trvl3

Gotten on first bid. Total cost $46.21 per room.

Hotel not currently on list in this area. Not to be confused with others of this brand in Chantilly and Tysons Corner which are on list, or with 3* Fairfax Marriott Fair Oaks just a few blocks away. Had unsuccessfully bid for 3* in Fairfax up to $46 and in Tysons Corner up to $47 using Falls Church East (nothing above 2*) for free rebid, and for 2.5* in Fairfax at $43 at which point I was offered free rebid if I went up $14. Instead I went up $6 and got this Courtyard.

Total charges $68.27 Saturday night arrival, one night, but extension offered at same price. Bid $50 for 3* in Tysons Corner-Falls Church area, rejected. Added Falls Church East (nothing above 2*) for free rebid, raised bid to $55, accepted. This is the Tysons Corner Marriott, not the Fairview Park Marriott in Falls Church. I have stayed here before, very desirable hotel in heart of Tysons Corner office/retail area, right next to Tysons Corner Center.

Priceline accessed through SavingsBarn.com link Total charges $58.63 Won on first bid.

This is the Radisson Philadelphia Northeast in Trevose, virtually on the Philadelphia/Bucks County line. Total charges were $67.86. Entry and re-entry to Priceline was made under the SavingsBarn.com link. This was an instance when I was bidding for a same-day stay, and my first choice area was Horsham/Willow Grove in Priceline's Philadelphia Suburbs group. But this time, circumstances made my second choice area, way ahead of any other area in Philadelphia Suburbs, to be Trevose/Bensalem in the Philadelphia group. So although geographically these two areas are right next to each other, I couldn't combine them in the same bid....or at least I don't currently know of a way to do that......Thereuare? Anyway, after getting bids rejected at $45 for 2.5* and $39 for 2* in Horsham-Willow Grove (no free rebid areas for these, and no 3* in the area) I went over to Trevose-Bensalem and won this 3* for $53 on first bid. Actually I was surprised to get a 3* at this price as both looking at Hotwire and by the fact my $39 at Horsham was rejected (that seems to be enough to usually win the Homestead in Horsham on Saturday nights) I figured it was a high price night in the general area. Since there are some free rebids available for 3* at Trevose-Bensalem, maybe I should have started lower.

As one who has posted some of those "amazing" prices for the Marriott Westfields, I can advise others bidding on this hotel that all but one of them have been for Friday or Saturday nights. Partly because of its "hidden" location, this hotel is not well known by the general public even locally, and a lot of its business comes from conferences, which are its "niche." Because these are seldom held on weekends, the Priceline price for the Westfields goes even more dramatically down on weekends than it does other hotels in Northern Virginia, even thogh this pattern is in general true of No. Va. hotels since the area is much more a business than tourist destination. In a way this is odd and a great opportunity for the Priceline purchaser, since the Westfields has a resort feel, secluded in a forest with Old Virginia Hunt Country Manor architecture. and is a great weekend getaway hotel. But sometimes you can score a great deal on a weeknight at the Westfields if its conference bookings are slim....for instance, even though sgriff had to go up to $201 on a Thursday night to get the Westfields, and I otherwise have not found it available on weeknights for anything like I've gotten it on weekends, I did win it once on a Thursday night for $50.

Accessed Priceline through SavingsBarn.com link Total Charges $58.07 Won on first bid for 3*, bidding Tysons Corner area only. This was a night when Tysons Corner was actually my first choice location, unless I could get the 4* Marriott Westfields in Dulles, my favorite hotel in Northern Virginia, for $50 as I have a couple of times on weekends in the past. Bidding 4* in Dulles, I was offered a free rebid if I would go up to $64. Based on past experience, I estimated that meant I would win for about $58. No need to go for their free rebid given the many naturally available free rebid opportunities when bidding for 4* in No. Va., as long as one remembers to avoid using Fairfax, where lurks the Hyatt Fair Lakes, a 2* masquerading as a 4*. Thought about at what rate the greater convenience of Tysons Corner on this occasion, if I could get one of their fine 3*, would outweigh my liking of the Westfields and the probable rate of $58 there. Came up with $46, bid it, and voila, the McLean Hilton. I was pleasantly surprised and a little amused to get this particular hotel at this low price. One of them is that I know this to be the favorite spot in No. Va. for Republican fundraisers featuring President Bush. I wonder how many of those paying $10,000 a table at one of those affairs know they're doing so in a hotel where rooms can be had for $46! Also, I used to work across the street, and have been in their lobby, bar and restaurants many times, but never stayed overnight, and it will be interesting to finally do so. The public areas, at least, are very impressive.

All access to Hotwire and Priceline through the link at Savingsbarn.com Amenities: Kitchenette, Laundry (self-service) Total charges $86.95 This is obviously a tough night for good deals in the Dulles area (big convention?), and it happens to be a night when I need to be geographically inflexible about staying in that particular area. After bids on Priceline, using free rebid areas, up to $175 for a 4* or 3*, and up to $68 for 2*, all were rejected, I went to Hotwire for this 2* at $74 in South Dulles because Hotwire has North and South Dulles areas while Priceline does not, and knowing I was guaranteed a place in the South area was worth a few dollars to me. I have stayed at this Homestead before and it is quite acceptable. I did not bid separately for 2.5* in Dulles on Priceline because in my observation, the 2.5*'s in this area are indistinguishable in room quality (as opposed to in amenities, which are not so important to me) from the 2*'s. All are fairly recently built and seem to have reasonably spacious, well maintained rooms.

Pettifogger, I got almost exactly the same deal a few weeks ago and was very happy with it. The Marriott is extremely centrally located a couple of blocks from City Hall, the public areas are quite impressive, and my room was very nice. Not far at all below 4*, and a great bargain at that price. As you have learned, except for some weeknights when the Hyatt Regency will unload some rooms at a low rate, you have to bid pretty high by PL standards to get one of the 4* in downtown Philly. I think you will almost certainly get better for value for your dollar with this deal than you would if you had bid high enough to get a 4*. Once when I was determined to get a 4*, I had to go up to 3 times as much as we paid for the Marriott to get one. It was the Sofitel, and yes the room blew away the Marriott, but it should have blown it even farther at three times the price. The trouble, as with all the downtown hotels, is that parking is murderously expensive. The big parking garage across the street from the hotel is a little better, but not much. Look (by my screen name as the originator)for the thread where I reported my win at this hotel--on it daHammer provided a link to a list of less expensive parking garages with i few blocks. If you will be parking a car, I'd definitely check it out.

Priceline initial access and all re-accesses done thru www. SavingsBarn.com Total charges $70.44 Minimum rate for this night on hotel web site $249.00 Using various combinations of free rebid zones, I bid up to $75 for 4* in Dulles area, hoping to get the Marriott Westfields, recently and deservedly upgraded to 4*, again. (I did not bid at 4* for the other area in Northern Va. with a 4* hotel, Fairfax, because I have stayed at that hotel, the Hyatt Fair Lakes, and consider it inferior to several of the Northern Va. 3*'s.) No luck. I then bid up to $67 for a 3* in Dulles, up to $59 for a 3* in Fairfax (yes, I know PL could have substituted the 4* Hyatt Fair Lakes, but at that point and at that price that would have been OK,) and up to $54 for a 3* in Tysons Corner, all unsuccessfully, before getting the 3* Marriott Tysons Corner for $57. At $51 for a Tysons Corner 3*, PL offered a free rebid if I went up to $65, which I did not do and am glad, since I saved $8.

Priceline accessed through SavingsBarn.com link Total Charges $49.76 Lowest hotel web site price for this night $109 Unsuccessful bids: Horsham-Willow Grove 2.5* $43 Horsham-Willow Grove 2* $39 Plymouth Meeting 3* $45 (PL offered free rebid at $58, but I declined.) Plymouth Meeting 2.5* $42 Notice $39 bid accepted in PM area, but not in Horsham-Willow Grove area, where I and others have gotten the 2* Homestead (fine) at $39 (me, for a Saturday night) or even lower in the past. Going to check out the rates for the SpringHill on the hotel site, I was surprised to see that the PM one (very new and nice according to Tripadvisor reviews) had a minimum of $109, while the Willow Grove SpringHill had a minimum of $179! Must be something special going on around Horsham and Willow Grove this weekend, driving up rates.

faithful, I was interested in your report about working your way through Philadelphia hotels because I am doing much the same thing. I agree that the Marriott downtown was very, very good and superbly located for central Philly--liked our view of City Hall! One hotel I have gotten thru Priceline not on your list is the Sofitel--the most beautiful rooms I have seen in the Philly area, very sleekly modern,very well located for Rittenhouse Square. We got a great view of the Liberty Place towers there! Service at both these hotels was excellent. The Sofitel is a 4* (and the highest ranked hotel in Philly--even over the Ritz and Four Seasons--on Tripadvisor.com) and I had to go well into three figures to get it, though, even on PL. If you want a good close-in suburban hotel with easy access to downtown sometime, that I have gotten for a good price on Priceline, try the Marriott West in West Conshohocken (PL's Pymouth Meeting-Norristown area, although I think there may be one other 3* in that area.) Not such imposing and beautiful public areas as the Downtown Marriott, but our room was even better than the one Downtown. And a big Philly plus--cheap, short walk self-parking, the charge waived entirely the Saturday night we were there. I have also hoped to get the Hyatt Regency sometime, but I notice that you were bidding for Saturday night, like I usually am. My observation from watching their web site is that their prices go way up for Saturday night. I think that is because they are the least business-oriented and most weekend getaway oriented of the major Philly hotels, due to their location. If you look back over the winning bids with the help of the calendar, I think you'll see that while people have reported excellent PL deals there on all other nights of the week, no one has gotten it for a Saturday night arrival. We have also stayed at the Crowne Plaza, where you are staying tonight, and it was my least favorite of my PL wins in Philly. People often do get it from PL at good rates, even on Saturday night, as you did. From reading the reviews here and on Tripadvisor.com, it seems that some people, including some with PL bookings, get upgraded to the Concierge level and are quite satisfied. But others, like us, have gotten standard (or less) rooms which, although well-appointed, were tiny and would probably be fine for one, but felt cramped and cheap for two. A desk clerk there told me that "All the Priceline rooms are that small" and that he couldn't upgrade us to Concierge level because the hote was sold out. I definitely didn't feel it was a 3* experience for us, despite that being its PL rating, although people who do get upgraded to Concierge disagree.

Alert to thereuare: This bid uncovered an important change in star ratings for Northern Virginia--up until very recently, there was no 4* in the Dulles area, but this hotel has been reclassified by Priceline from 3* to 4*. Now there are 4*'s in two Northern Virginia areas, here and Fairfax. Total charges $68.09. Entrance and both re-entrances to Priceline made through Savingsbarn.com link. 1. Bid 4* $40 Dulles -- rejected. 2. Bid 4* $45 added free rebid area Falls Church East (nothing above 2*) -- rejected. Exited and re-entered. 3. Bid 4* $50 Dulles and Manassas (another free rebid area, nothing above 2.5*) -- rejected. 4. Bid 4* $53 adding Falls Church East back in. Priceline allowed bid due to new combination (thanks for teaching me about this, thereuare), even though I had already bid in all 3 areas. But rejected. Exited and re-entered again. 5. Bid 4* $55 Dulles and Sterling (another free rebid area, nothing over 2.5*.) Won Westfields Marriott in Dulles area. I have stayed at both of the hotels in Northern Virginia classified by Priceline as 4*'s, and I think the Marriott Westfields' promotion to 4* is well deserved. It is a spectacularly plush hotel with distinctive Old Virginia architecture and a secluded, wooded location, much more resembling a destination resort in atmosphere than a typical Marriott. It's a little more distant from Dulles than most of the other airport area hotels, but not that much, and a little out of the way--you have to look for it inside an office park. Most of its business seems to be onsite conferences. Still, it's actually less than 5 minutes away from several other major chain hotels on major routes. I found it much preferable to the Fairfax area 4*, the Hyatt Fair Lakes, which struck me as a just OK 3* at best.

For anyone who may be following the discussion above who was also not sure how this works, I did some more experimentation last night with bids too low to be accepted. I answered my own question from my last post--after bidding A-B, B-C and A-C, you DO get another rebid by bidding A-B-C. And, further, after bidding A-B-C and A-B-D, you get another free rebid for bidding A-B-C-D. And so on. So what thereuare says above is confirmed to be right on the mark--only a subset (shorter version) of a previous bid is disallowed as a duplicate (as well as the exact same bid, of course.) Explained another way for those who might still be wondering what the implications of this are, as long as you have a new combination of areas, that haven't all appeared together in a previous bid, you'll be given a new bid, no matter how many times you have bid on any or all of those areas at the same star level as part of other combinations

I live near the Doubletree. It's not really new, but looks good from the outside (I've never been inside.) There's lots of restaurants and shopping nearby, and the West Falls Church Metro station, which has a large parking lot, is only 5 minutes drive. Much more is close by than at the relatively isolated Hyatt Fair Lakes, which you were trying to get, and at which I have stayed. Unless it's outstandingly close to your objective, don't feel bad about missing that one. It is fine but nothing special, clearly overrated by Priceline at 4*. I have won three nearby (Dulles area) Priceline 3* all of which I thought were much more desirable (Hilton Dulles, Marriott Suites in Herndon, Marriott Westfields in Chantilly) and the Doubletree may be too. I agree with Travelguy that the chain thereuare was trying to think of is almost certainly Anita's, which actually specializes in the food of the state of New Mexico. They have an interesting menu and represent an excellent value. Unfortunately, there isn't one really close to the Doubletree--the closest is in Vienna, about 10 minutes drive away, but it's the largest and nicest in the chain. From the Doubletree, go west on Leesburg Pike (Rt.7) and then south towards Vienna on Rt. 123 (Which is Chain Bridge Rd. at Tyson's Corner, but changes name to Maple Avenue in Vienna.) You'll see Anita's on the left just as you start to enter downtown Vienna. The best restaurant close to the Doubletree is Tara Thai, one of an excellent local Thai chain, in a small shopping center just a couple of minutes drive south on Leesburg Pike from the Doubletree. A little upscale from Anita's, enough so to work as a date restaurant, but still not very pricey, and an excellent value.

Thanks, Hammer, for the link and the thoughts. I'll definitely use this lot, since I read that valet parking at the Marriott is now $32!

Learn from my less than perfect bidding below: SavingsBarn.com link used. Bid 3* Downtown only $41--rejected. Added University (an acceptable alternative) $44, again 3*, rejected. Exited, started over with University plus Stadium (free rebid area),$47, 3*, rejected. Exited, started over with University only, $50, 3*, bid disallowed as duplicate. (Should have bid University alone before bidding it in combination with Downtown or Stadium.) Exited, started over with Downtown plus Stadium, 3*, $53, won Marriott Downtown, lowest price on web site is $179. A good deal, with which I'm satisfied, but with other rebid areas available, this bid amount was a mistake. According to my strategy, I should have bid $47 at this point. Seemed to momentarily assume I had already bid $47 and $50 at both Downtown and University when actually I had only done so at University, with my $50 bid at University not allowed. Too tired, didn't write out list of bids as I should have. Fortunately, only a $6 error at worst and probably less, possibly none.

thereuare, tried the above on new bidding last night (entry and all re-enties to PL done through the SavingsBarn.com link, as usual.) Where A and B were both areas with hotels in the bidded star level, and C was a free rebid area, I found that after bidding A alone, A+B, and B+C, I was indeed allowed A+C as a free rebid, as you said I would be, even though that was contrary to what I thought I had observed recently. But although I had not previously bid B by itself, an attempt to bid B alone after I had bid A+B and B+C was disallowed as a duplicate. Although I didn't get that far (my A+C bid was accepted) I think that means that if my A+C hadn't won, I would not have been able to get anther free rebid by doing A+B+C, even though that would have been a new combination, and to get more rebids I would have had to start over with A+D and B+D. Do you agree? If so, I think that was the situation I remember encountering earlier.

Thanks for the offer of help, thereuare, and I was aware that I traded being sure I got the minimum price I could have for saving time in this particular instance. I'm not holding this out as an example of optimal bidding. Your comment that I don't know for sure how much less than $52 I could have gotten this particular hotel for, since my bids of $39 and $45 didn't include the area I won in at $52, is of course valid. I was under some time pressure last night to come up with an exact hotel location to provide to someone else, which affected my bidding. Actually, though, I was pleasantly surprised to get a 3* for Saturday night only for $52 anywhere in the northern and western Philly Burbs, especially at what I believe to be the best and most expensive hotel in that particlar PL area grouping, and that's why I shared my results. My real expectation this time was that my serious bidding would be at the 2.5* and 2* level, for each of which I would have backed out and started over with individual area bids at $39. I won a quite acceptable 2* in Philly Burbs (Homestead Horsham) for $39 in the past. I'll take more time to get the very best price the lower the quality level I'm having to settle for. But I understand it's best to start with the highest star bid in an area if you think there's any possibility you'll want to bid at that star level in that area during your session, and I decided that I'd be quite happy to go up to $52 if I could get a 3* rather than a 2*, so I decided to do a quick $39 to $52 3* run to start, just to see if there happened to be a 3* available in that range. For times sake I took the shortcut of saying that the Marriott West, the only known 3* in Plymouth Meeting/Norristown, is a higher priced hotel than any of the three known 3* in Valley Forge, so if my $39 and $45 3* bids for VF were both rejected, as they ended up being, that would mean that PM/N 3* bids at those prices would be rejected too, and so I might as well save adding PM/N for the highest bid I was going to make. But I acknowledge this was a shortcut from the optimal strategy and it may have cost me a little, but I seriously doubt it was more than $2-$4 for my one night. A question for you, though--after I bid VF 3*, and bid again adding Horsham which has no 3*, I understand that optimal strategy would then have been for me to start over at $39 for 3* bidding PM/N only. But if that failed could I really have gotten a free rebid by adding Horsham (or VF) again? Seems like I have tried that before and found that even if the combination was different, if I had bid for that star level or lower in an area as part of any combination of areas before (within the 72 hrs.) PL would not allow a rebid for adding it. There had to be at least one area in any combo in which there had been either no bid, or only a higher star bid, before a rebid was allowed. Is this true, or did I miss something somewhere?

I started at $39 for 3-star Valley Forge--rejected. Started low because any of the 4 Philly Burbs areas were acceptable for me and one is a free rebid for 3*. Added Horsham as free rebid for 3*, bid $45--rejected. Added Norristown, bid $52, still 3*, got Marriott Philadelphia West in West Conshohocken (Norristown area.) I'm happy with hotel, price & location.

Lowest unrestricted rate on web site for Saturday night $97 (goes up to around $300 many weeknights) First bid for 3*, Dulles area only, at $46 accepted.

kittykathy, you might be interested in my post a few lines down about my experiences bidding for a 4* in Downtown for 6/11 only. Notice how far up I had to go. thereuare will probably have further guidance, but I bet you could get a 4* for Friday for much less if you requested that night only. In my observation, it takes a much higher bid to get a 4* in Phila on Saturday than any other night of the week. I think this is because you can get the Hyatt Penn's Landing for an excellent rate on other nights, but not on Saturday. That hotel appears to be much more popular with weekend getawayers than with business travelers, due to its relatively remote location from the business district but closeness to historic and entertainment sites. The problem is, of course, that if you bid separately on Priceline for Saturday, you might not get the same hotel. But maybe to save the money you wouldn't mind moving, or (particularly if you are interested in the Hyatt) you might save by getting a great Priceline rate for Friday and paying the same hotel's own rate for Saturday, over the bid they'd be willing to accept for a combination of the two nights. If size of room is important to you in bidding for a 4*, let me warm you that if you bid 3*, or go for a 3.5* on Hotwire, you may get the Crowne Plaza as I did recently, and my room there, while attractive and well equipped, was very small and felt too cramped for two people. In my opinion, Priceline and Hotwire should rate it below 3* for that reason. If you will be by yourself, and a nicely appointed but rather tiny room is satisfactory to you, then no need to worry about the possibility of getting this hotel. (Also, reading the reviews reveals that some people get upgraded to the concierge level, and have gotten considerably larger rooms than some of the rest of us have.)

thereuare, I notice that in the past you've taken the Saturday night indicator out of my topic descriptions. I wish you'd rethink that policy, as we who are frequent Saturday night bidders are well aware that prices for hotels whose clientele are predominantly weekend getawayers are likely to be radically different for Saturday night only than for stays involving weeknights, while the reverse is often true for hotels whose clientele are predominantly business travelers It would help us to be able to pick out Saturday night bids as we scan the topics. For instance, any other night of the week I probably would have gotten the Hyatt Regency Penns Landing, which seems to be the Philadelphia 4* most often won by far, for much less $ than this. And it was my first choice in this case. But I think because of its location, of the Downtown 4*'s it is probably the one least poular with business travelers and most popular with weekend tourists. Anyway, for the night in question the Sofitel was showing $169 at their web site and the Hyatt Regency $229. I bid up to $127 for a 4* without success, using all but one free rebid area, but with rejection at $127 Priceline offered me a rebid without any changes if I went up to $149. I tried $138 but it came back to tell me I had to bid $149 under the terms of the free rebid offer. I realize that instead of taking the offer, I could have added my remaining free area and bid $138, and maybe have received another free rebid offer from them if that was rejected. But in this instance it happened to be really important to me to get a 4*, to get it for this particular night, and to nail it down tonight. So I went up to their $149 and got the Sofitel. Although what I wanted was the Hyatt Penn's Landing at a lower rate, given the market conditions that seem to prevail for this particular evening, I am satisfied with the outcome. In this case, the true 4* level of luxury it sounds like, from the reviews, my companion and I will be able to count on at the Sofitel, was more important than being on the Historic/Waterfront side of Downtown. Had the reverse been true, though, I would have abandoned Priceline and gone to Hotwire, where you can specify that side of downtown, and what looks like it is probably the Sheraton Society Hill is available at $111.

Pleasant, medium-rise hotel, exceeded my expectations. Check in staff very cheerful and professional. Hotel looks sort of sixties institutional from the outside, surprisingly good inside. Hallway and room well exceeded average three star (admittedly, I was upgraded without charge to Concierege level.) Very convenient location right off NJ Turnpike; straight and easy shot both to Philadelphia and to Atlantic City, the last about an hour away. If you don't mind that commute, this is a good place to enjoy both very attractive accommodations and AC on a Saturday night for a fraction of what Saturday night AC prices would be for anything comparable. The room was spacious and well-appointed. Only negative was that the coffee-maker was a type I have never seen before and I couldn't get good coffee from it despite the fact I think I got the instructions right. I would be happy to be awarded this hotel on Priceline again (I got it for $58 on a Saturday night.)

Bid 3* $46 Cherry Hill--Mt.Laurel only, rejected. Added Gloucester-Runnymede-Deptford as free rebid zone, increased bid to $58, accepted.