Analise

What a great deal!!! The Roosevelt is a perfect location.

Because it's Cyber Monday, PL sent an email giving $7 bonus cash on bids made before midnight tonight. I first bid $50 and was rejected. I then bid $54 and PL added $7 for a total of $61.

You're welcome. My pleasure to help!

We were in the Portland area just 2 days ago and as we drove by the Maine Mall, we saw that Doubletree bought the Wyndham property directly across the street from the Maine Mall. Wyndham didn't even own that property for very long. Prior to the Wyndham, the property was a Sheraton. The Wyndham had been doing construction on each of the rooms updating all of the air conditioning units and eliminating some of the glass on the buildings by replacing them with brick. Doubletree had been a fixture in Portland but then the Clarion chain took over the property several years ago and downgraded the experience of staying there. Glad to see a Doubletree back in the area. Here is an article about it: http://www.pressherald.com/news/South-Portland-hotel-switching-affiliation.html?searchterm=wyndham So you might want to update your hotel list! :-)

I got bonus cash on January 25 but didn't know that I could use it even if I logged into PL through Better Bidding. Sorry guys.

You were VERY lucky because the 3* Portland region includes the Eastland Hotel which has a parking lot that charges around $21 per night. It's a city garage actually. For me, it's a risk to bid on the 3* Portland. Clarion has free parking in its large parking lot so you did well!

A few things:1. Priceline does not recognize a "downtown waterfront area". What it calls simply "Portland" is the entire city including both sides of 295 and the hotels by PWM. Your first 'strategy' is to read Priceline and know what its regions are for Portland. 2. You won't get any hotels near the waterfront. That means no Hilton Garden Inn in the Old Port and no Regency. 3. The three 3* star hotels with whom PL has an affiliation are the Eastland Hotel, the Hilton Garden Inn Airport and the Clarion. If you get the Clarion or the Hilton Garden Inn Airport, you will need a car. You will be on the other of 295 and in need of a car. If you get the Eastland, you will be in the center of town but not on the waterfront. You'll be on the top of Congress Street within a stone's throw of the Portland Museum of Art. You can walk to/from the waterfront but expect it to take 15-20 minutes. The walk back to the hotel will be directly up hill. Another strategy? You have one free rebid and that's it. That's the Saco area. When are you going?

Quick question....I have an option of extending our stay with the exact bid for additional nights. It says to do so now, I need to click the link. Well, by clicking it, does it add nights to our stay or does it give us the option to add just one night? I want to click it to get more information but I am concerned it might add more nights than we want to pay. Any advice here? Thanks.

I added bidding specifics to my original thread. I hope this helps someone.

Love this hotel! Started bidding at $50 for 3.5* for this region alone

Was this your first stay? Just curious, what did you do with your car? The one 'danger' about the Eastland is that the garage attached to it wants something like $21 to park. It's probably gone up by now.

Got this price after 2 days. I know this hotel back when it was a Sheraton and I'm quite pleased. I used the PRICELINE link from this website. If I may make a suggestion, is there a way you can make inputting the dates a little easier? If you make one mistake typing a number (it's easy to do that when you're not sure what the date is for the first Friday of a month), the whole thing gets erased & you're forced to start over. Perhaps put a drop-down calendar to make inputting dates easier. I'm glad to use your link but you've got to make it more user friendly. Thanks. :)

I need to bid next weekend for Portland and came across this bid for a 3*. $61 seems awfully expensive. I shudder to think what I'll find in Portland! :)

I haven't been to Cross Keys in years but wanted a 3* hotel that had free parking and knew that Cross Keys was it and that it's the only 3* in the area of Baltimore we want to stay. What I never realized was how many rebids there are in the Baltimore area. Loved that! I started bidding at $38 and eventually got accepted at $55. Cross Keys is a Radisson property.

Long time since I've posted here and I wanted to add this one. I've been PLing for this long weekend immediately following Thanksgiving for a week now. I like the Clarion. Free parking! :) Nice rooms. This is Portland/Portland West. I used the Biddeford free rebid to get this bid accepted.

Portland/Portland West does not include South Portland. That is its own region. That said, for P/L to say that the South Portland region includes the airport makes it confusing because that particular Hilton you got is in Portland. Do keep in mind that if you bid in Portland/Portland West, you will not get a South Portland property. I understand that sentiment. At least it's a nice property. The drive into downtown is about 10 minutes give or take your luck with the traffic lights! :)

It may be about a 7 minute drive to the Old Port, but the hotel is certainly NOT in South Portland hence making it part of the South Portland would be absolutely incorrect. It is on the Portland peninsula and in the City of Portland. Portland is indeed more than the Old Port. We've stayed at the Eastland and frankly, the hotel is falling apart. We try our best to not bid in Portland because of the risk of getting the Eastland. The $11/night garage fee eats up the p/l benefits IMHO.

It took several tries, but this is the price I got for next weekend. Very pleased because with tax and PL charges, this is $46.03 per night. Sometimes in the offseason, the best rates can be had within a week of the visit. Free parking too! We've stayed here several times with PL both as the Clarion as well as when they were a Doubletree. Very nice rooms too. The staff here is also very helpful.

This is Mother's Day weekend. My husband and I wanted to get away because for me, Mother's Day is too painful. Anyhoo, we love Maine so we decided to go for the weekend to catch a Portland Sea Dogs game and get some lobster. I actually owe Priceline a big thank you. I started bidding about 4 weeks ago and kept getting rejected unforunately. I then realized I was bidding for the wrong weekend; I was bidding for the weekend beforehand. Again, I was glad no bids were accepted. I wanted nothing lower than 2 1/2 stars but found that even bidding $60 a week ago (for the correct weekend!) wasn't enough. Finally, I bid $60 yesterday and got an acceptance from the Sheraton. I've stayed here plenty of times and am very pleased. I wish the price had been lower but oh well.

I've read reviews of this hotel which are great and reviews which are horrible. So we won't go with pre-conceived ideas! The only downside is that we have to pay for parking. Otherwise, I'm looking forward to our stay. Starting bid was $33, then $35 and got accepted at $37.

I should rename this thread as I got a 4 star hotel and not a 3. :)

I've stayed there plenty of times and it's a great hotel. You got a very good deal It looks like a silo but the rooms are very, very nice. It's across the street from the Maine Mall so it puts you in a central location.

I bid $60 for DT Toronto. Was rejected but they offered me a free rebid if I agreed to add an additional $17 to it. I turned that down. I rebid adding Toronto East since it had no 4 star or 3 star hotels. My bid was just $2 more. It was accepted! So we will be staying at the Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel. I called them and asked for a king sized bed on a high floor and they seemed very accomodating. Thanks for your help.

If all I want is the DT, what rebid zones can I use which won't make me risk being placed outside the DT?

We don't want to bid more than $60 per night. 3 star is what we want. Of course, we won't turn down 4 stars. I don't know much about the zones. We just want to be near the ballpark, perhaps near the water for boat rides, and with very easy public transportation. We would like to be in the middle of everything. That does sound vague. We only have really a day and a half including the ballgame. So we'd rather not spend too much time commuting.