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I wrote a previous post about how Priceline.com has helped Mr. G and I spend many nights in luxurious hotels at super cheap rates. Last week, the lovely Miss D’orsay inquired about Mr. G’s methodology and the mysteries of bidding on Priceline. I asked Mr. G how he works his magic, and to my surprise, he wrote up a whole outline on the subject!
So without further ado, I give you Mr. G’s Guide to Priceline Bidding.
Before you do anything, go research 4 star and 3 star hotel prices via Travelocity.com, Expedia.com, etc. This way you will know what the going rate is. The key to bidding on Priceline is to change ONE criterion at a time. First, change the area criteria one at a time. Then, change the star quality. A price increase does not constitute a “change”.
MOH and Flirty Bridesmaid left with two extra-special packages to give to Mr. Pomegranate as a wedding day gift. The first of which was a super-secret surprise I had kept hush-hush for many months: a special boudoir shoot. The fabulous Sarah Maren and I holed-up in a chic little room at my favorite midtown bed and breakfast, The Inn at Parkside. Each room has a theme—ours was the “Kiss” room.
The Inn at Parkside
The rooms here are so chic and inviting!
For the past few years, Mr. G has become a master at booking nice hotels at cheap rates. His secret? A little tool called Priceline.com. If you haven’t used Priceline’s bidding system, let me tell you, you are missing out… BIG TIME.
Due to our two years + long distance relationship, we’ve driven cross country from LA to NY and back a number of times (pre-despicable gas price era… though per gallon rates have fallen quite a bit lately, don’t you think?) Along the way, we’ve stayed in luxurious 4 and 5 star hotels in Denver, St. Louis, Chicago, San Diego, etc. for 1 star prices (often much less than $100 per night)!!
There are some downsides. These mentioned deals are not always readily available in big cities like New York City, LA, San Francisco, and others. Additionally, it takes a bit of trial and error. You need patience to maneuver through the process. Depending how you bid, days can go by before your bid is accepted. But all in all, Priceline.com has made it possible for us to spend several wonderful nights in high end hotels all across the country. So, I’m not one to complain.
For example, a few weekends ago, Mr. G and I had the good fortune of spending our time at the Trump International Tower in Las Vegas. If you aren’t familiar with the Trump Hotel (I know I wasn’t), check out these pictures:
Read more…
Blocking hotel rooms for our guests seemed to be a very overwhelming item on our checklist. Mr. Taffy and I had been putting off hotel research for weeks. Ann Arbor has an enormous selection of accommodations, and we didn’t know where to begin comparing so many choices! After calling two hotels, I discovered a feature that quickly made some accommodations stand out from the rest. Ladies and Gentlemen, behold the free hotel shuttle service!
This may not be exciting to some, but I was thrilled to learn about this feature.
Read more…
Featured on Weddingbee
Unique Wedding Favors
“Add a memorable touch to your wedding with unique favors that match your theme.”
Source: Flickr
When Mr. P and I first set out to reserve a block of hotel rooms for our guests, we went to a hotel within walking distance of my favorite pseudo honky tonk, Saddle Ridge. Unfortunately, the rate was higher than we were hoping and our guests would have to walk across the windy Smithfield Street Bridge to get the the wedding. The wedding coordinator for the Rivers Club Recommended we contact the Omni William Penn Hotel, just a couple blocks away.
Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
So I have a confession. I knew a winter wedding in my hometown was going to be expensive. But yesterday I became very aware of just how expensive it would be to have our wedding in February in Vail, Colorado.
We had been engaged for about a year and a half, and I had had all this time to pick the perfect date. So what did I pick? The busiest weekend in my hometown, where it’s estimated that almost 2 million people will come to ski. YIKES!!!
So step one was done - the date was picked. Next, we waited for hotel prices to be released so we could get rooms reserved at a semi-decent rate. They were released a few weeks ago, and we almost hit the floor.
Read more…
This is our O-tel (say it with a French accent, for it is Philly’s only French O-tel), the Sofitel Philadelphia. I get mocking rights since the pop-in-law-to-be is French and will soon be family!
Located in the heart of the city, the Sofitel is the cornerstone of the new French Quarter, just steps from Rittenhouse Square. The former Philadelphia Stock Exchange Building, this hotel infuses French flavor with American style. Many of the staff are French, as is the cuisine in the hotel’s full-service restaurant, Chez Colette. With 300 rooms of unusually large proportions, averaging 400 square feet, it markets itself as a 4½ star hotel. Amenities include large desks, three phones in each room, high-speed Internet access and French chocolates on the pillow nightly (um, count me in).
Due to the overwhelming majority vote (and my gut instinct), I’ll be using the L O V E typewriter keys on my my bouquet. So what do I do with all my leftover keys?
Now that Mr. Jasmine and I booked our minimoon, we have to think about booking our wedding night accommodations. Initially, we were just going to stay at the InterContinental Los Angeles, where our wedding is being held. They’re providing us with a complimentary suite for the night. Read more…
Mr. Cupcake and I got engaged in February, and when we started talking details, we weren’t 100% set on any particular date for our wedding. We knew that we preferred a Saturday evening reception, but otherwise we were fairly open to seeing what was out there.
No more than two weeks after Mr. Cupcake proposed, Mama Cupcake and I were playing hooky from work and spending the day checking out various reception site possibilities in the area. Mr. Cupcake was perfectly content with us doing the leg work and reporting back to him, and this was fine with me. 
We weren’t as interested in having a city wedding as we were hoping for a more relaxed setting in the Main Line area of the Philadelphia suburbs, so that is where we began our search.
I’ve been MIA for a good reason - working on my massive, tri-lingual invites! I promise I’ll write about them after they have been mailed. In the meantime, I wanted to share information on the component of the invite that required the most research: accommodations.
With the average rate of hotels at about $300/night, finding affordable accommodations for our guests in Manhattan is no easy task. Although our wedding and reception will be held in Westchester County (which is 20 minutes northwest of Manhattan), the majority of our out-of-town guests will be visiting for the duration of the weekend and so prefer to stay in Manhattan for all its attractions.
Of course, there are inexpensive options for your stay in Manhattan, such as the New York Youth Hostel located in the upper west side. At about $30 a night this is probably the most economical way to go, aside from crashing at a friend’s or relative’s. You do not have to be a youth to use it, but you do have to be a member of Hostelling International or the American Youth Hostel Association.
Last month my MOH and sister were home from college for fall break, so I decided to go home for a couple of days. While at home, I decided to check out the new hotel that opened in my hometown since we’re considering blocking off rooms here for our wedding guests. The Hampton Inn and Suites opened just this summer and has a big sign out in front of it to come in and take a tour. So, that’s just what I did.
The lobby
…my weary head and tired feet, after the wedding!
While researching blocks of hotel rooms for our guests, I had a “Hey, wait a minute, where are we going stay?” moment. I was struggling with this because the morning of the wedding will be spent at my parents’ house in Queens for the tea ceremony, but in between that and the reception, I need to get into “Big White” and take pictures. I know most brides get ready at a bridal suite at their hotel, but I couldn’t think of a place that would either be convenient to the venue or the house.
Then Mr. C’s mom suggested Gramercy Park which is cross town from our venue. It’s an area I’ve always loved with its old New York brownstones, cute bars and restaurants. And who isn’t intrigued by the only private park in the city? So I googled “Gramercy Park” and “hotel” and the first thing that came up was the Gramercy Park Hotel.
From the pictures it was perfect… I loved the details in every room. The colors and furniture are all amazing. And I just couldn’t help thinking of the way our photographer, Angelica Glass, uses color and how these rooms would really pop in her photographs.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. If so, we thought we should investigate what the hotel rooms at our top three hotel choices for our Paris honeymoon were really like. Sure, all the hotel and vacation booking websites show pretty pictures, but are these pictures realistic?
I’m a big fan of user reviews, whether it is for hotels or for blenders, and travelers have made use of Trip Advisor in large numbers. Not only do they post reviews of their hotel stays, but they also post candid pictures. I thought it would be interesting to see if there was any resemblance between what glossy advertisements show and what hotel goers actually experience.
The top pictures are what the hotels and websites give us themselves, and the bottom pictures are the ones taken by the travelers.
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