Success or Failure?

I am interested to ascertain the success and/or failure of utilizing the discounted features of certain WebPages, i.e. Pricelines “Name Your Own Price”.

Is it really conceivable to expect to get a 3 or 4 Star Hotel in the Boston Waterfront - Convention Center or Downtown Boston – Charlestown area for $100 - $150 per night when the ‘going rate’ is approximately $319 - $352 per night?

I am an eternal pessimist and therefore presume there must be some sort of ‘catch’, is there?

Success or Failure?

Be careful of the Waterfront-Convention Center Area. It%26#39;s really in South Boston and not in the Downtown Area. That means mainly the Westin Waterfront Hotel. It;s about a 15 minute walk through an old industrial area to the beginning of the Downtown Area. There aren%26#39;t any restaurants or tourist areas around the hotel.

AlanM

Success or Failure?

Have you checked out www.betterbidding.com? Posters who use Priceline find this site to be very helpful.

Hello, my name is Voyagereuse, and I am a priceline-a-holic.

Not really...what I am is a cheap Yankee who likes 4* hotels but has a beer budget.

I have had excellent success with priceline bidding. Boston is an especially good city to get a great deal because at the 4* level you have three free rebid zones. (Free rebids are explained more fully on betterbidding.com, but if you want more info send me a personal message on trip advisor and I%26#39;ll walk you through it).

The best advice I can give is the more you know before you bid, the better you will do. There are tips and tricks. And once you learn and start getting great hotel deals, you%26#39;ll never want to pay rack rate again.

I found the people at betterbidding.com very very helpful. I read through some of their general threads and then started posting questions ont he board of a city I was interested in. They walked me through my first successful priceline bidding - The NY Hilton and Towers for $90 a night. Ahhh you never forget your first.

Good luck!

Hi,

I used Priceline once so far, when my dad was coming to visit. I got the Sheraton Tara Braintree hotel, which was showing rates of $189/night on their website, for $75 from a Priceline bid.

I%26#39;ve heard many similar stories from people, so yes, it does work.

The ';catch'; to it, is that you don%26#39;t know what hotel you are getting until after you%26#39;ve paid for it. You can narrow down the potential choices, by choosing a star level and a general location. However, if you are bidding in Boston, and you are anxious to get the Copley Marriott, for example, you might end up with the Park Plaza instead.

Also, Priceline doesn%26#39;t make any guarantees around smoking or non-smoking rooms, or whether you need one or two beds in the room. They will only guarantee that the room will sleep 2 people.

I recently enjoyed some pricelin.com success on a trip to New York City. The key for me, and it may work for you, was to wait as long as I could before the actual vacation started to bid. hotels are in business to fill rooms. they%26#39;ll gladly give it you at a huge discount and get some cashflow then leave it empty and get nothing.

You can definitely get a good deal via priceline. I%26#39;ve gotten excellent deals on rental cars on Priceline too.

It%26#39;s super if there are no objectionable sections in a given area and/or no objectionable hotels, since you dont%26#39; know what you%26#39;ll get.

Priceline is completly un-changeable, so you have to be SUPER careful as you%26#39;re typign in dates and locations... they will not un-do a purchase once it%26#39;s made. If they accept your bid, you%26#39;re stuck with it.

Wow, I%26#39;m overwhelmed by the response and its positive and informative content. I must admit that wasn’t even aware of the existence of betterbidding.com, but upon initial investigation it appears a very useful tool indeed. I will endeavor to utilize it to the best of my ability. I will inform you all of my success or failure.

Priceline is Ok and yes, it really works. However, I prefer Hotwire because you can see the hotel%26#39;s amenities. I have an 8 year old son and we must have a swimming pool.

On Martin Luther King weekend I met my sister in Philadelphia. I booked on Hotwire for about $100/night and received the Hyatt at Penn%26#39;s Landing. My sister booked on Priceline (for approximately the same price) and was sent to a Westin that didn%26#39;t have a pool. Both sites rated these properties as 4 stars.

Hope this helps!

I agree, research as much as you can before you bid. If the price is too low, your bid will not go through and you can try agan, so try for the lower price first and then go again if refused. I have also used for airline tickets and on this area, you need to definitly bid low to get a good deal. I bid once on airfare from Tucson to Seattle, won at $160 round trip, but the flight times were not good for my vacation time. Landed around 11 pm and departed at 0530 am on my departure day, so I felt it was two useless days of vacation (1st day waited all day at home for takeoff and depature day took off so early, didn%26#39;t get any time in the city). I ended up booking two hotel nights just for sleeping. It%26#39;s your call, but with my extra hotel costs, it would have been better to book a flight through a normal travel website and arrive earlier to enjoy some time in the city and leave later to enjoy my last day of vacation. I booked Boston hotel, priceline, 4 star, Millenium Boston for $125 a night goes for over $200 on other travel websites. Mixed reviews on this hotel, but right in the center of action, so I%26#39;ll deal with any issues knowing it%26#39;s the cost of a normal 3 star hotel anyways.

You can also visit www.biddingfortravel.com which gives a (not comprehensive) list of potential Priceline partner hotels in a certain region of the city (they do it for lots of cities)... and they go over the FAQs of bidding as well.