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4-5 star hotels for cheap



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benny




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Aug 03 2008, 6:32 pm
Do you know of a place to get high end hotels for cheap? I already know priceline, expedia, orbitz. Anyplace better?
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cindy324




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Aug 03 2008, 6:44 pm
Hotwire.com

You probably won't find too many 5 stars, but there are plenty of 4 stars up for grabs for dirt cheap. The catch? You dn't get to see the hotel's location or name until you've purchased it, and it's none refundable.

Basically, you put in the area where you want to go, and it'll give you back a list with price, star rating and amenities (pool, gym, business center etc. which I think is great because with priceline.com you can't even choose something that has a pool if that's what you prefer) You choose which one you want and after you've entered your credit card info, it'll tell you where you going.

I've done it many times, and I've stayed in a 4 star Westin for $60 (normally $100)a night, in an EmbassySuites for $72(normally $129) I've never been disappointed yet.
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qeenB




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Aug 03 2008, 9:00 pm
try travelzoo.com. they post up different specials depending on where you want to go there might be a good special.
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shoppingmom




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Aug 03 2008, 9:21 pm
cindy324 wrote:
Hotwire.com

Basically, you put in the area where you want to go, and it'll give you back a list with price, star rating and amenities (pool, gym, business center etc. which I think is great because with priceline.com you can't even choose something that has a pool if that's what you prefer) You choose which one you want and after you've entered your credit card info, it'll tell you where you going.

I've done it many times, and I've stayed in a 4 star Westin for $60 (normally $100)a night, in an EmbassySuites for $72(normally $129) I've never been disappointed yet.


It's really taking a chance! I mean, you can't know how far off you are from the area you are visiting ect.
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cindy324




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Aug 04 2008, 1:47 pm
Quote:
It's really taking a chance! I mean, you can't know how far off you are from the area you are visiting ect.


Not at all! They show you a map of the area. I guarantee you won't find yourself more than 5-6 miles from where you want to be. If you want to save big bucks, you can't be too particular. You have to be willing to drive a few miles, but when you put in a destination, they won't give you options more than a couple miles away. I actually just checked for a hotel in the Morristown, NJ area for the end of August for a weekend, they had an offer for a 4 star hotel for $55.00. In many cases, if you're willing to do a little research, you an narrow the possibilities down to certain hotels, so you know where you might end up.
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shoppingmom




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Aug 04 2008, 1:53 pm
cindy324 wrote:
Quote:
It's really taking a chance! I mean, you can't know how far off you are from the area you are visiting ect.


Not at all! They show you a map of the area. I guarantee you won't find yourself more than 5-6 miles from where you want to be. If you want to save big bucks, you can't be too particular. You have to be willing to drive a few miles, but when you put in a destination, they won't give you options more than a couple miles away. I actually just checked for a hotel in the Morristown, NJ area for the end of August for a weekend, they had an offer for a 4 star hotel for $55.00. In many cases, if you're willing to do a little research, you an narrow the possibilities down to certain hotels, so you know where you might end up.


Somehow I like to see where I'll be staying....
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cassandra




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Aug 04 2008, 2:00 pm
My husband and I once took a cross country trip and booked our hotels (except for Shabbos) through priceline. It was great, since instead of staying in a regular motel type place we usually ended up in the nicest or second nicest hotel in the city for about the same price as the roadside Comfort Inn or whatever. We also have stayed in nice hotels in Manhattan through priceline-- Waldorf, Plaza, etc. (not that these would be my first choice, but pretty good for the price.) If you have the flexibility it can be a great way.
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sbs




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Aug 04 2008, 4:18 pm
I like hotels.com and if your'e a AAA member you can get discounts through their website
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cindy324




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Aug 04 2008, 5:54 pm
Quote:
Somehow I like to see where I'll be staying....


If a certain hotel is the only place you're willing to stay, or if you want to make sure that the hotel has an indoor pool vs. outdoor pool (very important to me in the summer, I only like outdoor pool, that's why I hesitate to use these sites in the summer) then of course you should only book directly with the hotel, but you'll pay pretty much full price, or you can use Hotels.com, but the savings are so miniscule, that it's not worth their cancellation policy.

Quote:
if your'e a AAA member you can get discounts through their website


You can use your AAA membership with 99% of hotel chains. You don't have to use hotels.com to book. Most of them have a AAA rate , just select it upon reservation.

Quote:
My husband and I once took a cross country trip and booked our hotels (except for Shabbos) through priceline. It was great, since instead of staying in a regular motel type place we usually ended up in the nicest or second nicest hotel in the city for about the same price as the roadside Comfort Inn or whatever.


Isn't it great??? Hotwire and Priceline have been around for years, successfully, because they rarely disappoint. Years ago, when Priceline used to narrow down their areas more, we used to know exactly what criterias to select, and we'd end up at the same place. For a few weekends in a row, a bunch of us would book with Priceline, we'd name our price of $45 (some even tried for $40 and got it!) and we ended up at the 3.5 star Sheraton in NJ.

Just this year, we used it to book this particular place in Somerset, NJ for $40/night. Once one booked it, we all named the same criteria and ended up at the same place. Of course it's not fool proof, but more often then not, it works out great!
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cassandra




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Aug 04 2008, 6:05 pm
cindy324 wrote:

Isn't it great??? Hotwire and Priceline have been around for years, successfully, because they rarely disappoint. Years ago, when Priceline used to narrow down their areas more, we used to know exactly what criterias to select, and we'd end up at the same place. For a few weekends in a row, a bunch of us would book with Priceline, we'd name our price of $45 (some even tried for $40 and got it!) and we ended up at the 3.5 star Sheraton in NJ.


I haven't actually used it in a while since we've been staying in more resort or boutiquey type places lately, so I didn't know they changed the way they narrowed the areas. That was so good-- we would pick exactly which hotel we wanted and then use the area narrowing to get that hotel. That was about seven years ago.
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cindy324




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Aug 04 2008, 6:26 pm
Yeah, they did change. For ex. we'd want to go to Parsippany area, lots of nice hotels there, they would give options like Parsippany South, Parsippany North. Now it's much broader, it'll say Parsippany-Morristown-Hanover area. We knew if we picked Parsippany North, we'd end up at the Sheraton.

Even if you keep picking the same area, you can end up in 3 different places now. In the past 2 months, we'd specified the exact same criteria and out of the 3 hotels on the same road, we'd ended up at a different one each time. No big deal, as they are all 3 stars, but we preferred one over the rest.
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sbs




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Aug 04 2008, 6:31 pm
Quote:
if your'e a AAA member you can get discounts through their website


[/quote]You can use your AAA membership with 99% of hotel chains. You don't have to use hotels.com to book. Most of them have a AAA rate , just select it upon reservation.[/quote]


I actually didn't mean use your AAA membership at hotels.com, I meant their own AAA website, but when I reread it now, it wasn't clear. sorry!!!
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benny




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Aug 04 2008, 6:33 pm
Ive gotten the nicest hotels in Manhattan for under $100. I planned a vacation for my husbands b-day in Manhattan and have been trying to get a hotel. I wasnt too worried because I was willing to spend. I already went up to over $300!!!! and still havent gotten a hotel! I started at $100. Dont know what to do.
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sbs




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Aug 04 2008, 6:35 pm
benny wrote:
Ive gotten the nicest hotels in Manhattan for under $100. I planned a vacation for my husbands b-day in Manhattan and have been trying to get a hotel. I wasnt too worried because I was willing to spend. I already went up to over $300!!!! and still havent gotten a hotel! I started at $100. Dont know what to do.


it's probably cuz of the season, there is fierce competition now and hotels aren't desperate because there's lots of vacationers in the summer
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bubble gum




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Aug 04 2008, 8:57 pm
check out www.betterbidding.com. Its a forum all about priceline and hotwire- u can read about their different bidding strategies for priceline. But the best part of all is the hotel lists- they have lists for every area on priceline and hotwire- its basically all the hotels that those websites use. so if u are on hotwire and see a 3* hotel in x area u can look at their list and try to figure out which hotel its gonna be based on the amenities listed. for priceline its a little trickier. check out the website- spend some time reading, its really helpful!! just a disclaimer- they dont guarantee that their lists have EVERY hotel so u cant COUNT on it, just use it as a guide.
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shoppingmom




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Aug 04 2008, 9:23 pm
cindy324 wrote:



Isn't it great??? Hotwire and Priceline have been around for years, successfully, because they rarely disappoint. Years ago, when Priceline used to narrow down their areas more, we used to know exactly what criterias to select, and we'd end up at the same place. For a few weekends in a row, a bunch of us would book with Priceline, we'd name our price of $45 (some even tried for $40 and got it!) and we ended up at the 3.5 star Sheraton in NJ.

Just this year, we used it to book this particular place in Somerset, NJ for $40/night. Once one booked it, we all named the same criteria and ended up at the same place. Of course it's not fool proof, but more often then not, it works out great!


So how does priceline work? I wanted to book a hotel last week, tried pricline and the price they gave for the hotel was looking for was way out of range! Sad
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cindy324




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Aug 04 2008, 11:46 pm
Quote:
So how does priceline work? I wanted to book a hotel last week, tried pricline and the price they gave for the hotel was looking for was way out of range!


Maybe you were looking where you can book a hotel by name. You have to click "Name your own price". It'll take you to the page where they'll ask you to choose a star rating, an area. Then there's going to be a little box for you to enter the price you're willing to pay. Next to that box will be a comment on what the median price of a hotel of that rating is in that area. You should bid not less than half that amount.

Sometimes, a little red box will appear under your bid that'll say "Based on recent data, your price of $$$ has just a small chance of being accepted" In that case you might as well up your bid until the little box no longer appears when you scroll down to the bottom of the page. Once the box is not showing up anymore, you can send in your bid and start praying LOL In about 30 secs you'll get an answer whether or not your price was accepted.

If it wasn't accepted, you can try again after 24 hrs have elapsed, unless you add on additional areas or star ratings you don't mind staying at, in which case you can try again right away.

In a different scenario, your price may not get accepted, but they may come back with an offer such as "if you're willing to increase your bid by X dollars (they always give a specific amount, in my experience it's been $9 once, $14 another time) you can try your request again right now. That just means that they'll accept that new price , so if you're willing to pay that much more , go for it.

Quote:
it's probably cuz of the season, there is fierce competition now and hotels aren't desperate because there's lots of vacationers in the summer


For sure! Last summer I was trying to get a room in Mystic, CT. A stinking 2 star hotel they wouldn't give me for $120 even. Ended up booking directly with another hotel a bit further away, for less.
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shoppingmom




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Aug 04 2008, 11:58 pm
Cindy, wow! This is so interesting. When I went to pricline’s website I saw the prices they list. Then I saw "name your own price". But they wanted me to give them my credit card before anything. I wasn't sure about it, so I just dropped it. It's a pity.
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benny




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Aug 05 2008, 12:05 am
ITs worth it to try. I have gotten some really really good deals in the past. I have not been lucky this time though.
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cindy324




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Aug 05 2008, 4:22 pm
Quote:
But they wanted me to give them my credit card before anything. I wasn't sure about it, so I just dropped it. It's a pity.


Of course they want your credit card, that's how they are able to offer those prices, by not telling you where you going before you actually pay.

Like I said, if you're not particular about amenities, go for it. You won't be disappointed. It's not ike you're going to find yourself in a Motel 8. If you select 3 star, that's what you're gonna get.
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