Good afternoon... just wanted to share my Priceline bidding experience with people here. I use Priceline a lot for the U.S., and frequent biddingfortravel.com to do some research before I place my bids. I noticed during my research for Vienna that the 4* Marriott in the City Centre has been awarded several times for $100 bids, so I was hoping to get the same (for 3 nights starting 11/24/07). Could not get that $100 accepted, and upped all the way to $110. Decided to try my luck with the 5* level as Priceline had a little icon by it stating "best value". I bid $125 for 5* city centre, and was rejected. Placed a free re-bid of $135 by adding a different zone which doesn't even offer 5*, and was accepted at the Hotel Bristol. I understand the location of this hotel is excellent, and I'm very happy about that. The best price on the hotel website for the same time period was 239 Euros. I feel like I got quite a bargain. My total per night cost including all taxes and the minimal Priceline fee came to $165. I'm sure the room I will receive will be the most standard that they offer, but I hope the standard of a Westin property will still give me a great stay.

That's it, just wanted to share my first international Priceline experience.

That's great Idnas! I love Priceline too and also just did my first international Priceline deal.

I got a Holiday Inn in Amsterdam for $85 a night in April. I couldn't find anything the regular way for less than 135 euro.

We get to stay in places we could never afford this way too.

I used priceline in Europe for the first time a couple of years ago and won the bid for $80 in Zurich for the Intercontinental. This time I got the Marriott for $80 in Zurich. I am very, very happy.

I am wondering if anyone has done this for larger parties? I have a family of 6 (2 adults, 4 children) that is traveling to Vienna in July.

Divindaze,
I don't see why it wouldn't work for a group of that size, assuming you are getting 2 rooms. Priceline has parameters where you can request more than 1 room at the time you bid.

I recently used Priceline for my hotel in Budapest and got the Art 'Otel in Budapest for $65 per night and was very pleased. I emailed them with my request for a quiet room with 2 beds and non-allergenic and got back a very nice email saying that they had received my requests and would do their best to honor them. I'm travelling in July.

if you have read the guidelines on the websites you will know that you must not ever ASSUME you can put a child´s bed in any room, so with six beds needed one must bid on three rooms.

with 5 people, one being a very small child, PERHAPS you could get the hotel to squeeze her in.. but i wouldn´t risk it with two kids and four adults.

She probably shouldn't do Priceline if your assumptions are correct then, lincasanova. As a parent, there is no way I would do three rooms with only 2 adults and 4 children. You need at least 1 adult in each room in my opinion--though I guess that could vary based on the age of the children. However, my oldest is 13 and I wouldn't allow her to be in a hotel room by herself or with another child unless the rooms connected. Since it is extremely rare to find connecting rooms available in the US anymore, I am operating on the assumption that they aren't common in Europe either--could be wrong about that one....