Hotwire Hotel: 4* Paris (Louve-Marais) Westin

[Kilrathi]

Hi --

I'm going to be in Paris next week and am looking at HOTWIRE before trying my hand at PRICELINE. A few weeks back, I was able to Hotwire into the Hilton Paris (Eiffel Tower) which we really enjoyed and I've also gotten Marriott Rive Gauche, Concorde Lafayette and Pullman Rive Gauche via Priceline. Looks like it's a tougher market than usual, though... not much showing up on HOTWIRE.

I did find, though, a few hotels:

4 star Louvre/Marais - $255 - fitness, resto, business center, laundry -- looks like this IDs as the Westin?

4 star Champs-Elysees-Trocadero - $239 - resto, business, laundry, internet -- this doesn't fit any on the ID page (Hilton has a spa; Le Meridien has no laundry) - ideas?

4 star - Eiffel Tower/Invalides - $309 - internet - the only hotel listed in the area is the Hilton Paris, though it has more amenities. Is this a new one or maybe the Hilton? If it is the Hilton, bummer it's twice what I paid for it a couple weeks ago!

4.5 star - Champs-Elysees/Trocadoro - $346 - fitness, resto, laundry, internet - no 4.5 stars listed on the ID page. Ideas?

All in all, it's a bit of a bummer that prices are high... must be higher (or convention?) season! Booking.com is showing high prices, too... may give it a whirl with PRICELINE but, honestly, I'm a bit worried since I'd like to be more central this time than either of the "Rive Gauche" hotels that Priceline likes are. Any suggestions? Anyone having better luck on Hotwire or Priceline (the Priceline front page is talking about a 4 star in the Eiffel Tower area for $142 that someone just won, so maybe that's worth a shot... or else it's the Pullman!)?

Thanks!

-Kilrathi

[slick_gd]

The 4* Louvre Marais does look to be the Westin. The tripadvisor traveler review rating matches up as well as the amenities.

The other 3 areas are harder to pin down. I noticed that HOTWIRE lists the tripadvisor traveler review rating for each of the other hotels. What you could do is try to match up the ratings listed on HOTWIRE to those directly on tripadvisor. You will probably get plenty of results that match each of the ratings. Then you can begin to eliminate the options:

1) Eliminate all that don't match the date of the latest review

2) Eliminate all that aren't in the zone. Match up the zone map on HOTWIRE to the zone map on google maps and search each hotel.

3) Try to match up amenities.

This is a time consuming process, particularly in Paris where tripadvisor has over 1,000 hotels, however it would help you narrow it down to a few hotels and allows you to make an educated decision regarding the risk you are willing to take.

Use this HOTWIRE link to start your purchase and let the board know the result.

[Kilrathi]

Thanks for the tips. I looked at the TripAdvisor rating on the Westin and it looked good, so I figured I'd give it that $252/Louvre-Marais a try, and it is indeed the Westin. I appreciate the thoughts as to how to figure out the other hotels, but it seemed like a lot of cross-referencing this time...

So, I'm all set -- feel free to add this to the calendar of bookings: 10/8/08-10/10-08 at $252/night from Hotwire for the Louvre/Marais district in the Westin Paris on the Rue de Castiglione.

Love the site, keep up the good work.

-Kilrathi

[thereuare]

Congratulations on your success!

Glad to hear you received the hotel you were hoping for and are happy with the results.

Thank you for sharing your results with the board.

Please use these PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links to begin your travel purchases.

Enjoy your stay.