DaLuc

Hi, I'm trying to decide on a hotel for our anniversary weekend in the Hollywood area. We are going to the Magic Castle the night of Saturday Feb 27 and want to stay somewhere fairly close (I don't want to drive all the way to Santa Monica afterward) and I'm trying to decipher the Hotwire options or decide if I should bid on Priceline... I want something up scale, just for Sat feb 27, I prefer ultra modern and no chains. I'd like to keep it to $160 or under... haven't found much through traditional routes that are that inexpensive so I am looking on Hotwire/Priceline w/BetterBidding's help! Hotwire: Beverly Hills - West Hollywood Hotel 4.5* @ $149 Amenities: Restaurant, Pool, Fitness, Hi-Speed Internet, Business -- I assume the Sofitel 4* @$159 Hollywood Area Hotel Smoke-Free, Fitness, Pool, Restaurant, Business, Internet, Spa -- I assume the new W Hotel Hollywood 4* @ $129 Beverly Hills - West Hollywood Hotel Boutique, Fitness, Pool, Restaurant, Internet -- cannot figure this one out??!!! it is rated 70% on TA, so I was thinking the Avalon, but the Orlando is also rated 69%... Tower Beverly Hills is rated 78% on TA... So my question is to I choose one of these "safe" bets where I know what I'm getting, or go for a Priceline option? I would LOVE to get the Mondrian on priceline but see it hasn't been won for over a year... and I don't want to get the Hyatt or Roosevelt. Any other ideas on what 4* Priceline hotels have been won recently? I've checked the calendar and don't see much exciting recently for 4*'s in Hollywood area. Any advice would be appreciated! And of course I'm searching through your links! :)

Ended up booking directly through Alamo for $221.67 total including taxes. Bummer because if I'd booked it when I first started looking I'd have had an even better rate at $180 or so. Oh well, next time I have to remember that you don't actually pre-pay for rental cars!! I used these for the good discount: Contract ID#: 7014927 and Coupon Code: AF3475JDG Thanks for all your help!!

Hi, There are only two of us traveling, with light baggage, so we usually try to get the cheapest possible car. As long as it has four wheels and gets us from point a-b then that's all that matters. We'd like to pay no more that $140 total including taxes for 12/23 1am to 1/1 12noon from IAD. So if priceline is supposed to save up to 40% then this might be that time of year that it's only saving 3%? Thanks

So what's a basic bidding strategy for Priceline then? I had assumed if you started at $5 for an economy, and then $7 for a compact, etc, that they would automatically keep bidding on the lower class for you, but I guess I'm wrong. Hints? Tips? Tricks? Thanks!!

Hi, thanks for the quick reply. So I've bid on PRICELINE up to $10/day, doing as it says and changing the car class for each re-bid. How does that work? Do they also search for the lower class cars as well? I was expecting the car bidding to be intricate like hotel bidding is, but it seems pretty easy!

I just searched the BB forums and found: I am assuming that the cars I'm finding in HOTWIRE are retail deals since they are all in grey (until I get up to the SUV class). Does this mean that PRICELINE most likely won't have anything for me either? Thanks!

Hi, Hotwire has cars from $18.76/day for $232 total, which is the same as Alamo on Priceline (main site) and also on carrentals.com... I used $20 on priceline when i was mock bidding because it was the first dollar amount that didn't give me "the you are bidding too low" warning message page. Also carrentals.com says that it is $232/week total vs hotwire's $18.76/day is $232 total. Just ran another hotwire search for Dulles airport specifically (instead of washington dc all airports) and came upon a car for $17.50/day $194.94 total. Thanks for your help!!

Hiya, I'm looking to rent a car from 12/23 1:00am - 1/1 1pm from Washington Dulles airport. On HOTWIRE there is a car available (I only need a super economy, whatever is cheapest) for these dates for $204.71 total. When I start bidding on PRICELINE it seems that I have to bid a per day amount, which quickly adds up to more than any other rental website (HOTWIRE was the cheapest I found). For example: Priceline Your Offer Price: $20.00 (per day) Total Rental Days: 10 days (9 days and 11 hours) Subtotal: $200.00 Taxes and Fees: $72.30 Total Charges: $272.30 I don't understand. Is priceline really not a better deal? Do I just need to bid much less per day? I'd love a rental for only $150 or less... Can you suggest a bidding strategy for PRICELINE? I've only used them for hotels before, never rental cars. Thanks!

10/24-10/26 3* Holiday Inn San Jose $40/night, 2 nights total $97.46

Hi, I feel bad you went to all that work and then I had the fastest bid ever on priceline! Accepted at 3* for $40 at the Holiday Inn San Jose after the first bid. While I'm not over the moon about the hotel we sure can't beat the price. Hopefully the tripadvisor reviews are wrong and it's a decent place. Thanks so much for your help!!! Really appreciate it and your promptness in answering posts! :)

Hi Thereuare, Thanks for the quick reply! We'd like to have the least expensive 3* or better. If we end up having to pay $70 we'd prefer that it be for a 4* somewhere. Ultimately the lower price is most important, we can drive a bit further if need be. Our schedule isn't tight or time restrictive. Thanks!!! :)

Hi there, Looking for rooms for this weekend and want to try Priceline again... Can you suggest a bidding strategy? would prefer 3* and up first choice of area is: Cupertino, Mt View, San Jose, Sunnyvale, but could stay in Milpitas and South San Jose if need be. Definitely don't want to be in Fremont or Redwood City. dates 10/24-10/26 one room max bid $70 but would prefer lower if possible Thanks so much in advance!

HI, We are not strict about our budget. If we need to spend $80 or $90 to avoid a place like the Knight's Inn in Santa Cruz then we will definitely pay more. I tried bidding on Priceline for the Campbell area 4* using the 3 re-bid zones (Milpitas, San Jose South, and Newark) starting at $43, $46, $49, to no avail. Can you suggest a good Priceline bidding strategy? I have a brother in Santa Cruz proper, my mom's in Felton, my other brother is in Mt. View, my dad's in Menlo Park, and the wedding is in Los Gatos, so we have a pretty large geographic area to choose from. I'd prefer to be closer to the wedding in Los Gatos and the Felton area to being further north by Menlo Park. Any idea on the ID's of those two Campbell hotels? Thanks so much!

Hi there, I am trying to ID the following hotels from Hotwire: Los Gatos 2.5*, $87/night Comp Breakfast Fitness Center Restaurant Business Center Golf Nearby Campbell 2.5* $79/night Comp Breakfast Laundry Hi-speed internet Golf Nearby 3* $99/night Comp Breakfast Restaurant Business Center Hi-speed internet I am coming in to town for my brother's wedding. The wedding is in Los Gatos. My mom lives in Felton and another brother lives in Santa Cruz, so I don't want to be driving all over for the weekend. I would prefer to stay in a 2.5 or 3 star and up facility, but also don't want to spend more than $50-$60/night. Any help would be appreciated!

I couldn't figure out what this hotel was based on listed amenities so booked it one night at a time just in case. Very happy to find it was The Ivy Hotel! 4.5* Boutique Hotel Smoke Free Rooms Fitness Center Pool(s) Restaurant(s) Business Center Golf Nearby 10/14-10/16 $114/night with tax $134.98/night, grand total $269.96. The Ivy Hotel Guess they must have changed their amenities listing on HOTWIRE or something. Thanks again for the great hotel lists. We appreciate the help. We're excited to stay there!! Cheers!

I went ahead and booked this hotel. I needed it for two nights but booked it one night at a time just in case it was some bizarre hotel. 4.5* Boutique Hotel Smoke Free Rooms Fitness Center Pool(s) Restaurant(s) Business Center Golf Nearby 10/14-10/16 $114/night with tax $134.98/night, grand total $269.96. The Ivy Hotel Guess they must have changed their amenities listing on Hotwire or something. Thanks again for the great hotel lists. We appreciate the help. We're excited to stay there!! Cheers!

I was wondering what this hotel is as well. It popped up on my search for 10/14-10/16 for 2 adults. Please let us know if you book it or figure out what it is. Thanks!

I finally got around to bidding again!! At $40 and $42 levels I was offered to raise my bid by $12 to try again but I declined. Won at $44 after following your plan and arriving here: Select 3* Point Loma, Rancho Bernardo, Sorrento Mesa, Del Mar, Downtown, Mission Valley, North County Coastal... Bid $44 Holiday Inn Rancho Bernardo 9/08-9/10 for one room Your Offer Price Per Room, Per Night: $44.00 Subtotal: $88.00 Taxes & Fees: $19.36 Total Charges*: $107.36 Was offered to extend the stay for more nights at the same price as well, which I didn't need. While it's not the poshest hotel it will certainly do for the price. Complimentary parking, too, which I was a bit worried about. Oh, and complimentary internet too, which is a very nice perk. Thanks SO MUCH for all your help!!! Oh, and I had originally thought I had to close the entire browser, not just the one window with Priceline, so it was much faster to leave betterbidding up on one window and then just keep re-opening PRICELINE from there. Thanks for clarifying that! Also, can you really tell if we go to priceline by clicking through betterbidding?

Hi, In my first bidding attempt I went up to $38 following your formula as listed above. That's when i was offered to re-bid at $$ higher and I declined. It takes some time to keep closing out the browser and bidding!! For now I am going to try to just get a hotel room somewhere in San Diego for under $50. I really do think that the hotels that would accept that bid won't be charging parking from what I've seen. So should I just follow your formula that you already set out? I can't imagine it would be much different for the two nights instead of five. And I'm glad that those nights are middle of the week because I do assume they'll be cheaper than Labor Day would have. Thanks!

Hi there, Thereuare, Thanks for the clarification on the increase your bid. I did assume it was a way to "get it done" and did not go thru with it. Colfax, From what I've seen none of the hotels that charge parking would accept a bid as low as I'm offering (based on looking at past Priceline wins, etc). Am I wrong about that? Am I crazy to bid in areas that might charge parking instead of starting with a very limited area (Sorrento Mesa)? Also, my needs have changed and now I need a room for two people for only Sept 8-10, two nights only. I assume that doesn't change the bid strategy. Will keep you updated as I go along. Thanks!!

After folowing your instructions up to this point: Select 3* Point Loma, Rancho Bernardo, Coastal, North County Coastal... Bid $38, if rejected close browser and use our link to re-access PRICELINE Price lines says: If you are willing to raise your price by $11, you can try the same request again right now. Should I? Does this usually work? Haven't tried it before.... Thanks!!!

Colfax -- I'm thinking that my bid would most likely be accepted somewhere where they don't charge parking as well. I could just narrow my search down to those areas, couldn't I? I would guess parking is more of a "city" type charge, so I could avoid those areas. Theauear -- Any bidding suggestions? Yes, I would like to keep the room rate per night (I ignore taxes, too hard for my not-math-oriented brain to calculate!) at $50 or below. I figure that I can get that hotwire room nearby for $54 if Priceline doesn't come up with anything for me at $50 or under. You helped me with a Chicago room for a trip recently, and there I was concerned with location more than price. Here I'm trying to save some dough so a cheap room (but one that's still in a safe area and is clean!) is my main objective and driving to work is no issue. The drive time isn't an issue for me to Del Mar, hence all my zones of acceptance, because I've been working at Del Mar for 5 weeks now and staying with friends in Mission Valley and Vista alternately. I just can't have my mother come stay with me at their house so I need to find her a place to sleep! :) Thanks for the input!!

Hi, That's a great idea about the HOTWIRE test.... I will talk to my mom and see what she thinks. I do think however that I might try for Priceline. I'm guessing with what my budget is that I won't be finding many hotels to accept it that would be in an area that charges parking (based on looking at recent wins courtesy of your maps section.) How should I proceed to bid? I'd like at least a 3* (could possibly go to 2* if the price was low enough) and I don't want to spend more than $50/night. Thanks!!!

Hotwire -- Hmm, if that's Staybridge then that would be pretty cool. Seems like a decent rate for a place that gets such good reviews. Priceline -- However, if I could get a room even cheaper I'd be thrilled. Zones I would accept: 2. Del Mar 3. Downtown San Diego and Harbor Island 5. Escondido-Vista 8. Mission Valley 10. North County Coastal 11. Point Loma-Shelter Island-Old Town 12. Rancho Bernardo 13. San Diego Coastal 15. Sorrento Mesa Do you think it's posible to get a hotel for under $50/night w/o any additional parking in these areas? Thanks!

Hi, I am trying to find an inexpensive place to stay for two people on 9/4-9/10 in or near Del Mar race track. I have family in Vista, friends in Mission Valley area of San Diego, and I'm currently working at Del Mar race track, so any place between Vista and San Diego is really ok. PRICELINE -- Would I be able to get a 3 star room for $50 or less do you think? HOTWIRE -- any idea on this hotel? 3-star hotel in Mira Mesa $54/night Comp breakfast Laundry Business Center Kitchenette Fitness Center Pool Trip Advisor 4/5 w/40+ reviews I thought it was Staybridge Suites Mira Mesa but that is Trip Advisor 4.5/5 w?54 reviews...... Also, I will have a car so really need to not pay for parking at a hotel! Thanks for your help!!