conorbill

Looking at a 3.5* in the White House / Capitol Hill area, amenities listed are Restaurant Pool Fitness High Speed Internet Business I couldn't find it in the lists for DC (which are a bit complicated, I must say). Any ideas which one it might be?

Be aware of one idiosyncracy regarding the Metropolitan hotel. It IS beautiful and fantastically located, with a great restaurant (much better than the Sutton Place) but they only have two types beds in the rooms: one king size bed or two SINGLE beds. The rooms are a tiny bit smaller than many downtown hotels and they just do not have the room to put two queens or even two doubles in them. So...if you are travelling with lots of family, be forewarned about this little peculiarity. Both are great hotels and they are only a couple of blocks apart. For my money, if I was staying by myself, I would choose the Met - great bar / restaurant. One other thought though - the workout facilities at the Sutton Place are much better if that is important to you.

Property was OK. Rooms are nice for the price (good size, big screen TV). Property is a bit dated overall and the "fitness center" is a joke. One treadmill (old), a couple of free weights, an old stationary bike. Whirlpool was closed and reportedly had been for some time. Restaurant and bar are OK, nothing special. Overall: a cut above a HoJo's, but not by much. This is indeed located at 773 Beatty Street.

Booked for August 10, 2005 with Hotwire, 3.5* in Downtown Vancouver "Entertainment District", got surprised by receiving the Golden Tulip Georgian Court Hotel. Paid $123 for one night. Amenities listed are Boutique Restaurant Fitness High Speed Internet Time to update the list for Vancouver.

Dont' do it!!!!! It's not worth it!!! The DG is a dump of horrific proportions!

As I posted earlier, it actually took me a bid of $115 to get this hotel for the first weekend in June. Midweek is slightly cheaper, as I understand it, but the demand is very high in the area right now. You may have to significantly increase your bidding to win it.

Of course - my apologies. The dates were June 4 - June 6, 2005.

OK - started bidding on 4* hotels in Montreal on Saturday afternoon, looking for one room for two days in mid-June. My opening bid of $70/night was rejected. Rebid (by adding areas without 4* hotels) at $80, $90 and $100. All rejected. Hotwire shows a 4.5* (which is a 4* in Priceline land, in my experience) at $162, so I figure I'll wait it out until Tuesday (having run out of rebids by exhausting the available areas) and try an even higher bid. Bid $110 and got the Hilton Bonaventure, which is the least "nice" of the 4* hotels that Priceline has to offer, but is still quite OK. Must be a popular time to be in Montreal given the prices I'm seeing!

Didn't have time to use rebids, so I just used the suggested rebid price. Dates were January 30 and 31st.

Shuttle, Restaurant, Fitness Centre, Business Centre February 1

Booked the Crowne Plaza in downtown Edmonton, a 3.5*, for one night in early February for (get this) $50! Huge savings. Excellent (to the extent that Edmonton in February can EVER be called excellent).

Booked the Hyatt, a 4* in downtown Calgary for 2 nights in early February for $90. Opened my bidding at $70 and was turned down, rebid based on its feedback and got it for $90. Awesome savings verus the regular rates and very good considering Calgary is booked solid most of the time for some reason. NOTE: Used a Canadian Royal Bank Visa card and was able to use the Priceline system by follwing the tips I found on this site (entering the full billing address on the second line of the address field and using a fake city / zip code when requested).