merlin666

I ended up with 2* Quality Hotel Dorval Aeroport for Sept. 19 at $54 (NYP) + $18 taxes. Seems to be the one that was available as a PRICELINE EXPRESS Deal.

Thanks for the excellent HOTWIRE and PRICELINE EXPRESS suggestions, unfortunately I am not able to find them. Maybe they just come and go, and I will have to try looking. Also no luck with the NYOP approach yet, guess will just have to go a bit higher each day and be patient.

Sept 19, so still have some time ... but will be travelling for a month before that with uncertain internet connections.

The Montreal search so far is not going well, just waiting 24h for my next try.

I have started bidding for the downtown and conference areas starting at 4* and going down to 2* but so far no luck for my budget. I would prefer to stay below $70 all in, and the added fees are quite hefty it seems (around $20). I think on my next try I will go for the Airport area and keep fingers crossed I get a place with a shuttle, and then just bus into town for the evening.

I assume that the price on express deals is meant to be used as guideline to a realistic bid on name your price. So for example if the lowest 4* in the target area has a PRICELINE EXPRESS deal rate of $100, what is a typicl percentage below that has a chance to win at a "best deal" level?

I will have a 17h stopover at YUL so will probably need a hotel for the night. What kind of Price.line strategy would you suggest to find the cheapest hotel that has shuttle service to the airport?

Also tried, 4.5* and 4* in Poipu area but was not willing to go over 150/night.

I called the benefits department again, and they said that the name of the rental agency would have to be listed on the CC statement/billing information. However, only Priceline is listed on the bill, and as there is no direct transaction between me and Hertz there is no Collision Damage Waiver coverage.

I also did a bad bid and got an economy for $29, although the regular price for a compact is now $21. As I have only a two day rental I decided not to call and just take the loss.

Thanks, this was my first bidding with priceline so probably made a lot of mistakes. My goal was a compact car for Kona and I started bidding at $19/day for a midsize, thinking of going down in car size and up with the price. I ran out of options and got an e-mail from priceline a few days later inviting me to revisit the bid. I entered $29/day but somehow "Economy" was selected and I won that bid for a car from Hertz. Coincidentally, an economy car from Alamo would have been the same rate and I would have saved the priceline fees as well as could have used the damage waiver from my credit card. When the win was posted there was an option to upgrade to compact for $2/day, but by the time I had decided that I will need the upgrade the option was no longer available. All in all I estimate that going through priceline and being an inexperienced bidder will cost me roughly double than renting from Alamo directly without pre-payment. In summary, my win is: KOA Kona-Kailua Economy Hertz $29/day for 05/01/09 - 05/03/09

Thanks, I have an MBNA Platinum card and they actually require that the rental be made directly through the rental agency. So in my case, I saved $20 by bidding on priceline for a 2-day rental, but if I get added insurance through my car insurer, this will be an additional $50, so priceline buyer beware. My follow-up question is: what is the most affordable (and trustworthy) way to get required insurance for a priceline car rental in US (I am Canadian resident though).

When renting a car with a credit card, very often we get "collision damage waiver" coverage as one of the card benefits. Does this benefit also apply if the car is rented through priceline?

After getting a rental car, this was my first successful bid for a hotel. I had targeted the Outrigger Keauhou as this was the only 3* listed for Kona, and started bidding at $74, which is about half their regular posted rate. I was not happy when this bid was accepted for the Royal Kona which is listed above at 2.5*. I really wanted to avoid this property because of the inner city location and there will be extra costs for parking and breakfast. Good thing it's only for one night. The posted rated for the Royal Kona is $105, so I started bidding way too high. Please correct the 2.5* rating to 3* in your PRICELINE list.