The Great ‘how to win at hotel bidding websites’ Hunt

dmg24

josie wrote: »

Yes, it's just that Expedia et al., do such a good deal on combined hotel and flights, like in my example in NYC, that I'm only actually paying £185 for 5 nights and I don't think I'd do any better with Priceline or Hotwire.

I could be wrong as I'm a newbie to this, but it looks like about £50 a night would be about the minimum for NYC?

Will definitely try London next time we go, tho as I've done the "Top Secret" deal on lastminute.com with them which has certain similarities to this, in that you don't find out the hotel til after you've paid, but also you can't bid - it's a fixed price.

Are you paying £185 for 5 nights, or £185 x 2 = £370 (i.e. is the price based on two people sharing?). What star rating is the hotel Expedia are offering?

£450 is a lot for a flight - do you want to post your dates to see if we can find cheaper (maybe start a new thread for this)? I am flying to NY for £150 this week, I wouldn't expect to get it this cheap, but you can usually pick something up for around £250.

GlennTheBaker

cheekyvimto13 wrote: »

Has anyone used priceline for Amsterdam and were you happy with results/hotel/ and priceline? lol..:j

I've used Priceline for Amsterdam on 2 occasions. Both times my winning bids were around £55. The first time I got the Renaissance (close to Centraal Station) and the second time, the Marriott (near Vondelpark and the museums). Both were superb. The stay at the Marriott was over New Year and the price if booking direct was very high so it was a real bargain.

Do as others have advised and read blindman's guide, as well as reseraching previous winning bids on Bidding For Travel and Better Bidding.

n1cn1c

duchy wrote: »

Not just London-I've recently got some very nice prices for both Manchester and Cardiff

Nice one duchy :T

Can I be cheeky and ask you to let us in on the hotel and final price you ended up with in Cardiff? Its not often you see information on the winning bids there.

Thanks

cheekyvimto13

I've used Priceline for Amsterdam on 2 occasions. Both times my winning bids were around £55. The first time I got the Renaissance (close to Centraal Station) and the second time, the Marriott (near Vondelpark and the museums). Both were superb. The stay at the Marriott was over New Year and the price if booking direct was very high so it was a real bargain.



don't know how to put it in box sorry, thanks i'm going to bid tomorrow after i have read throu articles...
:rotfl:

JMU-95

mmmmh, this is probably the best time for me to finally try Priceline out, I need a hotel room for one night close to Gatwick airport, but does anyone know which hotels I could possibly get?

cheekyvimto13

:rotfl:Ok soaking up the information..

So in a 4* superior i could probably get
a hotel in Central Amsterdam say Marriott... for around £120 for two nights..

Why have i been paying top whack all my life...?

Thanks for all help all advice appreciated :beer:

dmg24

JMU-95, cheekyvimto13,

If you go to www.BetterBidding.com, there is a search box at the top of the page. If you enter your destination in there, it will bring up all the relevant previous posts.

josie

dmg24 wrote: »

Are you paying £185 for 5 nights, or £185 x 2 = £370 (i.e. is the price based on two people sharing?). What star rating is the hotel Expedia are offering?

£450 is a lot for a flight - do you want to post your dates to see if we can find cheaper (maybe start a new thread for this)? I am flying to NY for £150 this week, I wouldn't expect to get it this cheap, but you can usually pick something up for around £250.

The cheapest flights for a.m. departure from UK and later evening departure from NYC was £450 with Virgin on 27/8 for 5 nights, so on that basis £633 with Expedia staying at The Ramada New Yorker (stayed there 3 times and it's a great location on a reasonable hotel, so I love it - handy for Long Island Rail Road to the US Open, which is why we're going at that time again).

These prices are all per person, so £633 each for flights & 5 nights accomm. Could I ask who your £250 flight was with? Did you book it last minute?

TIA

PandaPants_2

I paid £100 a night for a hotel in Dublin, then used Priceline and got the same hotel for less than £50 a night! I love Priceine, it's so exciting wondering where you are going to be staying!!!

dmg24

josie wrote: »

The cheapest flights for a.m. departure from UK and later evening departure from NYC was £450 with Virgin on 27/8 for 5 nights, so on that basis £633 with Expedia staying at The Ramada New Yorker (stayed there 3 times and it's a great location on a reasonable hotel, so I love it - handy for Long Island Rail Road to the US Open, which is why we're going at that time again).

These prices are all per person, so £633 each for flights & 5 nights accomm. Could I ask who your £250 flight was with? Did you book it last minute?

TIA

You don't say where you are travelling from, but as it is Virgin I'll assume LHR or LGW. You can currently get direct flights with American Airlines or Delta from LHR for just under £350 on the noted dates.

It is still early to be booking for late August, so I would be tempted to hold off for a while (though I can't guarantee the flights will go down!).

I got my flight direct from Delta, it was £150 not £250, and it was a pricing error that they chose to honour! x