Halberstam

Amenities: Complimentary Breakfast Business Center High-speed Internet Access Tennis Nearby Pool(s) Laundry Facilities Golf Nearby

At first I thought this was going to be a La Quinta, due to the free breakfast. Then I changed my mind, and thought it was going to be a Comfort Inn, based on the hotel list. Turns out...it was both! This former Comfort Inn has just been bought out by La Quinta, and so I was right and wrong with both my guesses. Breakfast Pool Laundry Fitness Business Internet http://www.lq.com/lq/properties/propertyPr...amp;propId=2055 When I went to check back on it again, the price has dropped to $54. Oh well.

Used the Savings Barn link to go to priceline, then put an initial bid on $63 for the Richmond metro area. I thought I would be getting the Crowne Plaza for a lower price than the $65 posted here, but got the Marriott Richmond instead. Internet price on this is $129. It's my first win with Priceline...I was ready to quit using it after all of the rejections I've received.

I've tried rebids at $40 and $45 now...no luck. Retail on this hotel is $84, so I've gone beyond 50% at this point. Any ideas?

Used the savingsbarn link to place a bid on the 2.5* Carolina Beach hotel. I believe there's only one hotel of it's class here, so I'm pretty sure it's the Marriott Courtyard. I read of winning bids here at $35, so I tried a bid of $36...no good. The price on Marriott's site is $84, so maybe I'll try again with a $40 bid later. I have time!

I used the HOTWIRE link above to search on a Norfolk hotel, 11/20 -> 11/22. It came up with a 3* hotel in downtown for $54. I knew this wasn't the Tazewell (as listed in the hotel list), given that it had a pool. After visiting Trip Advisor's site and matching up the Trip Advisor score for a three star hotel with a 2.0 trip advisor score, I guessed that this would be the Radisson Hotel Norfolk. Wrong...it turned out to be the Sheraton Norfolk Waterside, which is listed in Trip Advisor as a 4*, 2.0 rating. I did learn that there might be a way to use these Trip Advisor scores to figure out these hotels better, although you can't match up the star rating. Hotwire's star rating was lower, but had I thought about it more, a 2.0 score with 60+ reviews would only match so many hotels. We have many stops on this trip, so I'll keep investigating the tripadvisor angle. Amenities: Fitness Center, Restaurants, Internet, Pool, Business Center The two nights came out to 108.00 + 23.37 (taxes) for a total of $131.37. Seems like a great location, but the reviews on the hotel scare us a little. Oh well, all part of the game!