LoneStar

FWIW, I have one of those recent successful $65 Caribe Hilton bids for November. Usually, I find Hotwire availability to be a great indicator of priceline availability (for example, it worked on the Westin Rio Mar!), but for some inexplicable reason, Hotwire did not show any "great deal" for San Juan for the nights I got the Caribe. I just decided to bid that amount based on other successful bidders, and obviously got lucky. My guess is that there must be a high occupany day(s) at the Caribe during your proposed stay. Have you tried searching hilton.com to see if room rates rise on your days? I've successfully used that trick in the past to find out "the situation." Bottom line is that unless there's some unusual event going on in town that week, you're travelling at an off peak time and I would be patient in bidding higher. In other words, it's great to lock in a lowball rate, but there's no reason to lock in a mediocre deal. And if you're will to stay a little out of town, the Westin Rio Mar might be a plausible alternative, and might be available for $80 that week.

Wow, a 4 star hotel in Europe for $45!! Didn't think that was possible. Brussels does tend to be among the cheaper places to stay, though. I paid $50 for the Sheraton on priceline a couple years ago.

11/25

Same price as I got this last year -- a good deal for this resort, especially during Thanksgiving Week. Was rejected at $79.

Similar to other successful bids posted here. I don't think you can beat this. Best non-opaque rates are over $200. Last November, I think I had to pay $100/night on Priceline for the comparable Intercontinental in San Juan.

I've been noticing that the price differential between Hotwire and Priceline seems to be narrowing -- often to less than $10.

Dates 8/10 to 8/15. Haven't seen this hotel pop up much on priceline, but I had a strong hunch it was out there after it popped up with priceline and hotwire packages searches. At the same time, Hotwire hotels had a "foothills" resort for $84, so I also kind of knew the maximum price. Started low and just kept rebidding. Interestingly, I got a "you're close" message at $70, telling me I could rebid for $22 more. Was rejected at $74, so this was "rock bottom." FWIW, there seem to be plenty of Tucson resorts selling nights for $99 or less this summer, so if you prefer a specific one other than the La Paloma, it's possible to book direct without paying a lot more money.

"Mousekeeping." Now that's cute. :) Yeah, regarding priceline, I was referring to the value resorts in general. I guess since the "Disney intelligencia" all recommends Pop Century, that property books up faster than the other value resorts (all of which seem to have the same published rates). Not sure if it's necessary, but we're going to skip the "Magical Express" and rent a car. Including tax, I'm down to about $20 a day for a car. I've heard it makes getting around -- particularly to the other resorts for dinner -- significantly easier. I figure it will also save time. On our last day, we're likely to take a late night flight home, and I suspect having our own car will give us a couple of extra hours. They've made returning an "on-airport" rental very easy in Orlando these days.

Yes, this is an excellent deal! I booked it for my family, too. The words "inexpensive" and "Disney vacation" aren't often compatable, but I think this deal makes Disney VERY affordable. Heck, even if you didn't have children, I think you'd like this vacation at this price. They are being extremely generous with the dining plan -- it will be fun to go to Disney and try some of the posher restaurants without paying for them. I already have some non-expiring tickets, so I also booked the one day ticket option. I also went for the $79 rooms (Mousesavers.com, which seems to have very good info, recommends Pop Century, so I booked there. I thought about springing for one of the nicer $139 resorts, but we spent almost no time at our hotel last time, and Pop Century gets excellent reviews (priceline, which occassionally has these Disney hotels, rates them 2.5 stars).

Oh, to be clear, I should mention that the ResortQuest website does NOT actually have the Entertainment rates. You have to call to get them. They should be half off the regular rate. The rate I was quoted at WPC was actually about 55% off that rate. I didn't complain. :)

ResortQuest Hawaii (formerly Aston Hotels) still has some very good Entertainment Card rates. You can get an idea of their properties from this website, but I'd call to book. http://www.resortquesthawaii.com/hawaii//index.do A deluxe 3 bedroom cottage at Waimea Plantation Cottages -- the Kauai property I rave about, but few BetterBidders seem interested in :) -- is still under $200/night in peak season. One of the best high end Hawaiian family deals around. BTW, if you want to book one of these Entertainment deals, call both the ResortQuest central reservations line and the hotel directly. I usually get different rates/availability. Book with whoever will give it to you cheaper!

Just an update: with the entry of a new carrier owned by Mesa Airlines, fares from Honolulu to neighboring islands have dropped to $39 each way. Those fares are not seemingly available for flights between other islands (like the Big Island to Kauai), but even those fares are quite reasonable these days (well under $100 ow). That 5000 mile United ff award I mentioned is still valid, but I understand it will go to 10,000 miles for new bookings in October. With the new lower interisland fares, it's no longer a super deal, but it's still a good deal, given that most folks would probably not value an airline ff mile much above a penny.

If you travel the smaller cities out West, you know to look for town with Red Lions, as they tend to participate in priceline with good rates. They also tend to be about the best lodging choice in such places. The Twin Falls Red Lion does participate in Priceline, but they seem to be stingy in loading inventory. Using Hotwire, I looked at a bunch of dates and only a few of them seemed to have the Red Lion below $75. The date I needed next month wasn't one of them. So I pulled up entertainment.com to see what Twin Falls hotels might be participating. Sure enough, the Red Lion is. I emailed the hotel, and they offered me $65.96 for 2 queens. A very good rate, since all of their other discounted rates are above $100 (and it's hard to stay ANYWHERE in Twin Falls for less than $65). I then bid up to $50 on priceline with no success. I guess I'll look again at hotwire/priceline shortly before my stay, but right now it's a rare victory for the Entertainment Card!

Nice to see the SoFla deals returning. It does appear that that May is an offpeak month for Florida. Lots of airfare deals from the north.

I was wondering what the MAN airport Marriott would go for. I guess we still haven't figured out "rock bottom." :) Didn't want to stay downtown at the Victoria and Albert?

Again, folks, priceline isn't the answer to everything. It's generally a bad choice at the Grand Canyon. You can get a much better location for less money by staying IN the park. See the previous Grand Canyon posts for all the info.

Those reviews seem quite favorable. I guess the only thing bad about the hotel is that once you add the taxes in, the price is getting "up there." But I think it would be difficult to do better elsewhere. Edinburgh is just expensive, especially in summer.

I think you'll find my review from last summer, Norwegian. The hotel was VERY nice to me -- ask for a room on the top executive level (all they can do is say no!). I liked being a little away from the tourist hordes in a "real" neighborhood with "real" Czechs! And the hotel is very convenient to the town center by subway. The only problem I had was that I was travelling with my kids on the subway, and they were being a little noisy (aka, pegging us as American tourists). This attracted the attention of a pickpocket. However, Rick Steves' guidebook warned me of the "subway shoving trick," so I was easily able to avoid the loss of valuables. Otherwise, the city feels very safe -- albeit massively over-touristed.

Huge risk in Europe. But a good strategy is to bid for one room at a price you're willing to double if necessary. See what hotel you get. With priceline properties, there's probably a 35 to 40 percent chance you can squeeze a family of 4 into it. If you decide you need another room, just add it to the reservation. Otherwise, travel with a blow up bed and practice a "don't ask, don't tell" strategy. Most hotels that participate in Priceline are large, so it's not hard to "sneak" the kids in, if necessary. FWIW, a good non-priceline hotel chain in Europe for families of 4 is the small but expanding "SuiteHotel" line by Accor. We've also seen other European chains launch family room promos.

My guess is that's about the best you could do in Edinburgh in the summer. How's the location and the reviews?

sounds interesting. Your experience will prompt me to look at the site!

A very uneven stay. I had a strong hunch I'd get this hotel for my $35 2 1/2 star Harrisburg bid. I wanted it because I had an early morning flight out of nearby Harrisburg Airport and I knew the hotel had a free shuttle and "as long as you want to stay" free parking. The shuttle bus part worked great (although it was a longish wait to get back to the hotel), so I more than got my money's worth. But my actual hotel experience wasn't so great. I had called ahead to request a 2 bedded non-smoking room for my family. No problemo, I was told. But when I arrived early evening, my request (as so often happens) had disappeared. But the lone front desk clerk -- who seemed frazzled and overworked -- eventually found such a room for me anyhow. But there was a big problem -- it was already occupied! First time I ever actually "walked in" on somebody in a hotel (good reason to use those door jams, folks!). Went back downstairs. Still frazzled desk clerk didn't seem too apologetic. Gave me another room. This one only had 1 bed and a pullout (a configuration I had rejected when I first arrived). Had I had more stamina, I probably would have returned to the desk again, but this time we had had enough and just "lived with it." Otherwise, the hotel is fine, but not great. Bed was mediocre at best. Size of rooms merely adequate. Seems a reasonable 2 1/2 star hotel (not to be confused by the 3 star Wyndham directly across the highway, which used to be a Marriott). Location is also pretty convenient for Hershey, so I could see the priceline appeal of the property as a cheap but decent place to crash. Just don't expect too much!

This is my favorite Palm Springs resort. I've never gotten it on priceline, though. Anyone who wins this has had a lucky day! It's what a resort hotel should be, but rarely is.

If you search, you'll find plenty here on the Nikki Bird. I stayed there in February and posted the pluses and minues in the hotel review section.

The reality of the situation is that the airlines have decided that they are generally not interested in selling deeper discounted fares below what they offer to the public. In other words, they don't need the priceline middleman. So unlike with hotels (and to a lesser extent car rentals), priceline is pretty worthless on airline tickets and is seldom used. The bottomline is that it isn't worth your time trying to figure out priceline for airfare. The way to buy cheap airfares is to become familiar with airline pricing. That by itself is a very tricky subject. To start, I'd recommend watching the "flexible date" fares on Travelocity"]Travelocity for the routes you want to travel to get an idea of what's possible.