Priceline Hotel: 4* Paris (St Germain-Latin Quarter-Montparnasse) Marriott Rive Gauche

[zzricezz]

I have been trying for a month now trying to bid for a 4* hotel in Paris for my Sept4-8th stay.

I have been starting the following.

$100 - Eiffel Tower - Porte De Versailles - Montparnasse

$105 - St. Germain - Latin Quarter - Montparnasse

$110 - Champs Elysees - Arc De Triomphe

$115 - Opera Quarter West - Jardin des Tuileries

$120 - Opera Quarter East - Les Halles

So far I have resisted adding La Defense cause it out of the way and looks like I will have to pay extra fares for metro.

Should I continue to try until Mid Aug? or start bidding for 3* starting at $75 up to $100. Should I even consider 4* at Bastille - Bercy and Batignolles - Montmartre - Republique before trying 3*?

I'm not familar with those 2 latter area cause I don't see much people bidding for them.

Thanks for any advice.

[hopecookies]

hey i'm running into the same problems. I've been trying mid-September.

basically I'm coming to this conclusion... with supply and demand... Airfare goes down in Sept after summer season, so the people traveling at that time hit the wall of more competition for hotel rooms. More conferences and things like that start up in the fall too. I've been trying for 4* Paris w/o selecting La Defense, and been coming up empty up to $135.

also, your bids for OQW and OQE are too low.

The winning bids I saw for OQW were all above $140.

[Romelle]

So far I have resisted adding La Defense cause it out of the way and looks like I will have to pay extra fares for metro.

I stayed in the La Defense area a year ago. I bought strips of metro tickets (carnets) and used them. The rate then was the same for La Defense rides - one ticket, as it was for rides in other areas.

I looked for a while on the web just now, but can't find any indication that rates are extra for La Defense.

The Pullman hotel I got there worked very well for our visit. The metro ride might have been a few minutes longer to get into the main area, but that was about the extent of the problem. The area is office park, with a McDonalds, some nice bars, a shopping center. Probably no night life, but that isn't me anyway.

I did review the hotel - under the Hotel Reviews tab. "F"

Romelle

[zzricezz]

Thanks for your input Romelle.

I have research the metro fare system and La Defense is a zone 3 fare and I thought the T+ carnets tickets is for zone 1-2 only. But looking at the map there is a metro stop at the boarder of La Defense that is still consider zone 2. Maybe that is the metro stop you took? So unless I can walk from that stop to the hotel, then I'm assuming I will have to pay an extra fare to get to the hotel.

[Romelle]

We were getting out at the Arch. Line 1. I don't remember the exact station name, but think it had "arch" in it. It was the very first/last stop for the line. And that was the closest station to our hotel. I suppose it will depend upon which hotel you get if you bid the La Defense zone. You might look at all the reported hotels in the hotel list (first post in this Priceline-Other Countries area), and see if the other ones could also work for you.

Romelle

[tootall17]

Hi,

I am also bidding but for the date 09/27-10/3, 4 stars and I bid the same areas and went all the way up to $157 with no luck. Does anyone know if there is anything going on during that time?

[Romelle]

Tootall17,

If you'd like further bidding advice, maybe you could start a NEW TOPIC? That will keep the board more organized.

I did just a little research for you. I put in your dates one at a time in HOTWIRE. I only recorded the Porte de Versailles 4*s, but you could easily do the other areas to have a better picture. Interesting.

9/27 $171

9/28 171

9/29 148

9/30 148

10/1 nothing available!

10/2 103

Hopefully other areas are a little smoother, but this one really suggests splitting your bid, and maybe booking independently for 10/1. I looked at the Calendar of Wins (center of this page). There were only winning bids reported for your last two nights.

If some of the other areas have a different pattern, that might suggest different bidding. But for the area I checked, including 10/1 with nothing available, no matter how high one bids for the full 6 nights one wouldn't win.

HOTWIRE areas are different from PRICELINE areas, but you should be able to find ones roughly similar for research purposes.

Romelle

[KS Uy]

Romelle is awesome!!! You have been a great help to a lot of us here.

[hopecookies]

Not sure what's going on in that area. But I looked around at winning bids for August and for the St. Germain area they were around $100. If you check hotwire for August, you'll see the prices at that time are much lower than around Sept/Oct.

My (uneducated) theory now is that it's either:

a. this is a busy time of the year for hotels in Paris

b. there's a string of large conferences going on

c. unreleased rooms haven't hit Priceline.

I don't think any of those things are more true than another. In the realm of possibilities, I guess any or a combo of them could be true. Romelle has good advice. Definitely check hotwire first to see what kind of deals they have, and adjust your bid accordingly.

I looked at Hotwire for 9/27 to 10/3. I selected only the zones (via map, zones A through J plus zone O) that are completely within the Boulevard Peripherique (which is pretty much the border of Paris proper, outside of that you might need a diff metro ticket). Then the best price for 4* is $249, North of Champ Elysees. So use that as a frame of reference. If you really want to use Priceline, maybe your $157 needs to be closer to what Hotwire has?

[zzricezz]

Woah, tried my luck tonight and won my bid at $105.

Paris Marriott Rive Gauche Hotel And Conference Center

Bonus Cash:

Per Room, Per Night

US$20.00

Offer Price:

avg. per room, per night

US$105.00

Rooms: 1

Nights: 4 + Add nights for the same rate!

Room Subtotal: US$420.00

Taxes & Fees: US$45.28

Total Charged to Card: US$465.28

[hopecookies]

so you had $20 in bonus cash? so does that mean you paid 85 and bonus cash brought it up to 105? or you paid 105 and bonus cash brought your bid up to 125?

man i bid yesterday afternoon and struck out. congrats on your success!

[thereuare]

Congratulations on your success!

Glad to see you were ultimately successful and are pleased with the results.

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.

[zzricezz]

so you had $20 in bonus cash? so does that mean you paid 85 and bonus cash brought it up to 105? or you paid 105 and bonus cash brought your bid up to 125?

man i bid yesterday afternoon and struck out. congrats on your success!

I wanted to stay near Eiffel Tower - Porte De Versailles - Montparnasse because of all the sites and restaurant I would like to try is near there so I bid $100 +$5 bonus cash and got rejected so I added St. Germain - Latin Quarter - Montparnasse and put in a bid of $105 + $5 bonus cash and got accepted.

[hopecookies]

I wanted to stay near Eiffel Tower - Porte De Versailles - Montparnasse because of all the sites and restaurant I would like to try is near there so I bid $100 +$5 bonus cash and got rejected so I added St. Germain - Latin Quarter - Montparnasse and put in a bid of $105 + $5 bonus cash and got accepted.

Cool, thanks for clarifying that. I get confused about how the bonus cash thing works, so basically they accepted a bid of $110. I tried right after seeing your post and get rejected for the same rate. haha. I just can't win on PL.

[zzricezz]

Cool, thanks for clarifying that. I get confused about how the bonus cash thing works, so basically they accepted a bid of $110. I tried right after seeing your post and get rejected for the same rate. haha. I just can't win on PL.

Is your date the same? I'm consider very last minute :)

[Rhine-and-Roses]

Please move this to the correct place, but I'm starting out here since there were questions about metro zones and tickets in Paris. The metro/rer/bus site is www.ratp.fr They have an English button, but much of what is in French is not available in English. You can get metro and rer maps, zones, prices for tickets, carnet (books of tickets) and travel passes. You can also figure out routes and times with the travel planner. Consider using the bus, too, since you'll actually get a view of Paris that way, and the buses are easy to use.

A Paris Visite, sold to tourists, costs 9.30 for zones 1-3 for a day. Two days 15.20. Three days 20.70 Five days 29.90 The Paris Visite has some discounts attached to it. Info available online in English. It might be worth it to pay the three extra euro if you'll use the discounts. Also, at the five day rate, it's cheaper than five Mobilis tickets.

There is a less expensive option not advertised to tourists called a Mobilis, which is a one-day unlimited ticket. You can buy it from machines at most stations. The machines have an English option. The Mobilis is sold by zones, with zones one and two good for most tourists. 6.30, 8.40, 10.40, 14.00, depending on the zones you need. I tried to use a five zone Mobilis from CDG airport, but it is not valid to/from the airports. You'll have to buy a separate ticket at the airport. Mobilis is good for metro, bus, and rer. The ticket looks like a normal ticket, but works for unlimited voyages in the zones you choose.

A tip about using your credit card in France, if you can get a credit card with a microchip on it, you will do better. Many places w/o attendants (like ticket machines, unattended gas stations) will not accept the magnetic strip version. A few will, but more will not.

[hopecookies]

A Paris Visite, sold to tourists, costs 9.30 for zones 1-3 for a day. Two days 15.20. Three days 20.70 Five days 29.90 The Paris Visite has some discounts attached to it. Info available online in English. It might be worth it to pay the three extra euro if you'll use the discounts. Also, at the five day rate, it's cheaper than five Mobilis tickets.

Thanks for the tip about the Paris Visite pass. I'll probably spring for that, just to save confusion on getting tickets every time I need the metro. 30 euros is essentially 45 bucks and man, that's a pretty penny for 5 days!

[hopecookies]

Is your date the same? I'm consider very last minute :)

i'm later in september, but i saw someone reported $105 for mid-September.

[zzricezz]

Just got back from my trip and this hotel was great. They upgraded me to the 16th floor executive room, the listed price was about $450EUR.

I had an awesome view from the room I got and could see Sacre coeur in the background.

[thereuare]

Glad to hear you had a great stay and received upgraded accommodations.

PS- sorry, no hotlinking to images allowed on the board. Thanks.

[ElPal]

Did you ask for the upgrade before arrival or at arrival or did they just give it to you when you were there?

[zzricezz]

Did you ask for the upgrade before arrival or at arrival or did they just give it to you when you were there?

We got to the hotel at around 11am and the room they had for us was not ready so they offer to check if there is another room they could give to us. I asked for a non smoking, king size bed and for a good view :)

[ElPal]

Thanks for letting me know. I will try my luck when I arrive in a few weeks also mid-morning. That said, I note that the check-in time on the Priceline receipt is "After 3pm".

[zzricezz]

Thanks for letting me know. I will try my luck when I arrive in a few weeks also mid-morning. That said, I note that the check-in time on the Priceline receipt is "After 3pm".

That is correct, if you book it yourself the same check-in time is 3pm but I have never had any issues going early and they will give you a room if it is available.