Priceline Hotel: 4* Munich 9/22-24 (Oktoberfest)

[belgo]

I don't know if Priceline will have any availability during Oktoberfest. The Marriotts are sold out. Strangely, the Sheraton Grand goes for 175 Euro on their website but $665 per night on Expedia. I'm not sure whether the North or South zone is better in terms of public transportation. The Hiltons are also going for upwards of $600 per night! :)

[thereuare]

Plenty of time to keep trying, but current prices dont' suggest a win at the $80 range... is this a trip you'll only take if you get a good deal or a trip you'll take regardless of price? What is your maximum bid?

[belgo]

Well, here's the complete answer. I noticed over the week-end that one of the two Hiltons (the Hilton-Park, not Hilton-City) is still allowing booking with HHonors points. I had enough for one night and change but not for two. I tried to transfer myDiners Club points over the week-end, but they were closed and doing it online can take a month. So I waited until this morning (Monday) to do a rush transfer for the extra points which cost me $30. Apparently the points will be in by Thursday (3/15) at the latest. In the meantime, if I can get something on Priceline for $100 or less, I'll take the Priceline booking and not bother with my Hilton points. If I can't get something on Priceline for $100 or less, then I'll try to book with my HHonors points when I get them. If THAT doesn't work, then I will probably go up to $130 with Priceline. If that doesn't work, the $200 or so per night for the Sheraton Grand seems reasonable, especially since it's within walking distance of the train station which will get me to the airport for my 12:30 PM flight on the 24th (and it's apparently also walking distance to the Oktoberfest festivites). I'm going to try to figure out where the better located hotels are on Priceline---North or South zone?? :)

[thereuare]

Doesn't Hilton let you book reward stays on the expectation of future points... that is, you don't need the points in your account to make the reward reservation, but you do need the points in your account at the time of check-in (this would eliminate the need to 'rush' the point tranfer and also give you ample time to accumulate points, especially if you use a Hilton Amex Card)

[belgo]

That's good to know for next time. Actually, went I went back to the www.spg.com website, it turns out that the rate for the Sheraton is 175 Euros and it's a pay-in-advance no-turning-back rate. I can't use it as a fallback for Priceline. Well, for now I'm just going to bid to $100 and then see what Hilton does. The Hilton Park isn't ideal because it's not near a subway station, but if I can use my HHonors points, it'll do nicely.

[thereuare]

This is where starwood excels in their Prefered Guest Credit Card... no black-out dates; if they have a 'standard' room available then you can book it with points.

If you've never had their credit card before you can sign up with THIS LINK and get 10K points after your first purchase. Then depending upon your spend patters you can use the credit card for a few months to get more points (1 point per dollar spent). Two nites at the Sheraton Grand will set you back 20K points... two nites at the Arabella Sheraton Bogenhausen or Arabella Sheraton Westpark would only be 14K points (i haven't checked either availability of either though at the Sheraton website (also check alternate starwood brands, Westin, W, Le Meridien, Four Points, etc)

If you have a spouse/partner at the same address you can usually combine points within the same household... so if you're traveling with somebody that you live with you can probably combine the points (or each book one nite with the 10K bonus points if not in the same household). If you do go this route, please use the links in this thread to apply for the card.

[belgo]

Well, actually I ended up doing something similar, but with Priority Club points. I got the Priority Club Visa a while ago, and I got some points from them for that (as well as some for actually staying at HI's and HIX's). After some frantic searching, I found out I could actually get two nights at the HI Munich City Center with a meager 30,000 Priority Points! The amazing thing is that this hotel's rock bottom nonrefundable rate was 300 Euros (almost exactly $400!) per night for those days. The hotel is within walking distance of the sights, and one easy rail connection to the airport (otherwise an $80 cab fare in a city apparently without supershuttles). The hotel is apparently sitting over a light rail which gets to the HBF in two stops and to the airport from there. I'm thrilled :o although embarrassed :) I wasn't able to book through a link after all of your help. I did, however, book my Budget Rent-a-car through your support page for my car in the ABQ airport on the 31st of this month, so I hope that kind of makes up for it :) . I'll be sure to use the support link for some of my other hotels on that trip (primarily in Switzerland). I'm not a huge Starwood fan. I've had the best customer service from the Hilton family, and the second best with the InterContinental/Priority Club group. I've never had anything but great customer service with Hilton and IC, but I've gotten the runaround a couple of times with Starwood. I probably should get their credit card, though. It seems that one can end up with 100s of these credit cards, though--they all have such good deals!

[mucsea2003]

Seems like a good deal you got yourself there. To get to the airport from your hotel you don't even have to go to the Hauptbahnhof. You can rather take the S-Bahn S8 from the Rosenheimer Platz station which is about 100 yards east from your hotel. Find your timetable info here: MVV Muenchen

Enjoy the Oktoberfest!