ElPal

Just taught my brother-in-law how to use PRICELINE. Using your PRICELINE link he managed to get the NH Barbizon Palace for $115 per night. Not the hotel he was hoping for but still a reasonable deal for a hotel which has free wifi I think. It was the first bid. We had noted a PRICELINE EXPRESS deal at $144 which had in its amenitites mention of a casino. We thought that chances were it would be the same hotel for the NYOP part but my guess is that actually it wasn't. Any idea what the casino one might be?

In the end, my sister decided to skip Florence and to stay in Milan from 7-12 October instead and I have created threads for the hotel wins for these dates. Thanks for your help.

After the disasters this morning plus having already bid quite high for the 5 day period of 7-12 October and having run out of free rebids (there are only 2 zones without 4 stars so that means I only have 4 bids), I decided to try for the shorter period of 10-12 October for Old Town - Duomo using your PRICELINE link. I bid upwards in $5 increments from $135 (where I had had success in the other zones) and managed to get this hotel at $175. As always, I closed out between bids and re-entered via your PRICELINE link. It doesn't have the best reviews (4/10) but will have to do. The location is good and it has free wifi so all in all, it will do. This is a new property for the PRICELINE hotels list. Also the zone was Old Town - Duomo (Milan has many zones in PRICELINE now).

Firstly, this hotel was for the Milan (South West zone) so you may need to change your city zones as it seems Priceline has recently reclassified them. After stupidly selecting NE Milan instead of just Old Town for 4* for the first booking which I have reported, I then managed to make yet another mistake when trying again. Using your PRICELINE link, this time I managed to add "Southwest Milan" as a rebid zone (as I am so used to bidding at 5* for Milan over the last few days) except that it isn't a free rebid zone - it is a zone that has 4* hotels in it and obviously again when I am stupid and not paying attention (I am trying to organise everything for my sister who flies out tomorrow) mistakes are made. Same deal as last time. I called PRICELINE and explained it was the wrong zone. They offered the same deal as before: immediate refund of 4 nights and hold onto 1 night as a cancellation fee until I give them a new reservation number at which time they will refund the 1 night minus $25. So unfortunately my 2 mistakes have cost $50! However, I am glad that despite the no cancellation policy, PRICELINE was good enough to do this. So now, let's hope for third time lucky!

Tried our luck at getting a 4* in Milan instead. Using your PRICELINE link, I mistakenly selected North East (thinking of Westin) instead of Old Town Duomo and of course when I did that the bid was accepted. Accepted at $135/nt + fees being a total of $764.70. I note this is a property which is not yet on the Priceline Hotels list. I called Priceline and explained I had mistakenly bid on NE Milan and they agreed to refund as follows: Refund 4 x nights immediately then hold onto 1 night until I make another booking and provide them with the new booking confirmation number at which time they will refund the last night minus a $25 change fee. I am yet to find a hotel for all 5 nights.

Yes we did. Strange thing is that PRICELINE did have the extend your stay available for the initial part of the stay - oh well it is a way to work out which of the 2 hotels she prefers and fortunately they are around the corner from each other.

I have now tried for 5* in the Old Town - Duomo zone. Still no luck. Using your PRICELINE link to search and for each rebid, I bid as follows: $140, $145, $150, $155, $160, $165, $170 and $175. Unfortunately no counter-offers were made either.

Tried bidding for Florence for 7-10 October (this stay was never going to be any longer than that in Florence but it may be that my sister ends up just in Milan for this period) using your PRICELINE link and closing out and re-entering via your link for rebids. I have bid $140, $150, $155 and $160 - no counter-offers were made.

I tried for 10-12 October period on that day using your PRICELINE link and closing out and reusing your link for each redid. No luck there either. Started at $148 and went to $178 with no counter-offers made for this shorter period. For the 7-12 October period, I have just tried again now using your PRICELINE link. This time I made the following bids for NE Milan: $148, $148, $150, $160, $165, $170, $175, $178, $180, $182, $185. At no point was I offered a counter-offer, whereas this is the date range for which I was previously offered a counter-offer of $212 from my lowest bid of $150. Also, I have looked at HOTWIRE and noticed that there are not many properties for Milan for these dates (not sure whether they are updating inventory at the moment).

Success! Managed to get the Hilton Molino Stucky Amenities: Pet friendly Near Beach Fitness Center Pool(s) Restaurant(s) Business Center Laundry Facilities (self-service) High-Speed Internet Access Spa Services The "near beach" was a dead giveaway as was the little "Book soon! The last person got the Molino Stucky Hilton - Venice." bubble that appeared above the hotel details on Hotwire. Has anyone noticed these - they are a great strong hint of what the hot deal hotel is. Fantastic rate for the dates - got it for 177 USD + fees per night = total $412 The rate on the hotel's own website is 594 euros per night! PS We need to add "Giudecca Island" as a drop-down and city zone as that is what this hotel is classified as on Hotwire. I have selected Venice (Venice) above only because this option was not available

As indicated in my previous Italy thread which was merged by a moderator by accident, my sister is looking to stay in either Florence or Milan for 7-10 October but will be in Milan from 10-12 October regardless. She is attending the Linea Pelle fair in Bologna and does not want to stay in Bologna. In Milan, she had some luck with the Westin Palace for her April stay and would love to stay there again. Accordingly, we are aiming for 5* in the NE Milan zone. One week ago, I tried bidding using your PRICELINE link for the 7-12 October at $140 and then closed out and re-entered each time via your link and added free rebid zones. We bid $145, $148, $155 and $160 at which point we received a counter-offer of $213. We didn't continue to bid. I also tried bidding for 10-12 October with the same process of closing out and re-entering via your rebid link each time when adding free rebid zones. I bid $125, $126, $128, $130, $135, $140, $145 and $150. No counter-offers were received. One week on, I have tried again with your PRICELINE link and again closing out between each bid when adding new zones for the whole 7-12 October period. I bid $148 which was rejected. I then bid $150 and received a counter-offer of $212 ($1 less than the previous week's counter offer). I bid $155, $161, $165, $168-$182 (in $1 increments) all of which received the same counter-offer. I know there's no exact science to these things but given that the counter-offer first appeared at $150 this week, I had thought that perhaps half way between the price bid when it appeared and the price counter-offered may have been where we would get lucky - that would have been $181. No such luck. Now, I will try for the 10-12 October period as my sister will definitely stay in Milan for those dates even if she does end up in Florence from 7-10 October.

Thanks Romelle. You're right that the Youth Hostel is going to be a no go Mestre also a no go. Didn't know that Lido was so nice and close too so I will have a look there. I will continue to use the BB PRICELINE link and HOTWIRE link and will report back.

Thanks Romelle - splitting the stay was your brilliant suggestion and it worked so well!

Thanks. I do try!

Also, of note is that they don't have to move very far between the 2 hotels that they ended up getting. The hotels are literally next to each other - one faces one street and you turn the corner and the other is right there!

As posted previously in the thread which improperly became merged, my sister is looking for a hotel for a 2 night stay from 5-7 October She was hoping not to pay more than about A$230 per night after the taxes and fees (which is about US$215). Using your HOTWIRE link, I looked at 4* properties, but there wasn't to anything in the right range for 4* in Venice proper. I don't want them to have to stay on Lido or on Mestre. Using your PRICELINE link, I looked at the express deals but again. Nothing in the budget. Using your PRICELINE link, I have just tried to bid (not expecting any luck but my sister wanted me to give it a shot) at $160 per night but that was rejected and no counter-offer was made. I then closed the window and re-entered using your PRICELINE link. This time I added Murano for a free rebid and tried $170 per night. This was also rejected and no counter-offer was made. Any suggestions? My sister flies out to Europe on Thursday so we are hoping to have all the accommodation sorted before then - hopefully in the next day.

Thanks Romelle, I will now start a new Venice thread and shortly a Milan thread.

As posted in my other thread for Paris, I looked at the express deals using your PRICELINE link. I saw one for $127 per night and decided it was probably the Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile and thought I would bid at 10% off, which would be $115 per night. I used your PRICELINE link and I bid $115 per night which to my surprise was accepted! This is a saving of 57% off of the hotel's own website's rate! Thank you for all of your wonderful assistance. Sadly this hotel is not for me but for my sister but I am sure that she is going to enjoy it!

As stated above, I managed to get this on the second bid of $163. I had seen the express deal for a 4* in the area for these dates and had assumed that it was going to be this property. The express deal that I saw using your PRICELINE link was $171 so I tried 10% off which was $155 which was rejected with an immediate counter-offer of $178. I went out and back in using your links, selected the other Champs zone for a free rebid and tried 5% off the express deal which was $163 and it was accepted! I am very happy with this result as it is 52% off the rate shown on the Meridien Etoile's own website! Thank you for your help.

Thank you for your suggestion of splitting dates. It has finally gotten us some success! I had a look using your PRICELINE link at the express deals for 27-30/9 and then 30/9 to 2/10. I saw 4* Champs Elysees properties that I thought looked promising. I decided to bid 10% less than the per night price shown in the express deals. Using your PRICELINE links always, for the period 27/9 - 30/9, I went in and bid $155 per night instead of $171 per night it was shown for in the express deal. This was rejected but a counter-offer was made of $178 - more than the express deal. I decided to try 5% off instead so that was $163 per night and it was accepted straight away: Meridien Etoile This was a saving of about 52% off the rate shown on the hotel's own website. I will start a new thread for the other dates given that this was a split stay - however just so you know... I got the Hyatt Regency from 30/9 to 2/10 (which was as expected) on the first bid of $115 per night which was 10% less than the express deal price I saw using your PRICELINE link. Thank you so much for your help! My sister will definitely be happy with these results even if it is not the Opera area she had hoped for.

Thanks I had also suggested that to my sister. Using your PRICELINE link, I have made the following attempts for 4* hotels without success: CHAMPS ELYSEES ARC DE TRIOMPHE and free rebid zones (each time closing out and re-entering via your link): $120, $125, $130, $135, $140, $145, $150, $155, $160, $165, $170 and $175 - no counter-offers either EIFFEL TOWER and free rebid zones (each time closing out and re-entering via your link): $130, $135, $140, $145, $150, $155, $160, $165, $170 and $175 - no counter-offers either ST GERMAIN and free rebid zones (each time closing out and re-entering via your link) $140, $145, $150, $155, $160, $165, $170 and $175 - no counter-offers either Also, something I've noticed is that although I have ticked the box to receive email notifications of replies, for the little while I haven't been getting the email notification although there have been replies. It has not gone to spam or junk either. Simply not received at all.

In addition, that week is Paris Fashion Week so there would be lots of people in Paris for that.

I tried OQW again via your PRICELINE link (and again closing out and re-entering via your link when adding free rebid zones). Bid as follows: $150, $155, $160, $165, $170, $175, $180, $190 and $195 - no success and no counter-offer. As the stay is now 6 days away I have told my sister she really needs to consider other areas such as Champs Elysees - Arc de Triomphe, St Germain and Eiffel Tower - Trocadero. We will see...

Thanks Romelle. My sister has her heart set on OQW where they scored the Westminster Paris for their March stay even though it had not been reported to the board as won in that zone for years prior or even in the time since they managed to get it. That said, she is starting to realise that she may need to either increase budget or change zones. With that in mind, we have just tried bidding on OQE using your PRICELINE links and closing out and re-using your link for each rebid. We bid at $130, $135, $140, $145, $150, $155, $158, $159 and $160. No luck and no counter-bids. I have been keeping an eye via your HOTWIRE link at the deals there but again my sister is looking for 4* and is hoping not to pay more than about $220 AUD per night.

We are now 8 days away from the date of stay and have still not had any luck finding a Paris hotel in the OQW area at 4*. Using your PRICELINE link as always and closing out and re-entering via your link again between bids, we made 16 bids (establishing that there are 15 free rebids using the 4 rebid zones and their combinations) from $150/nt up to a final bid of $185/nt. No counter-offers were received. Any tips on what to do from here?