Hotwire Hotel: 3.5* Montreal (Downtown) Holiday Inn Midtown

[Travelgirl22]

I snagged this after frantically bidding on Priceline for a room during the very busy Canada Day/Jazz Fest/Royal visit weekend. My fault for splitting the bid. I won a priceline bid at the Wed.-Fri. night at Le Centre Sheraton for a $101/nt, and I'd hoped to eventually extend the visit for the same price or more. Rooms in the city became more scarce, and my bid attempts at 4* were not successful. I'd see rooms on Priceline for $262, and I tried bidding half, $130, but no go.

At 3:30 am on the date of checkout, HOTWIRE showed 1 room available in the city, a 3.5* hotel in downtown Montreal. I booked the Holiday Inn Midtown for $193/nt. It's not a bad hotel but I'd question the rating because the room was kinda small and could use an update. But there was a nice restaurant downstairs and it was close to public transportation and the jazz Festival. I've been to Montreal at least 7 times and never had this much problem getting a room. I'd figured with the recession that hotels would not sell out. But there truly was very little room at the inn this time.

Can't thank you all enough for your help. I didn't mind switching hotels, but I wonder why if Priceline had hotels when the hotel websites showed them as fully booked, why was it so hard to get a room? If the inventory is low, should I avoid bidding altogether and go to Hotwire? :)

[thereuare]

Congratulations on your success!

While not cheap in dollar terms, glad to see you found something during this very busy time in the area.

Can you please add a reply to this thread with the amenities shown before your purchase... you can still view this information by going to HOTWIRE and clicking the MY ACCOUNT link near the top right of their home page.

As far as 'why bid on PRICELINE'... from your post it doesn't appear that you bid less than 4* nor did you bid as higher than $130, is this correct? So it's possible that this property could have been available on PRICELINE for less then you paid thru HOTWIRE.

Thank you for sharing your win with the board.

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

Enjoy your stay.

[Travelgirl22]

Here are the amenities listed for Holiday Inn Midtown: Fitness Center, Business Center, Pool, Spa services, Laundry facility, Restaurant, High Speed Internet Access.

I actually bid up to $160 for a 4*, then at one point I did a new bid for a 3.5* but with no luck. I can go back and check my bids if you want to know; it was kinda of a blur!

[AaronJB]

Thank you for the follow-up.