Anyone have a trick for getting a great deal on a hotel?

[estella1007]

Here's my secret. I use priceline also, but there is a sneaky way to get the exact hotel you want, really cheap. I do it all the time. For example I got a $600 per night suite in NYC for my sister's birthday for only $115. (On a saturday night too!) What you do is you search for only 5 star hotels, and only select the exact part of town you want to stay. The list of available rooms will come up. Then you do the name your own price thing. When you do that, you can't pick which hotel you will end up at, but it WILL be one from the list you just looked at. There may be quite a few, but because you chose only 5 star ratings, they are all going to be nice either way.Start with less than half of what they were asking for the room. It will do that thing where it says it has little chance of being accepted, but do it anyway. I have gotten rooms near Times Square for as little as $85 a night by doing that.(Again, they are always 5 star rooms.) Then as soon as you choose your room and pay, call the hotel directly to confirm that the reservation took. When I talk to the person at the hotel, I ask what type of room it is, and if they can upgrade it because it is a special occasion. They almost always do!