Priceline Hotel: 4* New Orleans (CBD) Renaissance Pere Marquette

[mds]

i'm going to new orleans in may and am trying to use hotwire to book a room....it lists a 4-star hotel that's available at a great price and unlike the other listed hotels, this one has "customer favorite" labeled next to it with three glowing reviews of the property. anyone familiar with this particular hotel --and any insight into which hotel this may be? any help would be greatly appreciated.

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

Please list the date(s) of your stay, sub-zone within New Orleans, along with all the amenities shown and we'll be more than happy to try to help.

[mds]

just fyi-- i requested a 4* room in the central biz district of new orleans on priceline from 5/15-5/20 and bid $90/night. the bid was accepted at the renaissance pere marquette. i don't know if i could have gotten it for cheaper, as the $90 figure was my first bid. pretty nice rate, considering the hotel's website is offering a room during those days for $265/night.

i also bought the travel insurance for $5/day--if i have to cancel all or part of my trip in advance, will i really get all my money back (minus the $5/day for insurance)? anyone ever made use of the insurance during any trip?

[thereuare]

The insurance requires that certain conditions that have to be met for you to get your money back... usually these conditions are medical in nature and "i decided not to go" or "i changed my mind" usually is never covered.

This win is a bit more than we've seen this hotel come up at other times, but as it was your first bid we have no way of knowing if a lower bid would have been accepted or not.... it's possible that rates are higher for your dates than other times we have seen, but we just don't know. Regardless, seems like a good deal on an otherwise expensive hotel.

If you use Priceline again in the future feel free to ask us to develop a bidding strategy for you.

Thanks for sharing your results, and have fun in the Big Easy!

[mds]

Just to follow up on your post:

"The insurance requires that certain conditions that have to be met for you to get your money back... usually these conditions are medical in nature"

I'm a doctor, and I'm going to New Orleans for a medical conference, so I'm not too concerned about obtaining a doctor's note if required. :)

"This win is a bit more than we've seen this hotel come up at other times, but as it was your first bid we have no way of knowing if a lower bid would have been accepted or not.... "

The dates in question are during a huge conference (~15,000-18,000 people) and the published hotel rates during those dates were very high...and as i check availability now, it's even more pricey. So I'm glad I went with priceline, even if the price I'm paying is slightly higher than average for the accommodations I received.

Thanks for this website!