DDSeeker

Travelling with two small children. I really need two beds. Therefore, I limited my bidding to 4* in MTW. Both the Hilton New York and Hilton Times Square seem to be good at accomodating requests for two beds. Failed bid at $119, so $120 is the lowest rate available for these dates when I did the bidding. Three nights total, $430.43 including taxes and fees. I feel good. Anyone who wants to thank thereuare for maintaining this board should use the link to PRICELINE at savingsbarn.com like I did.

Used Savingsbarn.com. Always get that overbid feeling, but had the following bids rejected: $30 SUV $29 Luxury $28 Premium As always, rental periods for over a week get better rates than those for less than a week. I'm sure that I benefitted from a 9-day rental period.

Amenities: Suite, Kitchenette, Laundry Room was described to me as a studio suite. I booked it for my parents who had no complaints (and probably lower standards than I do.)

Paid $26 through Hotwire. Received a DTD rebate bringing net down to $12 night. Hotwire Report. Hotel had fine services including free valet parking and a restaurant with a $2.22 full breakfast. Services alone probably warrant the property's 3* rating. However, it seems the hotel scrimps on maintenance. The elevator walls were scratched by vandals, and it didn't seem the management had any intent on repairing the damage. It appeared to me that the median age of a guest at River Palms was 65 years old. Bingo room was popular but casino was nearly empty during my midweek visit. I asked for a room overlooking the Colorado River. I was told that my rate did not qualify for such a room. Received a room overlooking parking lot and desert mountains. My six-year-old still could not tear himself away from the window as he admired the desert. Rooms were 2.5* quality with 2.5* beds. Like many casino hotels, the whole place smelled of cigarette smoke, even my room on a non-smoking floor. It was not unbearable, though. (Beware, my tolerance of cigarette smoke is greater than most people.) Laughlin could be described as a low rent Las Vegas, but I still think it is a little more kid-friendly. Don't miss out on the Arizona ghost town of Oatman. Oatman is filled with fun gift shops that my wife loved. The kids were highly entertained by the shootout at high noon on the main street. Many hotels in Laughlin appear to be of equal quality as the River Palms. Harrah's seems to be the cream of the crop. Be sure to check tripreservations.com for cheap rates at many Laughlin properties including Harrahs. I found the lower rate for my DTD claim at tripreservations. I would stay at River Palms again.

eleisurelink.com is running a special on the Helmsley. With taxes and fees, it comes out less than Expedia. I asked for a quote on the Intercontinental The Barkley, too. They didn't have availability on my dates. My goal is to get a good hotel at a good price. The fact that Expedia is generally not competitive with the opaque services is not all that relevent. The New York York Helmsley apparently does not participate in the opaque services. I must evalute the New York Helmsley against the opaque services, though. If I can get a good deal outside of the opaque services, I will. It is possible that I can get a good quality hotel at a good price outside of the opaque services. In fact, being able to determine the precise location beforehand is a big plus. I find it interesting that Expedia rates the New York Helmsley a 3.5*. Expedia also rates the Grand Hyatt (a common MTE 4* on Priceline) to be a 3.5*.

Tripadvisor.com gives the New York Helmsley a 4* rating and it has very good reviews. I specifically didn't want to get into this argument because you will always find someone who says a Four Seasons or Ritz Carlton isn't a good hotel. Best I can determine, neither PL nor HW offer the New York Helmsley. Consequently, the argument you made that this is an apples-to-oranges comparison to the two big opaque services would always exist. After all, it would only be an individual's personal speculation how those services would rate it. Unfortunately, I guess I didn't succeed in eliminating that criticism. And I doubt that the fact that the New York Helmsley doesn't participate in the tradition opaque services has much bearing on the quality of the property. That said, my travel dates are Jan 18-20.

I'm booking a stay in January. I bid up to $145 for a 4* in all midtown zones on PL without success. eleisurelink.com offers the New York Helmsley for $175, all taxes and fees included. (That is equivalent to a $145 PL bid.) I sure that one could argue that the New York Helmsley is probably a 3.5*, but let's leave that out of the argument for the time being. Is eleisurelink.com reputable? Anyone have experience with it? Is it consistently competitive with the PL and HW? Any feedback would be great!

I trust these dates are in 2006, right?

First bid accepted. Saturday night only stay. As always, used savingsbarn.com to access Priceline. Hope I didn't overbid. I also hope that Long Beach doesn't belong in the LA category. It seems BB is a little inconsistent on that.

This hotel must drive Priceline nuts. The buildings were built probably in the late 1960s. Unfortunately, they haven't been well maintained. That said, the Ramada Inn Airport South provides many of the services Priceline requires for a 3* hotel. It had a full service restaurant and room service, but I did not use them. The hotel seems to have a thriving banquet operation. There must have been 4-5 wedding receptions going on the weekend I stayed there. The Ramada Inn Airport South has an indoor pool. It is in a separate building, but there is an indoor walkway to it. The pool building is in particular disrepair. Many ceiling tiles were missing and it didn't look like there had been basic maintenance in years. Even so, the pool was open and served its function. My basic criticism of the Ramada Inn Airport South is the demographics of many of its guests. They seemed to by out-of-town extended-stay construction types. I saw empty cases of beer outside of more than one room. Not what I really want to see in a hotel. I received a smoking room with two doubles. The smoke smell wasn't too excessive, and I dealt with it. The best way to evaluate a hotel is to ask whether I'd stay there again. I'd say no to the Ramada Inn Airport South. It probably deserves its 2* rating, but beware of bidding for a 2* in the Milwaukee South zone.

Oy! How big of a mistake is that? Amenities: Resort, Restaurant, Fitness, Tennis, Shuttle, Pool, Golf, Business Center

New hotel for the lists, but I knew which property I was getting based upon the vacation package section. $108.00 Room for two nights $40.01 Taxes and fees Taxes and fees are darn near 40% of the room rate. This is the first time I've ever tried to get a Priceline or Hotwire room in a real resort area. And this is not the only hotel that had outrageous fees in Palm Springs (I wrote about this earlier). The Palm Springs Riviera Resort has an $8 / day resort fee. I'm hoping that the high fees already take the resort fee into consideration even though Hotwire says they don't. Priceline bids for these dates: 3* Palm Springs (Central) -- $50 2.5* Palm Springs (Central) -- $51 3* Indio -- $52 All failed. Avoided Palm Desert zone because I did not want to win the Indian Wells Resort with its $16-17/day resort fee. A resort fee that high really makes bidding difficult. I must say, Palm Springs has been the most difficult place to use the opaque services. Oh yeah, I get my $10 Entertainment rebate for using Hotwire, too. Sorry, thereuare, I didn't buy my book through your link like last year. My kid's school sold them as a fundraiser. I did access Hotwire through savingsbarn.com, though.

Simply my guesses -- caveat emptor: 4* Hotel Intercontinental Toronto (According to the hotel list, a Westin has the same amenities, but is now rated 4.5*. The hotel list shows the Hilton Toronto as having the identical amenities at 4*, but the vacation package adds hi-speed internet.) 3.5* No guess.

bbbb, I'd add an A + C + D bid before A + B + C + D. That gives eight free rebids. If you're like me, there are never enough free rebids! :)

Pegster, Priceline will give a counteroffer straight after bidding if it gives one at all. You will see wording similar to this: Priceline could not find a hotel at $xx, but if you are willing to raise your bid by $xx, you can make this bid again. Conventional wisdom is that if you see a counteroffer, you have a 100% chance of getting the counteroffer accepted. Most experienced Priceline bidders try to undercut the counteroffer. That is, if Priceline gives you a counteroffer at $17 greater than your bid, you can probably win the hotel with a bid less than $17 over the bid that generated the counteroffer. Of course, your ability to undercut a counteroffer depends on many factors. Do you have enough free rebids to undercut a counteroffer? Can you sit out the 3-day waiting period if you run out of free rebids and your undercut bid is rejected? (Once you reject a counteroffer, you can't accept it later. At least this is my understanding. I'd like to know if someone has experience that proves my understanding wrong.) In short, it would be difficult to miss a Priceline counteroffer. It appears on the same screen showing that your bid has been rejected. Experienced bidders usually try to undercut a counteroffer, but may be limited by the number of free rebids remaining and how much time they have before they need the hotel room.

It is true you can't deselect a region once you've selected it. But just go back to www.savingsbarn.com and reaccess Priceline. You start off clean again, with no zones selected. The idea of the permutation strategy is that you can "build up" a Priceline bid. You can bid zone A, zones AB, zones AC and then zones ABC on Priceline even though your AB bid and AC bid are effectively an ABC bid too. It is built into Priceline's system and within their TOS. You cannot "build down" a Priceline bid. Once you bid zones ABC, you can't bid AB, AC or A. You can only "build up". In short, if you need to deselect a zone, you need to start the whole process over.

Using the "permutation strategy" that thereuare advocates, you have four bids left: San Mateo - Cathedral Hill San Mateo - Cathedral Hill - South SF San Mateo - Cathedral Hill - Civic Center San Mateo - Cathedral Hill - South SF - Civic Center

Creepy. As soon as I posted this, the $65 4* hotel disappeared completely. I first noticed this hotel and its crazy fee amount a few days ago. Nothing changed until I posted about it on your site, thereuare. The small tea leaves I'm reading say that Hotwire monitors BB.

I searched Palm Desert - LaQuinta for 12-21-05 to 12-23-05. I see an unidentifiable 4* for $65 / night. Wow! But when I click through to buy, I see that taxes and fees are a full 50% of the room price. I wonder to myself, what is going on? For a sanity check, I select the 3* for $63 in Palm Desert for the same dates. Taxes and fees are about 12% of the room price. My first thought is that the 4* hotel has resort fees or other recovery fees that the 3* hotel does not. But upon further reflection, this should not matter. If I book through Hotwire, I will be responsible for paying resort/other fees directly to the hotel. Any suggestions as to what is driving the inconsistency I am seeing?

Failed bid at $68. Bid through savingsbarn.com link.

Congratulations on your winning bid! When you return, I hope you write your thoughts about this property in a hotel review. I'm kind of interested in this hotel, particularly your thoughts on whether you get a "Priceline Room" there. Enjoy your stay!

I just noticed a mistake I made. I found the lower rate at tripreservations.com I wanted to correct the record so someone has the chance to pick off a DTD claim on this property in the future. Also, I used savingsbarn.com to access Hotwire. Anyone who benefits from betterbidding should do the same.

I believe the BetterBidding hotel list shows this as a 2.5*, but the amenities are correct: Resort, Casino, Restaurant, Pool, Fitness, Spa, Golf Found rate of $17 at triprewards.com. After expected DTD rebate, net cost will be $36 for three nights. I shouldn't complain about this rate, and I took the risk that this was something other than the River Palms based on the BB Hotwire hotel list. But the reviews at tripadvisors aren't so great. xnn

Thanks for your advice. I printed off a copy of the rate I saw and also saved the url as a file. In the end, I didn't need it. Hotwire approved my DTD claim around noon today. I'm not sure how Hotwire verified the rate, but Hotwire's actions confirm my belief that they approach DTD claims in good faith.

I would be wary of doing this. It may very well be that the reason 3 adults at the Venetian costs more than 2 adults is the bedding. It appears that the Venetian is selling rooms with a king bed only at a lower rate than one with two beds. It shows up when trying to book through the Venetian. Unless you're fully prepared to sleep with your mother-in-law, I'd suggest you be very careful with respect to accepting Hotwire's rate while only specifying two people.