Priceline Hotel: 3* Minneapolis - St. Paul (Airport MSP - Mall of America) Courtyard By Marriott Minneapolis Bloomington

[MariahS]

Hi, I'm new to Priceline (and Better Bidding) and am not sure how to go about bidding so that you get a specific hotel. I know what hotel I want, and I know what area it's in, etc. but I'm not sure how to make sure that I get that hotel. I'm fairly adept at Hotwire and making sure I know what hotel is what before I book, but Priceline is new. Here is what I'm looking for:

3* Hyatt Place in Minneapolis (Bloomington East - Airport) for the night of September 23rd.

I would just use Hotwire, but I was slacking off and didn't get it booked in time and now it's no longer available. I'd love to learn how to use Priceline as well, as it's always nice to get another price comparison.

Any help would be greatly appreciated :)

Mariah

[AaronJB]

Welcome to Betterbidding. :)

There is no way to bid for a specific property when using PRICELINE. If you bid for a particular star rating and zone, you have to be willing to wind up with any hotel at that star rating in that zone (or possibly being upgraded if there is a higher star rating.) If you try to bid higher in an attempt to get a particular property, you could overbid for the hotel you were trying to avoid. HOTWIRE would be a better choice to try and get a particular property, although that's not guaranteed - the hotel of interest may not be showing and some hotels can show with the same information.

Would you be willing to accept a different hotel than the Hyatt Place, or is that the only hotel of interest?

Thank you for using the site's HOTWIRE or PRICELINE links to start your purchases and searches.

[MariahS]

Thanks :)

I thought you could sort of finagle your results to get a hotel that you were looking for, or at least a pretty good chance of getting it? I usually use HOTWIRE, but as I said, I had the hotel figured out and didn't get around to actually booking it and now it's gone Oh well.

I guess my biggest goal is to get a hotel with breakfast in the morning that's nice with possibly a swimming pool? I'm taking my younger sister up to the Children's Hospital for an appointment at 9:00 am, so the breakfast is somewhat important (we'll need to grab something quick). In case you were wondering, yes, I know they have hotels that we can choose from at the Hospital, but they're either dumpy or I know I can get a nice one for cheaper.

Maybe I need to start browsing some of the hotels I'll potentially be bidding on. Worst case senario is that we go to breakfast really early somewhere else. Any tips or tricks? I can't seem to find anything that explains it well. It could be that I'm just really used to HOTWIRE.

[MariahS]

What about the Express Deals? Does anyone have any match-ups for those? It seems to be like Hotwire. A good happy medium for me :)

[thereuare]

As a frequent HOTWIRE user, we hope that you post your future wins to the board so that others can benefit from the information.

PRICELINE's Deals Express is a brand new product for which we're still learning/gathering information... is there a PRICELINE EXPRESS Deal that is of interest to you (ie- is within your desired star rating, budget, shows complimentary breakfast, etc, etc)? If so, post the details and we'll see if we can have a guess as to some of the possibilities.

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

Let us know how you'd like to proceed and we'll take it from there.

[MariahS]

I will absolutely post my wins. I've been using the links you guys have posted every time to go to both HOTWIRE and PRICELINE.

There's a PRICELINE EXPRESS Deal that's $55 for a 3* hotel that's in the MSP - Mall of America area. The price on it actually went down since this morning. Anyways, the features are that it's rated 8.0 or higher, Free Internet, Indoor or Outdoor Pool, Free Parking, Restaurant, Airport Shuttle, Business Center, and Fitness Center. That's the one I'm looking at.

I do believe I've narrowed it down to a couple of hotels using the same methods I used for Hotwire. The hotels I think it may be are: Courtyard by Marriott Minneapolis Bloomington, Residence Inn by Marriott Minneapolis Bloomington, Country Inn and Suites Mall of America, and Hyatt Place Minneapolis Airport. The other hotels that matched the search criteria weren't in Bloomington, which is where the Express Deal hotel is located. I don't think it's the Hyatt Place or the Residence Inn because it didn't say it had free breakfast and both of those hotels do. That leaves the Courtyard and the Country Inn and Suites. The only other thing I could use to narrow it is the regular price of the room, which is $125. The problem is that neither hotel that I've narrowed it to comes close to the price. The Courtyard lists for $196 and the Country Inn and Suites lists for $112. It's funny, though, because the Hyatt Place lists for $125. You don't suppose they'd not tell you that they'd have free breakfast, do you? Honestly, I don't think I'd mind either one, especially since the price dropped $5 in the past couple hours.

Any thoughts on my process? Can anyone else think of another way to narrow it a little further, or if I did something wrong further up? Thank you much --Mariah

[MariahS]

Strange, it just went back up to $60. Hmmm...

And I also noticed that the Country Inn and Suites also gives a hot breakfast for free. Maybe they just don't tell you that, then. That could really change the search criteria, which is weird they wouldn't tell you that. I know at least in my family, free breakfast is important lol.

[Romelle]

You've got over a month yet. I've watched Hotwire deals in other cities, and they come and go rather quickly. I'd suggest you keep checking Hotwire regularly as you are studying Priceline.

Two factoids about the two products.

1 - Hotwire can be a little more expensive than Priceline, although not necessarily so.

2 - Hotwire tends to be a little more generous with stars, so a 3.5* Hotwire hotel might show up as a 3* Priceline hotel.

And a general factoid - it seems that lower star hotels are more likely to offer free breakfast, IMO.

An area restaurant with which you might not be familiar:

D. Brian's Deli

Bloomington

3001 Metro Drive

Bloomington, MN 55425

Phone: 952.853.2224

Monday - Friday 7:00am - 2:00pm

Very reasonable, and good food.

Romelle

[thereuare]

I would add the Best Western Plus Bloomington to the list of possible hotels... i don't believe the Residence Inn has a Restaurant which would exclude it from the possibilities.

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

Let us know how it goes or if we can be of further help.

[MariahS]

Thanks Romelle! We may just have to go there anyways. I always hate feeling like a super tourist, especially when it's so close to home and we go somewhat frequently (we live in Sioux Falls, SD). We try to get out of the mainstream a bit every time, but there are so many little goodies to find.

The Best Western didn't advertise an Airport Shuttle, and I think that's what kicked it off of my list. I'm pretty tempted just to book the room (I'm fairly comfortable with any hotel with those qualifications) just to see how they run their Express Deals. I know it would be helpful information for those down the road. Good catch on the Residence Inn, though. They don't have a box to check when searching for hotels for "Restaurants". Will probably make my decision to book or not today. Will let you know when I know!

[Romelle]

If that BW doesn't have an airport shuttle, it is probably because it is so close to MOA. One can catch the lightrail there to get to the airport.

If you do decide to try D. Brian's Deli, it is a little obscure. The entrance is off a big parking lot, and the only indication is a sign on the windows. It is also upstairs, and the hall leading to it a bit shabby. But when you get there it is a large deli with lots of reasonably priced good options.

Romelle

PS - of course the other good food option in the area is IKEA. Breakfasts are 99 cents, and there are often days kids eat free. Interesting and reasonable choices for other meals.

[MariahS]

Right, I was just saying the BW didn't meet the criteria that was set by the Express Deal. We'll be driving up, as it costs about $400 for a roundtrip flight for a 45-50 minute flight haha.

We plan to go to IKEA for lunch, but they're breakfast doesn't open until 9:30 so we'd need to eat before my sister's appointment. Suprisingly, in spite of my being born in Minneapolis and my parents living there a few years before, my mom had never been to IKEA and didn't know about the cafeteria with good food at amazing prices. I'm sure from now on it will be a regular stop on our trips up :) --Mariah

[MariahS]

Hi all!

Just wanted to let everyone know that I got the 3* Courtyard By Marriott Minneapolis Bloomington for $60 + ~$17 in taxes and fees. I'm very happy with my win.

I used the new Express Deals tab on PRICELINE. The amenities that showed were:

-Free Internet

-Indoor or Outdoor Pool

-Free Parking

-Restaurant

-Airport Shuttle

-Business Center

-Fitness Center

The guest rating that showed for it was 8.0 out of 10.0.

Anyways, thanks for all the help with everything. I will definitely be using your site more to search and make reservations!

--Mariah

[thereuare]

Congratulations on your success!

Glad to see you found something that works well for both your plans and budget and are pleased with the results.

We looking forward to hearing about, and helping with, your future travel plans.

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

Enjoy your stay.