Jump to content
Loading...

CrazyOne

Members
  • Posts

    74
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by CrazyOne

  1. In my most recent bidding round I went back and forth A LOT between the Express Deals tab and the bidding tab. What I noticed is, if you go over to Express Deals after you've started bidding (made at least one rejected bid), the deals offered may change. I am certain I had the price go down on some Express Deals after a round of bidding, compared to just looking at Express Deals fresh from a new search before starting to bid. So, don't assume the first list of Express Deals you get is the final word for that session. Because it might not be.
  2. This is a nice win thanks to the Better Bidding community. I did start with the PRICELINE link; I hope through all my variations it still credits properly. Started at $60 and received counter offer of $74, then $63, then win at $66. Having two 2* zones sure is handy. There was a PRICELINE EXPRESS Deal at $76 that appeared to be this property. Assuming the 10% Express Deal coupon for today applied, I didn't beat that by very much, but that's okay. Note if anyone else is looking for this weekend at last minute, it said I could extend stay for same price. This is a total departure from my usual "always bid 4* and up" theory for DC. In looking at the hotel list it seems none of the listed 3* for the White House zone right now are really that awful. In the past, this zone would have a couple of iffy 3*. Of course, you get a lot more rebid opportunities if you bid for 4*, but I didn't think it would be worth the additional $30+ it looked like it was going to cost me. (I originally bid 4* up to $90 in White House and Capitol Hill zones; probably Dupont would have been a little less but I wanted to be over here. Express for those was in the low $100.) I want to particularly thank user "geronimo" who a few weeks ago posted a very similar scenario with the same property. If I hadn't seen that, I probably wouldn't have had thought to go after the 3* place. Thanks! I also would note, for anyone playing with this, that the Express Deal offers will vary in price sometimes even as you are going along. Flipping over to the Express Deals tab while in the middle of rebidding may net you a lower Express price than it shows when you first look at the Express before bidding.
  3. Note: this win included an "add nights for the same rate" link. Not too surprising actually after 4-5 rounds of bidding. Several days of scanning Hotwire and the Priceline Express Deals plus the regular available pricing on PL led me to believe that I might not even get a 3.5* with PL bid. The prices for the two places on the regular booking side of Priceline (Hilton and Sheraton are it on that side) were $140 and up and there were no 3.5* Express Deals. I bid up to high $40s a few times then yesterday bid $50 for 3.5* and still nothing. Then each of the last few days I also did some bidding for 3*. There was a 3* deal at $48 on Express Deals but I bid 3* up to $42 or $43 yesterday and still didn't get one! (Actually there was one at $48 and one at $49 in zones that I had included in the bid.) Hotwire had their 3.5* at $59 (although one of the earlier times it was as low as $53), but a hotel they have listed as 3.5* was a 3* on Priceline. I wouldn't have minded that one assuming that was it, but I'm still trying to get the price a little lower. Basically I was ready to keep at it a couple more days or maybe just take one of the Express Deals or Hotwire but yesterday I got a little hint that I think I figured out: on my very last 3* bid, it gave me a counter offer, increase to $51 and get a win. I think the bid at the time was $43, maybe $42. Now with a 3* Express Deal at $48 and $49, what does that tell you? Think about it for a sec. Despite the fact that this could be entirely separate inventory, it's not likely they would have you bid more than the Express Deals at the same star level. So my hunch was that if I had bumped to $51 they would upgrade me to 3.5* for a win. But I decided to skip it and wait another day and think about it, debating whether I want to pay that much. Well, today I bid up to $50 again with no luck and had one more easy rebid, and I thought well what the heck, it's only another buck or two. I can hardly complain given the other going rates for these places. I hate to miss because I'm $1 short so I couldn't bring myself to put $51 in there. I put in $52 and here's the win. It's quite possible it would win at $51 though, but NOT at $50. There is a AAA rate I would qualify for at $129 that night, but that's the lowest I've seen for this property so this is pretty good! I wore out those little boxes at the top of the page over the last few days, between this and the Fishkill NY night before Thanksgiving win. Sure does come in handy for starting a new bid at lower star level for example, plus to get the Hotwire and Priceline windows open at the same time. Offer Price: $52.00 Rooms: 1 Nights: 1 + Add nights for the same rate! Room Subtotal: $52.00 Taxes & Fees: $13.16 Total Charged to Card: $65.16 Interesting. Must be NY law that they separate the tax and fees? I thought that was something different on my other win yesterday. This one does not separate the tax and fees.
  4. This is just going to get lost in the sea of NYC posts ;) but needed a room on that Wednesday before Thanksgiving because can't quite make the drive all the way to Boston when leaving in the afternoon. (Not interested in arriving at 12-1am.) Some info that helped me home in on a price: $63 3* available at Hotwire, $56 3* available on PRICELINE EXPRESS Deals and I was pretty sure it would be Hyatt House because they had the cheapest going rate for 3*. The rate for knowing beforehand was $98 + tax so this saved at least $40 off that and got down into the price range of lesser lodgings. That's all I am usually looking for, better quality at the rate of the cheapo place. Not sure if I hit this a little too soon, but I thought there could be a little squeeze for rooms on the night before Thanksgiving. Maybe not though. Priceline has given me the "add nights for the same rate" link so this rate should be good at least the next day and maybe a couple days. I bid $45, $48, $50 so it's within $1 of whatever the best rate would be with my bidding tonight. This is my second attempt at bidding for this trip. (No luck on my Harrisburg for first Sat in Nov yet though, 3rd or 4th attempt. Probably just trying to be too cheap.) Will be interested to try this out, Hyatt House is a fairly new brand. If the pictures on some sites are any indication, this one began life as Sierra Suites, which is a brand that Hyatt bought last year before announcing it (and their already owned Summerfield Suites) would be grouped into Hyatt House and expanded that way. This is their extended stay format, along the lines of Residence Inn or Homewood Suites I guess. Although this location shows some standard rooms that are lacking the full kitchen, etc. No matter, it should be fine for the night. Room Subtotal: $50.00 Taxes: $6.74 Fees: $8.27 Total Charged to Card: $65.01
  5. One night weekend stay here in late April 2012 was more than acceptable for the $45 bid price. A few notes: Hotel is located in Rockville along Rockville Pike (MD Rt 355), and the Metro red line (Twinbrook station) is behind the hotel with an easy roughly one-block walk. This is still pretty far out from downtown Washington DC, but with a deal like 45 bucks it might be worth it. Parking in the hotel garage costs $15, something you might not expect from a suburban hotel. But here's a tip: The 3 streets of the hotel block that are not the main road Rockville Pike all have metered street parking. Meters there are only collected Mon-Fri and if I remember correctly it's 8am-6pm max even on those days. Arriving on Saturday afternoon there was no trouble at all parking out there, and nothing bad happened to my car. The Metro lot is also free on weekends but technically you are not supposed to park overnight there, so I wouldn't chance that. But the street parking is fine. The one street has meters on both sides. Since not much else there is open during the weekend that would require the street parking, it's pretty likely you can use this and save 15 bucks. This hotel has an interior atrium design. Many rooms have doors and windows towards the atrium, but some rooms have windows only to the outside of the building. The lobby which is at the front Rockville Pike entrance is on the third floor, and there are guest rooms on the first and second floors as well as the restaurant and bar down there, etc. I initially arrived at around 12:30pm and asked about checking in. The helpful front desk agent said she could only put me in a room on the first and second floors at that time. It was clear she was suggesting that these were not desirable. She even admitted they were noisier. Didn't seem to have any problem allowing even me with a lowly Priceline res to have a better room up higher as long as I could check in a little later. I thanked her and went out to get lunch (driving around, not walking at this point). Came back around 2pm and got a room up on the 5th floor (535) that faced the outside. According to reviews elsewhere, this is desirable due to the noise that can come in from the atrium area. I forgot to ask for outside room but was assigned this by default. It did look like the atrium-facing rooms had thin single-pane windows. Our room faced Rockville Pike and was only 2 stories up from that ground level, but there was no noise from out there. Room was updated, not sure how recently, but certainly seemed modern enough to be within the last 5 years. There was a flat TV at least 37", not a ton of channels but some. This room had a king bed, seemed rather plush and they used the duvet-style linens. Carpet and furniture seemed newer. Drapes clash with the carpet. ;) Table lamps on the nightstands and desk had outlets built into them, a handy feature. This is common on desks these days but still sometimes lacking at the bed area. In addition to the desk and desk chair there was also a side chair with ottoman, and a little side table for that as well. The HVAC unit was pretty noisy and old though had a modern wall control. Was a decent-sized room, although it probably would have felt less so with two queen beds as some of these may be configured. Bathroom had modern vanity, curved shower rod, decent amount of light. Towels better than average. ;) The wall sconces on either side of the mirror looked like they may have been reused from the sides of the bed or something, though. Looked out of place in the bathroom. The tile on the floor and tub wall looked newer and clean (all 1ft square tiles). The same tile continued into the entry way of the room, instead of having all carpet there. I ended up not using the internet service on my computer at all there, for the first time in ages. I had my iPhone, and they wanted 10 bucks for the WiFi so I skipped it. The WiFi is provided by AT&T so if you have an account with them you may be able to use that. I believe it's free in the lobby as well, but I didn't try it. There didn't appear to be any wired connection for internet in the room any longer. That could mean that if you have two laptops in your room, they might want to charge you for both. Why they're clinging to this as a profit center I'm not sure, because they can I guess. For me, especially on such a cheap weekend where I was trying to cheap out on everything (park on the street, etc.) it will just drive me to find other ways of using the internet. This hotel is in what could be considered pretty much a suburban sprawl area. And yet, as long as you aren't bothered by busy Rockville Pike, you can easily walk to some restaurants and shops. The two places we went to were both on the opposite side of Rockville Pike, but all the intersections have crosswalks and pedestrian signals. We had dinner at Mosaic Cuisine and breakfast at Silver Diner. Would recommend both readily. There are a number of other places within a few block walk including grocery stores (Trader Joe's and Fresh Market). I've certainly stayed at far worse places for far more money than this cost. A good deal even at a higher bid than this. I just got lucky in that it was a particularly dead weekend.
  6. Needed a room for Saturday for a quick DC run. Was thinking about downtown, but in digging at the non-opaque prices I saw an opening to try at these Rockville 3.5* properties. There are 4 rebid opportunities with 3.5* in bidding for the Maryland/DC Suburbs area so this can work out well. I was going to start at $40, but when it didn't protest that I only had a small chance of winning ;-) I backed up and bumped down to $37. That didn't protest either but I figured that was low enough. No go, went right to $42, no go there, went to $45. Should be within a couple bucks of lowest possible! Note: it gave me the option to extend my stay, so that rate should be good for at least Sunday 4/29 as well. Two of these 3.5* properties listed on the hotel list are out near Shady Grove but would have to drive to the Metro. The other two, this Hilton and the Marriott, are right near the Metro, within walking distance. Was a nice bonus to get one of these because their lowest going rates were higher than the Sheraton and Crowne Plaza. (Hilton was $99, Sheraton and Crowne Plaza $89) Offer Price: avg. per room, per night $45.00 Rooms: 1 Nights: 1 Room Subtotal: $45.00 Taxes & Fees: $13.34 Total Charged to Card: $58.34 Main downside, looks like the parking at the Hilton costs $15, but that's still cheaper than downtown. And I think my room rate is less than what I would have have tried for down there. I always end up feeling like I need 4*, although I was thinking about bidding Conv Ctr at 3.5*. Anyway. Probably still less than that would have come out, although there are some low rates going down there as well. I'm on the Metro red line which is where I need to be, good stuff!
  7. Wanted to update this with new info from my more recent stay on 12/23/11. The room I got this time was on the 6th floor (last time was on the 4th, if it matters) and this room was slightly changed. The main furniture looked the same, lamps were definitely old, chairs might have been new though with a newish looking adjustable desk chair, newer-style easy chair plus a desk side chair as well. The TV was replaced with a flat screen I think 32" hanging on the wall. One upshot of this is you get a very long place to put junk on top of the same old long low bureau that the old tube TV used to sit on. The carpet appeared to be new, but I'm not certain. I don't think the wallcovering was new, and I don't think the bedding was different than last time, though it looked like it might be a washable cover as opposed to old-fashioned not-often-washed bedspread. In the bathroom the counter was new, granite or facsimile with new undermount sink. Everything else in there was the same, though: gray (and I mean GRAY) tile on the walls and floor, old grout, old toilet. The little things again: I opened up the soap and it smelled good! Grapefruit, turned out to be. LOL I like citrus in my bath soap, hey. I also noticed on the way out (not so much on the way in) that they I think changed the lobby furniture since last time. I'm pretty sure that's not the furniture that was in the front desk area in November. So a few things are happening. Still smells like pool as soon as you walk in, though. Did not partake of the breakfast this time; we left earlier than they set up. Still a worthy stay. The front desk staff are friendly. Oh and the gas station at the base of the hill seems to be reasonably priced, which comes in handy. It's much easier to continue north from this location than south, heh. Just something to be aware of.
  8. Not sure how to report the bonus money in bidding price, fix if necessary. The win is at $42+$10 bonus. Maybe should be reported as $52 for continuity? Hm. Taking a trip up to New England again and figured I'd take advantage of the Cyber Monday $10 bonus deal. Yeah, would be better on a 5-night hotel stay somewhere, but I just don't have one in mind and can't plan one that quickly. ;-) I figured I would get this same BW as the last trip, and indeed that is what happened. My perhaps slightly off bid progression means I saved a net of only $5 over the last win, but that's still good. Bidding went like this: $25+10 for Wilkes Barre, got nothing $30+10 added Frackville, nothing $35+10 adding Hazelton, nothing $42+10 adding White Haven, got a credit card rejection (typo, perhaps), used a card I've used on PL before and got win. I upped it $7 here because the $10 bonus is only good for one day and figured I'd still be saving a net of $5 over last time. I don't know if Priceline rejiggers the pricing to account for some of the bonus $$, but again I did save $5 over my previous bid here so at least that's something. It's possible I overbid by as much as $5-6 though. Thanks as always for this resource. After I claimed my bonus I used your PRICELINE link in a new browser so hopefully that credits you.
  9. That seems like a really good win to me, $67 for that fairly new Residence Inn on the North Shore. I wanted to explain this should have nothing to do with the North-Allegheny Valley zone. You're quite correct that there's only 2.5 stars in that zone, still shows it now when I looked. The Residence Inn you won is in the Downtown zone; that is why you won it and why it is 3*. Presumably you didn't expect to win in Downtown with a price that low? Not sure. If you wanted to keep focusing on Green Tree 3* then it would have been better to add North-Allegheny Valley, then South Side, then West Mifflin as all those zones only have 2.5* or lower bidding. I'm guessing you just overlooked that fact that this hotel is in the Downtown zone as opposed to North. Can you confirm the zone for this, and if it's Downtown, perhaps the mods can correct this in the thread title? Based on the Priceline zone maps for Pittsburgh this is definitely in the Downtown zone; the North zone doesn't come this close to downtown.
  10. As I read that again I guess what I should have said is "Public areas look dated, room furnishings looked dated, etc" because I can't for sure say they'e the same given it was my only ever stay there. ;-) They do look dated, though. The whole place screams 80s to me; if you look at the lobby and the restaurant area behind you'll see what I mean. Not sure how much reno they can do for $3 mil either, doesn't sound like much. But I'm guessing they'll go for some new TVs and that sort of thing at some point.
  11. You should be within $10 at worst, for what it's worth. I got it for $47 and stayed just last night (hence noticing this today and commenting). I got the same $54 counter when I was bidding, but I declined it. It's not a bad property, a little tired in some aspects is probably what I would sum it up as, but room was clean and serviceable. And apparently over the coming months some stuff will be renovated. I posted a hotel review. I think it's adequate at 54 bucks, given what you would normally get at retail for that cost.
  12. It's interesting that Priceline apparently used to rate this place 2.5* and now it's 3*. I wonder if they have perhaps jumped the gun a bit? The hotel has this article pasted all over the place about renovations: http://www.timesleader.com/news/Area_hotel_gets__3M_upgrade_09-01-2011.html?searchterm=east+mountain+inn but as of November 2011 nothing much appears to have happened. Public areas look the same, the room furnishings look the same, etc. It's possible that some rooms are renovated by now and Priceline mostly gets non-renovated rooms. That said, this wasn't horrible by any means. The room was decent sized with a king bed, easy chair, desk and chair, plus additional side chair. TV was still old, about 25" tube looks like. They did tout the clean remote http://www.cleanremote.com/ which was an interesting concept I hadn't seen before. The remote is covered in a membrane, kinda like a microwave touch panel or whatever, so they can clean it better. There was also an iHome clock radio unit in there, a nice touch. In other words, you can dock your iPod or iPhone directly into that and play music, stream Pandora, whatever. Bathroom was large but looked even more dated than the room. Gray tile in the tub with dirty grout, gray patterned tile on the floor, gray formica top, sink faucet that felt like it could break soon, etc. All in working order, though, and at least it was updated with a curved shower rod and new-looking shower head. Staff were pleasant, check in and out were simple with no fuss. Stay includes breakfast buffet with some hot items and good fruit. The coupon says you can use it for an $8 credit towards an a la carte breakfast menu, but it wasn't clear if that was still offered. (We didn't ask though.) There is actually a second restaurant in the place as well as a 24 hour fitness center and an indoor pool. It's just off I-81, but if you have to head south from the hotel as we did it's a bit convoluted to get back on the highway, though well-marked. The place is within a couple miles of plenty of other shopping/restaurants. Oh, and bonus: cheap vending. LOL, I know, but sometimes it's the small things right? ;-) 20oz bottles of soda or water for $1.50 and candy bars for $1.00. Sticks out in my head because I had exactly $2.75 (and $20 bills) and wanted a water and a tiny snack without heading out in the car and was shocked that I was actually able to make it work. Wouldn't mind staying here again at all. Perfectly adequate. Is it 3*? I hardly know anymore. I'm not sure what to expect from the different levels. At $47 which is what my winning bid was, I don't feel like it matters much if it's 3* or 2.5*.
  13. Needed a room coming back to Pittsburgh from way out on Cape Cod (leaving on Sunday afternoon). Nobody's lists showed a 3* but given a 3.5* on Hotwire I did suspect it was a re-rating of this BW. (Time to update the list.) I was hoping for the Hilton Garden Inn, which I've stayed at before, but no such luck. Bet that one is actually popular as it's never been reported for Priceline or Hotwire. ;-) Bid went like this: $40 for Wilkes-Barre, got a counter for $54. Declined because I had 3 rebids. $44 adding White Haven, still no. $47 adding Hazleton, got the win. Can't be too bad, although my last Priceline got my stuck in a smoking room at a Hampton (first time that ever happened, place was jammed full that night) so I'm hoping at least that won't happen. The new design looks great, awesome job, keep it up! Started with your quickquote box above.
  14. Oops. That is a fair difference in location, have to say. Although it shouldn't be too bad with any luck, if you need to get down that way. A jaunt down Rt 885 should get you to the location of the Springhill pretty quickly, about 10 min or so. The Courtyard is in a shopping/dining development called The Waterfront so at least you'll be near something to eat, etc.
  15. So I made 2 bids last night, lowballing at $42 then $47 with only State College North at 2.5* then adding Clearfield (which is a free rebid at only 2* max). Seeing the recent hits on State College North, figured that made sense. Tonight I bid $49 and got a counteroffer page. I guess they know this sort of feeds the fire right? :) I mean yeah, some people might have just slapped down the $64 it wanted, but I *know* the bid doesn't have to be $64. So I tell them to stuff it and add Clearfield. Almost just put $51 because of the reported bids for this weekend, but I put $52. No go. Then under the influence of the hunt I did something stupid. Back in the days when I bid more often I would have known better, and indeed I did remember better...AFTER I pressed the Buy button but before the win came up. Should have started a new bid! Realized a few seconds too late. D'oh! At least I only put $54 in instead of $55. Saved a buck, LOL. So I didn't actually learn what the lowest bid would have been for State College North on that Thursday night, NOR did I really learn how low you might go on Lemont-Dale Summit. What I learned is this: Hampton Inn State College in that zone is now 2.5* Please update the list when you get a chance. Priceline's "Best Deal" marker isn't. We probably already knew that (I even searched for an old general tip thread perhaps, but didn't find one), but in the fog I had forgotten. It's probably just a ploy to get you to bid that zone. Now once I select Lemont zone it does still say 2.5* is Best Deal. But clearly the best deal on this bid wasn't had in State College North. Or perhaps it was a tie. :) Or heck, perhaps even, it would have still given me State College North at the Springhill or whatever for $53, but $54 means they could pull from the Hampton inventory instead. Who knows. If you are bidding for this area around this time and don't care which zones and want to try this one, I would suggest starting a little lower than this. It's not going to be much, but you might save 5 bucks or so. I mean, they're still trying to sell rooms here through the typical channels at cheapest I found was $120. Will update with new review after I go. The fact that the level was upgraded may suggest a refresh at the hotel. Ah, finally did find a mention! It is there on the hotel homepage at Hilton.com. Says the rooms and public space newly renovated, everything has a flat TV, etc. So it might be pretty good. We'll see if they still put the Priceline bookings into the single rooms. TripAdivsor is positive, and another plus is this location is more convenient for what I'm doing (driving east to the middle of nowhere the next morning) vs the other zone. Yep, I used the PRICELINE linky.
  16. BTW, should have mentioned my start bid was $100, given that there are in fact a few hits lower than that recently even for 4*. So it's possible there would have been something else less. Or not. You never know. But just for full info on where I started and what finally hit. Sometimes I try to start with odder bids, like I could have gone $97, $112, $127, something like that, but I didn't think of it yesterday.
  17. Bidding for a colleague going to DC. I figured I'd try what I usually do, bid 4* in Dupont-Woodley. Worked great! Other things we were considering were all well over $200. I've stayed at the Palomar before, great place and location. I didn't know how high it was going to be, so I upped my bid in $15 chunks which it turned out was too large. So I dunno how cheap you could get this, but perhaps cheaper than $130 because my next lower rejected bid was $115. I had visions of needing to pay north of $150 and didn't want to run out of rebids. So still very happy with the rate even though it might have been possible to get it for several $ less. Also of note, it offered to allow an extension of stay at the same rate, so could be available other nights next week for any other last-minute bidders. I used the PRICELINE link and thanks as always for maintaining this resource.
  18. $119 for the Shoreham or Palomar, sounds like a pretty good bet to me! Now, if it were me, I'd bid, because I'd take a chance on getting something lower, but I'm not looking for 2 beds or a pool. For the OP, jumping on the $119 HOTWIRE deal seems to be the best option. Do it before it disappears. PS If I recall, that Sheraton near National Airport is not actually that convenient to Metro. Just FYI. That's why bidding that zone can be problematic.
  19. Easy Click Travel came back with a confirm! So no more bidding for me this trip. Hope this helps someone. Thanks for reading. Booked as "request" on Easy Click Travel 3/28/10 $125.xx/night for 3 nights 4/4/10-4/7/10 Unsure of what the equivalent star level should be. At least 3* if not 3.5* or 4*. Priceline has it in their standard listings (at $299/night!) but does not give a star level. Easy Click called it 3* I think. I dunno. I was going for location more than real 4* amenities. If I paid more than a 3* bid would have been for what turns out to be a 3* place, well, it was worth it to get the right location. It looks fine. You can read about it on the site or TripAdvisor. Inn on Fifth 699 5th Avenue South Naples, FL http://www.innonfifth.com/ This was not a hidden/opaque bid; Easy Click Travel did give the name of the hotel. The risk here was that it wasn't a confirmed reservation at the time of booking. It was possible the hotel would refuse. Confirmed 3/30/10, took an hour or two longer than the stated 48 hours. Still listed for $299 elsewhere. According to booking will probably be stuck with double bed instead of king, but I can live with that.
  20. Heh, getting antsy here because yesterday just before noon after looking at lots of stuff I spied a good Request option on Easy Click Travel for $125/night at the Inn on 5th. This place is selling at $299, but the Tuesday night was actually (at the time, but not now) showing "available" instead of "request", so I thought I might have some chance. I've never tried one of these before. Hasn't been 48 hours yet, but I was hoping that was mainly covering for making requests on Saturday, etc. Haven't heard anything back yet. Meanwhile, I can't bid on Priceline yet because the cancel policy on this one from Easy Click is having to pay for one night if you cancel within 7 days, and my stay starts on Sunday night (6 days away). And I've checked other things today, not much budging in price, really odd. I think most of these places aren't going to lower prices on their regular sites, but they might do it on Priceline. (Nothing new on Hotwire, though.) We decided that location was more important than the nicer hotel, so my absolute, cancel-on-the-day-of-stay backup is now the LaQuinta downtown (which isn't exactly downtown, but close enough), chosen based on a combo of location and reviews. THEIR prices dropped by $20/night this morning, and I promptly redid my res. I thought that would be a sign for others but so far not so much. I can't really bid 3* on Priceline because too many of them will be notably north of the old town area. The great hotel room chase always has me on the edge of my seat. It usually doesn't take this long though. ;-) PS Your Easy Click Travel affiliate link is not working.... PPS If you want me to shut up about the process let me know. :-) I thought others might be interested in the various things being tried here, but it may stray a little from the typical aim of the board.
  21. Bid up to $159 today. Nada. Seemed to be some reduction in other hotels prices on other sources (Hotels.com, etc.) so it's weird, although perhaps the demand is more for the 4* places. Perhaps I expect too much of a weekend and someone will release inventory during the week, so will probably finalize something cancelable today and bid some more starting tomorrow. May be pointless but we'll see.
  22. Not really looking for help necessarily, just a point of reference on the very small chance that anyone else is looking at last-minute arrangements in Naples. I bid on this late last night, targeting Central Naples only, starting around $100 and running up to $145 with all the rebid areas. There are decent choices at just a little more than that (like the Hilton, selling at $166 on some sites), but the two reported hotels on the list here are more appealing locations to me and selling at $240-260 I believe. I could bid 3* instead although not thinking it'll be worth it; 4* is usually solid and I could live with that even if it's a surprise new hotel win with a different location. I don't think I want to be in the resort areas; we're going mainly to check out the Everglades a bit. I may ultimately just decide to be picky and book something I'm more sure of. (Nothing on Hotwire looks that interesting.) Probably just try again tomorrow. On the Priceline iPhone app a while ago (just downloaded it to play) it said someone won a 4* at $200 or $205, something like that. Kinda defeats the purpose of Priceline at that rate! If I'm getting nothing at $150-ish seems like the Hilton, though not exactly where I'd like to be, would be suitable enough. Or I'll find something else. :-) Will update this thread if I end up with a win.
  23. I suppose I should have bid a little lower just to see, because there is one rebid zone, but I think this is within a dollar or two of the lowest price it would accept anyway. Mom will be plenty happy. ;-) We have a $36 rejection in this zone for 4/5/10 below, with a priceline win at $41, so maybe $37 or $38 would fly. I know it changes from week to week and hour to hour, but this is pretty rock bottom territory for 3* just about anywhere. Too much lower and they'll be better off not selling the room. I began anew with the PRICELINE link just to be sure it credited. :-) Note this bid allowed for extension at the same price, not surprising since it is going into the weekend. $39 looks like a solid bid in this area for a good 2-3 weeks of time at least through mid-April, at least until they fill a few more rooms.
  24. One well-calculated bid nabbed this. Actually bidding for my mom here, so I won't have a first-hand review. Used the PRICELINE link to start. Bidding for the night of 4/22 as well, might get the same thing, we'll see in a sec. This is the Radisson on University Drive, just for clarity, since there are two. PRICELINE and I guess Radisson call this one Radisson Airport and the other Radisson Airport North. Hard to beat 40 bucks. Hotel is still trying to get $100 even though it must be a slow time. EDIT to add: it offered me the opportunity to extend the stay, so more nights are available.
  25. Just to update my above from last year, stayed at Omni Shoreham again for one night Monday 3/8/10. This bid was last-minute as well, I bid early Saturday for my Monday stay. The bid was cheaper this time, $105, but so was the room. This room was smaller, on the opposite side of the hotel and only one floor up from the lobby. Plus, it was a smoking floor. Yes, they still have one. The woman at the front desk apologized, saying they were sold out that night and she guessed the system assigned only what is left. She said not to hesitate to call if it smelled bad because they could bring up an ozone machine to clear it out, etc. When I got up there the hallway was ominous, but the room itself had no odor at all. So not a real problem. Furnishing, etc. was all the same, just a smaller, less desirable room. Still a good deal though. Hint: if the hotel is busy with lots of people waiting for elevators, look for a stairwell nearby. Both wings should have two stairwells in the central area that are usable by guests to go up or down. Not fun, actually very narrow stairwells, but especially if on a low floor far better than waiting forever. Note for parking: I keep seeing that they have self-park, but I've never been able to. If they do I don't know where it is, or I'm always there when it's full enough that they decide not to offer self-park. (The first time I went there a few years ago I asked and they said it was full.) Something like that. Valet was efficient, had my car pulled up in just a few minutes when I was checking out. They seemed to have a big convention group at the hotel, so my bid picked up probably one of the few remaining rooms that they may have released only that weekend. This may have been a sweet spot, whereas my bid in March 2009 was even more last minute when there must have been somewhat more demand. Or perhaps because that room I got last year was so much nicer, they put it out there at a higher price. Either way, one year later this still looks to be a great place. I get so spoiled with Priceline bids, hate when I have to go somewhere and pay $100 for a much lesser room at the Holiday Inn Express or such. :)
QUICKQUOTE [X]
PRICELINE & HOTWIRE on one screen!
NOTE: Priceline searches for
DOUBLE OCCUPANCY ONLY
Room %roomN%:
Age of child:
FINDFAST[X]
EXCLUSIVELY at BetterBidding:
10% OFF

PRICELINE COUPON


(click here) and use

promo code

: EASTEREGG

(Hotel and Car Express Deals max $60 discount... expires 03/31/2024)
×
×
  • Create New...