slick_gd

What are the amenties that HOTWIRE lists for the 2.5*? Just doing a quick search on HOTWIRE gives the 2.5* for $76 with breakfast, pool, and internet access. If these are the same amenities this is my response: There are several reasons why I think this 2.5* you are seeing is not the Country Inn and Suites 1) PRICELINE and HOTWIRE do not necessarily have the same ratings. 2) Tripadvisor rates the Country Inn a 3*, and HOTWIRE generally uses the tripadvisor rating as it's own. Not always, but generally. 3) The Country Inn also has a business centre, fitness facilities, laundry, and is smoke-free. These amenities are generally listed on HOTWIRE. Seeing as how you have a couple months before your stay, you may want to attempt to add hotel nights again if you can. Otherwise, if you are really dead set against switching hotels, you can book the extra 2 nights directly from the hotel website. A king room is going for ~$94/night if you book a non-refundable, or ~$104/night refundable. This depends on how much the extra $20/night is worth it for you. Let us know if you need any other help. Use this HOTWIRE link to start your purchase.

Please follow up on your last Hotwire Boston thread and let us know what you ended up doing with the 3* Boston hotel, then we will help you out with this request.

In addition to the Red Sox vs Jays game, the Canadian National Exhibition has opened for this year (it is only open for 2 weeks each year), as well as numerous other festivals across the city. This may explain the packed hotels. I would say that this weekend is the anomaly, as you are right, the prices are usually not this high.

The 4* looks to be a match for Le Centre Sheraton, and the 3.5* looks to match the Cantlie Suites. These would be my best guess. Here's the link for HOTWIRE.

Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do to guarantee which hotel you are going to get. The Serrano hotel website indicates there is no availability for the dates you requested, so you are probably not getting that hotel in any case. There may be an event going on in SF at that time that is limiting the amount of hotel room available. From here it's a matter of what risk you are willing to take. Please post your past winning bids so that others on the site can benefit from your experience. Use these PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links to start your purchase.

There really is nothing you can do to increase your chances of getting one hotel over another. Submitting a higher bid may only result in you over-paying for your stay in the hotel you really didn't want. That's just the way the PRICELINE game works. If you are really set on the Sheraton Suites you are probably better off booking that hotel directly. Use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links to start your purchase if you decide to go this route.

That one looks to be a match to the Imperial Hotel and Suites, so that is our best guess. Use this link HOTWIRE to begin your purchase.

There are plenty of areas to park around the Kind Eddie for relatively cheap, and obviously, the further you are willing to walk the cheaper you can find. It also depends on which dates you are staying there. Weekday daytime rates will be quite pricey, but weekends are cheaper. Street parking in and around the area is typically free from 9pm to about 8 or 9am, then it's about $2-3/hour throughout the day. There is a parking lot at Scott St and The Esplanade right behind the Novotel, about a 5 min walk from the King Eddie which charges $5 from 6pm to about 7am. On the weekends it's about $10 to $15 from 7am to 6pm. Basically, if you spend some time driving around the area you will be able to find parking for much cheaper than $30.

The amenities and rating match the Sheraton Fort Lauderdale Airport Hotel, so this is my best guess. Please use this link to get to HOTWIRE.

Before we can help you out we need a little more information, namely: star rating, HOTWIRE amenities, and what it says the trip advisor rating is.

I'm assuming you are looking at Niagara Falls, Ontario, and not Niagara Falls, NY. If so, it looks like that one could be the Sheraton Fallsview. Trip advisor rates it 4 out of 5 based on 280 reviews, and HOTWIRE mentions there are 260+ reviews. Amenities seems to fit as well.

Yes, every time you close the browser you are essentially starting a whole new bid. So that means entering all the information over again. A little bit of a pain, but the extra re-bids are worth it. And yes, you're all set to go once you've reached that page, just show up to the hotel. BTW, it's a great hotel that's located right in the heart of downtown Toronto, an excellent location, very close to everything. It also has one of the largest pools I have ever seen in a hotel (and it's heated). I actually stayed there just a couple weeks ago after winning it off Priceline.

Th Toronto East one looks like it could be the Royal Meridien King Edward. Tripadvisor gives it a 3.5 on 131 reviews which fits what Hotwire is listing as well as having the Spa, which narrows down the field quite a bit. Anyone else care to second my opinion?

Out of the 5 zones for Montreal, only downtown Montreal (Zone 5) has a 4*, and all of them have 3*. So if you want a 3*, you would only have Dorval as a re-bid zone. However, with the 4* you have a lot of chances for re-bids. Here's how I would do it: 1: New-bid: 4* Montreal 2: Re-bid: Montreal add Dorval 3: New-bid: Montreal & Laval 4: Re-bid: Montreal & Laval add Dorval 5: New-bid: Montreal & Longueil 6: Re-bid: Montreal & Longueil add Laval 7: Re-bid: Montreal & Longueil & Laval add Dorval 8: New-bid: Montreal & Pointe Clare 9: Re-bid: Montreal & Pointe Clare add Longueil 10: Re-bid: Montreal & Pointe Clare & Longueil add Laval 11: Re-bid: Montreal & Pointe Clare & Longueil & Laval add Dorval A new bid means closing your browser and starting a whole new bid (using the PRICELINE links on this site). For more clarification take a look at the FAQ's on the bidding process. Link: Priceline Re-Bidding Explained Read the entire post to understand what is happening.You would want to make sure before you add a new zone that it doesn't have a 4* just in case Priceline changed it up at that very second. From here, just choose how much you want to bid each time.

As AaronJB pointed out in another thread, the Chicago marathon is running on Sept 12 which could explain the lack of hotel rooms for a good price. Check out other sites to see what the availability and rates are. It might give you a better indication of what you can expect from PRICELINE.

There is really no way of suggesting where to stay if you are using HOTWIRE or PRICELINE (Name Your Price). Both of those sites don't tell you the hotel until after you have booked it. While with Hotwire you may be able to deduce the hotel that is offered, with Priceline there is no chance of knowing. To get an idea of where you could possible end up, you might want to look through the hotel lists to see which hotels people in the past have won. It's only a guideline as new hotels can be added or star ratings changed at any time, but it's a pretty good guideline. If you don't have a specific hotel in mind, then these sites will help you get a great deal in the area. But if you are looking for one in particular, you're better off going the more traditional route.

I would recommend starting at a lower bid and working your way up in $2-$3 increments. Chicago is a city with many many rebid zones and if you are looking at staying in either the Loop or NMA, you have up to 21 possible bids in one try! I recently went through a bid process of 11 tries before I got the Hyatt Regency in the Loop. This was my process: To get the 21 bids, replace NMA with LOOP for bids 8-14, and then for bids 15-21 or so have NMA and LOOP together. It might take a little while, but you could save yourself a few bucks. 1: New bid: NMA - $60 - Rejected 2: Re-bid: NMA LINC - $63 - Rejected 3: New bid: NMA MID - $65 - Rejected 4: Re-bid: NMA MID LINC - $68 - Rejected 5: New bid: NMA SKO - $71 - Rejected 6: Re-bid: NMA SKO LINC - $76 - Rejected 7: Re-bid: NMA SKO LINC MID - $81 - Rejected 8: New bid: LOOP - $62 - Rejected 9: Re-bid: LOOP NMA - $65 - Rejected 10: New bid: LOOP MID - $68 - Rejected 11: Re-bid: LOOP MID NMA - $71 - ACCEPTED

Kalamazoo doesn't have any re-bid zones so the bidding was pretty short this time. 1: New bid: 3* - $50 - Rejected 2: Re-bid: Added 2.5* - $52 - Accepted Hotel: Marriott Residence Inn Rate: $52 Taxes: $15.02 Total: $67.02 The nightly rate for this hotel is $109+taxes, so we saved a little over 50% with this win. I guess I could have expanded the bidding over a couple of days to try and get a better rate, but I'm not going to sweat over it. Started through the PRICELINE link.

We preferred to stay in the River North area, but were willing to settle on the Millenium-Loop since we knew we had a pretty good chance of getting the Hyatt Regency, which is right across the river at the border between the two zones. Final Results: Hyatt Regency Rate: $71/night ($66 + $5 bonus bucks) Taxes: $41.27 Total: $239.27 (after the $15 bonus buck savings) The bidding might be a little lengthy, but we had many possible combinations to try. All the bid amounts are the final amount including the $5 bonus bucks. 1: New bid: NMA - $60 - Rejected 2: Re-bid: NMA LINC - $63 - Rejected 3: New bid: NMA MID - $65 - Rejected 4: Re-bid: NMA MID LINC - $68 - Rejected 5: New bid: NMA SKO - $71 - Rejected 6: Re-bid: NMA SKO LINC - $76 - Rejected 7: Re-bid: NMA SKO LINC MID - $81 - Rejected 8: New bid: LOOP - $62 - Rejected 9: Re-bid: LOOP NMA - $65 - Rejected 10: New bid: LOOP MID - $68 - Rejected 10: Re-bid: LOOP MID NMA - $71 - ACCEPTED The average nightly rate for the Hyatt for these days is about $175, so we are very very happy with the win. About a 60% savings! Now, to find cheap parking...

I just got the Sheraton Centre you are looking for at $65, with an extra $16.36 in taxes and fees. Total for a 1 night stay is $81.36. The taxes and fees are likely to be a little less than 4x this amount for a longer stay (only being charged one transaction fee, most likely). From what I have seen, there seems to be a lot of success in downtown Toronto around the $65 mark, so there is a good chance you could get lucky. Even though there is a conference going on at the time, the hotel has over 1300 rooms, so there is also a good chance that there are several still left to be available for priceline bids. There are 8 re-bid zones in the Toronto area that don't have 4* hotels, so there are plenty of opportunities to get the cheapest price using the methods explained in other areas of the site. Although I haven't bid on a hotel in the US (yet), from what I have read, the bidding process is the exact same. Vaughan - North York, and Toronto Airport are the other 2 zones that have 4* hotels so watch out for those two.

Here's the bidding process: 1st bid: 4* Toronto Downtown - $45 - Rejected 2nd bid: added Brampton - $50 - Rejected 3rd bid: added Don Valley - $53 - Rejected 4th bid: added Markham - $56 - Rejected 5th bid: added Mississauga - $60 - Rejected 6th bid: added Toronto East - $65 - ACCEPTED Sheraton Centre Downtown Toronto Taxes & fees: $16.36 TOTAL: $81.36 Best available price at the time for the Sheraton is $199+tax. Saved about 60% using PRICELINE.

This was my bidding process: 1st - $55 4* Montreal Downtown - Rejected 2nd - $60 - added Laval - Rejected 3rd - $69 - added Longueil - Accepted Taxes and fees: 19.48 Total: $88.48 Beautiful Intercontinental Hotel right in the heart of the city Going rate on the hotel website was $169+tax.

I was looking for either the Courtyard Marriott or Hilton Garden Inn in Vaughan and from my research they are the only 2.5* hotels in the North York - Vaughan region and are pretty close to Canada's Wonderland and Vaughan Mills. 1st bid: $36 - 2.5* in North York-Vaughan - rejected 2nd bid: $41 - Added Toronto East (only 2* and lower) - rejected 3rd bid: $46 - Added Scarborough-Pickering (only 2* and lower) - rejected Waited 24 hours to restart the bidding process. 4th bid: $51 - 2.5* in North York-Vaughan - Accepted Courtyard Toronto Vaughan Sub-total: $51 Taxes and fees: $14.72 TOTAL: $65.72 USD Best available rate for this hotel on other sites was $119+tax, over 50% savings. Will post a review of the hotel after my stay. My first time using priceline and I think it was pretty successful, thanks to the tips on this site.