mollmatt

I will be traveling to London in June and will be bidding on Priceline for a hotel room. Since I've never been to London, I'm not sure which of the following Priceline zones would be the best to stay in.

Kensington/Knightsbridge/Earls Court
Westminster
Mayfair/Soho
Bloomsbury/Marble Arch

We plan on hitting the major tourist sights and will also try and see a play. I am traveling with my 14yr old daughter and I want to make sure we are located in an area that is convenient to the sights as well as the transportation system. Any help or advice you have will be appreciated.

ggnga

Hello, I have had very good luck bidding and getting Kensington/Knightsbridge area. click on my name above ggnga and scroll down to #65 of my posts titled Antiques and Flea Markets in London and you will find a very detailed description of how I bid for London.
I really like staying in Kensington area. Kensington High Street is good shopping. I think your daughter would like it.
Happy travels.

ggnga

Sorry. It is #66 of my posts.

janis

There are decent properties in just about every PL zone in London. Unfortunately most also have one or more places I would not want at almost any price. I don't use PL in London because I usually rent a flat but have studied Biddingfortravel a lot and keep track of which hotels are being won at what bids.

The zones/star levels where I would be happy with any of the known PL hotels are Mayfair/Soho @ 4 or 5 star, and Westminster @ 3 or 4 star. None of the hotels in these two zones would be bad and all are in convenient locations.

That cannot be said for any of the other zones.

tuckerdc

That's good info, Janis! I've also been worried by the not-good reports that come up about some of the Priceline properties, so it's really helpful to know where the best hotels are, w/o chance of landing a klunker.

travelinwifey

I prefer the Mayfair/Soho zone because it is in the heart of the theatre district and Piccadilly Circus.

WillTravel

Take a look at this thread:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34543947

I'm definitely less picky than many, and quite price-sensitive, so I was quite willing to take the risk of a somewhat less desirable hotel in the Kensington zone. It would still be much better than I could book outside Priceline for the same price. But as it turned out, I got a hotel with a prime location anyway, which is the most likely, though not assured, outcome.

Kayb95

I <i>love</i> Priceline for London. We normally stay in our timeshare in London, but whenever we go and it's not during our timeshare week, we use Priceline. The &quot;safest&quot; Priceline areas are Mayfair and Westminster, but we still will include Kensington on our bids. You can usually get a 4* in Kensington for less money than in Mayfair or Westminster.

We leave on Sunday for our 7 night stay at the Copthorne Tara in Kensington ($82/night thru priceline.)

We also use it to get a hotel at Heathrow for the night before we fly home.

Good luck with your bid - you'll have to let us know what you get.

Elizabeth

In London I stick to 4* bids only. My order of usual preference:

1 - Mayfair - most expensive
2 - Kensington - 2nd most
3 - Bloomsbury - cheapest

I've never been unhappy with a Priceline hotel and have stayed in all 3 areas. Total maybe 10 bookings. All under $110, often under $100.

yk

I have been bidding for a 4* PL hotel for London for about 10 days now, and still no success. Just FYI, expect to pay more for Westminster and Mayfair.

I have bidded up to $110 for Westminster and Mayfair and still not successful.

OTOH, I can probably get a 4* in either Kensington or Bloomsbury for about $80-85.

You just need to know what your budget is and also avoid OVERbidding. If you are not familiar with over-bidding, check out biddingfortravel.com

Kayb95

Generally speaking, you can usually expect to get a 4* in Kensington or Bloomsbury for $80 - $100 per night and in Westminster or Mayfair for about $100 - $150 per night.

mollmatt

Thank you all for the advice. I think I've settled on the Kensington zone and will bid for 4*. I do monitor biddingfortravel.com and hope to secure a room for somewhere around $85/night.

Kayb95

For a bidding strategy, you might want to start with just a 4* in Kensington and if your bid is rejected, add Mayfair and add a few dollars to your bid. If that is rejected, add Westminster and add a few more dollars. If you start with the cheapest zone of the top three (Kensington), you can add Mayfair and Westminster without much risk because those would also be great places to stay if you happened to win them.

Good luck!!

lmhornet

I keep seeing all this adice on bidding on priceline. I follow it and am continually rejected. I've bid up to $90 in Kensington with no results despite all the advice and talk about getting rooms for $70, etc.

Is all this priceline stuff a scam? I'm getting very suspicious.

WillTravel

What dates are you bidding for?

Not all bids all the time are successful, and prices have been going up for the past year or so.

WillTravel

And no, it's definitely not a scam.

But Priceline has to have inventory at your bid price, and if it doesn't, you don't win (obviously).

Kayb95

And if you are bidding for a large number of days - like 7+ during the busy seasons, Priceline might not have the inventory to fulfill the request. You might try breaking it down into two bids (although this means you will probably have to relocate to a different hotel halfway through your stay.)

lmhornet

I've been bidding for three days in May. What really gets me suspicious is that I see people on bidding for travel who claim to have had successful bids for far less money for the same period and duration that I'm bidding. I'm not comparing apples and oranges, here. They are getting hotel rooms for $70 in the same zone and I'm not even getting a counter offer at $90.

yk

lmhornet-

You have to be patient. I bidded 7 times over 3 weeks' time before I won my bid in London. Sometimes hotels don't release rooms to PL until the date gets closer, or they may only release just a few rooms (and get snatched by others before you).