rynodaddyo

Thanks again

First of all........thank you all for your help. Second of all......even though I have placed bids the last 2 years... 3 months in advance from my trip.....I did not do three pages worth of threads. I bid a 4* in the USW district with a starting bid of $100 and took my rebids to $130 with no luck. I bid a boutique hotel starting at $90 and went to $120 with no luck. I bid a 3* at $100 and was rejected.....rebid at $107 and was rejected....rebid at $114 and it was accepted. I got the Maxwell hotel.....from 8/26 through 8/30....a 3* hotel....for $114 a night. In checking at all the reviews on several sites it leans to favorable. Some sites seem to feel it is a 2.5* hotel. It is 3 blocks from the Powell Bart station so that is a major plus. Since most of my time will be in San Francisco.....it is nice to know that I am a Bart station away from the two games in Oakland. The rest will be munis or the Bart in San Francisco. Could I have gotten better for less? Maybe. Splitting nights? Maybe. It is showing a rack rate of $189 a night for 2 dbl beds on the nights I am staying. It is not quite the 50% off the rack rate on the other bids I have won across the country, but it obviously will have to do. Again....Thereuare, Coulfax, Beav, and everyone else......thank you very much. I will come back to this site next year again when I plan our baseball trip somewhere in the country, and of course.....I used the PRICELINE link from this site. Thanks again everyone.

I bid the last couple of days in the USE and USW zones seperately and together. I bid the days that I am staying as a block of 4, and 2 seperate bids of 2 days each. I have learned the word "REJECTED". I bid 4* hotels up to $130......Boutiques up to $120.......3* up to $115.........all were "REJECTED". It is obvious that I am running out of time, and am unrealistic at what $130 should get me in San Francisco compared to Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, and other cities I won bids in in the last two years. The baseball stadium in Oakland is right next to the airport. The bart runs to there as well as Berkely and San Francisco. I am changing my focus. Maybe staying in Oakland or Berkely is more realistic to what I want to pay.

I will try spliting. Would you suggest doing two and two, three and one, or one and three day blocks? Is it better to bid starting with Tuesday and...first so if need be I can just add a day, or does it not matter because I would pay rack rate for the last night?

What is going on in San Francisco that you can get Aug 23-25 for $93 for a 4* hotel, but you can not get $130 for the 26th-30th? I found nothing on the website for tourism in San Francisco.

Bid the USE and the USW zones seperately for a 4* hotel. My original bid was $85 and my 4 rebids went $95-$100-$105-$110 all were turned down. Then I bid the 2 zones together for the same 4* hotel. My bid was $115 with my rebids as $119-$123-$127-$130. These too were turned down. I will consider splitting or reducing to a 3* hotel this next weekend.

Getting to crunch time now......time to either cra_ or get off the pot. Colfax and Thereuare thank you for all your help during this process. Stepped it up.....I bid the USE and the USW zones for a 4* hotel bidding seperately. My original bid was $80 and my rebids were $90-$95-100-$105.....all rejected. I then bid the USE and the USW together. My original bid was $105 and my rebids were $108-$111-$114-$117....all were rejected. Time to get serious the rest of the week, and if nothing I will consider splitting, another zone, or a 3* hotel. Thanks again.

Thank you for your help. We fly into and out of Oakland since that is the airport that services SWA. We have baseball games in SF on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, and in Oakland on Thursday and Friday nights. My son is 20....if by chance all I get is a room with a queen bed....I will pay extra for a roll out bed (if the request for 2 double beds fail). I have considered splitting my bids....though I would prefer not to have to change in the middle of the trip. I looked at the Oakland side (Berkley) originally. I felt at the time that since the only reason I would want to be in Oakland is the 2 baseball games...that we would stay in SF. I have no preference on either renting a car or taking public transportation. Unfortunately last year on our baseball trip to Chicago I spent $48 per night to park the car...and used public transportation for convienance. The beauty of Priceline is the crap shoot of getting a hotel (probably out of downtown SF) that does not charge for parking. $100 is not set in stone for each night. Since we are not going to be in the room except to sleep...I did not want to "waste" money. The frills of the 9 hotels we have stayed at in the last 2 years doing our baseball games are rarely used. I just want convienance. I hope this helped.

Same two zones (USE-USW) bidding seperately on a 4* hotel.......$75 starting bid with rebids of $85-$90-$95-$100. All were rejected. I will try again in a couple of days.

Good point...I guess I phrased that wrong because I knew that the rebiding zones would be different. My rebids are Civic Center and Lombard Street. What would the strategy be? I can always bid the way I am on a 4* hotel and close my browser and then continue bidding on a 3* using both zones seperately and then together couldn't I? Thanks for the help. As always....I am using the PRICELINE link from this website.

Same two seperate bidding zones...Same starting bid with four rebids...same results. I would like to secure a room a couple of weeks before the trip so I can figure out exact public transportation. I am going to step the bidding up to twice a week as I get closer to my travel dates. If I was to try a 3* hotel in either the USE or USW zones would I use the same bidding strategy since it is not high enough for a 4*? Thanks.

Thanks for the travel tips. We have 4 days there so besides the 4 games we will do Alcatraz, Pier 39, Lombard Street, etc. I think alot of the time we will be on or near the water. Thanks for the heads up about the convention. I have yet to see a winning bid for the times we are there. We are staying Tuesday through Saturday so if it is a weekend event then it should only affect my bidding on Friday night. I will take that in mind when bidding again. Thanks again.

Thanks for the info, but If I can not get a 4* hotel for under $100 (which may or not be realistic) I will switch to a 3* hotel. I have 4 weeks to go, and when I see anything posted for the dates I want then I will know just how realistic I am.

This weeks bid is the same strategy with the same results. I bid on a 4* hotel in the USE and USW zones bidding seperately. I bid $75 with rebids of $85-$90-$95-$100 and was turned down. I will consider adding FW or changing to a 3* hotel in a couple of weeks. I am kind of waiting for wins about the time I travel next month to see how realistic I am with my bidding.

Thanks for the tip.

I bid again today in the USE and the USW zones for a 4* hotel bidding each zone seperately. With ny original bid and 4 rebids I bid $75 $85 $90 $95 and $100. I was turned done once again. I will stay with this for a couple of weeks, and then either raise my ceiling or reduce to a 3* hotel. Thanks for all your help.

Once again I bid on a 4* hotel in the USE zone using the PRICELINE link from this site, and once again I was turned down. I used my bid with the 4 rebids in increments of $75-$85-$90-$95 and $100. It is way to early to give up on a 4* hotel and a $100 ceiling, but should I consider splitting the nights? I would prefer to not spend the time moving from one hotel to another, but if it gets me into a 4* hotel and under $100...it is something to consider. I can check out individual rack rates from the hotels with winning bids for a Tues./Wed. Thur./Fri. stay if it helps with a strategy. Please any opinions or suggestions? Thank you all in advance.

Again.....using the PRICELINE link from this site I bid for a 4* hotel in the USE zone. This is how I bid. USE Zone $75 rejected rebid $85 rejected rebid $90 rejected rebid $95 rejected rebid $100 rejected I will bid next week on the USE zone, or will try a 4* in the USW zone before.

Using the PRICELINE link from this site I bid the USE zone only this time for a 4* hotel. Here is how it went.... USE Zone bid $75 rejected rebid $85 rejected rebid $90 rejected rebid $95 rejected rebid $100 rejected I will rebid on this zone next week, and may rebid the USW zone before than.

Well I tried my weekly bid using the PRICELINE link from this site. I bid the USE and the USW zones seperately using this strategy on both zones. bid zone $75 rejected rebid zone $85 rejected rebid zone $90 rejected rebid zone $95 rejected rebid zone $100 rejected I am considering adding the FW zone before I either raise my top line bid, or reduce to a 3* hotel. Even though it seems most of the tourist activities are in Fisherman's Wharf zone...my concern is public transportation. Where the USE zone has 2 bart stations...the USW and FW zones have only 1. Since I have chosen not to rent a car on this trip because of gas, parking, etc. I want to make sure I have access to public transportation. I guess I can take a cab to the bart stations, but would prefer not to. Any comments or suggestions?

I bid again today on the USE and USW zones for a 4* hotel. I bid the same for both zones, but bid them seperately. I did not bid them together, because I am not ready to go above my $100 limit per night. Here is how I bid zone bid $75 rejected rebid $85 rejected rebid $90 rejected rebid $95 rejected rebid $100 rejected I will bid again next week, and then consider raising my limit on a 4* hotel or droping to a 3* hotel.

So I rebidded today and I added the USW zone with the USE zone. Here is how I bid USE Zone bid $75 rejected rebid $85 rejected rebid $90 rejected rebid $95 rejected rebid $100 rejected Closed browser and then bid USW Zone bid $75 rejected rebid $80 rejected rebid $85 rejected rebid $90 rejected rebid $95 rejected Closed browser and then bid USW and USE Zone bid $75 rejected rebid $85 rejected rebid $90 rejected rebid $95 rejected rebid $100 rejected I will continue bidding the 2 seperate zones and the zones combined for the next couple of weeks to see if rooms open up a little. Going into July I will have to consider either raising $100 limit or droping to a 3* hotel. I will keep you informed, and I am using the PRICELINE link from this site. Thanks.

I tried to bid the USE zone again today. I used the same bidding strategy as above and was rejected. I will wait a week and start adding the USW zone by closing my browser and doing both zones seperately and then together. Any additional ideas on how to bid when using both zones together other than maybe increasing the top end bid?

I bid on the USE district for a 4* hotel again using the same strategy as before. USE 75$ rejected rebid 85$ rejected rebid 90$ rejected rebid 95$ rejected rebid 100$ rejected I will try again next week, and then will start considering USW,

This morning I bid again on a 4* hotel in the USE district only and was turned down. This is how I bid. USE 4* $75 rejected rebid $85 rejected rebid $90 rejected rebid $95 rejected rebid $100 rejected Since I prefer the zone because of the easy access to Pac Bell and public transportation.....I will bid on a 3* hotel in the USE zone next. I would still like to stay at $100 or less per night for a room. Priceline says that the median price for a 4* in this zone was $319 a night....so maybe my thought of a 4* for a $100 was unrealistic. I will keep plugging along with plenty of time. Thoughts?