I learned about this wonderful site in time to get great advice on Priceline bidding for a 5 star hotel in Hong Kong. Now that I need help to find the same in Paris I find their website is down...and has been for at least 3 days. Does anyone know if this site has been shut down? Thanks in advance for your help!

vgjohn, you may want to try it again: After reading your message I went to biddingfortravel and it works just fine...

The site is working for me right now. You can also try www.betterbidding.com though I don't think they generally have as much information.

Just an FYI - Most of the zones in Paris are quite large, so take care in choosing so that you don't end up stuck way out away from the center of Paris! Although I love Paris and have used it extensively elsewhere, I've never been comfortable with the location risk in Paris and have always just chosen small 2*, lower priced hotels and been happy.

Still can't get through to the site...very strange. Thanks for the heads up on using Priceline for Paris. I haven't been there is 15 years and will be heading there next spring. We usually select small boutique hotels when we travel but really don't want to spend a fortune. Any suggestions since you travel there often? Again, many thanks!

News to me. . . I used it day before yesterday. Perhaps it's a problem with your browser?

I wish I traveled there often! I hope to go back next year and will be researching hotels more thoroughly then. I don't know what your specific budget is, but there are so many good recommendations right here on this site. If you do a search (box is at the top) for Paris AND budget AND hotel you will get lots of good info.

If the search doesn't turn up what you're looking for, start a new post with "Paris Hotel Help" in the subject and be sure to state a budget and what you're looking for in the post. But I bet you'll get all you need (and much more!) by a quick search. Have fun planning Paris!

Just checking back in. Thanks so very much for the hints! Take care and safe travels wherever they take you...

I've had no problems. Though, I'm with AOL and have learned to fire up IE for visiting BFT. No problems whatsoever.

If you've ever written to the administrator of BFT to politely complain about her tendency to belittle and write rather acerbic responses to well meaning posters, you may have gotten on her bad side and gotten "banned" as I did. I never questioned her publicly but wrote to her several times asking that she refrain from posting condescending replies to my posts on BFT. Her response was to the effect that she saw noting wrong with her manner of communication public or private. I replied to the effect that I would no longer do dual posts of my regular Priceline bid wins (or losses) on both site and www.betterbidding.com - a few weeks later I revisited BFT to research a bid and discovered that I was "banned" or blocked from viewing the web site.

Apparently I'm one of a significant number of people who've shared this experience. It's indeed unfortunate as BFT could be such a great resource, given a higher level of civility and openness.

I find it works better in Netscape rather than Explorer. It generally takes me quite a few tries to get into the hotel lists.
Paris is:
http://p070.ezboard.com/fpricelinean...abiddingfrm249

I can't (never have been able to) access biddingfortravel.com either. But I've always been able to get in through the ezboard url http://p070.ezboard.com/bpricelineandexpediabidding

Owen,
Do you use AOL? If so, the "you've been banned" message happens frequently. If you switch browsers, it goes away.

I haven't used it, but from all the posts I've read from those who have for Paris, I've never heard of anyone getting a small boutique hotel.