Priceline Hotel: 4* Portland (Downtown) Larkspur Riverplace

[library]

Used the BetterBidding PRICELINE link link.

First bid $80. Got it.

It sort of freaked me out because I didn't know anything about the Riverplace and a couple years ago I had a bad experience after getting a mystery "borderline" 4* hotel in Paris for lowball bid.

I was hoping to utilize all the Portland rebids and work myself into a more centrally located typical downtown hotel like the Vintage, Monaco or Westin, but wow, this is cheap.

I wish I started lower, but oh well. I'll try to remember to report back with some details on the stay. If anyone has any tips for not getting relegated to the worst room in the hotel (owing to my lowball priceline bid) please share ;-)

Thanks for the great site!

[thereuare]

Congratulations on your win!

The hotel doesn't know the price you paid for the room... only the price they agreed to accept from PRICELINE. If it seems worthwile, you could try the strategies discussed in this Hotel Tipping thread (it gets interesting after the fifth or sixth post)

Thank you for sharing your win with the board and using our PRICELINE link to begin your bidding.

Enjoy your stay.

[library]

An update on my trip:

I didn't do "$20 trick" -- I didn't get the vibe it would work -- but I did call to confirm and while making chit-chat, I mentioned we were celebrating our anniversary and wanted to make sure we got a room with a single bed (most of the complaints I read were because of small rooms and two beds crammed in). :)

At check in they knew who I was and wished us a happy anniversary. They came through with a nice, but small (cozy) room with a little roof courtyard view. The courtyard would have been a very nice place for a glass of wine or something but we were never in the hotel during the day. Occupancy was down and they _could_ have given us a river view but didn't. I got over it. It helped that they we had a chocolate tart and anniversary card waiting for us when we returned to our room that night.

The hotel is basically west of the financial district right on the river. We were on bikes so the location was great (because of the river trail) and the whole town was in reach. I could see if you were there on a weekend it would a little "out there," requiring car or taxi use. Good coffee and food really shuts down in that part of town on the weekends and it would be a long walk in the dark. But during the day? Glorious. If you are there on a weekend, check out the farmers market at Portland State. It's about a 3/4 mile walk to great food and people watching.

The hotel itself is nice, but not amazing. It an in-city resort feel (and the decor to match), though it carries a bit of corporate retreat center coldness. The people were nice, if a bit unenthusiastic. On the other hand, they also didn't have the obsequiousness that sometimes turns me off to what are supposedly "high-end" hotels.

We enjoyed our weekend; I'd gladly gain for anything $100 or under.

-Cheers!