jrnyman04, I looked at HOTWIRE for your dates, and it's no good per today. Downtown - Harbor Island and Gaslamp Quarter shows no inventory. Best is a 2.5* in National City for $89, other areas is very expensive! Most certainly is there blockreservations made for the convention. And this is why the "lower" rated hotels are expensive. And I'm sure many participators has booked the "non convention rates hotels" also. This is how I would do. Try to find the official site for the convention/what hotels that participates. Call one hotel and ask: I'm attending to the xxx convention, what is the deadline for convention rates etc. By now you maybe know the last day for booking. 1. Start bid again after the deadline or just before 2. If the deadline is over and "blocks" (if any) are released by now, your DaysInn looks like a great deal! But I would'nt go last minute in this case. Keep trying everyday up to your max. You never know. How high you should go is up to you and how bad you want another hotel and, you know the racks rates. But I think that the hotels are keeping the PL inventory low. It's a big convention. Good luck and keep the board updated. Henrik.