mau

Used the PRICELINE link on this site to bid on a Mayfair - Soho hotel in London. Bid $155 for a 5* in Mayfair - Soho, added in Hammersmith and bid $165, added 4* and went down to $140, finally added in Wembley and bid $155 and got the Holiday Inn London Mayfair (total $382.34 for two nights after taxes). I've read some reviews that make me question this hotel being a 4*, but I knew I very well might end up with it and the location is what I was looking for, so I'm not too disappointed. I also know that it's not a bad price for this area of the city. We will be staying in London on May 4th as well, so I'll go with a different neighborhood and will hopefully get something a little more special.

I just bid successfully on a 3* hotel in the Kennedy Airport (JFK) area using the PRICELINE link on this site. I had seen a win of $75 on the Priceline and Hotwire Calendar of Wins for this time period, area and 3*, so I started w/ a bid of $70. After taxes, the total for the night (1/14/2012 - 1/15/2012) comes to 93.91. I just saw the Courtyard By Marriott on Orbitz for $243.54 after taxes so I'm very happy with the win (and to have a decent place to crash before our flight out the next morning!).

My father had me bid on a hotel for him in Philadelphia. He wanted to be downtown and stay one night (checking in on Saturday October 22nd). I started with 4* hotels and did a few bids (by adding in areas without 4* hotels) up to $115 with nothing being accepted. I then went down to 3.5* and bid $95. That bid was accepted and I got the Marriott Philadelphia Downtown. I wish I had bid a little lower once I added in 3.5*, but it's a very central location and still not a bad price, so I'm sure my father will be happy with it. I went to PRICELINE through the link on this site. Offer Price: avg. per room, per night $95.00 Rooms: 1 Nights: 1 Travel Insurance: $5.00 Room Subtotal: $100.00 Taxes & Fees: $22.30 Total Charged to Card: $122.30

My boyfriend and I are traveling to San Francisco for the weekend April 1st - 3rd. I originally tried for Union Square East yesterday, bidding $90, $100, $110, $115 and $120 for a 4* by adding in different areas w/out 4* options. All of those bids were rejected. I then decided to go for Union Square West today and my first bid of $100 was accepted for the Parc 55 Wyndham. The 4* Union Square West - Nob Hill area hotel I saw on HOTWIRE was $127, so I'm very happy with this price although I always kick myself a bit when my first bid is accepted. The 400 feet to the nearest BART station will stop me from beating myself up too much, though, as we're quite happy with getting this property. I used the PRICELINE link from this site for my bidding.

Ooops...forgot to mention that's checking in Friday, October 29 for one night.

Going through the PRICELINE link on this forum, I bid on a 4* room in NYC (Downtown-SoHo-Financial District) for $109. My bid was rejected and I was offered the chance to bid again if I bid $134. I declined, added Madison Square Garden - Convention Area which has no 4*s and bid $125 ($158.41 after taxes and fees). My bid was accepted and I was given the Millenium Hilton. I was kind of hoping for the Andaz Wall Street that I saw someone else had recently won, but I had seen the Millenium on Expedia for $229 for this night so I'm definitely not disappointed.

Wow, Temple and Flyers too. Now I feel even better about the price I got! I noticed that my win got posted on the Hotwire PA part of the Calendar of Wins. I'm sure that's because I originally posted in this forum which was incorrect. Is there a way I could change it so it ends up in the correct place? This site is always very helpful to me and I'd just like my info to be as much help as possible to others!

Thanks for all the info, guys! I only knew about the Phillies game...with all of it put together, it makes more sense now. I made quite a number of bids last night and this morning and was just about to give up and pay $200 for a Holiday Inn when I noticed a price drop on Hotwire which I had also been monitoring. I then made a bid for 3 1/2* on PRICELINE tonight (by using the link on this board) for downtown and $150 and much to my surprise, saw the message "Congratulations, we’ve upgraded your hotel quality level to a 4-star hotel. Your price of $150 was accepted by Hyatt Regency Philadelphia At Penns Landing." So, it's more than I was originally hoping to pay, but now that I know how booked up everything is and that I got a 4* property, I'm satisfied.

Oooh I'm sorry...I posted this in the hotwire part of PA instead of priceline. If I'm able to move the post (which I'm thinking I probably cannot) I'm not sure how to do it. Could someone put this in the correct forum? Thanks so much...sorry for the mess up!

I've been bidding on a downtown Philadelphia hotel for Saturday 10/16 (by using the PRICELINE link from this site, of course!). Yesterday I bid on 4* hotels from $80 - $110 by adding areas without 4* hotels. Tonight I started with $120 for the 4* downtown and after that was rejected, I added 3 1/2* and bid $140 - $160 by adding other areas and those were also rejected. I'm a little surprised none of these were accepted. Does anyone have any suggestions? I'm wondering if just doing one night is the problem...could I book two nights and only show up for one? I see someone else had a $75 bid accepted for a 4* downtown for this weekend, so if I was able to get that, it would be cheaper than the rate I've already tried and not gotten. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

I bid again yesterday for a 5* in La Rambla. I started at $135 and the bid was rejected. After that, it said I could bid again if I upped my price to $165. As this will be our first trip to Spain and I'd figured I'd love to make it special by staying at a 5* right in the middle of everything, I went for it. That bid was accepted and I was given Le Meridien Barcelona for 4 nights, checking in Friday, November 12, 2010. Thanks for everyone who runs and contributes to this website...it helped me a lot with all of my research!

I am trying to get a hotel in Barcelona for my boyfriend and I for 4 nights starting on 11/12/2010. I first made a bid for $125 for a 5* in La Rambla - La Barceloneta. It was rejected. I then added 4* hotels in this area and bid $95. That was also rejected. I made the bid through this website. I'll continue to post as I make more bids over the next few days. Right now my backup plan is H10 Marina Barcelona which I saw through Hotwire is $110/night from Hotels.com.

Thanks! The view was fantastic and the hotel was quite nice...especially its location so close to the PATH station to get into Manhattan and Hoboken!

I bid on a 4* Jersey City hotel on Friday February 19th for that same night (checking out the next day). I first bid $65 which was rejected and it said I could bid again right away if I added $17 to my bid. My original plan had been to go to 3 1/2 stars next, but I thought $82/night would still be a good price for a 4* hotel on a Friday night in the area, so I tried for that and my $82 bid was accepted. The hotel we got was the Hyatt Regency Jersey City On The Hudson.

Thanks so much for all of the information! I got the Gran Melia for my bid of $100/night each for 3 rooms, checking in 01/28/2010 and checking out 01/31. As mentioned in my earlier post, I first bid on 4* and Resorts in the Rio Grande - Fajardo - El Yunque area and bid $87. That was rejected so I added the Dorado area which I saw did not have either of these two hotel classifications and bid $90 which was also rejected. The next day I bid $95 for 4* and Resorts in Rio Grande - Fajardo - El Yunque and after that was rejected, I bid $100 by adding in the Dorado area and that was accepted. With the comments I've read about the beach and a few other things, it wasn't my top choice in the area, but for weekend nights in January, with a gorgeous looking pool and large, comfortable rooms I'm definitely happy paying just $100/night for this hotel. Thanks again for all the help and let me know if I'm supposed to post any other information on this to be helpful to others.

Sounds good! I did use the PRICELINE link from betterbidding to make my first bids yesterday. I selected 4* and Resorts in the Rio Grande - Fajardo - El Yunque area and bid $87. That was rejected so using the technique I had read about on this site, I added the Dorado area which I saw did not have either of these two hotel classifications and bid $90. That was also rejected. I felt comfortable adding Dorado because it still wasn't super super far from the area we want to stay, but chickened out about adding the other zones I know would have been safe but were on the other side of the island. It will be 24 hours since those bids soon, so I'll increase my bid a little and try again. I had two questions, though. First, I read that the star level you choose is the minimum you will accept so if you start with a bid for 3*, you cannot immediately make a new bid for 4* because your 3* bid already included 4*. If I've got that correct, I was wondering how Resorts fall into that. Is making a Resort bid and then a 4* bid two different things in PL's eyes? My second question was about hotels in the Rio Grande - Fajardo - El Yunque area. PL shows they have 4*, 3.5*, 3* and Resorts. When I look at the detailed map on PL of the Rio Grande - Fajardo - El Yunque area, it looks fairly small and I'd expect it to mainly consist of the El Conquistador, Rio Mar, Gran Melia and Las Casitas. I haven't read about all of those extensively, but I would think they would all fall into the 4* or Resort categories. That leaves me confused about what the 3.5* and 3* hotels in that area might be. I know they aren't officially listed on this board, but I was wondering if anyone with more PL experience (this is my first time) might be able to venture a guess (I promise I'd keep in mind that it's just a guess!). If not a guess, then I would also find some general info helpful that might help me make a guess. For instance, I know there are other independent hotels in that area like the Fajardo Inn, the Luquillo Sunrise Beach Inn, etc. Is it common for PL to provide an independent hotel like that and classify it as a 3.5* or a 3*? The Fajardo Inn did look pretty nice and that's my backup if I'm not able to get a hotel through PL. There are 6 of us going and with PL, I know that means I'll need 3 rooms, but if I was just going to book Fajardo Inn directly I could do it on their website and get just 2 rooms (1 w/ 2 beds for $150 and 1 w/ 1 bed for $110), so I'm just a little nervous about ending up making a $100 bid for 3.5* and getting Fajardo knowing that I could have gotten rooms to accommodate everyone for $40 less and w/out PL's charge. Along these lines, I do not see mention of Room Service on Fajardo Inn's website or on Expedia's listing for it. I see PL's description of a 3.5* includes Room Service. Would that be enough to mean that Fajardo Inn could, at most, be classified as a 3*? If so, does that same line of thinking mean that one of the places I listed earlier might be missing one particular ammenity of the Resort and 4* classification and then would have to be the 3.5* option I'm seeing? Okay, I'm done! I apologize that is so long and complicated! I would appreciate any possible help on any of these questions! This trip is for my boyfriend's 30th birthday and I'm just hoping to make it great without costing everyone too much!

Thanks for the advice and for making sure I was sure about the area. Unfortunately nothing like the HOTWIRE deal we saw has reappeared. I think I'm going to give Priceline a try now. Should I post questions/information on that in the PRICELINE part of the forum?

Okay, thanks. Yes, I think we'll end up renting a car. I've never been to the area, but have done some research. I may give PRICELINE a try to see if I can get a better price in the area first, but I had been hoping to know for sure we could get a room for 4 people, so I'm a little hesitant.

I was hoping someone could help me identify the 4-star PR Rio Grande - Humacao Hotel I'm seeing for $156/night for 4 adults 3 nights (checking in 01/29/10 and checking out 02/01/10). I waited to hear back from everyone in our group and missed a better rate for a different 4-star hotel in the same area...I see this one is listed as "suite" and "near beach" instead of "beachfront" so I know they must be different. The complete list of ammenities listed is: Resort, Suite, Near Beach, Casino, Smoke Free Rooms, Fitness Center, Pool(s), Restaurant(s), Laundry Facilities, High-speed Internet Access, Golf Nearby, Tennis Nearby, Spa Services. Thank you so much!

Thanks for the info! Unfortunately this hotel now looks like it is completely gone from the hotwire listing :-/ Guess I should have just booked it instead of waiting to hear from everyone. I was surprised it was completely gone after being offered at such a low price a few hours ago. Do you know if there is any chance it will come back in the result set? There is now a new 4-star in the area in the list that's a little more a night...I'll start a new thread and see if anyone knows what that is.

thanks so much, AaronJB! When I go to book a hotel on Rio Mar's website, I see it says "Resort Fee 14% per night". Do you know if that would end up being 14% of the regular room rate ($314 or more) or 14% of what I'd pay on hotwire (about $123)? Thanks in advance for any help!

I'm looking to book one room for 3 nights (checking in 01/29/2010 and checking out 02/01/2010) for 4 adults near San Juan, PR on hotwire. In my search, a 4 star hotel came up for $126/night (was $123 earlier tonight and $129 yesterday) that was a "Rio Grande - Humacao Hotel". Amenities listed were Resort, Beachfront, Casino, Airport Shuttle, Fitness Center, Pool(s), Restaurant(s), Business Center, High-speed Internet Access, Golf Nearby, Tennis Nearby and Spa Services. Does anyone know which hotel this might be? Also, does anyone know how much the Resort Fees would be? Thanks very very much!