Priceline Hotel: Advice/Help: Europe Trip Dec 28th-Jan 6th.

[Zionstorm]

Hi,

I found these forums and have been reading them for the past few days. You guys really do a great job and look like you can offer lots of advice. There will be a group of 7 of us(ages 21-22) leaving for London on the 27th of Dec, arriving the 28th. Our dates are going to be as follows: Lon 28th-31st, Paris 31st-3rd and Rome 3rd-6th. I am looking at some advice on booking rooms at not astronomical prices...from what I can tell there are some really great deals for some awesome hotels. The Paris hotel looks like it is going to be the hardest b/c of it being during New Years. I have been using TripAdvisor and have checked a few Beds and Breakfast in all the cities. It is looking like if we go that route it will be in Paris and/or Rome. That is just a quick rundown of everything. I appreciate all your input!

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

How many rooms do you intend to get in each city?

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

[Zionstorm]

We would do one but there aren't very many places that offer those size rooms and I know European accommodations are known to be smaller that normal. So I'm thinking we are probably going to need two rooms in each city. I am open to both Hotwire and Priceline(or any other options) btw this board just seemed like it had the most activity.

[MadFlyer]

You should steer clear of using Priceline in Europe and move to Hotwire, where you can specify number of guests. Most priceline wins in Europe would not be able to even accomodate even one extra guest and extra guest charges can be very high from around $30 to $50.

With Hotwire, for instance, booking the 28th to 31st of December you get a 4" Mayfair Soho, which is the most central zone, for only $115 with 2 rooms and 8 guests. (might as well put the 8th person as same rate comes up) .

This hotel shows features of business, restaurant and wifi and as I get a tripadvisor rating now of 3.5 with over 180 reviews it could be the Holliday Inn Mayfair or maybe the Trafalgar. Other possiblities surely exist.

I would do screen shots of each page booking with priceline HOTWIRE as they are tricky... I do not like that they only show number of guests when you start the reservation and then ... you hope.. after you have paid with confirmation. You should be prepared to have this printed prior to arriving at any hotel as they will always blame the error on the guest if they can... so have a document proving that you booked 4 per room. If you were to get the Holiday Inn..no problem.. but the Trafalgar or other hotel may not have rooms with 2 double beds and will need to use rollaways...

While using priceline you might get as low as $90 in this zone, you could get stuck with extra person charges. The Holliday Inn has a rate of 97 pounds on their website for 4 people and that sounds great, but when you read the fine print you see that they add in taxes and 2 extra adults at 30 pounds each in the rate rules. If they write it , they can do it.....

That said ...with your dates .. london has a unique option that Paris may have as well... I dont know... but in London.. you can book dorm rooms in residence halls that are vacated during the breaks.

The London School of Economics has them for around $40 shared or $50 private with shared bath. You would all have your own room for around the same price for a hotel. They include breakfast and have some kitchen facilities.

http://www.lsevacations.co.uk/

should get you started at least.

[Romelle]

I would do screen shots of each page booking with priceline as they are tricky... I do not like that they only show number of guests when you start the reservation and then ... you hope.. after you have paid with confirmation. You should be prepared to have this printed prior to arriving at any hotel as they will always blame the error on the guest if they can... so have a document proving that you booked 4 per room. If you were to get the Holiday Inn..no problem.. but the Trafalgar or other hotel may not have rooms with 2 double beds and will need to use rollaways...

MadFlyer - I'm guessing when you typed the above you actually meant Hotwire instead of Priceline since you were talking of entering the number of guests???

Zionstorm - you don't mention your budget? That might help direct some of the advice you get here. Also, any particular areas of the different cities you want or don't want?

Depending on your flight schedule, sometimes with a very late arrival or a very early departure an airport hotel can be a good and inexpensive option for the first or last night. That can be true in London and Paris, but Rome airport hotels tend to be pretty expensive.

I'm always suggesting/touting public transportation, but with a group of seven, you might find some of the van/limo services to be cost effective.

And while I haven't stayed in the London School of Economics, I have stayed in similar type places in other cities, when I had problems finding regular hotels within my budget. It worked well for me.

Romelle

[thereuare]

I agree with the above that if you're looking for more than double occupancy in any of the rooms you book then HOTWIRE is really your best option (vs. PRICELINE). I would start as MadFlyer has done above, and search HOTWIRE for each of your stays while including 2rooms/7adults with your parameters.

To keep things better organized, please only post one stay per thread. We'll use this thread for your first leg of the stay in London, once you're ready to commit to a purchase, please start NEW TOPICS for each of the other legs of your trip.

priceline.hotirie

[Zionstorm]

In terms of budget. I would like to stay under 130ish or under per person in each city, but that would be ideal. In terms of zones, we just want somewhere good. We don't necessarily have to be right in the middle of everything but not so far away from everything it takes forever. Just overall good areas.

[Romelle]

In terms of budget. I would like to stay under 130ish or under per person in each city, but that would be ideal. In terms of zones, we just want somewhere good. We don't necessarily have to be right in the middle of everything but not so far away from everything it takes forever. Just overall good areas.

You get to do the math and translate that US$130 per person into a rough PER ROOM PER NIGHT rate..... My first thought was $130 x the four people you might put in one room and that will buy a really fine place. Then I realized there are 3 or 4 nights in each of the different cities. So - ???

Might also think on budget per city.... I think Paris will be the most expensive with Rome a close second and then London. So you might even go for a nicer place in London, or lower your standards in Paris??

Romelle

[Zionstorm]

Yeah, that is what I am thinking. HOTWIRE seems like the most likely candidate for London. Paris is going to be the most expensive I think so I am going to have to do some more work to try and figure out what to aim for there.