Priceline Hotel: 2.5* Boston (Cambridge-Brookline) Residence Inn

[steve16823]

Okay, using a previously sucessful bid as a guide (a few posts down), I tried the following:

Dates 3/13 - 3/15 (2 rooms)

3* Cambridge - $40 (rejected)

3* Cambridge + Copley $50 (rejected)

Now, i'm not sure whether to expand my search into Boston or reduce my star level to 2.5, and perhaps increase bid to $60.

Right now i'm booked at the Marriot on a regular reservation for $159+/night, and I'm splitting the room with another guy. On Priceline I'm looking for two rooms b/c they can't guarantee the number of beds in the room, and I'm not willing to take the risk of ending up sharing a room with 1 Queen with a guy I hardly know! So, technically, I could go $80 and break even, but the Marriott location is close to where i need to be (Stata Center).

[steve16823]

Update:

I discovered there were two "free zones" (zones that had no 3-star and above hotels), so I resubmitted my bid:

3* Cambridge+Copley+Medford $60 (rejected)

3* Cambridge+Copley+Medford+South Boston $70 (rejected!)

How frustrating! Supply must be dwindling in Cambridge. At $70+fees i'm getting close to my "break even" point for the $159+ room I already have booked.

I'm wondering if priceline will let me go back to my original area (Cambridge only) and add two-and-a-half stars to the bid and resubmit (at $60 if I can), or if that will be considered a duplicate bid. It shouldn't be, since it's different than any bid before.

[thereuare]

You could go back to Priceline and lower your star quality, but how about...

On HOTWIRE you can search for up to quad occupancy, essentially guaranteeing you two beds in the room (in extreme circumstances the hotel could resort ot giving you a rol-a-way or a pull-out couch, but i suspect this would be very rare). If you search for 3 people there is a 3* hotel in Cambridge for $115/nite (i'm guess it may be the Radisson).

Not sure how that works out for your plans or if your goal is quality, price, location, etc... but it's certainly one way of saving a few extra dollars.

Please use this HOTWIRE link if you book the above.

[steve16823]

Great idea on the quad occupancy, I didn't know you could do that on HOTWIRE.

I'll keep that in mind next time, but I've booked rooms on Priceline a few minutes ago. Here's the rest of the story:

Started a new bid:

2.5* Cambridge $50 (rejected)

Then, I added the "World Trade Center" area, which only has 3 and 4 star hotels. I was taking a small risk that I would get a 3* room there, but it was a risk I was willing to take (subway is convenient). So:

2.5* Cambridge + WTC $60 ACCEPTED! Residence Inn Cambridge Center.

This is right next door to the Mariott I had reservations at, and now I have two rooms at $40 less per night than the original one room.

The residence inn is an all-suite hotel, so it could be the quad occupancy hotel on HOTWIRE.

[thereuare]

Congratulations on your success!

Took a bit of effort, but glad to see it all worked out well for you in the end.

Thanks for the post and enjoy your stay.