quite poor. The amenities match the vacation package. I have seen the number of reviews go down for other hotels, so maybe it did have 220 at one time. For some reason, TA sometimes removes reviews. Although the current TripAdvisor rating is 3, there were a slew of recent bad reviews, so it might have been 3.5 a short time ago. But it's not a perfect fit, as you can tell, and I'm not entirely confident. There is a cheaper 4* hotel in the Champs Elysees - Trocadero zone. I'm not sure if it would be better, or what hotel it is, but I thought I'd mention it.

I should have been clearer. I think I've seen it in the past on HOTWIRE - it had a pool and some other amenities, but I never bought it. I don't know if it's available on your dates.

Unless there's a big trade fair or something, Berlin hotel rates tend to be very reasonable, and your $100 limit has a good chance of working, but I didn't check rates for your dates. The area I consider absolutely most convenient for sightseeing is in Mitte, around the Westin Grand (at the intersection of Friedrichstrasse and Unter den Linden). That hotel used to come up quite often as a 4* win (and I won it a few years ago), but not so much lately. However, I think I have seen it on Hotwire (my guess anyway from the amenities). The problem with Priceline zones is that the Mitte hotels are in the East zone, and the East zone extends, as you might expect, very far east. I don't recall any 4* wins of hotels that were way far out, but it could happen theoretically. The other zone that has 4* hotels, Tiergarten - Kufuerstendamm, also has some areas that are pretty far from the center, although again I don't recall any terribly inconvenient 4* hotels being won. Berlin does have an excellent transit system even if you do get stuck on the edge of those huge zones. On our second trip to Berlin, we booked directly on the Accorhotels.com site (through the BetterBidding support page link) and stayed at the Mercure Hotel Berlin An Der Charite - a nice, well-reviewed 3* hotel. I would check the Accorhotels site just in case there is a great deal for your dates for a hotel that you would like. Another time, although we did not end up going to Berlin that time, I had a very good rate for the Mercure Checkpoint Charlie (which shows up as a Priceline 4*), for 63 Euros per night booked through Booking.com .

One thing that I notice for the Marriott Rive Gauche (which is the 4* hotel that has been reported here with some ~$90 bids lately) is that its regular rate is 295 Euros per night for March 19-21, and 175 Euros per night for March 21-24 (which is a weekend). This suggests to me that if you are willing to split your bid, you have a chance of winning with a lower amount on March 21-24. March 19-21 might be very hard to win at any sort of reasonable price. Anything could happen, but I would suggest checking the rates on other popular 4* hotels and see if this pattern holds up. Some people hate switching, and some don't mind - so it's up to you whether you would want to take this risk.

If you have set up a profile, there is no problem bidding. The difficulty arises in respect to the shipping address for the tickets. If you have a US address to send them to (in the off-chance that Priceline awards paper tickets), then there's no problem, so far as I can see.

I'd suggest looking for a backup (non-Priceline), cancellable hotel to book that meets your budget. Then at least you'll have the peace of mind so that you know you will get something somewhere that is in your price range, because this seems to be a relatively expensive time (although that seems to be most of the time in Paris, lately). Basically you are allowing about 90-95 Euros per night (considering the USD/Euro exchange rate, taxes, and fees) and that does not go very far in Paris, even for a 2* hotel, if booking conventionally.

The zones that have 4* are always subject to change. But take a look again at the Batignolles - Montmartre - Republique zone. Right now, it only allows up to 3* bidding. The 4* zone that I would worry about is Eiffel Tower - Grenelle - Montparnasse. There are several good hotels that are well-located in this zone, but there's also one that is poorly located (just outside Paris boundaries) and poorly reviewed - the Sofitel Porte de Sevres. (Actually that is its old name - now it's the Pullman Paris Rive Gauche as of December 5). So if you include it, keep in mind the risk you are taking.

Priceline.com requires that the passenger be 18 or older if traveling alone, at least for name your own price purchases. I somehow doubt that the airline would stop a mature-looking 17-year-old on one of these tickets, but you never know.

I agree that few hotels specifically offer shuttle service, although many hotels will arrange it. I'm not sure that makes a difference. But the Eiffel Seine does have a fitness center, according to this site: http://www.tvtrip.co.uk/paris-hotels/hotel...l-seine/details So I agree that the Eiffel Seine is a very reasonable guess.

I am not saying you should necessarily split your stay, or that it will help get a cheaper rate, but it seems with 12 nights, it would be very reasonable to try and it could provide you an opportunity to stay in two distinct areas.

This may not be a crucial factor, but Hotwire often includes a pool icon, even if it's an outside pool that could not possibly be used in the winter. I'd say the Holiday Inn is just barely within the Downtown Victoria Hotwire zone. You can get an Internet rate (prepaid) or a corporate rate (cancellable) at the Best Western Inner Harbour for just $76 CAD per night. This has a very good location and includes a breakfast buffet.

I've been bidding on this intermittently for a few weeks. I think I've gone up to $57 in the past, and have not gotten any counteroffers. Today I started with $45 for the SEA Airport zone. I did not get a counteroffer. I then added Downtown for $48. This is not really a free rebid zone, but I would have been fine with staying downtown also, and in any event I was very unlikely to win downtown with that price. I then added Lake Union (which only goes up to 2.5*) for $50. Much to my surprise, I won. With taxes and fees, the total price is $64.80. I knew that counteroffers do not always happen, even when you are very close, but this was a good reminder of that. My backup, booked through the Intercontinental link on this site, was an Entertainment Book rate of $81/night for the Holiday Inn Express near the airport. The total price would have been about $90. This might be a good deal for a family of four, because breakfast is included and you can choose your bed type. But in my case, I am traveling alone on this trip. I've stayed at this Doubletree before and it's a great hotel. I bid through SavingsBarn.com

I got a Starwood offer the other day to book the downtown Sheraton for $179 per night which by itself does not sound great, but you also get a $100 Macy's gift card in the deal. So far as I could see, this deal worked for a one-night stay too. I'm not sure if it's available for your dates. As I posted on another thread, there are also some good Starwood cash + points deals for downtown Seattle. For example - 4000 points + $60 to get the W (and I think the Sheraton also). If you sign up for the Canadian version of the Starwood MasterCard, you get 5000 points to start, with no card fees attached. (Again, I didn't check your dates for this.)

The Pike Street Suites, formerly the Summerfield Suites, are due to complete a changeover to become Homewood Suites sometime soon, and I think this changeover should be in place by July. I think this location would be more convenient (for most purposes) than the Homewood Suites on the other side of the Space Needle. You'd probably have to book directly if you want to be sure of getting either hotel, of course.

That's a great attitude! If you are from the Vancouver area, you likely know this, but two nice things they can do from that location: 1) Walk down to Stamps Landing and take a ferry around False Creek or across to Yaletown. 2) Walk down to Stamps Landing and continue along the footpath to Granville Island. This is very nice at night, also, because you get a great view with the lights. I don't think there should be a problem with adding your son to the reservation, particularly if he has the same last name as you, but you could give the hotel a call.

(I think this may have been mentioned before at some point, but it's worth pointing out again.) First, you can get a Starwood credit card with no fee and get a bunch of Starwood points. Canadians can't get as many as Americans, but look for the best deal. Once you have some Starwood points, then you can use Cash + Points to get some pretty good deals. I'm sure there may be better deals in certain instances, but one I recently noticed for at least some dates is 4000 Starwood points + $60 to get the W in downtown Seattle. The rate per night is otherwise $239. Of course, sometimes the points redemption options (without cash) are pretty good deals also.

Note that for your dates you can get a 5* hotel on HOTWIRE for $189 + taxes and fees, per night. If you can figure out which hotel this likely is (I haven't tried), and are happy with it, then you might choose that offer, using the board's HOTWIRE link.

Which hotel did you get? :) Did you respond to a counteroffer, or was this your first bid? Enjoy London. I'm sure you will.

I think that if you want to stay at or under $120 USD, you might have to do one or all of several things, and even so there's no guarantee: 1) Split your stay 2) Choose a less-central zone 3) Go to 3* for at least some of your days But with all the zones that London has, you will have plenty of bidding opportunities before your trip, and you might as well start with bidding for all your days at a 4* level. I think you should look at the Priceline map and decide which zones are totally unacceptable, and then post back with the zones you are willing to accept.

Which Priceline zones, though? However, I just checked, and the only London zone on Priceline that has 5* options is Mayfair-Soho. I'd take a look at HOTWIRE and see if they have any 4.5* options, as well.

I'd also figure out what the best-deal, acceptable option is before bidding. Just as a quick example, the Concorde Montparnasse (right across from the Le Meridien Montparnasse) has a prepaid rate of 124 Euros including tax for your dates. That equates to a bid of about $160 on Priceline (after taxes, fees and currency exchange are considered). The Concorde Montparnasse has never come up on Priceline to my knowledge, but I just wanted to mention it as a possible option. It's quite likely, given such rates, that you'll be able to do better on Priceline.