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I won on priceline the Millennium for $48 in downtown STL with a 3 star bid. I will add it to the Priceline and Hotwire Calendar of Wins. I've stayed there before, it is one of the closest hotels to the Arch and they do have an indoor pool and a terrace restaurant, if I recall.

Prior to this win, I had bid $55 on 3.5 stars and had no results so I lowered my request to 3 stars and I'm happy that I saved a few dollars after striking out on Hotels.com.

First bid of $40 for 3* Charlotte downtown rejected. They counteroffered $55 and I declined.

Went back to my zone chart and expanded from downtown to also include UNC Charlotte university, and dropped my bid to $38 + tax.

Courtyard by Marriott accepts this bid. For a weekend stay and last minute booking, I couldn't be much happier.

There is articles in local papers most days for last few weeks about this Hotel - basically Hilton wants out and Wyndham wants in. Since the owner is currently in Bankruptcy, the time frame about when this will happen is unceratin.

I really enjoyed my stay there at the ex-Hilton last month and the view was great. I will go here again in a blink of an eye. However, as I mentioned on the other thread, they did accidentally double bill several guests in October. They are aware of the problem and will refund you if you call and ask. Please be advised to check the ccard you submitted at check-in for incidentals. Make sure if you pre-paid via hotwire that you didn't get another charge after your stay. This is good advice in general, just wanted to make sure that you got your heads up regarding this particular situation as well.

(cross posted)

This hotel was nice but they double billed me! I paid $100 to hotwire and then several weeks later the rooms were again charged to my incidental card, less about 25% (presumed to be hotwire's volume discount in this case) as Hilton Pittsburgh (even though that name no longer actually exists). I spoke with a hotel manager at the ex-Hilton to report that and she said she had experienced several problems like this due to the multiple billing systems running in parallel during the transition between Hilton, and the new franchise. I am told the refund (of the lesser amount, billed after my stay) is pending shortly and they did apologize for the error. I am glad I caught this on my statement since they were about a month apart, but I knew I had definitely prepaid and the amount on my statement didn't even match what I had been quoted.

I had found it strange that the hotel bill was slipped under my door which contained the secret hotwire rate, the cost hotwire was being charged by the hotel. This should have been a warning sign to me to check the payment method, which is how I caught up to the problem so quickly. I don't know if I would have.

I had questioned the clerk at checkout about how come I could be seeing hotwire's bills. Isn't that a term of service breach between hotwire and the hotel billing department? And not only that, doesn't it invite confusion (and even disdain) of the guest, not to mention potential double billing that occurred? The clerk seemed aware of the problem but not overly concerned because he acknowledged it was being worked on but sort of out of his reach.

I think you should all always audit your statements especially if you choose this hotel while they are in transition.

Happy to report! Got a weeknights stay for the rated four westin for only 70... Thanks betterbidding

great find, A13XY! as I will be visiting Pitt soon, I should take your experience into account. thanks for the scoop.

I was surprised, though, to not find this property listing (not even an address) on hilton.com, so How does one reserve it, without finding it on discount sites? I just wanted to see what it retails for.

and... tripadvisor has it as being a sold out property that particular weekend (one of many in the area that sells out on Browns/Steelers weekend).

Went through many options of getting a weekend bid into the downtown / Covington areas. Was not finding anything under $90 or above 3 stars, so I expanded my search to a region of last resort, which was university/central cincinnati. I did not get anything for 2.5 stars and $50, so I lowered my threshold further yet to $47 and 2 stars, and I won the Quality Inn Central, located off Route 22.

I saved $7.50 off the advance purchase rate for this property and I disqualified myself from getting my choice points. I feel like I just about broke even here and you can't win them all. Oh well.

Thanks priceline.

Well the dates in question turned out to be pretty high volume due to Fiddler on the Roof, U. Dayton Parents Weekend, Dayton football and soccer games at home. The DoubleTree, Marriott, and Courtyard are all 100% sold out.

I failed to book early enough, so now I'm staying in a motel down the road for $50. The only other alternative was to pay upwards of $149 to stay at CP in downtown (available on priceline but no discount). Wish I had booked in July for $100 but that's hindsight.

I tried to add on today and was rejected, then offered a rate of $189 for Sat on a room I paid 79 for on a Friday night. I did expect to get rejected, however, some new restrictions have been added, see below :

Please review the following when Adding Nights:

Availability is not guaranteed.

Nights will be added to all rooms on a multiple-room request.

Nights can be added either to the beginning or the end of your original request, not both.

Total amount of nights added can be up to the number of nights on your original request.

You may add nights to this request one time.

The option to Add Nights is only available up until 11am on the date of check-out.

In rare cases the hotel may require you to move rooms.

Your new Add Nights request will be booked as a separate request. Your original reservation remains unchanged.

Please use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases.

One question here. If Hotwire and Priceline both access the same booking system, then wouldn't that mean that no fare from Priceline will be below the fare at Hotwire if Hotwire always displays the lowest fare for a star zone? So if you're bidding on Priceline at a rate below the one offered on Hotwire you will not get it until your offer matches or is above the offer on Hotwire.

see above. HOTWIRE has different mark-up as a revenue mechanism, whereas PRICELINE siphons off more revenue on overbids. both sites also can make money on site advertising.

Hey,

I am looking for a two night stay in downtown pittsburgh. I would take the 3 star Hilton, but have had no luck. I have 10 priceline cash and have tried up to 75 a night with cash included. Anyone know how high I will have to go? I will settle for anything at this point higher than 3 stars in downtown.

Thanks

Frank

I too am trying to book Pittsburgh in October, different weekend though, with a $100 budget. Just submitted 3.5 star bids up to $85 which comes to 100 with tax and fees. My bid was NOT accepted. it is too soon to get a great deal under 100 so I stopped.

I will not submit a 3 star bid until the date gets closer. I don't think we'll have a problem booking if we wait til around Oct 10 because there are numerous 3+ hotels in this area.

It may matter less at this point, but bear in mind that although it was advertised by priceline as a $50 bonus, it in fact was a $10/night bonus that was capped at 5 days. I made a cool $20 off the bonus on a weekend bid.

Please use these PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links to begin your travel purchases.

Thanks thereuare and Skeet for the good recommendations. I will proceed as advised and will post the result.

Today I was rejected at $39 and $46. Will keep trying.

Please use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases.

Also, in the future you may be able to get a broader response posting something like this from a monitor in the general Hotwire Tips forum instead of Ohio's specific page which is for posting of Ohio bids and wins.

Please use the site's HOTWIRE or PRICELINE links to start your purchases and searches.

What browser are you using? Using IE6, I could not replicate your experience. My search came through with 2 adults and 1 child and did not revert back.

Why don't you put in a bid for 3 persons (adult) just to make sure you get enough beds. Does that give you a similar price, or higher?

I haven't been able to find an example of differences when I change the number of child occupants from 0 to 1. Doesn't mean these changes don't exist - I don't know in your case, but for the examples I just tried, the price isn't fluctuating when I switch from 1 person to 3 persons and change the number of children. Try this for your specific case and let us know.

Make sure to click this link before making your hotwire searches... Please use the site's HOTWIRE or PRICELINE links to start your purchases and searches.

First I logged in via the PRICELINE link to start purchases and searches.

I bid up to $44 for the same zones and added fairborn patterson. My bid was again rejected. I'm now considering myself to be temporarily out of options because I don't want to risk opening up the zones into another area 10 or 15 miles away and risk actually getting what I wished for. Are there any horror stories that could involve new hotels popping up without notice? I figure it's not worth the hassle if it ends up that way.

Hotwire has a $44 hotel offering I could fall back on but it is only rated 2-stars and there are no amenities. I'm thinking it could be Econo or maybe an unknown. I'm holding out for the 24 hour time limit and will bid again. I will continue to post results here on my October to be determined stay.

First I logged in via the PRICELINE link to start purchases and searches.

I bid $37 on 3-STAR hotels in Dayton downtown-(south) zone for Saturday 10/2/10. This bid created a red error message indicating that my bid was likely to fail given recent history. The average retail in this area is $137.

I bid $38 on 3-STAR hotels in Dayton downtown-(south) zone. This bid was rejected.

I bid $41 on 3-STAR hotels in Dayton downtown-(south) and also included the separate Dayton-South zone. This bid was rejected.

This appears to be a 2010 purchase not 2009. Mods or RedDevil, can you edit your post so that the calendar of wins is up to date?

Amenities: Fitness Center, Pool, Business Center

Sorry for the delay in posting. I stayed at Crowne Plaza in Oct of 2009 for a weekend stay at $102, and I suppose because there was baseball playoffs I couldn't get anything closer to Boston. The indoor pool is so tiny, it was like the size of 3 bathtubs. CP is in a rather nice residential area but a highway runs under the hotel property. Was charged $15 for parking by default even though I specified I did not drive... This was quickly resolved at the front desk. Stayed in a high number floor and therefore was not at all bothered by the highway noise that many reviewers have complained of. We walked to the T station and it felt like more than a mile and a half, it was a healthy little hike. I think it was $7 or so for a cab to a Newtown restaurant or to the T stations. I would definitely stay here again given the circumstances, but next time I think I will try earlier to get a downtown hotel so that I don't have to spend time getting to the sights of Boston.

FYI: Greentree is not all that accessible unless by car. The area roads have no sidewalks and are narrow. However, the Radisson provides a shuttle service to the airport for free and to the downtown areas by request for only $5. (A cab would have been up to $20.) Please tip the driver.

Please use the site's HOTWIRE and PRICELINE links to start future purchases.

Looking to go to Hartford for over the labor day weekend. First I tried to book all 3.5* and up in Downtown Hartford for $57. This bid was not accepted by Marriott, or anyone else.

I lowered my bid to $46 and this time included 3* and 3.5* properties in the same geographical area of Hartford downtown. My bid of $46 was accepted by the Crowne Plaza, on Morgan St.

The hotel charges $90 for its advance purchase so I saved about 50%.

I used the PRICELINE link to book this great deal and I'm happy I did.

I'm glad you were able to benefit from my post. If I don't see you while at the Rad, have a nice weekend!

Please use the site's HOTWIRE and PRICELINE links to start future purchases.

On a holiday weekend going to Pitt, I did not expect to do much better than the $70 or so being offered through Expedia Dot Com and other conventional channels, but it gave me the first good opportunity to check priceline. I submitted what I thought to be a lowball bid of $38 a night for a multinight stay, category of Pitt-Greentree. Despite my disbelief, The Radisson Greentree approved me at this unbelievable rate. Thank you!