JourneyMercies

I love checking this board and wish more people would post their "wins" here --- please --- it only takes a few minutes. Usually we go to Minneapolis yearly in the summertime. Last year we went several times but we used coupons we found online instead of bidding on PRICELINE each time. This was due to some of the bad experiences we have had with Priceline. You just never know where you will land up. We drive to Minneapolis so we do not want any of the downtown Hotels that you have to pay a fortune at nightly for parking. Also we prefer the middle of the road hotels that are nice but also offer a breakfast and free wifi. Often the higher star ones do not have these two above options. We also enjoy a pool and hot tub after a day of power shopping. A fridge to put some treats in is also nice because we try to not eat every meal @ a restaurant this if very helpful. So basically we have been bidding for the last two weeks or so to get a hotel in Minneapolis. The price that they would finally accept was way too high so we almost gave up. We figured if we had to pay that much to get a hotel we may as well just do an advance booking & get a good rate @ a location we actually "know" before we are locked in. Today we decided to try one last time or maybe not stay as long due to finances. We stared bidding @ $37.00 - we added Maple Grove - put less days & kept going up in $1.00 increments. Then we finally landed up with the 3 day booking @ Hampton Inn for Eagan in Minneapolis which was accepted!!! Very excited as we have stayed here before and enjoyed ourselves. Except for the fact that they only have double beds not queens & one year the backdoor which is a heavy metal door was tore @ the bottom. I didn't see this and it ripped off my entire Toe Nail and I almost fainted from all the blood. Some friends stayed there recently and jokingly let me know not to worry cuz the metal door has been fixed... just saying. So, the short of the story is (you are all saying well finally!) that we are very excited with our $41.00 plus $13.29 for Taxes and $13.05 Priceline Fees which gives us the grand 3 day total of $149.34. Thanks - Make it a great day & don't forget to POST your WINS!!!! :)

Started bidding @ $20.00 --- Bid for a few days only on 2* in this area in hopes of getting the Fairfield by MOA. Bid for $39.00 was accepted 2night. Sounds like an fine place for the price even though there is no pool or hot tub. Love going to Minneapolis as it is such a great place --- so much to see and do! Please add this La Quinta to the list as it is not on it. La Quinta Inn Minneapolis Airport Bloomington 7815 Nicollet Ave South Bloomington, MN 55420 P.S. Has anyone stayed @ this La Quinta & what are your thoughts?

:) Here is the update as requested: Rec'd a phone call from Priceline today. They will not delete the Grand Rios/Ramada MSP but they will however drop the rating from 2.5* down to a 2.0*. I would of liked to of seen them completely dump this horrible place but atleast they downgraded them. I think they use to be a 3 then they went down to a 2.5 and now down to a 2 --- can't they see that the correct thing to do is just get rid of this from their inventory. They could always bring them back once the hotel takes a little action and fixes the entire hotel up. Please change the hotel list to reflect this new 2* rating --- thanks & let's hope that no one else makes the mistake of bidding on this excuse that calls itself a Ramada Hotel!!!

Oh sorry the dates were: 10/13/10 - 10/18/10

Only stayed one night thankfully. Old hotel that needs to be renovated. Apparently the beds are new but they are extremely uncomfortable. Paid way too much for this place also. There is one good thing here - the hot tub is nice & it works. Otherwise the hotel is dark and not appealing at all. Would rather stay at a Fairfield/Hilton/Hampton or Country Inn anyday!!! Congratulations, your price of $46 was accepted by Park Plaza Bloomington. Park Plaza Bloomington Bloomington West - Mall Of America Area 4460 West 78th Street Circle Bloomington, Minnesota 55435 952-831-3131

We bid $42.00 for five nights for this DUMP!!! We were hoping to get the Country Inn and didn't even realize that this awful place was in the PRICELINE inventory. Yes - we are newbie's for sure. Lots to learn - that is if we ever even use PRICELINE again. Read my review in Hotel reviews if you want the GORY details!!! I am posting this to hopefully save someone else the horror of staying here. I wrote Priceline begging them to please take this hotel out of their inventory. Good luck with your bids.

We bid for a 2.5 and got this DUMP for $42.00 a night!!! (2010) Grand Rios Waterpark - Ramada Hotel Brooklyn Park Perhaps you are wondering what things warrant my description of the failings of this hotel. Please let me take a few minutes of your time to elaborate on such. First off the location is basically empty due to poor management. The occupancy was around 3% - 4% if you are lucky. The only time it goes above this is when the waterpark is open which is only for Friday and Saturday. When you arrive you will see that the carpets have stains at several locations throughout the hotel - especially in the rooms. The website looks like the rooms perhaps are nice. Pictures can be so deceiving. The towels are so thin you can almost see through them. Ever so often a new towel would show up in our room if we were lucky. The beds were very old and so uncomfortable due to the age of them. They probably were great beds several years ago just like the hotel once was. The second night of our stay here my friend that was staying in the room with me had to find a room that actually had hot water and an air conditioner that worked properly. Apparently her and a vey kind front desk person named Eric Williams went around to over 25 rooms before landing on one that had hot water and air conditioning that worked & was incredibly noisy. Please note that some of the air conditioners didn't have the instructions of what button was for what as this item has broken off from years of use. This was such a waste of good vacation time. Another waste of good vacation time was the 15-30 minutes that we had to wait each day in the morning and evening to actually get this hot water. We had to run the tap for this length of time in order for the hot water to actually come out hot and not cold. Are you ready cuz there is still much more unfortunately! The very first night we put our swim suits on after a long day to enjoy the hot tub. First off the water was not hot & when you turned the switch to put the jets on they just sputtered but didn't actually work. We reported this to the front desk - they reported it to maintenance who in turn said that nothing could be done regarding this situation. So no hot tub for three of the 5 nights that we stayed here. One of the best things after a long day is to sit in a operating hot tub. We would like to thank the attention and kindness of Benke (Denaz Pooniwala the Controller of the Hotel) who granted us permission to use the hot tub (in exchange for the non-operational hot tub) in the waterpark on Friday & Saturday for about 20 minutes each night. Even though we appreciated this it must be mentioned that we had to "ask" to be granted this permission even after asking for the hotel one to be fixed. It really didn't matter to us which one we used we just wanted one that operated for the full 5 nights that we endured staying here. The TV's didn't not work properly in some of the rooms. The room we finally landed up in ours did work. We received housekeeping for our room only for four of the five nights that we stayed. On Sunday night when we returned to our hotel the housekeeping had not bothered with our room at all. We reported this to the front desk and they said it could be done in the morning which was no avail to us. It was no avail to us due to the fact that this was FINALLY the day of our departure from this unorganized/unkept/filthy/not operational Ramada hotel. It must be an embarrassment to the Ramada name to even let this location use the name --- Ramada. I could think of much better names for this place but I will spare you the details. Please note that I would however - like to comment on the staff of this hotel which for the most part were very professional. The two men that most impressed us would be Eric Williams and the Controller of the hotel. I personally would consider putting Eric Williams in charge of this hotel as he seems more than qualified. Both men tried to do their jobs to the best of their ability --- it is not their fault that they are working with a sub standard product. This hotel really could be operating in the black if they opened the waterpark daily - included it in the hotel price (to get the clients back) - did MASSIVE renovations & a little advertising. They would also need to send Mark from the front desk for a makeover & how to deal with people seminar or perhaps provide him with a uniform allowance and guidelines of what is appropriate to wear to provide a good reflection on the hotel. Well - you would think that by now i would be doing my closing remarks. I wish this was true. Upon our arrival back in Canada I checked my Credit Card bill online. I was totally shocked to see a $93.29 charge from the Ramada hotel in Minneapolis. We had left our credit card number as requested for incidentals. We did not incur ANY incidentals at the hotel & therefore this is not an authorized charge. Both of us have called the hotel several times to see what this charge that was posted the day AFTER we left was for. Each time we have called we received no answer from the people we spoke with and we were told that someone would return our call. We still have NOT received a return call and the hotel has still not reversed this charge. It is a wonder that this hotel has not shut down completely. Thank you kindly for taking the time to read this unfortunate way that we had to spend our vacation in Minneapolis. We wanted to mention that the first part of our vacation was splendid at the Fairfield Hotel Minneapolis which we also bid for on Priceline. This hotel was far beyond our expectations - it was FANTASTIC!!! They deserved every dollar we paid to Priceline for staying there unlike our stay at this Ramada. Whatever you do - DO NOT - stay at this hotel. Use the waterpark cuz it is nice but PLEASE stay elsewhere. (Also don't bother with the Park Plaza or Le Bourget (unless they give you a renovated room at Bourget - ask to see the room!)

Started bidding @ $27.00 in the Eagan area for a 2.5* (Declined) Second bid was $28.00 in the Eagan area for a 2.5* --- we changed from 3 days to 1 day. (Declined) Third bid was $29.00 in the Eagan area for a 2.5* --- we also added Fridley as there are only 1*s there. (Declined) Fourth bid was $30.00 in the Eagan area for a 2.5* --- left Fridley on the list & added Eden Prairie (Declined) Fifth bid was $34.00 in the Eagan area for a 2.5* ---- Fridley/Eden Prairie/Added Airport MOA (Accepted for Fairfield Inn/Mendota Heights/Eagan!!!) All five of these bids were done in one evening. This is my first post here --- but i LOVE this site & use it all the time. If you are reading this & have never posted please start posting & also remember to make your bids from the PRICELINE link here. I named my price for a hotel room in Mendota Heights, MN at Priceline and my offer was accepted. Here are the details on where I'll be staying: Hotel: Fairfield Inn And Suites By Marriott Minneapolis St Paul Airport 1330 Northland Drive Mendota Heights, Minnesota 55120 USA Taxes per a night on top of the $34.00 are $7.14 per a night.