lpennington

Started with unsuccessful attempts in the 3* category at the $60 and $75 dollar amounts in Dupont Circle. Since I was one day away from my trip and approaching $100, I decided to restart in the 4* category and was unsuccessful at $105 in Dupont Circle. Added White House/Downtown area and rebid at $115 successfully. I saved over $100 from the advertised rate of $239.

Just figured it that it was likely the Mayfair Hotel & Spa -- which was where the reservation needed to be! I just booked the reservation on Hotwire using the site's HOTWIRE link for $101 / night. Very very happy as the hotel's site was charging $238/nt and the Hotwire rate when the name of the hotel was shown was $176/nt.

My initial question in this thread was whether I could make an early pickup with the rental car I was planning to get. The drop down menu on Hotwire seemed to begin at 6am, and I needed to get in a little bit earlier as I had a 7am flight. I later learned that the drop down menu could be scrolled up to even earlier times. Btw, I called Hertz at Charleston Int'l and they are there as early as 5:30 am.

Hotel Amenities: Smoke Free Rooms Fitness Center Pool(s) Restaurant(s) Business Center High-Speed Internet Access Tennis Nearby Spa Services Recommended in 85% of customer reviews ______________________ I thought this may have been the Mayfair Hotel & Spa, however, the Hotwire Florida listing thread has "boutique" next to this resort.

**EDIT** I figured this issue out. Sorry for the thread. I am planning to reserve a car rental via Hotwire, however we will need to drop the car off around 6am. The Hotwire inputs list the earliest drop-off time as 7am. Does anyone know if all of Hotwire's participating car rentals companies at this airport allow for early-am returns? I don't know a complication because we have no place to drop the vehicle off before we to an early-am flight. Thanks.

Using this site's PRICELINE link, I won my bid for 2 rooms at a rate of $135/nt at the Parc 55 Wyndham in USW. The hotel has good reviews on TA and my friends in the 2nd room are very impressed with the rate, hotel location, etc. I'm glad I kept at my bids and didn't give up.

Thus far, my bids of $90, $95, $102, $110, $118, $120 and $125 have been rejected. I did a couple quick searches and discovered that there are a couple large conferences in town this week. In the past, this search has been successful in the area of $95-100, but I'll likely keep bidding up until $150.

I ended up getting a discounted room using an insider connection at one of the Strip hotels so I ceased bidding on these rooms.

Didn't know I hadn't finished that thread up ... done.

... wanted to close the loop on this thread. We ended up staying at the St. Regis at conference-sponsored rate. That week was a heavy volume week around the Moscone Center so the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE deals weren't as low as most other weeks imo.

1st bid was accepted. Great result on short notice after I had to move a flight to Dulles for the next morning.

Bid $90 for a 3 night stay from April 14 thru April 17, and was rejected. Will try again this weekend using the rebid zones. Ultimately my budget is up to $150 as I believe the Venetian would cost me around $199/nt direct. **edit** looks like I should bid after looking at more than 1 previous bid ($88). Most of the successful bids were higher than where I started. I'm usually better with my research!

Bid thru the PRICELINE link and was successfully tonight after 2 unsuccessful tries. A few days ago I began with a $90 bid for 2 rooms on the days indicated. No luck, so I rebid a couple days later for $95 with another rejection, and tonight $105 did the trick. This is a great result as the hotel website's least expensive rates were for well over $200/night.

I returned to PRICELINE using the forum's link, and tried to the progression using the five rebid zones (thx for the help there), but unfortunately couldn't get anything for $150. I'm guessing it's probably the 6 nights or a heavy conference week? I've read posts where people inquired about splitting their nights and going for 2 successful bids but I'd hate to risk having to switch hotels. Is that my only option at this point?

Yes, I consider $100 very good.

I'll definitely put that offer in the bank as a safety. My search of recent successful bids showed that $80-90 seemed to be the sweetspot for 4* SOMA hotels with the resulting hotels being the Palomar or Palace, both rated fairly well. So I think I'll get something 4* when I go up with my bids but I wanted a consult here 1st. I tried to search for the rebid zones for this area but could only come up with strategies for USW USE or Fisherman's Wharf.

Just tried bidding $75 for 1 room in a 4* hotel in SOMA during the May 14 - May 20 timeframe using the PRICELINE link. Presently, I have a cancellable reservation through the convention organization that I may cancel thru April 6 without any headache (St. Regis at $299/nt). My wife is in town for a convention at the Moscone center, and will need to be within 6-7 blocks max walking distance. My budget is anywhere up to $150/nt ... anything more than that and I'd just stick with our current reservation since I've never stayed there). Thanks for any help you can provide.

Using the BetterBidding PRICELINE link, I bid $80 for this coming Sunday night and it was accepted.

We have usually vacationed on the island of St. Martin (French side) the few occasions we've gone to the Caribbean and loved it. I've used this site and Priceline with so much success the past couple yrs that I'm wondering if anyone has used it on this island? I searched and didn't see a previous post. My target dates are either: November 29 - December 5, 2009 or December 6 - 12, 2009 Preferences would be a resort or 4/5 star hotel on either side of the island. Thx for any help anyone has.

My $75 bid was accepted by the Westin Virginia Beach. I began this bid attempt using the Forum's PRICELINE link. I would also like to add that this $75/night price is more than a $100 less than the hotel's most aggressive specials for that month. Another great bargain.

Sorry about the confusion. I only stayed in a hotel for the Monday night at the Hilton Garden Inn.

FYI $75 was accepted.

**update** I ended up not staying at a hotel for this night. After looking into the situation I discovered that this weekend was the Penn Relays weekend in Philly which would explain why almost every Center City hotel would have zero vacancy Thursday through the weekend. It's a very big tourism weekend in Downtown and West Philadelphia.

1st bid of $51 was rejected. 2nd bid of $61 was rejected as well. I know these bids are low but I saw a couple past posters were successful with a $61 bid for a 4* (Westin) in Va Beach so I went with that figure. I'll look into the bid again sometime next week.

Thx. My fault on the title ... I've been working alot the past few days!!