Check-In Date: Thursday, July 10, 2003
Check-Out Date: Friday, July 11, 2003
Hotel Name: Fairfield Inn Savannah
2 Lee Blvd
Savannah, Georgia 31405
Your Offer Price: $30.00
Number of Rooms: 1
Number of Nights: 1
Subtotal: $30.00
Taxes and Service Fees: $9.25
Total Charges: $39.25
Zone: Savannah Midtown
Check-In Date: Friday, June 27, 2003
Check-Out Date: Monday, June 30, 2003
Hotel Name: Westin Savannah Harbor Resort
1 Resort Drive
Savannah, Georgia 31402
Your Offer Price: $90.00
Number of Rooms: 1
Number of Nights: 3
Subtotal: $270.00
Taxes and Service Fees: $43.33
Total Charges: $313.33
Zone: Savannah Historic District
Parking Attendants: Valet? I will usually tip them $5 at both pickup and dropoff.
$5 tip for both in and out seems way too much for me.
Most hotels with (often more or less mandatory) valet parking charge $10 - $20 a day.
Tipping $5 in and out would mean that every trip to go to dinner, the office or whatever, would earn the valet / cost me a $10 tip: a lot of money on top of the parking charges and a lot of money for a little work.
$1 in and out is what I usually tip for valet parking.
Check-In Date: Monday, June 30, 2003
Check-Out Date: Thursday, July 3, 2003
Hotel Name: Cocoa Beach Hilton
1550 North Atlantic Avenue
Cocoa Beach, Florida 32931
Your Offer Price: $50.00
Number of Rooms: 1
Number of Nights: 3
Subtotal: $150.00
Taxes and Service Fees: $23.29
Total Charges: $173.29
Started at $45, one rebid available for 3*, $50 accepted.
Check-In Date: Wednesday, June 25, 2003
Check-Out Date: Friday, June 27, 2003
Hotel Name: Radisson Hotel Norfolk
700 Monticello Ave
Norfolk, Virginia 23510
Your Offer Price: $65.00
Number of Rooms: 1
Number of Nights: 2
Subtotal: $130.00
Taxes and Service Fees: $24.18
Total Charges: $154.18
Started with $55, increased with $5 increments.
I started at $50, increasing with $5 after each rejected bid.
Big advantage was that Miami has many rebid zones available for 4*'s (Dadeland, Lakes, North Miami, North Miami Beach, Southwest Miami), so starting low is possible without risking too many "3 day lock outs".
With my strategy I could have gone from $50 to $75 before running out of rebid zones. Luckily the $60 got accepted. I'm looking forward to staying at this hotel :)
Check-In Date: Friday, July 11, 2003
Check-Out Date: Saturday, July 12, 2003
Hotel Name: Marriott Richmond
500 East Broad Street
Richmond, Virginia 23219
Your Offer Price: $45.00
Number of Rooms: 1
Number of Nights: 1
Subtotal: $45.00
Taxes and Service Fees: $11.56
Total Charges: $56.56
Check-In Date: Monday, July 7, 2003
Check-Out Date: Thursday, July 10, 2003
Hotel Name: Sheraton Bal Harbour
9701 Collins Avenue
Bal Harbour, Florida 33154
Your Offer Price: $70.00
Number of Rooms: 1
Number of Nights: 3
Subtotal: $210.00
Taxes and Service Fees: $36.26
Total Charges: $246.26
Check-In Date: Thursday, July 3, 2003
Check-Out Date: Saturday, July 5, 2003
Hotel Name: Inter-Continental Miami
100 Chopin Plaza
Miami, Florida 33131
Your Offer Price: $60.00
Number of Rooms: 1
Number of Nights: 2
Subtotal: $120.00
Taxes and Service Fees: $22.86
Total Charges: $142.86
Easy bidding in Miami: prices are low and many rebid zones available when looking for 4* and up hotels.
Needed 2 rooms on a relatively short notice. Started bidding at $60/night. Bid was rejected but PL made me a "special offer": if I would increase my offer with $17 I would have a good chance of getting the rooms I wanted.
I ignored this message and used a rebid to increase to $65, which was accepted :) . Makes you wonder how they come up with the $17. Accepted bid:
Hotel Name: Capital Hilton
16th And K Streets Nw
Washington, DC
Check-In Date: Saturday, May 31, 2003
Check-Out Date: Sunday, June 1, 2003
Your Offer Price: $65.00
Number of Rooms: 2
Number of Nights: 1
Subtotal: $130.00
Taxes and Service Fees: $26.18
Total Charges: $156.18
I wanted a 4* in the White House zone. Used following zones that have no 4* available on PL as free rebid zones: Alexandria Pentagon, Arlington, Crystal City, Springfield.
Came back from my trip to Burlington, VT. The hotel bill showed a daily rate of $52 and a tax rate of 9% ($4.68), so my overbid was less than I thought.
Didn't use many of the facilities in the hotel (it has a pool, exercise room, bar and restaurant), so I can't give a complete review. However my Starwood Gold status was recognized (showed card at check in) and was given room on "Preferred Guest Floor". How much of an upgrade that is I don't know but it is nice to see that status is recognized on a PL stay. Also staff was very friendly.
Needed two rooms for two days.
Started bidding on 4* zone Montreal (=center). Using rebids, bids for 60, 65 and 70 USD were rejected. Maximum I wanted to pay was USD70, so I switched to bidding for 3*.
First bid accepted:
Hotel: Holiday Inn Select Montreal Centreville
Check-In Date: Fri, Jun 20, 2003
Check-Out Date: Sun, Jun 22, 2003
Your Offer Price: $45.00 (US dollars)
Number of Rooms: 2
Number of Nights: 2
Subtotal: $180.00 (US dollars)
Taxes and
Service Fees: $22.62 (US dollars)
Total Charges: $202.62 (US dollars)
I'm not a big Holiday Inn fan, hope this property is OK.
Your Offer Price: $55.00
Number of Rooms: 1
Number of Nights: 1
Subtotal: $55.00
Taxes: $4.68
Processing Fee: $5.95
Total Charges: $65.63
Assuming 12% tax I overbid 16$ :)
About two weeks previous to the accepted bid I started bidding on 3* properties in Burlington, VT. Bids ranging from 40$ to 55$ were rejected.
My conclusion is that I started bidding too early: there just were no rooms yet. The day of my accepted bid apparently some rooms were offered to PL, resulting in my accepted bid.
Problem with Burlington is that only two hotels (as far as I can tell) offer rooms on PL, so a situation like I encountered is likely to happen.
Your Offer Price: $60.00
Number of Rooms: 1
Number of Nights: 6
Subtotal: $360.00
Taxes: $39.60
Processing Fee: $5.95
Total Charges: $405.55
Zone: Disney World Vicinity
Great hotel, good service and good location. HHonor status was recognized (room on exec floor, lounge access).
Your Offer Price: $110.00
Number of Rooms: 1
Number of Nights: 1
Subtotal: $110.00
Taxes: $13.52
Processing Fee: $5.95
Total Charges: $129.47
Nice hotel, great location. HHonors status was recognized (got corner room on exec floor and access to the lounge on the 44th floor)
Sorry I left out the zone. It was French Quarter.
OT: I wanted to add this information to my original post, but couldn't find a way to edit my post. Is it me, or is it just not possible?
I'm posting some old bids: no details of bidding history available anymore (I only remember I was hoping for the Sheraton...).
Hotel not very impressive (dark, old, bad breakfast buffet) but service was OK and room was clean.
Location good: right on the Boardwalk, walking distance from most casinos.
Zone: Atlantic City area
I think this board will have the same friendly attitude and approach down the road as it does today
I think you did and, are doing, a great job thereuare: keep up the good work (looking for the "thumbs up" smily but not able to find it :))
Decent hotel in good location.
Received HHonor benefits: two breakfast coupons /day and 4 bar coupons.
Like Thereuare I also usually stay in 3+* properties, regardless of using PL or not and also when staying on my own dime.
I agree that many 1* and 2* properties are pretty decent, however many of them are not that good or just plain bad. Unless I know the property I will not consider staying there, which rules out using PL.
IMO the savings you can get by using PL for 1* and 2* hotels are not that big, since those properties usually are not that expensive in the first place (ex Pl). The limited savings and the uncertain quality in combination with the PL limitations (non cancelable, etc.) don't make it interesting for me to bid on 1* or 2* hotels.
Hotel: Amsterdam Marriott Hotel
Stadhouderskade
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Accepted bid: $85 /night
Number of nights: 2
Dates: Apr 29 - May 1
Taxes: $8.42
The Marriott web sites says that taxes are 5%, that would mean that they sold the room for $84.20, so I overbid $0.80 :)
Apr 30th is Queensday in The Netherlands and AMS is one big party!
Very happy to get a decent hotel for that day. I'm in The Netherlands that week, but in another city. I would have hated to travel by train to/from AMS since they usually are crowded on that day (same as the city which makes driving my car no option).
Stared bidding four days ago: 5* and 4* up to $75 all rejected.
Rebid today: 5* was rejected up to $85, 4* accepted.
2* Holiday Inn Lancaster East
in Priceline Hotels - Pennsylvania
Posted
Check-In Date: Monday, June 23, 2003
Check-Out Date: Wednesday, June 25, 2003
Hotel Name: Holiday Inn Lancaster East
521 Greenfield Road
Lancaster, Pennsylvania 17601
Your Offer Price: $33.00
Number of Rooms: 1
Number of Nights: 2
Subtotal: $66.00
Taxes and Service Fees: $13.70
Total Charges: $79.70
Zone: Lancaster