Hotwire Hotel: 4* San Diego (Downtown-Harbor Island) Sheraton

[adelaide98]

Travel dates: 8/23-8/27/2008

Bid history(today, 8/1/2008)4* downtown only: $95, $101, $111, $116, with only adding free rebid locations, after each attempt.

I would like to spend less than $130, and am starting to consider a 3* hotel and going for an even cheaper bid to save money. (Of course I'll get more out of the conference if I'm comfy in a 4* hotel!)

Still haven't gotten anything.

Am I too early? I see people with better luck around the same days, including Labor day weekend, and including the Omni for $108 per night. Is it because I only want one room? Are there days of the week for which one has better luck?

Also, I tried to use the PRICELINE link at the top, and it gave me the following error: "Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at www.apmebf.com". Same error whether or not I typed in the dates and city or just clicked the "Priceline" button directly.

Thank you for this site, there is still much more for me to surf around on in here, and what I found so far has been helpful.

[adelaide98]

Today (8/2/08) I started at $95, and got up to $116 in about 5 increments (adding only new zones for free rebids) before I stopped, still have not won, still have not gone higher than $116 because I am still hoping that if I try on a different day I will have better luck. I hope that sounds like an okay strategy. I'm not willing to split the stay at this point.

Also, I did use the PRICELINE link (and it worked!!). I was wondering, does the forum get money only if clicking on the link leads to a purchase, or $$ each time a person clicks on the link? I'm wondering whether I'm supposed to leave and come back into priceline between each bid, or if it helps if I use the link to just get to the set up page where I'm verifying the proper zones for free rebids (or if that doesn't make a difference). I hope that question makes sense!

[AaronJB]

You are certainly not far off, and I'm a little surprised that your bids have not been accepted, as prices do not appear sky-high for these dates. HOTWIRE has a 4* for $133 in the Downtown area with the amenities: Restaurant, Pool, Fitness, Hi-Speed Internet, Business, Golf, Tennis, Spa, which would appear to be a possible match for the W San Diego or San Diego Manchester Grand Hyatt.

If the HOTWIRE idea is of interest, please use the site's link to HOTWIRE. If not, I wouldn't go much higher at all with your Priceline bidding, keeping in mind that HOTWIRE has an option for not too much more than what you've already bid.

[AaronJB]

Going through the PRICELINE link is greatly appreciated; the forum benefits if you click and do make a purchase. I do believe that you do have to go through the link every time you want to start bidding. For example, go through the link and try bidding. If not accepted, you have to go through the link again if you want to bid the next day, for example. Board moderator thereuare can clarify this.

[thereuare]

I'm currently seeing a different 4* hotel on HOTWIRE, priced at $139/nite. (i'm guessing the Sheraton)

Bottomline is that the price i'm currently seeing, and the price AaronJB has seen above, i'm fairly confident you can currently be successful if you bid up to your previously stated maximum bid for $130. Not sure if you're willing to bid this high at the moment or not, but if $130 is your true limit then i dont' think you need to concern yourself with the thought of downgraded to a 3* or questioning your decision to not split the bid.

Is $116 your limit at the moment for a 4* or are you willing to bid higher?

Please use these PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links to begin your travel purchases. (please use at the start of each bidding cycle)

[adelaide98]

Thank you very much, aaronJB. Your expertise and seeing your thought process is really helpful.

Thanks also for your reply, thereuare. $130/night would accomplish the goal of being "within reason", and thus sanctioned by the budget people at work but lower would keep my travel funds from being depleted. So if there is a chance that I could get it for less, I thought I'd try and be thrifty and patient. Your guess of the Sheraton is very appealing...that's where my conference hotel is, and my first choice. I'm going to try bidding again later today. But I wanted to let you know that at my work computer (Windows XP, Firefox), I am still not able to use the PRICELINE link but am able to use the HOTWIRE link. When I try Priceline from Internet Explorer, I get an error page with http://www.jdoqocy.com/interactive as the address. Both links work fine from my home computer (Mac, Firefox).

[thereuare]

Please place your bids at home then... or if you have a sensible boss/IT department ask them to unblock that domain as you're trying to help save the company money by using PRICELINE and this site. (there are three different PRICELINE links in our signature, i think one of the three may use a different URL... do all three not work?)

[adelaide98]

Ah, I see it's my work "firewall" or something like that. (I tried all links on the page that I could find). Then I will place my bids at home. This site has been very useful to me. Also, time to work on... err... work! I will keep you posted. Thanks again!

[adelaide98]

I changed my strategy completely, and I'm happy to post again in the hotwire section if needed.

The Sheraton is the hotel where my conference is, so it was my first choice, although I wanted any 4* hotel in downtown. I realized that the Sheraton is 3* in priceline but 4* in hotwire. I decided that getting the Sheraton through Priceline by going to 3* options was going to be a total grab bag b/c of all the other 3* hotels out there, some of which I didn't like as much. So I decided that if I could not have a $100 4* hotel, I'd rather have the Sheraton at Hotwire's price of $139/night. Thereuare, you must have thought it funny when I said my limit was $116 vs. $130, I later realized that the difference was only about $60. So anyway, I went above my limit to get the $139/night HOTWIRE offering.

8/23/08 to 8/27/08, bought on 8/9/08 San Diego Downtown and Harbor Island

Amenities: shuttle, restaurant, pool, fittness center, internet, business center, and tennis.

$139 per night

This was indeed the Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina, just like said on the forum, and by checking the hotel list!

I used the HOTWIRE and PRICELINE links for all transactions.

The conference rate was $189/night, so I feel good knowing that I am making a significant savings.

Thank you again. This has been so educational for me. I know it will be easier the next time I book a hotel, and that I'll definitely be using this site!

[Colfax]

Glad you got the exact hotel you were hoping for, adelaide98. One of the moderators will move this thread to the Hotwire section when they see it.