I am about to bid on Priceline for London in March. What is the best area to stay in? The most central and safest? I haven't been to London in 25 years so any helpful suggestions would be appreciated.

read www.betterbidding.com and www.biddingfortravel.com

most near the river is best IMO. but bloomsbury/marble arch seems popular.

kensington can be further away but seems to have great deals around $75.i have stayed there twice.

good bus/tube service from most everywhere.

mayfair/soho more upscale requiring much higher bids.

be careful not to OVERBID by later adding cheaper zone when you have bid high in mayfair/soho.

westminster is closer to river but sometimes people are getting the jolly hotel which they seem not to like.

i cannot tell you how important it is to spend some time reading those websites and comments and getting an idea of how much to bid..
good luck.

get familiar with the www.priceline.com page itself without putting in credit card info. learn about "free bids". and understand the maps. then bid through a link at www.amazingbargains.com or other website link from those sites to help them out and stay up and running.

they are so useful and have helped a lot of us so much, they deserve whatever we can do for them.

We stayed near Kensington High Street - at the Copthorne Tara - and were very please with both the hotel & the location.

There were many good restaurants and shops in the area. The tube station was nearby and it was clean. There was a Marks & Spencer's and a Boots Pharmacy in the tube station.

www.londontown.com is a great website for hotels and events in london. take a look to to see how much you will be saving on priceline!

i have also stayed at the copthorne tara, and the olympia hilton.
these were two excellent hotels.

readers who have stayed at the h.i. forum kensignton have also been very happy, so there have been a lot of good wins in the kensignton area for very reduced prices.

biddingfortravel is a great source - however, double check the priceline zones on the actual PL site. The zones have been re-drawn and BFT hasn't made note of that except to say the Southbank/Vauxhall no longer exists.

The two best zones probably for the first time visitor are Mayfair/Soho and Westminster.

Knightsbridge/Kensington/Earls Court is mostly goo but does have the Hilton Olympia and other properties near Earls Court.

And priceline's "Bloomsbury" includes Kings Cross, so should be avoided.

You will get value in any zone, and the Knightsbridge/Kens/ECourt zone will get you some amazing bargains - cheaper than you will get in Mayfair or Westminster. And even the Hilton Olympia is fine if you are only paying $75 or $80.

I wouldn't avoid the Bloomsbury zone, because the worst that is likely to happen if you bid for a 4* hotel is getting the Novotel Euston, which is in the Kings Cross area, but not that terrible, IMO. But of course everyone's preferences will vary. If you bid in the Westminster zone, you might get a hotel south of the river, like the Riverbank Plaza.

I agree with WillTravel, the only hotel at Kings Cross is the Novotel, which is just beside the British Library. The hotel seems to have very good reviews and I haven't seen anything bad there..(I was at the Hilton Euston, not Priceline, which is also near..not Kings Cross though.

another suggestion: bid 4 stars.

"Knightsbridge/Kensington/Earls Court is mostly goo..."

Actually, you can get goo anywhere if you don't watch out.