flytie

I forgot to mention that my priceline purchase was made through Savingsbarn.com and i encourage you to do the same. :)

1st bid $94 for a 2* Long Islang City rejected. Added LaGuardia Airport and raised bid to $96 and it was accepted....and i was bumped up to a 3* details: Holiday Inn LaGuardia Airport Check-In Date: Friday, June 22, 2007 Check-Out Date: Sunday, June 24, 2007 Number of Rooms: 1 Number of Nights: 2 Offer Price Per Room, Per Night: $96.00 Subtotal: $192.00 Taxes and Services Fees: $42.23 Total Charges: $234.23 I'm not pleased with this hotel location or reviews of the hotel at all and will not be staying there. I was also not pleased to be bumped up to a 3*. Long Island City was what I was aiming for, and now i realize i should have added 1* in that area instead of adding LaGuardia to my desired areas list. I've had my rounds with customer service based on being bumped up to a 3* when i only requested a 2*, but of course they don't want to hear it. Figured it couldn't hurt to try, though :) I have reservations elsewhere (not through PL), but here's the info anyway.

i hear ya, and appreciate the input. whenever i decide what i'm going to do, and if it's done through priceline, i'll be sure to book through savings barn and report my winnings in the appropriate area. thanks again for your thoughtful feedback! peace

we don't want to pay more than $200 for both nights. i really have no issue with stying in lic. i've done a lot of research and concluded that we'll be able to handle it. i've also read numerous reviews for hotels in the area (howard johnson, super 8, la quinta, comfort inn, holiday inn express, etc) and rarely did i find that people had safety issues (which is a main consern of ours since we'll be taking buses and subways at night). also, what's 1 star on priceline is 2-3 star on other sites. now. if you or anyone else has anything about the area that i should know, please do tell. i'm just tryna get up there for some fun in brooklyn and queens, lol! the issue is, we're flying into laguardia, but don't want to stay out by the airport. we're going to events in brooklyn and figured the lic area is a good middle spot. we could have flown into jfk and just stayed in brooklyn, but one of the people who i'm meeting there booked her ticket first and just randomly chose lga. now we're realizing that jfk might have worked out better. so, that's that. any input? is safety not the issue? and if not, what is? why shouldn't i want to stay there? should we just stay in bklyn?? thanks for the feedback. :)

aha! seems like i remember reading that before, but had forgot. thanks for the reminder. simple enough. the dates i'll be there are June 22-24.

greetings everyone. ok. so, i'm trying to determine the identity of a 1 star hotel in long island city/queens, ny. when i search for hotels in this area on priceline the howard johnson express inn comes up as the ony 1 star in the area. its description says: "Howard Johnson Express Inn Queens, Queens, NY (La Guardia Airport Vicinity)" now. when i sort by star rating, a 1 star super 8 shows up on the second page, and the description says: "Super 8 Motel - Long Island City, New York Long Island City, NY" when i go to "name your own price" there is no 1 star available for the laguardia airport vicinity, but there is one for long island city. so in my confusion i'm trying to figure out will the 1 star be super 8 even though howard johnson is the 1 star hotel showing up in the search results when i just due a regular hotel search (if i only leave it sorted as is...by "most popular") i'm not sure what to think, cause it seems like they're not making any clear distinctions between these areas. but i'm convinced that it's going to be one of these cause i see no other 1 stars in the area. i'd just like to know which one so i can determine what i want to do. can someone help me out with these please? and let me know if i need to make myself clearer. :) thanks.

This is a pretty nice hotel. We were given a non smoking room with double beds, which was perfect. Everything was pretty much clean and in working order. The front desk workers were very pleasant to deal with. Parking was free, but there are a limited number of spaces. We never had trouble finding a spot, though. If spots were to fill up, there was a free public parking lot next to the hotel. I thought it was thoughtful that near the front desk they have clocks representing places such as London, Istanbul...well there were 6 of 'em but I can't remember them all, lol! I also thought it was appropriate because from our one day there, it seemed like a lot of guests from other countries frequented the hotel. The only two "negative" things were the sloooooow elevators, and the lack of electrical outlets in the room. Now, i've noticed that many hotels have three (not including the bathroom), but this one had two. Well, we had to get creative with how we ironed our clothes, but it wasn't a big deal. I'd definitely stay there again.

(disregard the fact that i'm a week late with this :) ) Your Offer Price: $44.00 Number of Rooms: 1 Number of Nights: 1 Subtotal: $44.00 Taxes & Service Fees: $14.72 Total Charges: $58.72

I enjoyed my stay at this hotel even though the locaton was kind of off in relation to where I wanted to be. It's located in a very upscale area, and we enjoyed riding through the neighborhoods to look at the HUGE houses. There are also a lot of places to eat near this hotel. Also right across the street was a shopping center that housed Ross, Marshalls, DSW shoe store, CVS, and other stores. We ended up with a double bed non smoking room which was fine. The room was pretty spacious and the bathroom was nice. We got a free newspaper put under the door each morning. The only negative thing was that the remote didn't work. We didn't really watch t.v. so it wasn't a big deal. The staff was extremely helpful on giving us driving directions to different locations since we had no idea where to go. Overall I enjoyed my stay, but I told my friend that I liked the Hilton Americas in Houston better. But hey...different location, different hotel. I'd stay there again. It was well worth the $44 I spent per night. :)

I stayed at the Hilton Americas on March 11th for $41. It is a very nice hotel. The rooms are spacious, and I loved the bathroom. We went up to the 24th floor to the pool, and the view was wonderful out on the patio area (I don't know what it's called) on top of the roof. Unfortunately, though, we did this about 10 minutes before we had to check out, so we didn't get to enjoy it for long. Oh yeah, the king size bed had to be one of the softest and most comfortable I've ever been in! I definitely hope to stay there again when in Houston.

so I ended up staying at Crowne Plaza in downtown Houston for two nights on January 28-30. The room was nice, but small (or the furniture too big)..I expected that, though, since I've stayed in Crowne Plaza before. And for the price I paid ($47), who cares? We had a king size bed (which was very comfortable) and a non-smoking room without requesting. It was also convenient to have free shuttle service to the event I was attending since I didn't know the area too well and don't really like driving and getting lost... The employees were friendly and very helpful with giving directions when I did decide to drive somewhere. If I had to say anything negative, it would be that the ice machines were in mysterious locations, the vending machine gave me a diet coke instead of the water I asked for, and the valet parking. I really don't like valet parking. I like to be able to physically go and get my own car when I please. But hey, whatever. Parking was $10/night which was $10 less than the price on a weekday. Overall, it was a pleasant stay, and I would stay there again. :)

I 've read that a few times before, but I don't know why I didn't think of it when bidding :) ..thanks, though. I'll go comment in the other post.

alright..I really don't want to pay the $13 parking fee and I just knew I was going to get one of the other hotels in the Market Center..all of which have FREE parking *sigh*...oh well on Sunday I bid $30 for a hotel in Market Center and it was rejected..I had to wait til today cause I really want to be in the Market Center location. Today I bid $35 and it was rejected, but I got a counter offer of $9..so I debated for a while cause I had a feeling I'd get the Hilton...but I went ahead and did it, and this is what I got: Your Offer Price: $44.00 Number of Rooms: 1 Number of Nights: 2 Subtotal: $88.00 Taxes & Service Fees: $20.63 Total Charges: $108.63 I'm still very irritated by this whole thing, but I'll get over it. I stayed at Hilton Americas in Houston not to long ago, and it was really nice, so it's all good :) eta: I forgot to put the price in the title, and I can't seem to go back and do it..sorry :)

I know it's pretty much been established that this is a popular win for the area, but I had to share anyway :) my first offer was $39 which I kinda knew would be rejected..just wanted to see what happens when they don't accept a bid **shrugs** second bid of $41 was accepted..and I read about the 72 hr. rule thing, but I made my bids within 6 hours of each other without changing anything except price...maybe I misunderstood something

Crowne Plaza Hotel Downtown Houston Date: 1/28-1/29 Amenities: Pool, Restaurant, Business Center, Fitness Center Price: $47 Taxes and Fees: $13.95 Total: $60.95

good point ...and I just realized I was spelling Radisson incorrectly, lol! I do find inconsistencies in star ratings guide,packages, and the hotel's website info., but oh well. I'll just base my decision off the map. alright. My head is hurting from all this :). I'll be booking the 3.5* hotel sometime this week. thanks. be back soon peace

ummmm...something told me to do more research so I did. I didn't know Houston had a Raddison hotel. On hotwire Raddison would have the same star rating as Crowne Plaza. I just checked the Raddison website, and it has the same amenities. They also have the Raddison listed as being downtown, but according to their own map it's 14 miles away. Now, some of the amenities on the Raddison's website aren't too clear to me. They may offer services that Crowne Plaza doesn't, so I'm guessing that if it were Raddison listed on hotwire then more amenities might be listed. But after browsing through this board, I realize that hotels don't always list all the amenities on hotwire. You would think they wouldn't list it as being downtown, but who knows! The reason I'm skeptical is cause I had a not so great experience in a Raddison before, and I really prefer Crowne Plaza over it. ..even if it is $46 dollars. Then there's the 14 minute ride to downtown either in a taxi, or by car. On Expedia Raddison is listed as being in West Houston. When I did a search on hotwire for hotels in west houston, a 3 1/2 * hotel came up that I thought could be it, but it's missing one of the amenities that t should have according to its website. o.k. . . . I'm off to contemplate what I'm going to do. Thanks for listening/reading :)

my thoughts exactly. thanks a lot. I just wanted someone else's thoughts/reassurance since the person I'm going with doesn't like to have anything to do with finding a hotel...I have to do all the work :) , lol! I enjoy it, though, but just never used hotwire. when I book it I'll use the link you provided, and I'll provide feedback when I return from the trip. peace

thanks! The event is at the Cullen Theater which is in the Wortham Theater Center at 500 Texas street. eta: Crowne Plaze is located at 1700 Smith Street.

what up people? this is a very helpful website :) well, after browsing for about a week I figured I could get some input. I'm looking to get a hotel downtown houston for 1-28 thru 1-29 (possibly 1-28 thru 1-30) I found a 3.5 * for $46. The listed aminities are: pool, resturant, fitness center, and business center. I have a pretty good feeling that it's Crowne Plaza. I've done sooo much research, and that's the conclusion I came to. I checked for a car/hotel package on hotwire, and Crowne Plaza fits the description of the one I'm looking at. I guess I'm just cautious since I've read stories of hotels that were supposedly in one area but ended up being somewhere else. I'm not familiar with Houston at all, so I need this hotel to be downtown in walking distance to the event I will be attending. If it is Crowne Plaze it's only a few blocks from where I'll be going. I've stayed at a Crown Plaze in Dallas, and it was pretty cool. If anyone has experience, knows anything about this area, or has anythng to say please let me know. thanks peace