pterrell

I'm pushing the price down!! Priceline Negotiator!! Mom asked me to stay in Fresno another day to help plant some tomatoes, so I checked the wife's Priceline account on extending the stay at the La Quinta and it was offered. But I was curious if I could get a lower price, so I bid $37 using my account. And it was accepted. The exterior of the La Quinta is being repainted. This morning we had to step around the painters. When we returned to the room tonight, I had to peel back the masking tape covering the door lock. I wonder if this is why the price is down...? And I used the Betterbidding link to PRICELINE. Your Offer Price Per Room, Per Night: $37.00 Subtotal: $37.00 Taxes & Service Fees: $11.82 Total Charges*: $48.82

And I got another upgrade to a room with a fridge and microwave. :) Sorry I forgot to mention using the PRICELINE link.

A new low price for the Fresno La Quinta Inn. A bid of $39 accepted on the first try. I feel cheated, wondering if I could have won a lower bid. :) But Fresno has no rebid zones for 2*. So the only backup was having my wife try and the $49/night on HOTWIRE. (I could have bid earlier, but I've got a cold and want to make sure that I'm over it so I don't spread it to mom and dad.) I went 2* this round 'casue momma was complaining that I was staying at too nice of a place and she never stayed in such "expensive" hotels like the Radisson or the Holiday Inn. What then followed was an hour of stories of her staying at 1* downtown hotels for less than $30 a night. Your Offer Price Per Room, Per Night: $39.00 Subtotal: $117.00 Taxes & Service Fees: $22.89 Total Charges*: $139.89

I see your point, but then I tend to search just the Priceline boards to see what the trends are for a particular city. Now I know to read through the Hotwire comments as well if I want all the info. The room was a Standard - 2 Queen in the Virgina Tower. We were up on the 10th floor, which is the highest in this older tower. There are many complaints on Tripadvisor about rooms on the lower floors having no view and hearing the noise off the room. But we were checking in early at around 3:30pm and the hotel was very empty.I was hoping to chat up the desk clerks for more info but the wife wanted to get up to the room quickly. And check out is easiest through the TV so that you can leave directly from the casino. And there's that $3 "Resort Fee". :) I see your updates to the pinned list and they do cover the bases well if you change the first "3.5* Eldorado" to "4* Eldorado". And the comment under Silver Legacy about the Pepermill should be removed as the hotels are in different zones.

Calipete, What part of the hotel did they put you in? I'm curious as I just won the Eldorado at 3.5* and I'm wondering if they have different stars for the different towers?

Lily, What part of the hotel did they put you in? I'm curious as I just won the Eldorado at 3.5* and I'm wondering if they have different stars for the different towers?

Thereuare: Are reports on bids that didn't work out on Priceline no longer being accepted? I always found them helpful in guiding my purchases. Or did I post that second post to the wrong board? And it looks like the Eldorado is showing up as both a 4* and 3.5* on Hotwire. I'm wondering if it's because they can put you in separate towers, like the Atlantis that has the motor lodge or the Peppermill with their separate wings.

Hotwire had a 3.5* hotel I identified as the Eldorado for $38.00 + $5.55 and it was showing up in Orbitz and Hotels.com for $40.00 + $6.42. I was hoping that on Priceline I might get the Siena or that the 4* would be a better room. So I bid from $30 up to $33 in $1 increments, using Sparks as the free bid zone and having my wife bid as a second try. Went over to HOTWIRE and got it...

The price on Hotwire was so good, I couldn't pass it up, despite last years bad deals that have made me shy away from Hotwire. And just in case I get yet another Entertainment Book, I went to the Entertainment rebate page after using the Betterbidding link to HOTWIRE. This is a trip I've been wanting to do for several years now. The wife and I are taking Amtrak's California Zephyr from the Bay Area through the Sierra mountains to Reno. We're taking the train late in the season to avoid too much snow delaying the train but not so late that all the snow is gone. Since we're going up without a car, I wanted something near the Amtrak station. And since we don't gamble much, one night in Reno is just right. (I joke that the only "gambling" I do when I use HOTWIRE and PRICELINE.) The tax and fees were really low, only $5.55, so this made an especially good deal. Orbitz and Hotels.com had the room for $46.52 ($40.00 + $6.52), so I saved $3 by "gambling". Plus, I think it will be more likely that I can chat up an upgraded room if the reservation wasn't made for the "Economy room". Casino Pool(s) Restaurant(s) 1 room(s) @ $38.00 per night x 1 night(s) $38.00 Tax recovery charge and fees $5.55 Total $43.55 I bid up to $33 on PRICELINE, which after fees came to about $44. Not taken...

Nothing changed from the last time I got the La Quinta on Hotwire, including a total price of $60.99. Is there a quick way of saying "ditto" when I get the same deal as a previous post with same amenities?

Decided at after 8:00pm PST to spend the night in Fresburg, so went to Hotwire, thinking it was time to get another Entertainment Book and the $10 rebate. So with some paperwork, I'll come out ahead a few bucks over Priceline. Used the Betterbidding search to start, then went to the rebate page, and then got kicked off the dial-up connection. Hope Betterbidding gets credit for the deal. And I got a room with fridge and microwave. :) When I checked in, Paul the desk clerk said I had a great name. So I laughed and asked if that give me an upgrade to a room with the fridge and microwave. He spent a few minutes changing the info on the reservation. Now the wife has her drinks and cut fresh fruit in the fridge.

Your info is useful!! Often, HOTWIRE doesn't offer the best deal, especially in tourist destinations such as Reno. Specials on the travel sites often beat the Hotwire rate. Even the hotel web sites sometimes beat Hotwire. But then you have to luck out on finding these deals. But that's one reason the Betterbidding site has a couple of tools that send multiple inquires to the major travel sites. And of course PRICELINE beats HOTWIRE most of the time anyways... BTW, you scored such a deal!!

I was scanning down the list of new posts when I saw the headline "3* San Francisco (San Mateo) Crowne Plaza Foster City" posted at 1:30am and I says to myself "that's gotta be Colfax. And I was right... With you traveling around so much, I'd assume that you'd enjoy the more comfortable beds a 3* hotel usually have over a 2.5*.

To answer your questions about timing, it's not predictable whether you get a better or worse deal by bidding early. The individual hotels use PRICELINE as a way of filling empty rooms, each projecting the room occupancy and the dollar amount to get you in the room. So the rule would be to set a low maximum amount per night and see if you can get it. Use the rebids to work your way up to that amount. No one has reported better or worse pricing for waiting 24 hours. So do what's comfortable. I usually do my bidding while watching the TV--you can spend a couple of hours bidding in one sitting on some cities with a mess of "rebid" zones". The advange of bidding early is that you know that you've got a room to stay in and your work is done, especially if you're going during peak season. The disadvantage is that if your plans change, the reservation cannot be changed or canceled.

Sorry for the broken link. The Washington DC Zones topic is under the forum Priceline/Hotwire Hotel Lists and Tips for Washington, DC. TravelGuy refers the hotels as being a short walk to the Metro station, with a short walk being about 10 minutes in some cases. But I know that for some people, that's quite a distance. A couple times that 10 minute walk to our DC hotel became 30 minutes for my wife and I as she was feeling ill and had to stop several times (the stops were nice though, sitting in Washington Circle in front of our first president, then across the street from some historc buildings, and then in the nice hotel lobby). For my disabled mom, I even make reservations in motor lodges instead of hotels to minimize the distance to the room.

And more advice to the newbie. :) The biggest trick of getting the low rates on PRICELINE is to go when the demand is low. I stayed in the Wyndham for $80 a night when the wife and I went to Chicago back in October, but we shifted our original plans forward a couple of weeks to a time when there were no conventions and the tour books and AaronJB said there were few tourists. Same for our trip to Washington DC in Feb. In your case you're timing it around an aniversary and a ball game. For my last aniversary, we had dinner at home and reminisced over our "cheap" Chicago trip and started planning for our "cheap" DC trip.

Is the $180 rate at the Drake cancelable? If so, then you should make the reservation. One of the "tricks of the trade" is to make sure that you've got a guaranteed room at a rate that you can "tolerate". Then you can "play" with PRICELINE, seeing if you can beat the rate. I agree with thereuare. You should bump your maximum bid up. AaronJB gave the rate of $146 for a stay at the Ambassador East, so I would work my bid up from $100 to $145 over the next couple of weeks. Of course it depends on your desire to save cash. Three nights at $146 versus $180 comes to a good, romantic dinner for two.

This really looks like the Monte Carlo. The list of LV Hotwire hotels reports that the Luxor and the Monte Carlo have the same amenities. So the "tell" is the TripAdvisor info: both the Monte Carlo and the Luxur have a 3.5 rating, but the Monte Carlo currently has 1,057 reviews versus the Luxor with 2,325 reviews.

Gyro123, I don't want to distract you from your task of getting a 4* hotel in Chicago, but since you're new to PRICELINE and HOTWIRE, I want to address one of your initial concerns. Many of us know what specific hotels show up in Priceline because we know that those are the only hotels in the zone at that star level. If I bid 3* for the Fresno Airport, I know that I'm going to get the Holiday Inn--it's the only 3* in the Airport zone. If I bid 2.5*, I'm either going to get the Courtyard, because it's the only 2.5* in the zone, or get "upgraded" to the Holiday Inn. There are other hotels in the zone, but it doesn't appear that they're participating in PRICELINE, so I don't "plan" on ever getting one of them. But downtown Chicago is a much different beast than Fresno. :) Many hotels in the same star level are available in PRICELINE. So pick the zones you'd find best to stay in and bid every day, until you reach your maximum amount. You'll soon get the hang of it. :)

The trick for HOTWIRE is to match the stars and amenities given for a hotel with the list of previosly reported hotels. If a Tripadvisor rating is given in the hotel details, that also helps to confirm a match. The post Hotwire Hotel List - Florida has the following report: Las Olas - Downtown - Port Everglades 3.5* Riverside Hotel (previous 3*) Amenities: Restaurant, Pool (VP shows: Restaurant, Pool, Hi-Speed Interent, Business) I did a search and on Apr 7-Apr 9, a 3.5* shows up with Restaurant, Pool, and Business, with a match to the TripAdvisor rating and number of reviews for the Riverside. So perhaps the amenities have changed along with the star rating. What are the dates for your stay? This a different date range might give a different result... And remember that this is still a "best guess". If you need to be 100% sure that you're getting the hotel that you want, HOTWIRE and its "opaque" pricing is not the way to go. When you are ready to reserve your room, please support the site by using the HOTWIRE search near the top of the page.

Thanks all for the advice. This Fall I'd used HOTWIRE instead of PRICELINE specifically to make sure that I got the motor lodge--it's a heck of a lot easier to get a disabled mother and her bags of luggage into a motor lodge room. Now I know I could have saved a few $$ by trying out PRICELINE first. And the Siena sure sounds nice at a good price. I'm hoping to take the California Zephyr up to Reno the second week of April and want to stay near the Amtrak station.

Yes!! All the time. Unfortunatley, sometimes I did make a mistake. Usually it's realizing that I could have gotten a better rate directly booking the hotel using my AAA or Entertainment Card discounts.

Expert advice on DC is given by TravelGuy in the topic [http://www.betterbidding.com/show.php/showtopic/10688]Washington DC Zones. I'm giving my advice with the caveat that I'm no expert on DC, just that I spent many hours researching the best options for my 5 day trip to DC last month, and I'm willing to share the results of my efforts. If being a few blocks from the Metro is a high concern, then be aware that every zone has possible hotels that can be half a mile or so from a Metro station. And some hotels have a long hike from the entrance to the room (reported of the Hilton). The Omni Shoreham is having a $109 TravelZoo special on Mar. 31 & Apr 1, so you may be able to pick it up on Priceline for those dates for less. Or go with that deal if you want to guarantee a hotel that's "across the street" from a Metro station. The remaining dates look like a crapshot on your budget. Good luck...

Welcome to the world of "opaque" pricing. When they've got available rooms, the Hyatt and the Beverly Hills are willing to fill up rooms for cheap rather than let them go unsold. That's why folks post their winning bids here on this site so that things become "more transparent". But even then there's a gamble that a new hotel will be available on Priceline and you'll be the first to get it. You can refer to the list of identified hotels here on BetterBidding for a particular zone and then look up reviews to determine if any of them are "seedy". Most hotels match their star rating, so if you're bidding on 3* and 4* hotels, like the Hyatt and Beverly Hills, you're not likely to end up in a seedy hotel. I've never bid on a 1* in Fresno because it's very likely going to put me in a bad neighborhood. :)

What is your budget? How far are you willing to walk to get to the Metro? Are you willing to split your stay between hotels? And are you willing to stay outside of the city? Using HOTWIRE as a reference, you've selected a time with low availabilty and high prices...