cakobau

3 stars didn't work anywhere up to $55, so I went to 2.5 stars. $45, first try in the western zone.

Looks okay, if not spectactular.

No go on the first bid at $35. Second bid at $40 worked. One-night stay.

I'm looking forward to trying out Hyatt Place -- it'll be my first stay at the revamped/rebranded Amerisuites. Viva Priceline!

New hotel for the lists. I admit I was hoping for the Residence Inn or Amerisuites, and it's been years since I've stayed at a Ramada, so fingers are crossed.

Earlier bids of $39 and $42 failed, without a counteroffer.

Ramada Plaza Grand Rapids

2

I didn't bid this myself, family members did. They should probably have started lower, but they're happy. Everyone wins!

$80/night. Lowest hyatt.com rate is $209/night.

Based on recent history, I opened at $70, which was immediately accepted. May have been too high, for an opening bid, but given that the lowest available rate for those dates was $229/night, no complaints...

$70 / night

$41.61 in taxes / fees

$251.61 total for 3 nights

New hotel for the list, I believe. It's a partner of the Latham, owned by the same company, fwiw.

Booked by a friend, after failing to hit anything on Priceline.

1 room(s) @ $93.00 per night x 6 night(s) $558.00

Hotel Taxes and fees: $84.13

Hotel Subtotal $642.13

Total Price $642.13

The only amenity listed was the Boutique symbol.

Georgetown Inn

1310 Wisconsin Avenue NW

Washington, District of Columbia 20007

(202) 333-8900

FYI: http://www.georgetowncollection.com/

If booked directly, the rates for this property fluctuate a bit over the course of the stay:

3/18 $ 189.00

3/19 $ 299.00

3/20 ~ 3/21 $ 329.00

3/22 $ 319.00

3/23 $ 309.00

Standard Room 1 Queen Bed

Started lower and worked up in $2 increments until it hit at $40.

Courtyard By Marriott Salt Lake City

Check-In Date: Sunday, May 21, 2006

Check-Out Date: Monday, May 22, 2006

Salt Lake City Airport (SLC)

4843 W Douglas Corrigan Way

Salt Lake City, Utah 84116

801-532-4085

Your Offer Price: $40.00

Number of Rooms: 1

Number of Nights: 1

Subtotal: $40.00

Taxes & Service Fees: $12.45

Total Charges: $52.45

Lowest rate at Marriott.com is $124

We found this property disappointing, primarily for reasons of noise.

I'm not an idiot, and I know that airport hotels will likely have some airplane noise. But there are degrees of noise. The Westin O'Hare, for example, had excellent soundproofing. The Hyatt O'Hare does not. We heard every takeoff, loud and clear, right overhead.

The room was recently renovated and nicely appointed. The bed was comfortable. But the shower, while nice looking, had tepid water, both in the early morning and at night.

We used the self-checkin kiosk both for checkin and checkout. At checkin, it offered us four room options, including "King nonsmoking with staircase." "With staircase" sounded intriguing. A duplex, perhaps? I went for it, figuring what the hell... Don't do it. It's a room on the second floor, in the round corner "tower," which requires dragging your suitcase up a flight of stairs.

We got the room for a bid of $50.

I'm 99.9% sure it's the Hyatt. I just bought a room there for my parents, at similar rates, with the same amenities listed. See here:

http://www.betterbidding.com/show.php/act/...ST/f/86/t/19422

Hyatt Regency Chicago

151 East Wacker Drive

Chicago, Illinois 60601

(312) 565-1234

Restaurant(s), Fitness Center, Spa Services, High-speed Internet Access, Business Center

NOTE: This is not the same as the amenities listed on the main BetterBidding hotel list.

Check-in: Tue, Nov 22, 2005

Check-out: Sat, Nov 26, 2005

Adults:2

Children:0

1 room(s) @ $70.00 per night 4 night(s)

SubTotal: $280.00

Taxes and Fees: $48.72

Total Price: $328.72

Cru, be sure to read this thread to learn about rebidding using zones you don't actually want to stay in...

http://www.betterbidding.com/index.php?act...=ST&f=173&t=16&

For example, if you want a 4* hotel in the North Michigan Ave area, you might start with that zone ONLY at $80. (You know that $79 has been rejected, after all.) If $80 fails, then select the Midway Airport area as well, and raise your bid, say, to $85. Do NOT add other star-levels. There are no 4* hotels in the Midway airport area, so you are effectively getting a free rebid, since Priceline won't put you in a hotel at a star level lower than what you are bidding for.

4* in the Chicago area has two free rebids right now -- Midway Airport and Skokie/Niles/Evanston.

If you add ANY other area other than those two, you run the risk of getting a hotel in one of those areas.

If you want to rebid right now, try a new bid (don't go back to your old one) with 4* and check the North Michigan and Midway zones. I'd start at $80. (Priceline will not let you redo a bid of JUST the North Michigan zone right now; you would have to wait the 72 hours. Including Midway, which you didn't do before, makes this seem like a completely different bid...) If $80 fails, add Skokie and raise your bid. If THAT fails, wait 72 hours and try again. OR, if other 4*zones are okay with you, start a NEW bid with, say, the Loop, at 4*, $80. If that fails, add Midway, raise the bid, etc.

Let us know how it works out.

What dates is this for?

Did you start at $55, or did you start lower and move up?

Congrats on your win, and welcome to betterbidding!

The progression of bids:

Bid O'Hare zone only, 4 stars, $44, received counteroffer of $56. Could have rebid, but got sidetracked and didn't rebid for 3 days.

New bid. Bid O'Hare zone only, 4 stars, $45, received counteroffer of $58.

Added Midway zone, 4 stars, $46, denied.

Added Skokie zone, 4 stars, $48, denied.

Waited 3 days. New bid. O'Hare zone only, 4 stars, $50, accepted at Hyatt Regency O'Hare.

Hyatt Regency O'Hare

9300 West Bryn Mawr Road

Rosemont, Illinois 60018

847-696-1234

Your Offer Price: $50.00

Number of Rooms: 1

Number of Nights: 1

Subtotal: $50.00

Taxes & Service Fees: $14.73

Total Charges: $64.73

Used savingsbarn.

First bid, only the Islandia/airport zone selected.

Radisson Hotel Macarthur Airport

Check-In Date: Friday, September 16, 2005

Check-Out Date: Sunday, September 18, 2005

Islandia - Macarthur Airport

1730 North Ocean Avenue

Holtsville, New York 11742

631-758-2900

Your Offer Price: $50.00

Number of Rooms: 1

Number of Nights: 2

Subtotal: $100.00

Taxes & Service Fees: $18.42

Total Charges: $118.42

Lowest rate on radisson.com (prepaid) is $109/night.

Bid on this for my folks.

Started at $80 with 3-star bid in Historic District. Currently all Savannah zones are free rebids at 3*. Added $5 each increment until I ran out of zones at $100. No takers. Waited 72 hours, started new bid at $110, accepted. Could maybe have gotten it for somewhere in between $100 and $110, but the parents are happy. (Not bad for a Saturday night check-in, I suppose.) They actually had a cancellable backup reservation at the same hotel with an AARP rate of $179. Lowest hyatt.com rate was $205.

Hyatt Regency Savannah

Check-In Date: Saturday, May 21, 2005

Check-Out Date: Sunday, May 22, 2005

Savannah Historic District

2 West Bay Street

Savannah, Georgia 31401

912-238-1234

Your Offer Price: $110.00

Number of Rooms: 1

Number of Nights: 1

Subtotal: $110.00

Taxes & Service Fees: $22.20

Total Charges: $132.20

Paid $38 for one night here in March 2005. Easter Sunday, to be precise.

Though not in the LAX zone, this Residence Inn is convenient to LAX. It is comfortable in its appointments, and staffed by some very friendly people.

I'll agree with everything blindman said earlier, but add some more...

The greeting from the front desk staff (I wish I got his name!) was the friendliest I've received at a hotel, anywhere, ever, period. (I've spent 34 nights in hotels year to date in 2005 alone, so consider this a big compliment!) Big thumbs up. We requested a unit that was as quiet as possible, and we received a top floor unit as far from the street as they could put us. Perfect. The apartment was clean, spacious, well-appointed, and comfortable. If there is room for improvement, it would be the bathroom, which was not as renovated as the rest of the unit, it seems. (again, agreeing with the earlier review...)

There is a Ralph's supermarket just a few blocks north, so making a home-cooked meal is easy. (We had been on the road for several weeks, so it was nice to be able to make our own comfort food.)

The free breakfast buffet the next morning was excellent. hot breakfast options (eggs, pancakes, etc.) as well as a make-your-own waffle bar. They could perhaps add a second waffle iron, as there was a line, but that's really getting picky.

Free internet access in the room. WebTV access if you don't bring your computer, for a fee.

Big thumbs up. Would happily stay here again.

I'm uploading photos to this link here, where I see the previous poster also added his pics.

Bid $37 3* Lexington South, denied.

Started new bid: Bid $37 3* Lexington (downtown), accepted.

Hyatt Regency Lexington

Check-In Date: Friday, July 1, 2005

Check-Out Date: Sunday, July 3, 2005

Lexington

401 West High Street

Lexington, Kentucky 40507

859-253-1234

Your Offer Price: $37.00

Number of Rooms: 1

Number of Nights: 2

Subtotal: $74.00

Taxes & Service Fees: $17.33

Total Charges: $91.33

FYI, it took 3 calls and 6 weeks, but the hotel finally correctly credited my card for the overbilling. The credit posted yesterday. They had billed me for the room rate, instead of billing Hotwire.

And a slight correction: Hotwire paid $18 plus tax for the room, totaling $20.53... indeed, this was an error, and should have been 189 plus tax. I paid 24 plus Hotwire taxes/fees of 9.95, total $33.95.

Customer service (the accounting department) was astonishingly slow in getting this fixed. That's the biggest negative that I ca PRICELINE EXPRESS about this hotel.

I just went to Hotwire to see what they could do for an airfare, and I noticed that they've redesigned their airfare search. There are now three different types of fares offered:

"Clearance Fares" are fully opaque. Flight times can be anytime during the day.

"FlexSaver Fares" are moderately opaque. Flight times are offered within a 5 hour range, e.g., 6:00am-11:00am departure. The airline is not named.

"Regular Fares" are transparent. Full itinerary, with airline flight number and even stripped-down fare rules (no mention of booking class though, even when you click on fare rules). I suspect that this latter category might even earn miles.

FYI, just a heads-up.

There are apparently 2 Residence Inns in Rancho Bernardo. This review applies to the Carmel Mountain Ranch location.

Spacious suite/apartment-style layout with full kitchen. Excellent breakfast bar with waffles. Stayed on a weekend, so didn

One item I neglected to mention in my quick posting of this win: This was actually an upgrade from 2.5* to 3*. FWIW.

I just posted a review of the hotel here, which contains a link to photos of our room, posted to realhotelphotos.com, as well.

Received this hotel as an upgrade from 2.5* to 3*. This is a nice hotel, though bland from the outside. It is located next to the convention center, which our room looked upon.

The 4th floor king nonsmoking room we received was spacious, with a full couch in the room. Its decor is a bit odd, a mix of outdated and contemporary. Bed was very comfortable, and the pillows were excellent. The only real in-room complaint is the water temperature in the shower. The hot water was sporadically very very weak, almost tepid. I had 2 minutes of real hot water, tops. For a hotel of this caliber, this is really not acceptable.

In room coffee and tea, including herbal tea. There was also a refrigerator and microwave.

Self-parking is available for $5 in the adjacent garage, though it may be possible to find street parking in the surrounding streets, where 2-hour parking is enforced from 9am to 6pm.

The lobby boasts free wireless internet, but you can get wi-fi almost anywhere in the vicinity, thanks to a downtown wireless initiative. I moved the laptop near the window and got a great signal, for free. See this link for info:

http://dwm.smartriverside.com/

The hotel's own website is here:

http://marriott.com/property/propertypage/RALMC

I just uploaded photos of our room here.

Scorp,

This was indeed a very good deal, though not a perfect stay. I just posted my review here.

Booked this hotel via Hotwire at a rate that turned out to be an error. The hotel did not demand any additional payment, thankfully, but did erroneously bill me a room rate anyway. (This is not yet resolved, but I assume it will be soon. Voicemails are underway...) FYI, the rate I paid to Hotwire was $24. The rate Hotwire paid was $16. Apparently, it should have been entered into the system as $169, and someone dropped the 9

Late report, sorry. Bid on this yesterday. Currently at the named hotel.

Marriott Riverside

Riverside

3400 Market Street

Riverside, California 92501

951-784-8000

Your Offer Price: $45.00

Number of Rooms: 1

Number of Nights: 1

Subtotal: $45.00

Taxes & Service Fees: $12.68

Total Charges: $57.68

Original bid was $40 in Riverside zone. Rejected, with $52 counteroffer.

Added West Riverside, raised to $45, accepted.

Hotel review (and photos!) coming soon...