Question - What is the best way to get a good price on a five-star hotel?

Discreetly ull a bottle of Mop-n-Glo out of your purse, squirt a bit on the floor, "slip", fall, and threaten to sue.

www.priceline.com

in addition to priceline i find that http://www.tablethotels.com/ has very good rates. for example i got a room at the fasano in rio for something like $450 a night instead of the $800 they quoted me over the phone.

off-season

I have nothing to offer but I had to chime in that when I saw the thread title my brain immediately went to William Shatner and that jingle....."priceline negotiator."

He has really found a new nitch for himself in his golden years. The commercials are hysterical.

I can't believe I wrote nitch.....niche!

Thanks, folks.

Don't know that I'll be able to get the Ritz but I'll at least get a shot at an upscale hotel.

I use sidestep.com for flights and hotels. Haven't paid for a hotel in a while though, we've got bunch of Hilton and Marriott points, plus Marriott timeshares.

for add'l info, use www.betterbidding.com alongside your priceline bidding schemes. there's a whole opaque market of hotel bidding and it works. good luck

try expedia also. sometimes i get great rates, other times i do better on the hotel websites. for the weekend of 1/7 expedia has the Ritz at $329 a night, and $479 a night for the next weekend, which is a holiday weekend.

American Express if you have a platinum card. Also hotels.com is pretty good plus you earn one free night for every ten you spend (it actually does work.)

Showing $312 for an ocean front king this week on hotels.com. Now all you need are tickets!

Thanks, folks!

The Amex platinum card "fine hotels and resorts" perks seem to be more about amenities than rates. And you have to be careful because in some hotels, certain rooms are set aside for the Amex users and they aren't always the rooms you want. The amenities can be generous, however - guarantedd late (4 pm) checkout; a breakfast per diem, sometimes a lunch at the hotel restaurant, sometimes a fruit plate upon arrival.

I frequently stay in hotels where it seems clear that most of the guests did not pay the same rate I do and I wonder where they get these great rates. I've looked on Priceline, etc, but we tend to book suites, and there's never an incentive for suites. As far as Ritz-Carltons, I've often checked Expedia and Priceline for the rates at the Central Park South RC and it's always exactly the same as what is advertised on the RC web site.

Where DO people find these deals?

I've used http://biddingfortravel.yuku.com/ to get both recent specific info on priceline "wins", and for a somewhat complex system of gaming priceline's system so that you can get free re-bids.

But you can't rely on getting a specific hotel, even if it seems to be the only one that comes up for your time and place ... you're still committed to buying whatever they dish out that fits the criteria.

Be sure to start with the FAQ sections to understand what it's about.

do you actually find pricline to get you something you dont get on expedia?...(bear in mind that expedia rates jump wildly within minutes or hours , depending on suppy / demand..)

every time i have used priceline i start with lowball bids and then they "suggest" me back to levels that are the same as expedia, so say, why bother, because at least with expedia iknow the name of hotel etdc