janis

There most definitely IS a Mayfair zone. Are you sure you have actually been bidding on PL all this time?? It sounds to me like at least part of the time you've been on the fixed-price side like LAwoman mentions . . . . .

Brahmama

Ok, I must have goofed - sure glad I asked about it.I had an email from Priceline that said it had been 3 days and that I could bid again, the same bid. So I just clicked on that - and it took me to the screen that shows available regions and then clicked to get seven more and Mayfair didn't show - as I posted earlier.

So I went back after reading your suggestions and this time I guess I clicked the right thing and Mayfair did come up. I bid $100 for a 4 * again, and it didn't accept it, but did counteroffer with $133. Which isn't bad - but I'm not in a huge hurry.

I still can't figure out what I did wrong the first time to get that weird screen? But there were also a bunch of hotels listed and it did say that I could "pick my choice right now". It wasn't the blue screen.

I will be more careful!

Carol

Brahmama

An update and a question:

I have been rebidding every 3 days (Mayfair $105) and have not been accepted but I've been offered (no opportunity to rebid for some reason) an accomodation for $164.

I've also been checking my favorite on the discount sites, and tonight Flemings Mayfair is available for 3 nights for a total of $634.75 including taxes and full breakfast. Should I just go ahead and book that? It does have a hefty penalty for cancellation so I couldn't use it as a standby hoping for Priceline to accept a bid.

And any opinions about Flemings Mayfair?

Thanks for your help,

Carol

WillTravel

You can try to inch in on that $164 figure by repeating your bid when your time limit expires, and upping a bit. It's also quite possible some other hotels will make inventory available, possibly at a lower cost, before October.

You might want to consider making a new bid in the Bloomsbury zone, though, given that people have gotten the 4* Thistle Marble Arch for bids as low as $54.

I don't know anything about Flemings Mayfair.

djkbooks

Since you have so much time, it's important NOT to get anxious or impatient with Priceline. Have you booked the best you can find that you can cancel? I usually use the Thistle website (and keep checking as their prices flucutate enormously) as my "cancellable backup".

Study the FAQ's at biddingfortravel.com and keep an eye on recent winning bids, especially if they nearly coincide with your dates.

There's no guessing on timing of bids. Some hotels release rooms to Priceline earlier - others later.

It's essential (not that there's no "free re-bid zone for 4*'s", last I noticed, in London, to organize the zones acceptable to you, in the order acceptable.

If you haven't already booked your airline tickets, keep checking the Priceline packages. We've had terrific luck with those!

Keep in mind, also, that many 4* hotels are less appealing than others, but if you know what you're doing, you'll save so much, you won't care.

And, IGNORE counter offers (more about this at BFT). With that much lead time, you can wait the 72 hours, if necessary. On one trip, I bid $90, then $95 for a 4*, got a counter offer for $130, but re-bid for $100 and got the Waldorf Hilton - sensational, and a significant savings for 10 nights.

WillTravel

You can't rebid anymore if you want Mayfair-Soho zone.

All of the zones in London now have 4* hotels. So if you add any other zone to a Mayfair-Soho bid, you might get a hotel in the other zone.

What can work is if you are willing to take either of two zones, say Bloomsbury and Mayfair-Soho.

You could start with a 4* $55 bid for Bloomsbury, and if that fails, add the Mayfair-Soho zone and bid whatever (say $60). Those prices would almost certainly be too low to win Mayfair-Soho, but they might be high enough to win Bloomsbury. And if by a fluke you won Mayfair-Soho at that price, you'd be thrilled.

However, if Mayfair-Soho is the only one you want, there are no other zones you can safely add.

CaliNurse

IMHO, bid for a 4 star in the Gloucester Road area. It's a GREAT spot (nr the Gloucester Road Tube station) and you should be able to get the Millenium Gloucester, a perfectly fine, lovely large hotel, for less than $100/night (INCLUDING taxes) I paid $80/night, bid 3 months before arrival date.

Geordie

Not to confuse the issue even further but I use the priceline.com.hk in Hong Kong.

There you can rebid as many times as you like except if you keep the same area and star rating you must raise the price by HK$50 (US$6.70) per bid

The bidding is in HK$ but it is fixed firmly to the US$ at roughly HK$7.79 per 1US$, therefore as Willtravel mentions, in London I've seen the Thistle Marble Arch for $54 (7.79 x 54 = HK$420)

Very easy and you don't need a Hong Kong address or credit card, its especially good for Asia travel as it lists places to bid that the US site does not offer

I've used it numerous for the US / Europe / Asia Pacific without any problems, in fact sometimes I've received emails for me to contact a particular person in customer service to discuss my possibilities as I've been bidding unsuccesfully for a particular place, which is good as they've told me that they have no stock for that particular time and place and therefore saved me a lot of unnecessary time & effort

Geordie

ggnga

Last October I got two rooms at 4 star Kensington Forum, very very nice in my opinion. I got them for a bid of $63 per night for 5 nights. I bid several months in advance. I was just putting in a lowball offer because I had plenty of time and was shocked and pleased to get it.

Do you absolutely have to have Mayfair. I have gotten rooms in the Kensington area many times in the $63 to $75 range.

Have a wonderful trip. Don't give up on Priceline. I couldn't possible visit London as often as I do without it.