moneypenny02

Yes--4* or better in BevHills-WEHO or Santa Monica for $130 or less. I won't add Westwood b/c there are hotels there I would not prefer to have. The W would be fine, but others are more business-y and we aren't really looking for that. Let me know if you think that is a plausible goal!

Hi! Thanks for the response. I didn't see it before I just bid--or you may have been posting as I was bidding. So, in terms of goal, I would prefer to get least expensive 4* or higher. I also decided to include Santa Monica. I just completed all of my free rebids, but I may have my husband try again tonight or tomorrow. I maxed out at $120--starting at $80. Probably totally unreasonable start, but there wasn't much to go on in the forums, and I already had a deal for Andaz for $200 and W Westwood basic room for $150, Spectacular suite for $170ish. So, I needed it to be lower than those to justify the risk of bidding blind. I started with BevHills/WeHo (correct--NOT trying to stay in Hollywood) 5*, then added Santa Monica, then added 4* then added Culver, Inglewood, Lawndale and Redondo since none of those areas had 4* or higher. I ended with a bid for $120 with those areas with no luck and no counteroffers. Not sure how much higher I want to go, b/c I know the W is offering their basic/wonderful rooms at around $150, and if I am going to end up at the W, I would prefer to be in a Spectacular Suite--which I can make sure that I get for $170. I feel like $130 is going to be the max b/c with Priceline fees it would be higher to end up with a W basic room from another site (lastminutetravel.com---which I actually heard about on these boards first!). Any suggestions???

Hi all, Looking to celebrate our 1 year anniversary in the wknd of Aug 5-7, and we want to try to find a nice hotel in the area to get away to. If we lucked out on the London that would be beyond ideal, since I love that hotel AND it's where we spent our 1st night as hubby and wife. Unfortunately direct from the hotel is about $349 now. :-( WeHo or Hollywood/Sunset area would be ideal, in any really nice hotel. I have checked the various discount sites that I know of, and the best I am seeing is $210 for the Andaz (which is pretty good, I suppose) or around $150 or $170 for the W. Not too bad, but I am hoping we could do better. I tried the HOTWIRE link, but apparently it is down right now, so I havent been able to check Hotwire. Will consider doing Priceline, since all the 4* and 5* hotels it has listed for Hollywood-BevHills area would be acceptable to us. I am trying to work out the strategy and figure out what should be our starting price. I would think I would start with: BevHills 5* BevHills 5* or 4* BevHills 5/4 + Culver City BevHills 5/4 + Culver City + Inglewood BevHills 5/4 + Culver City + Inglewood + Lawndale BevHills 5/4 + Culver City + Inglewood + Lawndale + Redondo I am also considering adding Santa Monica b/c the only reported hotel that is a 4* is the Loews which would also be nice for us. Any thoughts about this plan? Also any suggestions about reasonable prices? I want to use as many free rebids as possible and try to snag this soon, so that I can get the Andaz @ $210 before that deal is up if nothing else is working. I would think that, not having the certainty of where it would be, the max i would want to pay each night is about $150-$175 if that is reasonable. Preferably less. As always, will use the PRICELINE links here once I start bidding!

Not to take anything away from Priceline or Hotwire, but I recently booked a room via lastminutetravel.com (which I first heard about through these boards) for the same days. I had a reservation already for the Hilton for 2 rooms for $155 each, but I thought I would check the LMT just to see if I could do any better, and I found a hotel that was a tad more convenient (right on the redline, vs having to change from green to red....at 6am!!), and was about $30 less than my initial reservation, even with all fees. They also still had the Hilton, and it would have saved me about $50 re-booking through them, but I appreciated the convenience of the other hotel closer to the redline. You may want to check them out...the same deals should still be there, just got mine today.

Checked it out....there is the Best Western Blue Square for $126 I think, which is a 4* with bfast. Hotel Eden is on request for $115 i think. There are some more options...check them out!

I just checked Lastminutetravel.com for your dates, and there is a 4* in the airport area for I think $148, and 3*s for less than that. My browser froze when I was trying to figure out what hotel it is (one sneaky way you can find out is if you select the hotel, and then add a tour or something on the next page, when you go to the next page to confirm you will see the name). Check it out!

I completed this purchase a while ago, but as I was checking out the forums for some info on a Philly hotel I was reminded to include this information. Room Cost (avg. per room, per night): $150.00 (USD) Number of Rooms: 1 Number of Nights: 3 Room Subtotal: $450.00 (USD) Taxes and Fees: $65.82 (USD) Total Room Cost: $515.82 (USD)

Okay, tried again. Went up to $91 but couldn't get anything, so settled for Warwick via LMT for total price of $200 (including all fees). My only hesitation to get Warwick when it first showed up had been b/c of some less than stellar reviews when I checked it out, but the location is perfect for us, and we have the chance to get a nice room....just hope it happens! Perhaps could have gotten same hotel for less via NYOP if I had looked for 3.5* hotels, but didn't want to risk ending up with a 3.5 that we wouldn't like.

Okay...tried a search using the PRICELINE link. No success thus far. Including fees the 3.5*s on LMT were about $170, so I wasn't trying to go too far above that once I included in about $30 of Priceline fees. I searched for May 23-May 25, 4* in Downtown, and started at $70/night. For some reason it let me continue to keep bidding with adding additional areas (I thought you only got one of those per bid), so I kept trying. I ended up adding Cherry Hill, City Line, Gloucester and University, and going up to $77. The average price per night that its listing for those areas is $155. I was nervous though b/c it started at like $261/night when I only included Downtown, and when I included, I think Cherry Hill, it dropped down to $155. Given that there are not supposed to be any 4* hotels in Cherry Hill I didn't think that this number should change at all. (Any ideas why it did???) I think that kind of freaked me out, and made me hesitant to bid much more b/c I didn't want to end up paying more for a hotel somewhere out in Cherry Hill, which is NOT what we want. It was allowing me one more bid (and I could have included the Trevose area, but I don't think I will press my luck. The Warwick is looking more and more attractive! At least I know for certain where it will be, and the price is pretty good. May try again bidding on Priceline tomorrow. How likely do you think it is that these same bids may be successful? I want to keep it under $200, so the highest I could go would probably be about $85.

Thank you for link/ info on LMT. Great info & will definitely use when I next search for hotels! As an additional question, do you know how volatile prices are for LMT? If I wait a day or two to see what I can get on PRICELINE, do you think they are likely to be sold out? Thanks!

Based on photos, I think this is definitely the Warwick. The Crowne Plaza is also available for a similar price. I think I will check more reviews on both, and then see if I can do any better with a 4* in NYOP. If not, I'll pick these up. Any opinions or suggestions as to this plan are still appreciated. Also, I am looking for hotel rooms for my husband and I to spend our last nights in Philadelphia as we finish cleaning out our apartment and prepare for our flight out of town.

Hi all, Am just starting to look for a hotel for 2 nights downtown Philly to check-in May 23 and check out may 25th. Have not tried the NYOP yet, but the prices I am seeing on the regular PRICELINE site for 3.5+ in that area are about $170+. Someone on another thread on this site recommended Lastminutetravel.com, and I found a 3.5* (although description says 4*) for about $170 for the two nights. I haven't tried that site before, and wondering what others' thoughts of it were. Also, any idea what hotel this may be? (I am thinking maybe the Warwick) I will probably try NYOP later tonight, and see if I can do this well or better, but if people have opinions on what hotel it may be and using lastminutetravel, I would appreciate it!

Just an update -- I was so confused about what was the best thing to do (esp. since the hotels are nonrefundable) I didn't do anything. I am still watching some other websites with hotel sales to see if any LA suites come up for a good price, so I can make sure to get a suite. Otherwise I am just holding on to my London hotel reservation for now. If I decide to try again, I will come update the thread.

So, I just checked HOTWIRE again (using the links, of course) and got the following: 4-star hotel in Century City - Westwood This hotel features the following amenities: Fitness Center Guests have access to exercise equipment; an additional charge may apply. Pool(s) Property offers at least one pool area; hours and dates of operation may be seasonal. Restaurant(s) Property offers at least one restaurant on the premises; hours and days of operation may vary. High-speed Internet Access Guestrooms are equipped with high-speed Internet access; an extra charge may apply. Recommended by 90%. This doesn't exactly match ANYTHING, but the Palomar (minus smoke-free rooms) may be a match. Likely?

Are we thinking that this hotel is the Sofitel? It's on Hotwire right now for $149: 4.5-star hotel in Beverly Hills - West Hollywood This hotel features the following amenities: Fitness Center Pool(s) Restaurant(s) Business Center High-speed Internet Access

Sorry for the repeated posts with questions, but I also wanted to know if it's possible to upgrade with the hotel (preferably right after booking), and how much it tends to cost? I am thinking if perhaps the W is a good possibility for around $119 (given recent successes), if I was able to upgrade one of the rooms, that might be my best scenario.

Additional question: If I want 2 rooms and I plan to bid on Priceline, but pretty much want a particular hotel, should I try bidding for both rooms at once, or get one room, make sure it's the right place, and then get the other by bidding at the same price? (If I did the latter option, I would hopefully have someone else who is coming in at that time that would just buy the room off from me--but can you change names on the hotel reservation?)

Here is the description of the property: 4.5-star hotel in Beverly Hills - West Hollywood This hotel features the following amenities: Fitness Center Guests have access to exercise equipment; an additional charge may apply. Pool(s) Property offers at least one pool area; hours and dates of operation may be seasonal. Restaurant(s) Property offers at least one restaurant on the premises; hours and days of operation may vary. Business Center Guests have access to business equipment and services; an additional charge may apply. High-speed Internet Access Guestrooms are equipped with high-speed Internet access; an extra charge may apply. It is recommended by 90% of customer reviews (and gets 4*s on Tripadvisor).

Sorry for another post to my own question....but I am seeing on Hotwire a 4.5* in Beverly Hills - West Hollywood area Hotel, that seems to match the ameneties at Sofitel (based on the hotel description post), but says recommended by 90%...which I thought was not true for Sofitel. Any (good) possibility this may be the London??? It's only going for $149, so I am thinking probably not....

As an addendum re: the London Hotel, I saw people posting that they have it for around $252, which is more than I already was scheduled to pay (via a reservation I made on their website), so I would need a deep discount in order to do the London. Mondrian may even be more, so is W my best bet, or are there others I should consider? (Think also, where you would like to be on your wedding night!)

**Forgive me if this is TMI, but this is my first post & I want to make sure I have all the important info out there** So, I am in need of 2 hotel rooms for the nights of Aug. 8 & 9th. I am getting married & need a place to stay the night before for the bride & groom, and both people would be getting ready that night as well--and then we would need a place to stay for our wedding night. So, that is what the rooms are for. Ideally we would have a suite, but I know you can't select a suite via priceline or hotwire (I already searched the boards here to find that out!). I had a room saved at the London Hotel (which I love!), but it is too expensive for us to get 2 rooms for 2 nights each, so I am trying to find an alternative. If there is a way to make sure the London comes up in our search that would be ABSOLUTELY ideal, but some other options are possibly the Mondrian or W (Although if others can come up with any other hotels downtown/WEHO area that are all-suite, or spacious and nice looking (I want pretty "getting ready" photos!), I would be open to other suggestions). I know that people posted getting the W for nearby dates for $119, so that might be my best bet (although that is my least favorite of the 3). So, I suppose I would really like help 1) trying to find out if there is any way to try to swing the London with those dates via hotwire or priceline; 2)what the best strategy is that people would suggest given my constraints. I also need one of those rooms to have 2 double beds, so is there a way to make sure one room has 2 beds and the other room has 1?