WillTravel

In London, practically every hotel is strict about the two-person rule with Priceline. And it's true that many hotels in Zone 1 do not even have triple rooms. If you think about the fact that most London hotel stays probably come from business travelers, it makes sense. Make sure to compare conventional booking prices (I like hotelscombined.com ) for a triple room before making a booking with HOTWIRE. The Novotel St. Pancras is in Zone 1, and allows bookings with 2 adults, 1 child, booking directly. Depending on the dates of your stay, London School of Economics holiday accommodation bookings can be a good deal for a family. See http://www.lsevacations.co.uk/ .

I know lots of people like the Financial District/Embarcadero zone, but I tend to think that at least some hotels in that zone are in places that are too quiet at night. In general, I agree with Gallus50's assessment. Taking a look at some options for you, the Opal Hotel on Booking.com offers a cancellable booking for $86/night + tax, and includes breakfast. This is probably equivalent to your range of a $79 bid on Priceline, even without considering breakfast, because of extra Priceline fees. I would consider booking a backup like this, and then bidding carefully so you don't end up doing worse. Note this hotel would be in Priceline's Civic Center zone, but I think it's a nicer part (people with a more recent memory might like to comment).

That's great that you have a backup plan. Do you want to restrict your bidding to Manhattan now? With a child, I would probably take out CPS and MTW, because of the possibility of getting a really tiny room with just a double bed, or else bid 4* only in those zones. (I hope someone else can confirm that I am remembering right on this point.) Because your limit is rather low, I don't think there's much need for a super-elaborate strategy. I would do something like this for the Manhattan zones: Preferred zones together at $85. Non-preferred zones together at $85. Preferred and non-preferred zones together at $90. You could break this down further, if you wanted to bid on a dollar by dollar basis.

Just continue clicking through the reservation. You will see that there are terms about having to cancel on the day before to avoid a charge.

Take a look at this TravelZoo offer: http://www.travelzoo.com/hotels/new-york/825585/ You can get a room with one queen bed in what I think is a reasonable area for $129+tax (this would probably be equivalent to approximately $123 on Priceline, due to extra fees). Because it's cancellable, I would book it and continue to look for a better deal.

Will it be OK if you and your child get a room with one bed?

I don't think that this is a realistic expectation. If $80 is all you are willing to bid, I would just save time and select all the acceptable zones within the city and 2*, and bid. I don't see any point in a complicated strategy when your ceiling price is so low. Note that some 2* hotels do not have good reviews.

I think what you have to consider is that in almost all cases, the hotels at $115/night through conventional channels typically have terrible reviews, even scary reviews, and almost certainly will have shared bathrooms. $50/night is a typical hostel dorm bed price, when you add the rate plus tax. I hope you will get a cheap hotel room, but I think you have to have a backup plan, as the hope is very faint. You can continue bidding $50 or $55 as much as you want, but unless a miracle occurs, it won't be enough. It would be as hopeless as bidding $15 or $20 in a lot of markets.

It sounds like you are wanting a room for 5. I'm not sure even a room that is set for 4 will work for you, as the hotel typically operates with a fire code that restricts occupancy to a set number per room. So maybe a room for 2 and a room for 3.

The folio price for this said $51.80, so presumably I overbid by about $3. This is a good, well-located hotel, and I'd be happy to get it again if I go to PHL.

I think this was one of my best deals ever, considering what happened to hotel prices during this period. You can see this by other bids people reported in this time period. I booked a "Cozy Queen", but I think the room was at least 12 x 20, which I consider good-sized for a world-class city hotel room. Undoubtedly some rooms are smaller. Everything about the hotel and room was fine, and definitely 3.5* standard, and the location is so convenient.

In Paris the principal customers for the type of 4* hotels that Priceline offers are businesspeople. That's why the month of August, and weekends, tend to be cheaper.

Maybe two rooms on Priceline would be a better bet, and not much more expensive than 1 room for 4 on Hotwire. Although Priceline rooms are only guaranteed to accommodate 2 people, in the Disneyland area I would be willing to take this risk. Six people in one room is really pushing it, and not fair to the hotel, in my opinion.

No, if you want to split your nights, it would be better to do Saturday and Sunday night together, and then the rest of the stay. If you check the Marriott Rive Gauche website, the regular rate for 6/12 - 6/14 (Saturday and Sunday night) is 179 Euros per night, but this changes for 6/14-16 to 269 Euros per night.

I would figure out the cost of a cab from a 4* hotel anywhere in the Bloomsbury-Kings Cross zone (I think that would be 10 pounds at most). Look at the cost of booking the Novotel St Pancras directly. No one can even give you a percentage probability for getting the hotel you want, because we can never know what is going on in the hotel revenue managers' heads. I think you will find that the cost of booking a 4* hotel in this zone on PRICELINE plus the cost of a cab will be considerably less than booking the Novotel St Pancras directly. There are a few other hotels around St Pancras station like Premier Inn Kings Cross St Pancras that you might also want to consider booking directly when you are doing your analysis.

I know your stay is coming to an end, and I'm sorry that it didn't work out too well. But I have to wonder about the air conditioning. It's freezing in Vancouver right now (well 46F), so you don't need it because of the heat. Hardly any homes here have air conditioning, and most non-4* hotels would not.

I agree. I would book a refundable room, because summer can be crazily busy in Seattle. Although it would not be my first choice, the new light rail transit between downtown Seattle and the airport makes airport hotels a much more attractive proposition for a Seattle stay than they used to be. Most likely (no guarantees, though) bids on airport hotels would be available even at a late date, so you could also consider that as a backup plan. I've stayed at four 3* airport hotels, and they were all perfectly fine. I wish there were a way for me to suggest a surefire way to get the Springhill Suites or the Homewood Suites, as both of those are very good quality, even if not 4*. But I know quality could be a bit dicey with some 3* downtown, so maybe that is why you are avoiding them.

I'd try a different browser, and if possible another IP. Unfortunately, Hotwire also sporadically has problems actually having the hotel available, so you should never count on the visible price as being an indication that you are sure to be able to buy the hotel. Good luck!

That Hotwire option sounds like a great choice. Definitely do not stay near Heathrow, and I'd also recommend against Docklands.

Which Travelodge are you looking at? There are only a couple that I consider to be in convenient locations, and a few more that would be tolerable in terms of location. Keep in mind some typical restrictions with Travelodge: they either do not store luggage or charge to do so, they will not allow early check-ins. I would try to find out what the deal is with the Travelodge in question. As for the quality of the Travelodge, I wouldn't expect 3* quality, but check the reviews on www.tripadvisor.com as they do differ. I would expect 3 adults to find a Travelodge room to be a very tight squeeze.

Thanks - that is what I suspected. I really don't want to do worse than what I've gotten, so I think I'll leave it at that.

Through a Twitter special a week or so ago (sadly no longer available), I got the Roosevelt at a cancellable $99 rate for my upcoming stay. From what I can see, this is about as good a hotel as you can expect at the 3.5* level, in a good location. I suspect this will be hard to beat, and I want to ensure I don't get a worse hotel in a worse location, for just minor savings. Any thoughts on whether or what I should try, in terms of zones or bids, for a standard tourist visit?

I don't think it's necessary to do anything. If you like, you can email the hotel and tell them your bed type preference, but that would be about it. The price "mistake", if there is one, is not like $0 or $1.

Oh my goodness, this is an incredible deal for Paris for an air-conditioned 4* hotel in July! I've stayed there, so I know the air conditioning and ice machine work well, or at least they did a few years ago. I tend to think there was a data entry error when the prices were set, but that's not your problem!

Bid this one through the BB link also. I bid $50 and did not get a counteroffer. I added a zone that only went up to 2.5*, and bid $55. So once again, I may have lost a few dollars here, but the bid was over quickly. The cheapest room on the Marriott site is $199, so this represents rather extreme savings. This hotel has excellent reviews, so in this case 3* will be fine.