Priceline Hotel: Bidding strategy help needed for New York State

[Grownling]

Tomorrow (22nd June) I fly from the UK to Toronto. I am doing a driving tour around Lake Ontario exploring the area. I dont know the area at all.

On Thursday 23rd June I am booked into a hotel in Kingston, Ontario.

On Friday 24th June I am struggling.

On Saturday 25th June, I am booked into a Super 8 in Hamburg. Not an especially good deal, but I was struggling. Having booked direct, I can cancel up to 6pm on the day if I find anything better.

On Sunday 26th June I am Booked into a hotel in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

My plan on Friday 24th June was to stay in Rochester, with the fall back being Syracuse.

Any suggestions for a bidding strategy for the Friday and Saturday night? And/or places to go? I'm only intending to spend the 2 nights in the USA. Also my hire car KM is capped at 1000KM for the round trip from Toronto (beyond which I will have to pay a fee per KM) - so me mileage is limited. (As the crow flies, it looks to be about 800KM around lake ontario)

My primary concern is "value for money", so I am looking for a good deal, however a certain standard of cleanliness and quality of hotel is also very important to me (I tend to use Trip Advisor ratings as my benchmarks). That's not necessarily related to star rating, I believe a good 3* is far better than a bad 4* - but generally of course I use 4* to mean "better" than 3*.

My bidding so far for the Friday night, which has failed, has been (in no particular order and hopefully accurate from scribbled notes):

Rochester, Pittsford, 3* failed to GBP

[thereuare]

Thank you for sharing your failed bid history.

It would be appreciated if you used the requested PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your future travel bidding, searches and travel purchases.