loanshark

I would select Opera West only, and start @ $140 for a 5*, increasing $5 each re-bid, adding one zone at a time. This would give you bids up to $170.....which may or may not end up not being enough. If you are adamant in getting a hotel during your first bid session, and not waiting 72 hrs, you may want to increase by $8-$10 each time.

Both the Le Meridien and the Sofitel Rive Gauche are won consistantly on Priceline in the $110 - $115 range. Both are rated 4* on Priceline in the St Germain/Latin Qtr area.

This is a 2* property along Capital Circle in the Northeast part of the city in a fairly quiet area... It is approximately a 15 minute drive to the Downtown/FSU areas under normal traffic conditions. The airport is on the opposite side of town, about 30 minutes away. The hotel did have a small pool, and a small fitness room that consisted of 1 treadmill, 1 exercise bike, and a couple of dumbbells. The hotel accomadations seemed fairly basic for a Marriott owned property (or at least a property that carries the Marriott name). No breakfast area or restaurant to speak of, as all rooms have a kitchen that includes a fridge, oven, and dishwasher. This being said, the hotel is better suited to the extended stay traveler.

Here is a new hotel for the lists: Was targeting the 2.5* Courtyard Downtown.....Bid several times over multiple sessions/all 3 zones up to $55.00, all rejected/no counters. Went to 2* Downtown $30, rejected Added Tallahassee North $35, accepted..... If I was going to get stuck in the North zone at a 2*, I would have prefered something with breakfast! :) Marriott.com's rate is $89.00

Booked this for $80 as a package that included a rental car for one night via hotwire. It was booked on 09/04/04, as my original Miami hotel resrvation was cancelled, as the hotel closed due to a hurricane. Stayed here for 1 night (September 5, 2004), and agree with the above post. My flight arrived too late to attend the manager's reception, but I was more than pleased with the breakfast. The rooms, while large, are in need of renovation. I used the internet access through the TV. The service was slow and hard to navigate, but similar to the service I have seen at other hotels. The biggest problem with the room was the fact that the carpet in front of the bathroom entrance was soaked with water. I advised the front desk the next morning about this. Even though I was not looking for a discount, the clerk took the $10 incidental charge (for internet service) off of my bill. I probably would not book this hotel directly, but would not mind winning it again on a future priceline/hotwire stay.

Has anybody ever used Priceline's add a night feature to successfully get a free re-bid? For example, I originally bid for a 4 * hotel room in Paris for 6 nights. I was willing to stay in 3 areas, plus I had the Batignolles area as a free re-bid. After several rejections, I ran out of bids. I then decided to split the bid up, and eventually obtained a hotel for the last 5 out of the 6 nights of my original bid. I went back to Priceline's site to add a night for the 1st night, but was given a message that the winning hotel (Le Meridien Montparnasse) does not allow you to add a night. Therefore, I subsequently put in a bid at the same price as my winning bid for the first night, and received the same hotel. I am guessing that it is much harder to add a night with international properties versus U.S. locations. Anyway, due to the particulars of this win, I was thinking one could use the add a night strategy when they have run out of re-bids on most of their stays. Anyone have any luck with this strategy?

Started bidding 03/29/05 (Tue) - 04/04/05 (Mon) - Started 4* (St Germain/Latin Qtr/Montparnasse) $80, was countered @$124. - New bid....(Eiffel/Grenelle/Montparnasse), bid $90, was countered @ $126 - New bid....(SG/Latin Qtr/Montparnasse) + (Batignolles/Monmarte/Republique)....due to first bid above, I added Batignolles as a free re-bid...... $90 rejected - New bid (Eiffel/Grenelle/Montparnasse) + (St Germain/Latin Qtr/Montparnasse)...$95 rejected Decided to split the bid.....Started Bidding 03/29/05 (Tue) - 04/01/05 (Fri) - Started 4* (St Germain/Latin Qtr/Montparnasse) $100, was countered @$124. - Added (Champs Elysees/Opera West), $105, Rejected - Added (Batignolles as a free re-bid), $108, Rejected Went back to the original dates...03/29 - 04/04, bid 3* at various prices to a high of $93 Used all zones above, except Batignolles (which is not a free re-bid at the 3 * level)....all rejected, although a bid of $79 in the Grenelle Zone only brought a counter of $101. At this point, I decided that I would rather pay approximately $115 for a 4* room versus $100 or so for a 3* room, as I had a backup 3* room available to reserve at an average of $136/night. I thus started 4* 03/30/05 (Wed) - 04/04/05 (Mon), as I figured I could find a room for 03/29/05 if the bid were to go through. - Started (St Germain/Latin Qtr/Montparnasse) $110, was countered @$132. - Added (Champs Elysees/Opera West), $113.......And we have a winner!!!!: Le Meridien Montparnasse (4*) Your Offer Price: $113.00 Number of Rooms: 1 Number of Nights: 5 Subtotal: $565.00 Taxes & Service Fees: $53.57 Total Charges: $618.57 I attempted to add a night via Priceline for the first night 03/29/05) and received a message that Priceline could not add nights for this particular hotel. So I decided to bid again, in hopes of getting the same hotel. Bid 4*, St Germain area only, $113, 03/29/05 - 03/30/05....and the result: Le Meridien Montparnasse (4*) Your Offer Price: $113.00 Number of Rooms: 1 Number of Nights: 1 Subtotal: $113.00 Taxes & Service Fees: $16.06 Total Charges: $129.06

Priceline will stick to their word regarding this policy. I recently booked 2 tickets via Priceline from ATL - Paris (CDG) to depart 3/26/05, and return 4/3/05. The total per ticket (including taxes and fees) after several re-bids was $610.03. The "winning" airline was US Airways, and it involves a connection in Philadelphia each way. Knowing the financial troubles that US Airways is in, I am worried that the airline will no longer be in business as of March. Or, worse, it will go out of business while I am overseas, leaving us stranded. This actually happened to someone I know when Sabena canceled flights due to a bankruptcy. I was about to post the win on this board when something wonderful happened.... US Air changed its schedule last week (2 days after my winning bid). Due to the schedule change, all possible US Air itineraries during this timeframe for this city-pair now involve multiple connections (I agreed to 0 or 1), or a 6 hour 48 minute layover in Philly on the outbound portion of the trip. I contacted Priceline to advise that this schedule change now causes my itinerary to include this lengthy layover, which exceeds their 6 hour maximum layover time for flights to/from Europe, and requested a refund due to the schedule change creating an unreasonable layover time. While on the phone with Priceline, the representative I spoke to insisted I could not receive a refund, but they would contact US Airways to re-book my flight. I was put on hold while the Priceline representative contacted US Air. After a 10 minute wait, the Priceline rep returned to the line and advised that US Air would be refunding my tickets. The rep told me she was advised that there is now no available itinerary that would conform to all of the conditions of my original bid (nonstop or 1 connection, layover of less than 6 hours). While I was lucky enough to get my money refunded in this case, Priceline would booked me on another flight if one was available.

Thereuare.....I guess at first I misunderstood your initial reply. Thanks for clarifying. By the time you add taxes/fees in, I'm spending $25.08/day.....Most conventional methods were about $30-$32/day (after finding cheapest coupon codes). Even though I'm very satisfied with this rental, it is still nowhere near the savings you get on hotels. But I do agree with you, Priceline is starting to make progress on car rentals. :)

No problem....Glad to share the information. Thank YOU for running a great board! I hate to put a damper in your theory, but I checked Hotwire's rates after winning this bid. Even though the daily rate was higher ($19.95/day), with taxes/fees the total was $79.73. Thus, this bid really is only a $4.49 savings over Hotwire. Feel free to advise if this cost comparison info belongs on another topic.

3 days @ $14 = $42 taxes/fees = $33.24 Total =$75.24

Congratulations! :)

Started @ $41, used free rebids @ $44, $46, $48, $50, and $52...Good thing I finally won @ $52, as this was my last free re-bid. Total after taxes & fees $65.35 Marriott.com rate $99 :)

I am under the opinion that the difference in price has nothing to do with the type of browser you are using. If I remember correctly, someone who worked for Hotwire (I believe it was HotwireCSR) advised they fluctuate the price frequently of their offerings to help the "opaqueness" of their service. What I don't know is if this means every 30 minutes, every hour, daily, everytime a hotel is won, etc... While I was doing some research for a hotel stay at one time, I do recall seeing what I believed was the Sheraton Miami downtown for $51. This fluctuated up and down over several days to as much as $60, then later went back down to $53. Each time, I was using IE. If the assumption that the price fluctuates due to Hotwire trying to be more opaque is correct, then the type of browser you are using would have nothing to do with price. By the way, I ended up booking the Hyatt via Priceline for $38 over Labor Day Weekend for the above hotel stay. That was posted in the correct section about 4-5 weeks ago. :)

Rent a car from Thrifty or Alamo. Both companies will shuttle you from the Miami airport facility to the port of Miami when you drop off the car. The added bonus is the fact that in Florida, there are no drop off charges for rental cars. It applies to all car rentals as long as both the pickup and dropoff city are within the state. You may want to look around the net for various coupon codes, discounts etc..... I happened to book a convertible in South Florida for $36/day after linking directly from Delta's website to Thrifty for a pre-cruise over Labor Day Weekend. (Economy cars were $24) In the end, just find a rate/car class you are comfortable with, and don't worry about a drop-off charge, because there will not be one! :)

Wanted to stay in the southern half of Broward County for the Titans-Dolphins game @ Pro Player Stadium that day. Started @ $40, Beach only (Hoping for Doubletree-Oceanfront), rejected. Added Miramar free rebid, bid $41, rejected. Added Airport (not necessarily free rebid), $42, rejected. Added Pompano Beach free rebid, $43, rejected. Added West Ft. Lauderdale (not necessarily free rebid), $44, accepted. Offer price $44.00 Taxes/fees $11.48 Total $55.48 This area will actually work out OK with me, as I'll be driving in from Ft. Myers, and flying out of FLL in the morning. Because of this, I could have comfortably stayed in any of the above areas. (Just figured that the bid history would help others!) I am hoping the hotel will allow an early checkin before heading off to the game. Thereuare: In the hotel lists you have this hotel rated 2.5*, I can attest (having won the hotel) that I bid 3* only for my series of bids....You may want to update the list. (I see that you updated the Renaissance to 4* per my previous post. Too bad they didn't "upgrade" me too!) :)

Doing some research for a Fort Lauderdale stay 09/12/04. If you go into Priceline's packages for Ft. Lauderdale, you can see that this hotel is definately a 4*. I've heard of numerous upgrades when bidding for 3*'s in this area though....mainly to the Bonaventure Resort (although some people don't call this an "upgrade" :) ). My guess is that you were upgraded, since the Renaissance can typically be won for $50 in the offseason. :)

Tried that link.....Ended up getting a better deal thru Alamo for the stay listed below. Used Rate Code AW, and request ID 306704. (Good thru 12/31/04). This is a Delta Skymiles promotion that will give you up to double miles on rentals of 3-14 days, in addition to great rates. Went to Delta's site then to the Skymiles page. Looked at the car rental partners page, and clicked on the limited-time offers link. From there clicked on the Alamo link provided and it prefilled the correct rate code. Reserved a convertible @ MIA from 09/10 - 09/13 for $38.61 day. The economy and compact car rates were $2-$3 cheaper per day than the referenced National weblink. I will try priceline when it gets closer to my stay to see if I can get the car cheaper. (Even though I realize I would lose my 300 miles :) )

Try choicehotels.com.....Book the Comfort Suites Airport at the Internet user's rate. It normally runs about $70 in the summer, and around $100 in the winter and is fully cancelable. Or you can book the corporate rate at the Crowne Plaza Airport for $139. The Crowne's corporate rate should be cancelable as well. While I admit that the Crowne is nicer, I've actually stayed in both hotels.....They were both quiet, and had a comfortable bed to sleep in. In addition, both hotels have a shuttle to/from the airport. In the worst case (i.e. you do not get a room through Priceline) do the following: In the morning, take the shuttle to the airport, then take a cab ($20 flat rate last time I checked from the airport to the Port of Miami), or the "Supershuttle" (which I believe is $11 per person). I'll let you know if these rates change when I cruise out of Miami in September, as I'll be dropping my rental car off at the airport before the cruise. :)

Lizzzys: I didn't mean to scare you when I advised that Jan was a busy time in South Florida.....I do agree with the previous posts in that you should eventually get a decent hotel around $45 or less. Just be patient! If I were a hotel manager, I would not release rooms to Priceline this early for your particular travel dates. The reason is that I would want to sell as many rooms as possible at normal rates. I am assuming that most hotels start to release inventory to Priceline 3-4 months in advance, once the hotel assumes that the room would otherwise go empty. Let's face it....The typical downtown hotel would go out of business if everyone booked their room via Priceline at miniscule rates, as the property taxes alone at such hotels would not be covered. (Not to mention labor costs, utilities, etc...) My point is that from the hotels' point of view, Priceline is a great service to make some money on rooms that would otherwise be empty. Judging by the fact that you are able to book a decent hotel @ $89 tells me that the hotels still have plenty of inventory available for your dates. As it gets closer to your travel dates, those hotels that do have excess inventory will begin to release their rooms. :)

Check-In Date: Sat, Sep 4, 2004 Check-In Time: After 03:00 PM Check-Out Date: Mon, Sep 6, 2004 Check-Out Time: 12:00 PM Your Offer Price: $38.00 Number of Rooms: 1 Number of Nights: 2 Subtotal: $76.00 Taxes & Service Fees: $16.98 Total Charges: $92.98 On 5/27 submitted a bid for $30 (downtown only), rejected. Added S. Beach (I was comfortable w/either area), and upped bid to $35....rejected. After 72 hour wait, bid Downtown only today @ $38....Accepted first try today. I was a little suprised, as this is Labor Day weekend, and the FSU-Miami football game is being played in Miami on 9/6. BTW, I am new to this board, but have been reviewing it for the last week or so. Every one here seems so much nicer than TOBB. Good luck with your bids! :)

Maybe a little too early....I am about to post my winning bid for the Hyatt Regency downtown Miami over Labor Day weekend ($38). Also, keep in mind that January is one of the busiest months of the year for hotels in Miami.