3*, $60, $71.88 grand total with taxes and fees.
Amenities listed in my "my trips" in my Hotwire account:
Free parking
Free breakfast
Free Internet
Pet friendly
Indoor pool(s)
Airport shuttle
Smoke-free rooms
Fitness center
Pool(s)
Restaurant(s)
Business center
Self-service laundry
Internet access
Golf nearby
Tennis nearby
Notably I booked this almost exactly one and a half hours ago at $60 plus taxes and fees (as recorded in this post), now when I search it is (almost certainly the same hotel) at $59, listed with:
Free Internet
Free breakfast
Free parking
Airport shuttle
Fitness center
Indoor pool(s)
Pet friendly
Pool(s)
Smoke-free rooms
As always, I used BetterBidding's HOTWIRE link. Thanks!
Grand total with taxes and fees was $163.96.
Listed amenities:
Free Internet, Pet friendly, Boutique hotel, Smoke-free rooms, Fitness center, Restaurant(s), Business center, Self-service laundry
I've been to the Benson before, and it's a perfectly nice hotel in an excellent location.
I briefly considered the 4.5* for $126 (also downtown Portland), but Hotwire noted a likely resort fee of $19 for that one. I'll go WAY out of my way to not pay this ridiculous tack-on charge that supposedly pays for stuff like newspapers and swimming pools at most places. And I avoided priceline on this since they don't disclose likely resort fees, which several of the downtown Portland 4* and 4.5* are likely to have. It would be AWESOME if BetterBidding's hotel listings noted which ones tack on resort fees!
As always, I used Betterbidding's HOTWIRE link for the search. Thanks!
Winning bid was $55/night plus taxes and fees, two nights, for a grand total of $129.38.
I re-bid at the 3.5* level starting at $35, going up in $5 increments, and got it on my final bid of $55. I started at 3.5, because I didn't want to accidentally get the 4* Cheyenne Mountain Resort (which is a nice hotel, and I've enjoyed staying there, but I really want to be easy walking distance of downtown Colorado Springs.)
I'm extremely happy with this win: I've stayed here before, and it's quite nice, and an ideal downtown Colorado Springs location. The cheapest rate available directly through the hotel's website is advance purchase at $119/night plus taxes, so this is about half off.
Note that while Priceline calls this the "South" zone of Colorado Springs, it's really the downtown and south area. Their "Central" zone is deceptively north of the city center.
As always, I used the Betterbidding Priceline link. Thanks!
This was the first and only bid (since there is only one zone for Juneau.) $130/night plus taxes and fees.
Quite happy, as it's arguably the nicest hotel in town.
Used the betterbidding.com Priceline link, as always. Thanks!
WInning Priceline bid was $72, grand total of $91.91 with taxes and fees.
Re-bid up from $30 (Houston has a TON of zones to re-bid from, had up to 21 re-bids) in $5 then $3 increments. Previous (non-winning) bid was $69.
Hotwire 4* option was $79 + taxes and fees, total of $101.76.
As always, used BetterBidding's Priceline link, and Hotwire link to compare. Thanks!
March 6-15, $17/day, grand total of $231.65. Very happy with this, since cheapest on Hotwire was around $300 grand total.
Used BetterBidding's PRICELINE link for the win. Thanks!
Won this hotel with a $57 bid, grand total of $73.17 after taxes and fees.
Hotwire was showing a 3.5* in the Seattle Airport zone for $64, grand total of $78.93, so I saved $5.76 off of that. Best available price for this hotel through their website is $96.90 + tax advance purchase, total of $108.92, so I'm quite happy with this win.
My re-bid process took a long time: Seattle provided up to 11 re-bids at the 3.5* level. I only wanted a hotel very near SeaTac (preferably with an airport shuttle) so I really only wanted to be in Priceline's Zone 12, Seattle Airport (SEA). I started at $44/night ($58.01 total) and bid up in two dollar increments to $54, then in one dollar increments until winning this at $57. So I'm pretty confident I got the best possible price today for this hotel!
I was just about to stop bidding and go with the Hotwire price, which ensured a hotel shuttle. Might have gone up one more dollar.
Used BetterBidding's PRICELINE link for all bids, and the HOTWIRE link for the research. Thanks!
Unsuccessful first bid was $25/night in Reno Zone 1 (downtown), this was re-bid using Zone 2 at $30.
Grand total for one night is $41.25.
Retail is $59/night plus tax (I was actually looking at this property last night) so a good buy. It's a bit off the beaten track for Reno, but I'm flying out the next day, so it's a fine location for me.
As always, used the BetterBidding PRICELINE link. Thanks!
After (unsuccessfully) bidding up to $53/night on Priceline, went this route on Hotwire. Very happy with the buy.
Grand total for three nights was $218.09.
Used BetterBidding's HOTWIRE link. Thanks!
Total with taxes and fees $77.68. Re-bid up from ridiculously cheap, since out of 19 zones in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, only downtown Minneapolis has 4* options right now. Previous bid before the $61 winning bid was $55, so if I were to do it again, I'd go in smaller increments (I was just getting a little tired of the tedious process of re-bids.) I had at least six remaining re-bids...
Pretty great deal for this hotel: through the Marriott website, the cheapest for this night is $134.99 +taxes.
Also notable that Hotwire has a 4* hotel in downtown Minneapolis for these dates for $73.00, a total of $90.53 after taxes, with these listed amenities: (Pet friendly, Smoke Free Rooms, Fitness Center, Restaurant(s), Business Center, High-Speed Internet Access, Accessible for the blind, Accessible for the deaf, Accessible path of travel, In-room accessibility, Accessible bathroom, Handicapped parking, Roll-in shower)
all of which are consistent with the Hotel Minneapolis, Autograph Collection [by Marriott]. So while obviously we won't know unless someone books it through Hotwire right away, reasonable guess that
As always, used BetterBidding's PRICELINE link. Thanks!
$87, with all taxes and fees, a total of $107.53. Hyatt's website has $199 +taxes as the lowest rate, so a really nice buy.
As always, used BetterBidding's HOTWIRE link. Thanks!
Listed amenities:
Indoor pool(s)
Fitness Center
Pool(s)
Restaurant(s)
Business Center
High-Speed Internet Access
Wheelchair accessible
A good deal for a lower-end hotel; 100% smoke free. Through the hotel's website this place is $83/night plus tax for non-cancelable advance purchase, and $104/night plus tax for normal reservation. Listed price was $60, with fees and taxes it's $75.25 total.
Now the down side: while both Hotwire and the hotel's website call this a "pet friendly" hotel, I only found out after booking that the non-refundable pet fee is $100/stay. Nothing especially friendly about that, and now I know better than to trust Hotwire's claim of "pet friendly." (I almost never travel with pets, but this trip is with a friend and a dog.) Well, lesson learned: don't use opaque sites to book hotels if you need to have a pet there without an outrageous fee.
Used the BetterBidding HOTWIRE link. Thanks!
(listed) Amenities
Free Breakfast
Free Internet
Pet friendly
Smoke Free Rooms
Fitness Center
Business Center
Laundry Facilities (self-service)
High-Speed Internet Access
A great buy for what used to be listed as a 3* in PL, and is now a 3.5* (which is totally reasonable.) We've stayed here before, and it was $70/night on PL.
It's a classic Marriott: no boutique, but everything is clean, professional, and comfortable.
As always, I used the BetterBidding PRICELINE link -- thanks!
Room Cost (avg. per room, per night): $55.00 (USD)
Number of Rooms: 1
Number of Nights: 2
Room Subtotal: $110.00 (USD)
Taxes and Fees: $22.36 (USD)
Total Charged to Card: $132.36 (USD)
$67.73 total with taxes. A decent buy for this hotel in the heart of downtown Colorado Springs: it's $91/night plus tax on Hilton's website. Self parking is $17/night, but I'll be arriving fairly late on a Friday night, so on-street parking will be free for my one night stay.
Used BetterBidding's HOTWIRE link -- thanks!
Hotwire's listed amenities:
Free Internet
Pet friendly
Indoor pool(s)
Fitness Center
Pool(s)
Restaurant(s)
Business Center
High-Speed Internet Access
Accessible for the blind
Accessible for the deaf
In-room accessibility
Wheelchair accessible
Accessible bathroom
Handicapped parking
Roll-in shower
Just another quick followup: this place was lovely! Everything was clean, worked well, smelled good, was comfortable, and the pool and hot tub were nice. It's in a little out of the way area, but we walked to the main part of town for dinner.
The reviews on tripadvisor for this place are all over the board, nearly evenly distributed from "excellent" to "terrible", so it'll be interesting to see how our stay goes. But for the price, I can't see having that much to complain about.
I now understand why the reviews are all over the place. Our stay was fine, for one night, and for the price, I can't really complain too too much. The price was, as noted, great. The indoor pool area is spectacular (two pools, a hot tub, several waterfalls!) and the hotel is pleasantly located off of the tourist strip, but still an easy walk. We were very happy to have an outside facing room: the numerous rooms facing the pool would likely be quite loud during pool hours, and the humidity is practically like being in a steam sauna. The outdoor pool is unfortunately empty and locked, but would be nice during the summer.
We were told that "99% of our rooms are nonsmoking" but they clearly haven't always been, and the place hasn't been refurbished since its smoking days: you can easily smell musty old smoked-in room, in the furniture and wallpaper. The sink hardly drained at all, and at various times throughout the night there was a loud gurgling sound from the plumbing. The coffee maker had to be turned back on after turning itself off for no apparent reason partway through brewing. There was some weird thing going on with pitting and holes in the carpet, but it didn't bother us. Everything else worked decently. The room was basic, but did include a cube fridge, which was nice.
The hotel probably needs to be gutted, and really isn't worthy of the three star rating Hotwire gives it. There is just no reasonable way to say that this is equivalent to what Hotwire says you'll get for 3 stars:
"
Radisson Hotels & Resorts
Holiday Inn Hotels & Resorts
Four Points by Sheraton
Hilton Garden Inns
La Quinta Inns
"
it's really more in Hotwire's 2 star class examples:
"
Best Western Inns
EconoLodge Hotels
Howard Johnson Hotels
Microtel Inns & Suites
Clarion Hotels
"
And actually, I've stayed in nicer and better maintained of all of those examples. But if I'd bid at 2 stars, I would have been totally happy with Glenstone.
I'm really not one to tear apart hotels, and am only posting this because of my original comment about the reviews. Glenstone wasn't horrible, the pool area was fantastic, and for one night, we dealt. But we agreed we were glad it was only one night.
Can you please add a reply to this thread confirming the complete list of amenities associated with this property... you can still view this information by going to HOTWIRE and clicking the MY ACCOUNT link near the top right of their home page.
Sure!
Amenities
Free Parking
Free Breakfast
Free Internet
Fitness Center
Pool(s)
Business Center
Laundry Facilities (self-service)
High-Speed Internet Access
Hotwire bid was $44, total after tax and fees is $55.35. Current best price through the hotel's website is $74 plus tax/fees, and I'm happy with this win. Used the BetterBidding HOTWIRE link -- thanks!
The reviews on tripadvisor for this place are all over the board, nearly evenly distributed from "excellent" to "terrible", so it'll be interesting to see how our stay goes. But for the price, I can't see having that much to complain about.
from hotwire's description:
Amenities
Free Parking
Free Internet
Indoor pool(s)
Pool(s)
Restaurant(s)
High-Speed Internet Access
Golf Nearby
Also did unsuccessful Priceline re-bidding using the BetterBidding PRICELINE link, up to $37, for 3*, trying to get Gatlinburg (Zone 1) and Gatlingburg North (Zone 3.) Three re-bids, starting at $30, all unsuccessful.
(Moderators: note that for City Zone, the system didn't seem to have a Gatlinburg South option, so I included it. Feel free to edit/correct.)
Total pice after taxes and fees $94.28.
Used BetterBidding's PRICELINE link. Thanks!
I started bidding at $30, went up in $5 increments on the various available re-bids (about 10 as I recall.) I probably would have only gone up in $3 increments if I'd had more time, but I was sitting in the airport with a flight to STL about to board.
The hotel itself is fantastically located, and I have a view of the Arch and the river. The service is amazing. The room is very comfortable, pretty standard for a hotel in this class. Everything works, and everything is very clean.
Rack rate is $179/night for the two double bed Arch view. ($129 is the cheapest rack rate I can find.)
The only downside is the masses of pre-teen screaming and running girls here for some sort of dance competition, and their mothers/chaperones. But certainly not something the hotel can be blamed for.
The "sports bar" on the ground floor has a surprisingly good beer selection: lots of Missouri craft breweries on tap, and a solid craft bottle selection.
Only wish it had a pool or hot tub, but otherwise a lovely hotel at a great price.
Used the Betterbidding PRICELINE link for the purchase. Thanks!
Nice price right before Christmas when the in-park hotels at the Grand Canyon are very busy.
Rate per night: $99.00
Nights: 1
Rooms: 1
Tax recovery charges & fees: $20.37
Trip total: $119.37
I used the BetterBidding HOTWIRE link to start the search. Thanks as always!
Third re-bid, started at $40, using only 4* in Phoenix metro area. Got this at $50/night, so $64.66 total with all taxes and fees, for one night, 12/22/2012-12/23/2012.
Awesome win! Happily used the Betterbidding PRICELINE link again. Thanks!
3.5* DC (Crystal City - Reagan National Airport Dca) Doubletree By Hilton Washington Dc - Crystal City
in Hotwire Hotels - Washington, DC
Posted
$58/night, grand total with fees $143.
Amenities: Indoor pool(s), Airport shuttle, Smoke-free rooms, Fitness center, Pool(s), Restaurant(s), Business center, Self-service laundry, Internet access
Reasonably happy with the deal. It's available for $79/night plus taxes through Hilton.com. Bid and re-bid on PL using the betterbidding.com links (for both!) and up to $60 had no luck for a 4*, so this is a fine compromise for 3.5* where I want to be.