Rhine-and-Roses

This hotel is in a fabulous location. The hotel is beautiful, sleeping rooms not as nice as public rooms though. Service was somewhat lacking at the hotel, and prices exorbitant. I would have tried for this location if I had thought there was any chance at this price. Great deal!

Someone told me that the Hilton CdG is also connected to the RER system at Terminal 1. I see they are reported on Hotwire. You would probably want to call the hotel and verify that.

NO ! ! La Defense is not close to CDG, nor is it on the same RER line. La Defense would be one of the worst choices as far as distance/convenience/connections. Although Thereuare recommends staying in the city, my opinion is with a flight that early, you'd do better to stay at the airport. You cannot guarantee a hotel, but if you could, you probably would find the Sheraton CDG more convenient. Marriott is on a pay per use shuttle that is notoriously off schedule and unreliable. (It is not the Marriott's fault- it is a private shuttle. I think all the airport hotels use it. If not all, quite a few.) My advice is to try to ID the Sheraton CDG on HOTWIRE. It is INSIDE the terminal and is wildly convenient. To go into Paris you just go downstairs, buy a ticket and take the RER train in. It is direct (with a good number of stops) to Gare du Nord, on to Chatelet Les Halles, then to the Left Bank. Sheraton is quiet, despite planes taking off right outside your window- triple panes. Taking the RER train to/from Paris, some of the suburbs are rough. Make sure you are on a well occupied train coming back at night. I do not like the Gare du Nord area. Not sure if you are male or female, but not a good area if you are a woman traveling alone. If you want to stay in the city, Gare du Nord area is cheaper if you are not worried about the area. Gare de Lyon area is nicer, but not right on the RER B. Look at where that line goes if it's important, and pick from those areas. www.ratp.fr (English button, then click on maps) Also check times to make sure you can get the RER early enough to catch your flight.

I bid $95 for this hotel, which showed Priceline Amenities of pets/business/restaurant. Over the weeks I bid up to $140, which was $10 more than my previous 'maximum'. I bid up to $135 tonight. I got a counter-offer for $153. I rebid $5 for $140, using Batignolles rebid zone. The bid was accepted and I have now extended a former purchase to 4 nights. This was a long process, even though the hotel is clearly not heavily booked, judging from prices and special offers on their own site. I guess the $35 more this night is they are starting to block out for NY Eve? Glad to see amenities now listed with Priceline. I used your link for this purchase and the dozens of bids leading up to this. This hotel works very well for me in Paris. if you are driving in. They have a great garage, and are right off the peripherique, so not far and the streets getting to it are uncrowded.

Once again today I tried for a 4* St Germain/Montparnasse, bidding up to $135, and using your link. There were these guaranteed amenities listed with the booking: pets, business center, and restaurant. I got a counter offer of $153. I rebid with a free zone for $140, really hoping this would be the Marriott Rive Gauche. Bingo! So I now have my hotel for all four nights. (Whew, I was not at all sure about this since the last win on this hotel never responded to my request for possible amenities.) The booking is for December 29-30. BTW, they must be under booked because their site is now offering a very good refundable rate with a minimum of three nights for the week after Christmas. Without exception I have "won" hotels at $5 more than my current bid when a counter has been offered. I know from reading this site it is not true for everyone, but it's always worked for me. I hope Priceline continues to list amenities.

Priceline is now showing some amenities for some hotels. Did this one by any chance have pet and business center icons? I'm trying to get this hotel myself for late December. Thanks!

Friends bid on two rooms for this date, using your link. $90 plus fees. Fees for one room were $15, $23 for two. Luckily they won the same hotel for our upcoming trip.

Maybe consider the two Opera areas as well. They are very centrally located but higher priced. Also, I see the Novotel Gare de Lyon has been a win for around $100 in the Bercy/Gare de Lyon zone. I don't know the hotel, and you are not guaranteed that hotel anyway, but it is very well located. The line one metro/RER/train station are right there and line one goes past lots of the tourist areas. Novotel is listed as a 4 star, but every Novotel I've been in would be more like a 3 star, in the USA. The other hotel that appears as a win there is the Pullman Bercy, which is very highly rated, and in a trendy neighborhood. Metro connections are not as good though. I personally would not choose Batignolle/Montmartre/ Republique zone. It could be fine but Montmartre is more difficult for metro and has some questionable areas, Republique is where public demonstrations normally start, and in general, those areas are more likely to have "difficult" neighborhoods. It's fine in the daytime as a tourist though. (Pere Lachaise) La Defense is too far out for tourists on their first visit to Paris, in my opinion. Great if you are in that area for business, or if you want to head out to Giverny.

Just in case anyone is looking for my dates, too, I am continuing to bid almost daily (using your PRICELINE link) up to $135 in the St Germain/Montparnasse area for a 4*, hoping to get the Marriott extended for one last night. I bought airline tickets now, and will stay the 29th-30th, even if we don't get a great deal. I'll continue to post occasionally. As I said, I did get a good corporate price at the Marriott, so I'll use that rate if I have to.

I don't know the hotel at all, Wasabi2011, but the location is fine. You are just a five minute walk to Balard metro stop, line 8. You take the metro to either La Motte Piquet-Grenelle and change for Eiffel Tower area or the Rond Point at Charles de Gaulle/Etoile, or stay on the line 8 to Concorde. You are in easy reach of the main tourist attractons. While the hotel is not in the most tourist area of Paris, you might be glad to get away from throngs of people, and you really are still in the city where you are located. The location is really not much different from Marriott Rive Gauche, as far as time to tourist sites- in fact it is closer to the Eiffel Tower! www.ratp.fr is the metro site. Look for the English button on the top right. Ask your concierge about taking the bus instead of the metro. Metro is easier, bus is more scenic. You can buy a day pass called a Mobilis, or a Paris Visite pass, which gives some discounts to tourists, but costs more than the Mobilis. They both give you unlimited travel on the bus/metro for the day. The Mobilis can be bought from a machine, but you might need a credit card with a microchip. The machines have an English button, usually a British flag. Otherwise, buy it at the counter. I think Paris Visite can be bought for several days, so you don't have to wait in line everyday. I was not thrilled the first time I won Marriott Rive Gauche, but now it is my hotel of choice in Paris. You may find the same with the Pullman. I myself prefer to find charm and quaintness in the city, and find convenience and comfort in my room, which mostly means well maintained chain hotels to me. Hopefully your hotel will be fine. Please do let us know. Et bon courage!

Okay, I see now that the Westin does not have all the amenities listed. They also have these amenities: fitness, pool, restaurant, business, HSIA, and spa. I believe, but am not sure they use them in different combinations. They also have bed choice from time to time. Westin has really fabuous vintage cars decorating the lobby and mezzanine.

I'm getting several different sets of amenities for the Westin. They usually have a spa icon, but at times it changes to a fitness room. I am pretty sure about this because of the 5.0 for location is what's showing when you book 3 people- only Hilton has reported accepting 3, and I know from experience Westin has no regular rooms for 3 persons. The Westin also shows bed choice from time to time (31 Dec, I think I saw that) Usually they have HSIA. I've seen about 4 different icon combinations. By the way, we've always received a king size bed, and we've never exercised bed choice. Both are nice hotels in a good area for us. Close to museums, pedestrian zone, and an easy UBahn or tram ride to the train station. I would be fine with either.

I believe you can determine if you are getting the Hilton or the Westin in Frankfurt by checking to see if the hotel will accept three people in the room. If it will, it's probably the Hilton. If not, it's probably the Westin. Both hotels currently list 95% recommendation, with 4.5 on Trip Advisor. Looking more closely, the Hilton has all 4.5, with a 5 for the location on the sub-ratings. The Westin has 4.5 across the board, with no 5 for location. Kind of odd as they are in the same area, very close to each other.

I bid on a 5* hotel in Frankfurt for one night 11/25/11. I offered $85 and had a $5 coupon, so PL offered $90. It was accepted on the first bid. Frankfurt East, Westin Grand. I'm very happy. Nice indoor pool and spa for the dark days that come in late fall. The Christmas market will be up, too. I used your PRICELINE link.

I also have been trying to bid in these zones, for these same dates, minus La Defense/Neuilly. I bid up to $180, so you are going to probably have to go a lot higher than your $125, unless you get lucky. I have finally decided to use my corporate rate rather than playing with rates this high and risk a new hotel that I might not like. There is a possibility of going out to CdG airport if you can't get a decent price in Neuilly/La Defense. (The latter is much closer in than CdG.) Right now Hotwire has a 4* at CdG for your dates which appears to be the Sheraton for $97. If it turns out to be, it is a reasonably easy ride into Paris. You would do best to buy a five zone Mobilis card (You need a tiny id photo) at the airport. That gives you unlimited travel to/from the airport, and inside Paris, including buses. The Sheraton was decent, located right in the airport, and incredibly close to the RER lines into Paris. (Just go down a couple of flights and you are there. RER trains run every 10 minutes.) It is not a short ride in, but it's not a whole lot longer than staying at some of the hotels on less served metro lines. (It took 55 min to get to my Grands Boulevards language school, as opposed to 42 min from the Marriott Rive Gauche.) The big downside to me is you can't go back to the room and freshen up or drop off packages during the day. You can PM me if you have any questions about it. I did it April when I was paying for my own trip and couldn't get anything in town for a price I was willing to pay.

Frankfurt is back to normal, although I lost the $79 hotel during The Disaster. It's now $85. Not a huge difference, but a nice cup of coffee.

Sorry, froggy! Maybe another day will change things, but I am starting to think like you- this is perhaps not an accident. A colleague tried booking Berlin today, $95 with $98 in fees and they told him that it was correct. Have you tried Priceline? You can't guess hotels, but if you stay in the 4 and 5 star range, they are usually quite decent, and their fees have NOT gone up. Bon Courage!

This is what I'm getting, almost 24 hours after the "repair". I picked the first hotel to show up after sorting for star rating. I am pretty affronted with Hotwire's replies to me. This year alone I have booked 15 nights through them- you would think they could be a bit more helpful. Location: Mitte - Kreuzberg - Tiergarten Berlin Star rating: 5-star Check-in date: Fri, Oct 21 Check-out date: Sat, Oct 22 Rate per night: $122.00 Nights: 1 Tax recovery charges & fees: $119.89 Subtotal: $241.89 Trip total: $241.89 Prices are in US Dollar (USD) Location: Central Frankfurt (Innenstadt) Star rating: 5-star Check-in date: Fri, Oct 21 Check-out date: Sat, Oct 22 Rate per night: $81.00 Nights: 1 Tax recovery charges & fees: $90.78 Subtotal: $171.78 Trip total: $171.78 Prices are in US Dollar (USD) Hotel details Location: Charles de Gaulle Intl Airport CDG Paris Star rating: 4-star Check-in date: Fri, Oct 21 Check-out date: Sat, Oct 22 Amenities: See all amenities Rate per night: $93.00 Nights: 1 Tax recovery charges & fees: $92.25 Subtotal: $185.25 Trip total: $185.25 Prices are in US Dollar (USD) Location: L'Eixample - Passeig de Gr

Be VERY careful booking on Hotwire. Below is the newest email where they claim it is fixed. 36 minutes past the time it was sent to me, I checked Frankfurt and my $81 5* hotel had taxes and fees of $95+. I am not sure if they are still off, or if this is their new policy. Frankly, their" unparalleled level of service" is underwhelming. No more Hotwire for me for a good long while. Dear Rhine, Thank you for contacting us regarding your upcoming travel plans. I see that you have received rates for hotels in Barcelona and Frankfurt, however, the taxes are higher than the hotel's room rate. I will be happy to provide some information to you regarding this. Upon review, I see that this issue was reported to our technical group for review. It appears that the issue has been resolved because I have just completed three searches in Barcelona, Frankfurt and Paris and the taxes that are shown, appear to be correct. At Hotwire, our customers are extremely important, and it's our goal to offer an unparalleled level of service to assist with their travel needs. If we can be of further assistance or help you with a booking, please feel free to reply to this email or contact us directly at 1-866-HOTWIRE (468-9473). Thank you for choosing Hotwire. Sincerely, Eleanor M. Hotwire Customer Care Supervisor www.hotwire.com

They are still giving canned responses. I'm done with them. Sorry, some of you are going to have to write. "Thank you for contacting Hotwire. I understand that you do not agree with the taxes and fees that are advertised on the Hotwire site for certain hotels. I regret any inconvenience this has caused you. Customer feedback is an important component in ensuring quality products and services at Hotwire. Our goal is to exceed your expectations and we regret we did not do so on this occasion. We hope to have the opportunity to better serve your needs in the near future. If we can be of further assistance, please feel free to reply to this email or contact us directly at 1-866-HOTWIRE (468-9473). Thank you for choosing Hotwire. Sincerely, Jaycee C. Hotwire Customer Care"

I wanted to stay in Frankfurt, Germany at the last minute last night, so I checked Hotwire for a hotel. I saw what I thought was the 5* Westin for (I think) $112, plus taxes and fees for over $100. I checked all the other hotels and they were all showing taxes and fees for about the same amount as the cost of the room. One room was $67 with fees of $86. This morning I went through some hotels in Paris, Berlin, Vienna, and Barcelona and found the same thing. One Barcelona 5* is going for $440 with $459.94 taxes per night! I emailed them and they told me "I understand you mentioned you did not book due to available hotel rates. I regret you did not find what you were looking for." No mention whatsoever of the ridiculous fees. I called this morning and showed them a couple of my past bookings and the taxes and fees on those, compared to what is showing up now. They said they would send it to the appropriate person. They lost a booking last night, but I did click through your link trying!

Thanks for the Hotwire suggestion for Paris Dec 29th. I am going to hold out on the chance Marriott Rive Gauche offers rooms again. If I have to change hotels, I will, but I do want to try until closer to my dates. If I lose the chance at the Hotwire rates, at least I have a not horribly expensive rate via the Marriott site. GA

I'm still using your PRICELINE link almost everyday to get the last night in Paris. My maximum bid is $130, and it has yet to be accepted. Marriott did put a special refundable rate of 135 euro on their site, so I booked that as a back-up. I'll keep trying.

Please move this to the correct place, but I'm starting out here since there were questions about metro zones and tickets in Paris. The metro/rer/bus site is www.ratp.fr They have an English button, but much of what is in French is not available in English. You can get metro and rer maps, zones, prices for tickets, carnet (books of tickets) and travel passes. You can also figure out routes and times with the travel planner. Consider using the bus, too, since you'll actually get a view of Paris that way, and the buses are easy to use. A Paris Visite, sold to tourists, costs 9.30 for zones 1-3 for a day. Two days 15.20. Three days 20.70 Five days 29.90 The Paris Visite has some discounts attached to it. Info available online in English. It might be worth it to pay the three extra euro if you'll use the discounts. Also, at the five day rate, it's cheaper than five Mobilis tickets. There is a less expensive option not advertised to tourists called a Mobilis, which is a one-day unlimited ticket. You can buy it from machines at most stations. The machines have an English option. The Mobilis is sold by zones, with zones one and two good for most tourists. 6.30, 8.40, 10.40, 14.00, depending on the zones you need. I tried to use a five zone Mobilis from CDG airport, but it is not valid to/from the airports. You'll have to buy a separate ticket at the airport. Mobilis is good for metro, bus, and rer. The ticket looks like a normal ticket, but works for unlimited voyages in the zones you choose. A tip about using your credit card in France, if you can get a credit card with a microchip on it, you will do better. Many places w/o attendants (like ticket machines, unattended gas stations) will not accept the magnetic strip version. A few will, but more will not.

Why not start with $100 or $105. I started at $100 for this December trip, and for a week I just spent in August, but both times was rejected, but accepted at $105. My experience is usually just the weekends, or very low occupancy times (August) will go that low. For anyone keeping track, I've still tried bidding up to $120 for the same zone, and still rejected.