Has anyone bought a pre-cruise hotel night from eBay?

[flashdog_1]

Before I touch this one I want to check on cruise critic. Sounds sort of like priceline but they give you a very low fee. Some of the feedback spoke of staying at Marriott and Hilton (not in Miami where my cruise leaves from, however).

 

I also checked all the ones for a certificate for a free night and they were not available at the brand name in Miami for that night. Poo

 

Please let me know if you've lucked out on this, or had a bad experience. Thanks

[melligene]

Our TA booked us into the Comfort Inn Miami Airport for about $106 for the day before our cruise. This price is supposed to include airport to hotel and hotel to airport on cruise day. Hope this helps. This is our first cruise so I make no guarantees that this will happen but we have to trust our TA.

[Booking It]

I booked on one of the name your price sites (don't know if I'm allowed to name which one?) for a pre-cruise night and a post-cruise night. For our pre-cruise night, we are booked at two "no name" hotels that look like (and I read reviews on) they are very chic boutique hotels that we paid $55/night from the name your price site when they are normally about $150/night. We will be directly on South Beach and I am anticipating a short cab ride to the Port.

 

In general, we have had very, very good luck with naming our price. We haven't specifically used eBay, but in looking at it, it seems kind of similar.

 

We travel a LOT and we have saved tons of money doing this. We have also stayed at a lot of really cool hotels that we normally would not have even looked at. The exception is The Grand Hotel in Minneapolis. Whenever we go there, we ALWAYS stay at the Grand. Sigh :)

[mbisson]

I'm presently waiting for a reply to a question for a guy who listed on ebay a Newark hotel at $28 for a one night stay before our cruise. He has good feedback ratings. This would be my first experience with ebay for hotels though.

 

I've had great success with priceline and have had Marriott, Sheraton and others in that class for the $40-$50 range. If using Priceline I'd check biddingfortravel and see the price range for successful offers in the city you're interested in (and you can also see which hotels have been accepting bids recently)

[Sea Hound]

I'm presently waiting for a reply to a question for a guy who listed on ebay a Newark hotel at $28 for a one night stay before our cruise.

 

Monte - I can get you a Newark room for $20.00 per night but you'll have to be disturbed a lot -- they change the sheets every hour!;)

[mbisson]

Monte - I can get you a Newark room for $20.00 per night but you'll have to be disturbed a lot -- they change the sheets every hour!;)

 

 

I've been accused of being 'disturbed' all the time :D

[flashdog_1]

I'm presently waiting for a reply to a question for a guy who listed on ebay a Newark hotel at $28 for a one night stay before our cruise. He has good feedback ratings. This would be my first experience with ebay for hotels though.

 

This is one of the ads I saw, but for Miami beach. He did get back to me and said he could find no availability for the night I wanted.

 

Looks like you are the only one who has tried eBay for a hotel stay.

 

Oh, there was one for the Carlton (not Ritz Carlton) in South Beach for $20 a night. I read reviews from trip advisor and they were all over the place in good and bad. I got the impression it is south beach itself, not the hotel, that is very noisy. The website shows nice photos. Website says regular price is $551. Hard to believe.

 

I've had great success with priceline and have had Marriott, Sheraton and others in that class for the $40-$50 range. If using Priceline I'd check biddingfortravel and see the price range for successful offers in the city you're interested in (and you can also see which hotels have been accepting bids recently)

 

No one is accepting $100 for Jan 23rd, so I'm guessing it's one of two reasons. 1) I'm looking at it much too early (7 months prior to cruise), or 2) Since january is high season in Miami, they just don't have to allow any reductions for priceline. The prices for the hotels you mention are in the upper 300s for my date, so maybe I'm expecting too much.

 

Thanks for responding. If anyone has tried eBay let me know.

 

What kind of time frame should I be concerned?

[mbisson]

I wondered if it was his Miami Beach ad you saw. It looks like he seems trustworthy. I don't know if you intend to stay beyond the one night. If not and it were me, I'd probably give some serious consideration to that Carlton.

 

The Sheratons/Mariotts I've bid on Priceline were not nearly as pricey as what you're looking at in Miami (only in the $175-$225 range). But I think you may be right about booking that far in advance.

 

Still no reply on the questions I asked him about Newark. But as we're getting in late at night and out the next morning, if he can tell me that I'll have no problems on the date, we will probably go ahead and jump on it.

 

BTW-it appears that 3* & 4* in the Miami area are going for $55-$70 BUT thats those booked about a month or so in advance. You might want to book something cheap (or something that can be cancelled with little or no penalty) and then see if you can find something better later.

 

 

This is one of the ads I saw, but for Miami beach. He did get back to me and said he could find no availability for the night I wanted.

 

Looks like you are the only one who has tried eBay for a hotel stay.

 

Oh, there was one for the Carlton (not Ritz Carlton) in South Beach for $20 a night. I read reviews from trip advisor and they were all over the place in good and bad. I got the impression it is south beach itself, not the hotel, that is very noisy. The website shows nice photos. Website says regular price is $551. Hard to believe.

 

 

 

No one is accepting $100 for Jan 23rd, so I'm guessing it's one of two reasons. 1) I'm looking at it much too early (7 months prior to cruise), or 2) Since january is high season in Miami, they just don't have to allow any reductions for priceline. The prices for the hotels you mention are in the upper 300s for my date, so maybe I'm expecting too much.

 

Thanks for responding. If anyone has tried eBay let me know.

 

What kind of time frame should I be concerned?

[flashdog_1]

Good idea, just so I have somewhere to lay my head. I did go ahead and email our date to the guy doing $20 for the Carlton. Haven't heard back. I did check on one of the travel sites and they have it at $299 so if it is available, it is a steal.

[mbisson]

I got a reply about the Newark Holiday Inn. The reply didn't mention that hotel (I think he might've written the listing incorrectly). Said he could get me into the HoJo for the date I want. Reviews aren't good at all for it, BUT It'll be after midnight when we get to the hotel, they have free 24 hr airport shuttle (although some have complained about waiting a long time for it), and we'll be checking out pretty early. So I'll probably go for it.

[Sooners]

If using Priceline I'd check biddingfortravel and see the price range for successful offers in the city you're interested in (and you can also see which hotels have been accepting bids recently)

 

Hi Monte:

 

Another really good site for priceline/hotwire is betterbidding. I've had good success getting rooms in Seattle after checking this site out.

 

Jeff