Chris26WI

You got your price of

Too bad, maybe you should go higher in your offer (using PL Singapore, by example). - Or why you don't book a hotel in the airport area via conventional sites (e.g. hotelthailand.com)? - The Amari Airport Hotel is a nice hotel and is connected to the airport, but not cheap.

The hotel the most near to the airport (from the known Priceline-hotels for Bangkok) is very probably the JW Marriott, Sukhumvit Soi 2 (You will have to bid "Sukhumvit" and "5star" for that) is very conveniant to go to the aiport or come from there as it's very near to an exit of the tollway which leads to the airport. - You should skip "Riverside/Silom"-area if you're looking only for a hotel "near" to the airport. Or you book an airport hotel conventionally.

...well yes... you're right.. however I thought chances might have been excellent for the Marriott Resort.... (maybe the wish was the father of this thought too ;-) ), but I learned my lesson ;-/.

Well, the usual JW Marriott deal for Bangkok (nowadays probably hard to get anything else in 5-star area for Bkk for <73$) .... would have preferred one of the Starwoods, but ok.. the JW is ok...

Congratulations, you got your price of $73 for a 5-star hotel room.

Marriott Jw In

Sukhumvit

4 Sukhumvit Soi 2

Bangkok, Thailand

66-2-6567700

Check-In Date: Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Check-Out Date: Thursday, January 27, 2005

Your Offer Price: $73.00

Number of Rooms: 1

Number of Nights: 2

Subtotal: $146.00

Taxes & Service Fees: $34.70

Total Charges: $180.70

Started with 65 US$ for 5star Riverside+Sukhumvit -> rejected, added Silom Sq. and upped to 73US$ -> accepted. (By the way, tried the same before in Priceline SG, rejected up to 122 SG$ - around 74 US$...., but maybe just a currency conversion rate question.. maybe the next step - 127 SG$ - would have been a hit too)

Rate in Marriott.com for this period is 149,-- US$+17 % tax. So arround 80 bucks saved per night.

Well, after the defeat in terms of Holiday Inn.. I didn't really wanted to change the hotel for the 2nd night... so started another try for it in Priceline Singapore, starting from 3-star level (as I got another night in the HI via this way before for end of January for 63SG$)... and got my lovely Tawana Ramada... for that night now.. so I'll have to change the hotel for one other night.. but ok... the Tawana is not far and I prefer it to the Holiday Inn... though the Tawana is usually not a very big deal on Priceline (in terms of prices)...

Congratulations, you got your price of SG$85 for a 3-star hotel room in Bangkok.

Ramada Tawana

80 Surawongse Rd

Bangkok, 10500

Thailand

66-2-2360361

Check-In: Sunday, 16 January 2005

Check-Out: Monday, 17 January 2005

Your Offer Price: SG$85

Number of Rooms: 1

Number of Nights: 1

Subtotal: SG$85

Taxes: SG$14.44

Processing Fee: SG$16.50 (per offer)

Total Lodging Charges: SG$115.94 (~ 70 US$)

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Started with SG$60 (only 3-star/Riverside-Silom).... increasing 5SG$ each time... till I got the Ramada.

(2,770 Baht incl. ABF on hotelthailand.com, ~ 71 US$ - so I missed the breakfast for 1$ extra :-( ).

Oh, and even much cheaper, e.g. http://www.bangkok-hotel.net/hotels/bangko.../hotel_1667.htm, 1850 Bt. incl. ABF... :-(( - too bad, Priceline Singapore apparently doesn't offer a "best price guarantee" - as Priceline US does).

What a desaster!! - I thought, I gave it another try after seeing the Holiday Inn on some sites as "sold out" for these dates (e.g. Expedia.com), and Marriott.com offers rates of 109$ for the Marriott resort available, but anyway not "sold out" on Holiday Inn... - So started with an incredibly high sum, namely 50$ for 4-star riverside/silom... - denied with a counteroffer of 14US$! Wow, I was enthusiastic - didn't expect the HI at that level... but what came out....: *crying*

Congratulations, you got your price of $64 for a 4-star hotel room.

Holiday Inn Silom

Riverside - Silom

981 Silom Road

Bangkok, Thailand

662-238-4300

Check-In Date: Saturday, January 15, 2005

Check-Out Date: Sunday, January 16, 2005

Your Offer Price: $64.00

Number of Rooms: 1

Number of Nights: 1

Subtotal: $64.00

Taxes & Service Fees: $18.97

Total Charges: $82.97

What a desaster!! :)

Holiday-inn.com says cheapest rate for this date 70$+17% tax :-(

I just discovered the (German?) jetlagtravel-site.... they sell hotel rooms in Ebay.de... the hotel list at their website for Europe hotels... looks almost just the same as the Priceline-hotels (according to the hotel list here)... - apparently they book rooms via Priceline on demand which they resell... - yes, seems really like that - looking at their "booking"-site at jetlagtravel.de... almost exactly the same procedure as in Priceline...

http://www.jetlagtravel.de/alternativhotels.htm

example for their offer for JW Marriott Bangkok in Ebay.de:

http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewIt...6502138179&rd=1

...yeah, though I expect that probably all of the west coast hotels in Phuket will be damaged quite seriously now due to the tsnuami... especially the JW Marriott.

@headtrip: check the hotel reviews section for my HI review. Well, it's ok (at Executive level), but it's not great, and I am tired of staying there.

@southbay: yeah, just a try-out. I was just checking out, planning to go back to Thailand in end-January, but quite flexible in dates. So I think I will book some hotel conventionally there, will see (will travel mostly around non-PL-Thailand).

Well.. one more try.. one more bad luck.... (was more or less aiming at the Tawana Ramada or maybe some place in Siam Square)... but it happened what had to happen...:

-------------

Congratulations, you got your price of SG$63 for a hotel room in Bangkok, and we've upgraded your hotel quality level to a 4-star hotel. You selected 3-star as your hotel quality level and we found a 4-star hotel willing to accept your price.

Holiday Inn Silom Bangkok

981 Silom Road

Bangkok, 10500

Thailand

662-238-4300

Check-In date: 27 January 2005

Check-Out date: 28 January 2005

Your Offer Price: SG$63 (~38 US$)

Number of Rooms: 1

Number of Nights: 1

Subtotal: SG$63

Taxes: SG$11.15

Processing Fee: SG$16.50 (per offer)

Total Lodging Charges: SG$90.65

Started with 40 SG$, increased by 5$, etc... last time added Siam Square and increased by only 3SG$.

.. will probably drop this stay .. will see :)

Check for the hotel review section here. - Generally, it can be said that the 5-star-PL hotels in Bkk tend not to charge joiner's fees while some of the 4stars thend to charge... (especially avoid the Holiday Inn Silom).

...and there's a Fortune Hotel (Mercure) listed for Bangkok in accor.com now (1 Rachadaphisek Road

Fortune Town Dindaeng) which might appear as 3-star for Siam or Sukhumvit now in Priceline.

I got the Tawana Ramada for 3star Riverside/Silom which is a very nice hotel for that level (service level almost on 5-star-level, IMO) - but you risk to get "upgraded" to Holiday Inn (which is in fact a downgrading). And I don't think Tawana Ramada will sell at very inexpensive rates via PL. Prices (PL) seem to be on the same level as Holiday Inn.

By the way, PL offers 1- and 2-star in Silom/Riverside too.. I'd really be curious what hotels are behind that...

If you want the Renaissance then you should book it online via marriott.com. It's still not clear (IMHO) if Priceline makes a difference now between the New World Wing and the Renaissance Wing - which are in fact two different hotels with two different hotel levels... (avoid New World Wing by all means).

Be sure to join Priority Club for the HI Macau as they will upgrade every PC member to a Deluxe room. Executive Floor is not worth the surcharge, IMHO.

Interesting story. Thanks for sharing. - Priceline.com.hk and Priceline.com.sg are the same company (Hutchison), so inventory shouldn't make a difference for these two sites. They used to announce Priceline Taiwan for some time now already but it apparantly hasn't come up yet (priceline.com.tw) - or my Chinese is too weak ;-).

I would at least try to check if the rates at the hotels in question change during the weekends (go down). If yes, I'd at least try seperate bids for the weekend(s) in question. Good luck!

Booked this for a friend....

---------------------------------

Congratulations, you got your price of

Well, I was booking 5-star level in Priceline for Cologne last time because I wanted to prevent to get the Park Plaza again (4-star) which is really outside the city center and not worth its 4 stars.. - So I got the Sofitel Dorint (Mondial) for Cologne...

After having succeeded in arriving there (not easy for car drivers; easy for people arriving by train as the central station is just a walk away), and found a place in the garage (no free parking places available in this area!), I was checked-in friendly and fast, and got a voucher for a free drink (only in combination with a food order). There are only 2 tiny lifts (dated 1962) so you'll have to be patient sometimes (especially during busy check-in/-out-times) till you get to your room. The 205 rooms of the hotels are spread over only 3 levels only so even after arriving by lift in your level, you will usually have quite some way to walk to your room. After entering my room I was a bit shocked because it was really TINY... I never had such a small room in a 5-star-hotel. Looked more like the room in the IBIS-Hotels or Formule-1 or Intercity-Hotels, one room with an integrated bath "cell" - just pushed to 5-star-level by modern design... The furniture was really designed to use the little space effectively but however it was still a tiny room. There was no bath tub in the bath"room", just a shower (which was however quite large for a shower cubicle and easy to adjust - in terms of the temperature of the shower water). Nice french bath amenities, nice lights.

Everything in this hotel has been renovated lately, including the furniture of the rooms which look really nice and warm, the lights are very well done too (can be adjusted with little metal sticks from the bed side). There is internet access available at the little desk. There's a TV-set (quite small philips; I wonder why they didn't replace the old TVs by LCD-screens if they know they have space problems and are renovating?), a safe, and a minibar (expensive, as usual), but no coffee-/teafacilities. I ordered some food for room-service dinner (good price - 10,80 EUR including appetizer and small salad, see picture - and tasty) and wondered how this guy will succeed to put the (rolling) dinner table inside the room, but he succeeded! Just enough space left for me to sit before the table and watch TV - but for 2 persons it would have been a sort of space problem.

The real problem began during check-out when they wanted to charge me 130 Euros for the room, as they couldn't see that it was a priceline booking by some way... only after 3 refuses to pay that and one copy of my ID card later... he finally found some credit card number (transmitted by priceline) where he could charge the room to.... ; I also asked to talk to the "manager on duty" - but they told me, "he's not here at the moment".... ; 40 minutes later, I could finally leave the hotel... but no word of excuse or anything. (Apparently they weren't used to bookings by Priceline Hongkong which seems to have different booking and data transmission procedures than Priceline US/UK). What a story!

So, all over, I was not really content with that place - mostly because of the very small rooms. Even as priceline-customer and as standard-room-guest I do expect some SPACE in the guest room of a 5-star-hotel!

Well, after trying several times for 5-star hotels all over Hong Kong for that week in November (unsuccessfully), I went down to 4-star-level and was hoping for the Renaissance New World .. but well, I ended up with the Holiday Inn Golden Mile... apparently a first timer on Priceline (didn't see it appear before).. and my expectations were quite low... as I knew the Holiday Inn Silom (Bangkok) before which belongs to the same owner (as the HI Macau and the HI Hongkong)...

After all, I was pleasantly surprised with this property, very friendly and fast service during check-in in the pretty large lobby, a really quite large room for Hong Kong conditions (26sqm, which is for sure distincly above average 4-star room size in HK) and a good location in Nathan Road. I upgraded for 150HK++/night to the Deluxe Room (same room as Standard Room, just in higher floor and with better amenities) on the 12th floor and got a nice, clean, comfortable room. Well, nothing special in design and not a nice view (don't expect harbour view rooms in the Holiday Inn HK), but still nice, especially the bathroom.

I got breakfast from room-service once and it was quite cheap for HK (88 HK$ - i.e. around 9 EUR - for continental room service breakfast, 150HK$ for ABF), but everything else is expensive, of course (minibar). But no problem, enough small food stores around the corner in Nathan Road.

You can walk in 5 minutes to New World Center, Star Walk and Star Ferry Terminal, really conveniant location.

This is a nice hotel with real 4-star-service in good central location and the biggest plus are the large rooms.

The Holiday Inn Macau is located in a quite central location, at the Rua de Pequim, near to the long Avenida do Dr. Rodrigo Rodrigues. The famous "Casino Lisboa" can be reached in around 5-10 minutes walking, from the ferry terminal it takes you about 10 mins by taxi. From the airport Macau it's about 20-30 mins by taxi. Most of the touristic sights as the Sao Paulo church / Fortalezo do Monte or the Largo do Senado can by reached by walking. That's the most important plus of the Holiday Inn.

The hotel sells itself as "the only international 4-star hotel in the center of Macau" which might be true. Only the Mandarin Oriental (5star) seems to be the other international hotel there. The Hyatt Regency is located on the Tapae Island, the Westin Resort on Collonae Island. In Priceline, I got it as 4-star as well. However, I'd say, it's more a 3-star hotel.

As a priceline customer I should get a standard or superior room only; after checking the website and other reviews, I decided to take an upgrade to the executive floor for 400HK$ extra - which was DEFINATELY NOT WORTH it, as the lounge is very small, services reduced (no check-in/-out in the lounge, only a lousy breakfast etc.). The executive room was for sure nicer in the design ("lately renovated") but was still quite small (24sqm). So, the better deal would have been to just take the superior room without extra charge. As PC member, I was even offered an upgrade to Deluxe Room (same size as superior room, 24sqm, but better facilities) for free. The room itself (EF) was comfortable, good bed, nice but small bathroom (no separate shower cubicle), optically separated from the living room by a sliding window - smiliar to the JW Marriott Phuket, but not as good as it could not be completely closed. The Philips TV (flatscreen, CRT) offered some international channels as Star Movies (but not HBO and not UBC) and Pay-TV. All over, the room was quite ok (for chinese relations - in terms of size), but though renovated still looked a bit run-down already (in detail).

The hotel has an indoor pool which is nice, but people sitting in the Atrium Caf

I was very surprised in Priceline.com, when I got this hotel, as I thought "3-star-Riverside-silom" was sort of a free rebid... and I was almost tempted to skip this PL-deal and book an additional night in the JW Marriott where I was staying the night before and after the Tawana. But I remembered the words of "thereuare".. saying to test it, maybe it was a good cheapie deal... - and I did... and it's true... it was indeed a fine and excellent deal!

The location is very central (if you want to be in Silom or near to Patpong). Patpong is just opposite of the hotel, Skytrain Sala Daeng or the MRT station Silom are around 10mins walk away; the service level was the thing that impressed me most in this hotel.... I can say I felt it was not below the level of the 5-star houses as the JW Marriott, the Sheraton Grande etc., excellent! The staff makes your stay as comfortable and easy as possible, just after you left the taxi in front of the hotel. Check-in easy, friendly and efficient.

At first, I felt a bit disappointed when I saw the room number (349) as I was hoping for a higher floor. But after entering the room I had the feeling that I got upgraded (which wasn't the case as it was just a "standard room" - I asked for it during check-out) as we got one of only 13 garden-terrace-rooms, which are very nice with their little terraces towards the hotel garden (pool area) and not noisy (as the rooms facing Surawongse road might be). The room decor and the furniture looked really a bit old-fashioned (years 80 Thai-hotel style) but however charming in some way... especially as everything was very clean, polished and in working order. There's even such a command post near the bed (what I used to know only from the 5-star-hotels in Bangkok) which lets you centrally control all lights, and - in this case - even included music lines (in unsual high sound quality for hotel rooms). The TV was a flatscreen Philips (CRT), quite new, and offered enough international channels (even Star Movies, HBO und UBC). Minibar well-stocked and cheap (60 Bt. for a Singha beer), the bathroom looked outdated as well, but everything was working there too, and enough towels and bathroom amenities were provided.

Chances to get a garden terrace room are much better for smokers, by the way, as the 3rd floor is a smoking rooms floor. So don't ask for a non-smoking room if you're into a terrace room ;-).

They informed me about the breakfast buffet, it sounded almost as if they gave me the breakfast for free on a PL stay, but not sure about it because I didn't check it out (slept too long).

I felt so comfortable in this hotel, that I am tempted to go for it next time again.. but I might prefer to book it via regular travel sites instead of Priceline (verry difficult task for Priceline-addicted guys!) as the risk to get "upgraded" to 4-star level and to end with the Holiday Inn Silom seems to be too high! (And rates on other travel sites, e.g. hotelthailand.com, are not much higher than what I payed via priceline).

Sheraton Imperial is a bit more away from the fun areas but still ok.. and taxis are cheap in KL. The JW is in fine location! Better than the Renaissance though the Renaissance usually gets better reviews (in the Renaissance Wing). They offer "bay view rooms" in the Ren as well (56sqm or something) for only less more money to the quality room.

I booked the Westin recently (june this year) for around 380 MYR (GOV rate) for an executive floor room... (filling my SPG account)... really a nice hotel though the service could be improved (and EF is not worth the surcharge)... - The JW is just next door and looks nice too.