Colfax

Hope you're having fun in Chicago, westie. It's so good that you booked that Comfort Inn when you did because a number of Santa Monica hotels are sold out on July 24 now, including the Sheraton Delfina AND the Comfort Inn. HOTWIRE has a 3* at $199 or a 1* at $109. If you don't have internet access in Chicago it sounds like you'll be getting comfortable at the Comfort Inn. Have you found anything yet for the days after Santa Monica?

TripAdvisor Forums are a good place to gather opinions about a hotel quickly. I've never stayed at the De Anza and don't have a personal opinion of it. You can't put too much faith in any single review on TripAdvisor. It's more about the overall pattern. De Anza is rated #13 out of 63 hotels in San Jose on TripAdvisor, with an overall score of 3.5 out of 5. I'd scan all the reviews there to get the big picture and not focus on one or two. The location is definitely Downtown and walking distance to lightrail and the downtown museums. I see HOTWIRE's 4* in Los Gatos is $289 for these dates!

This looks like a match for Hotel De Anza in Downtown San Jose. That hotel hasn't been reported on Priceline. In HOTWIRE Vacation Packages (where I go to try and identify hotels) the Montgomery shows up with different icons than you posted. (No Boutique icon.) The De Anza's best rate for your dates is $229. Looks like an interesting place and right Downtown. Check the reviews at TripAdvisor. I also see there's a Hotwire 3* for $126 and that looks like a match for the Crowne Plaza. (No guarantee on the ID.) If you purchase either of these please use this HOTWIRE link.

elviswife, The original poster was talking about a 4* on Hotwire, not on Priceline. HOTWIRE often rates the same hotel higher than Priceline. The Hotwire 4* in Milpitas is probably a 3* on Priceline.

What exact dates are you finding these amenities and price for?

tivi, When bidding for a 4* in the Santa Clara/Sunnyvale zone you have three free rebid zones. Please post the names of those three zones so we know you understand what free rebidding is. If you aren't familiar with free rebidding yet, thereuare will post a link to some good info. Also 1) What's your bidding limit? 2) Are you willing to split your bid and possibly stay at two different 4* hotels in order to get a lower price?

From your other post I see you won the Hyatt Santa Clara for $50 on 8/2-8/5. Congrats! If you want suggestions on Los Gatos now please start a new thread for that. It will help if you'll post the Hotel Los Gatos rate , obtained from the hotel's website, checking each day individually. Also the rate of the unknown Hotwire 4*, again each day singly plus the rate for the full stay.

Congratulations, elviswife. These dates are a Thurs/Fri/Sat and Hyatt's best rates are $179/$109/$109. It's great that you got accepted at $50 for the night that costs $179! Many times the higher priced night will have a higher Priceline rate too.

If Santa Clara is your preferred zone there's no reason not to bid for a 3* in Santa Clara first. For a one night stay I think any 3* in Milpitas or Santa Clara would work out just fine.

Here's my opinion: You're trying to decide between three sets of dates that are 4, 5, or 6 weeks in the future. Whichever set of dates you pick you're probably not going to get your best Priceline deal until a week or two before you travel. Since there aren't any outstanding Hotwire deals now for ANY of the dates you're considering I would just buy a plane ticket for the dates that suit you and your MIL best and keep on bidding. I don't think you need to worry about not getting a hotel in Downtown Portland for any of your dates. If you really prefer having your hotel locked in now before you buy a plane ticket then I think you need to raise your 4* bidding limit to something like $85 or $90, or try for the 3*.

Sounds good, with a big qualification. Santa Clara is probably cheaper on weekends and Los Gatos probably cheaper on weekdays. Los Gatos might not be on Priceline for weekends at all. It's a popular weekend getaway for locals. The way you've set your dates you're bidding both cities on the days when they're probably more expensive. I would work on the Los Gatos part first since it's more difficult to win and will be a bigger part of your travel budget. Check HOTWIRE in Los Gatos, one day at a time. If the HOTWIRE 4* is much less expensive on certain days those are probably the days you want to bid on Priceline first. I'll be away from the board for the rest of the day.

Since availability is changing all the time I just checked the 4* Hyatt and Hilton again. Both are still sold out on 7/25. Here's what HOTWIRE has in their Santa Clara zone: 4* $199 (probably this hotel is a 3* on Priceline) 3* $179 2.5* $66 2* $69 With high prices for 3* on your dates as well I doubt that your $60 limit is enough. $60 is more than 70% off the best 3* price you've found, $229. You can certainly try $60 for a 3* though, then add Redwood City (your only free rebid for 3*) and bid higher. I wouldn't be surprised if it took closer to $100 for a 3* on this busy day. If $80 isn't enough for a 3*, do you want to try for a 2.5* in Santa Clara or try for an adjacent zone? 3* in Milpitas would be my suggestion. Those 3* Milpitas hotels are very decent and not a bad drive to Santa Clara.

Yikes! What about trying for a 2.5*? Hilton Garden Inn is sold out, so probably Casa Munras if you win anything. Or are you willing to bid higher than $150 for a 3*? Do you have a plan if Priceline doesn't come through for you?

The 3.5* at $95 HOTWIRE is a good suggestion too, slruud. I only checked elviswife's first set of dates and a 3.5* wasn't offered for those dates, but it can pop up at any time. Also thanks for your bidding history, plantnerd. The five day stay might be making your bid more difficult, especially since it combines weekdays and weekends. Good luck moving forward and please keep us posted. To elviswife: A lot of times the 4* availability doesn't come through until nearer your travel dates. I suspect you want to settle on your dates so your mother can buy a plane ticket. If you fail at $75 for all your date options I think it's reasonably safe to purchase a ticket for the dates that work best for you and feel confident that you'll win a hotel between now and then. You might have to raise your limit higher than $75 at some point but I think you can keep lowball bidding for another couple weeks if you want to hold out for a deal.

Here's what Priceline's Help section has to say about Handicap Rooms: A good friend of mine is paraplegic and uses a wheelchair. He also uses Priceline and has never had a problem getting a suitable room. He's never needed to ask for a refund from Priceline because every hotel he's won was able to guarantee him a Handicapped room when he called. What kind of issues have you run into when trying to get a Handicapped room on Priceline?

I've stayed at the Red Lion Convention Center and while it was "okay" by my low standards I don't think it's the kind of "WOW" experience you had in mind. The rooftop bar there provides a "WOW" view of Downtown Portland but the rooms and public spaces are more "EH" than "WOW". For this stay I don't recommend bidding for a 3* on Priceline. It's not just about the Red Lion. The 3* Doubletree and Holiday Inn have some very unspecial rooms too that they like to give to Priceline guests. (Not always, but sometimes.) I would stick to the 4* on Priceline or buy something on HOTWIRE, which divides Priceline's Downtown zone in two. Hotwire has the "Greater Downtown zone" and "Downtown-Convention Center" zone. And all of those "EH" 3*'s are in the Conv Center zone so you can avoid them by only buying in "Greater Downtown". On Expedia I checked 4* for the first set of dates you offered, Aug 13-16 or Aug 14-17, and found this: Benson $179 Monaco $219 Paramount $179 Vintage Plaza $209 Maybe a shade higher than aveage but not a lot. HOTWIRE has a 4* in Greater Downtown for $159. Sometimes $75 is enough for a Priceline 4* Downtown and sometimes it takes a little more than that. Almost always you can get something for $90 or less. As a first step I would check 4* rates for the other August dates you offered and see if rates are lower than what I posted above. If one week is lower than the others repeat thereuare's strategy to $75 for those dates.

San Jose is a very spread out city and to see it all you'll be doing some driving wherever you stay. San Jose has a good freeway system though and for a city of its size it's fairly easy to get around. According to Mapquest it's 16.6 miles from Los Gatos to Raging Waters (which is in East San Jose and not in any Priceline zone). If you're looking for variety of experience and don't mind switching hotels I'd suggest splitting your week with a couple days in Santa Clara, a couple days in downtown San Jose, and a couple days in Los Gatos. We can check Hotwire to look for a hotel that's Downtown and not at the Airport if you want. (It's often possible to identify Hotwire hotels in advance from their amenity icons). But I'd need to know specific dates that you want to be Downtown in order to do that. I seriously don't know what the 4* Los Gatos will cost on Priceline since nobody has reported winning it yet. I wouldn't be surprised if it's in the $100-150 range. You'll stand a better chance of getting it on weekdays than weekends. And you've got two free rebid zones there, plus some time to try a couple lowball bids like $75 first. Depending what dates you're in Santa Clara you might win a 4* there around $45-65. You could combine some cheaper nights in SC with some splurge nights in Los Gatos and still stay within your $100/night budget, all at 4*. Also San Jose isn't a city that sells out. You could reserve your first several nights now and then after you get to town and see the various neighborhoods decide where you want to spend the last nights. All the 4* hotels have business centers where you can do your bidding, or there's Kinko's. Whatever you want we'll try to help, but for concrete bidding advice you'll need to say what days in what zones and your bidding limit.

There are three 3* hotels in Eugene and unless there's a special event going on you can usally win one on Priceline for around $50-60. Priceline offers 2* and 2.5* bidding in Eugene too, but so far nobody's reported winning those. I've tried for a 2.5* in Eugene myself a couple times (aiming for the Courtyard or Residence Inn) and got upgaded to 3*. The 2.5* in Springfield (Courtyard) might be a little cheaper than the 3* in Eugene. Are you willing to stay in Springfield? There's also a Crossland Suites in Springfield. It's never been reported won here but most Crossland hotels participate in Priceline. I don't know if Priceline rates the Springfield Crossland 2* or 1*. My semi-educated guess is you might win it around $34-$38. The rooms have kitchenettes (stove/fridge/microwave) but they're really small rooms, and not very comfortable if you have a travel partner. If you'll post your exact travel dates I'll check HOTWIRE and see if anything looks good there.

There's no way to guarantee you'll win a hotel with free Internet and 4* hotels are the ones most likely to charge for it. There are 4* hotels in both the San Jose and Santa Clara zones. Do you prefer one zone? Or you want the cheapest 4* available in either zone? What's your bidding limit? And are you willing to split your stay (4 nights at one hotel and 3 nights at another, for example) in order to get a lower total price? Sometimes it requires a higher bid to win all seven nights at one hotel.

A few thoughts... Santa Clara zone has two 4* hotels---the Hyatt and Hilton---and both are active on Priceline. Those are business oriented hotels, so often cheaper on Friday/Saturday/Sunday nights (as low as $45) than weekdays, but sometimes good weekday deals on Priceline too. As a general approach you might decide which nights you want to go to Great America and Raging Waters and bid for those nights in Santa Clara zone first. Then deal with the other nights. As for the other nights... It sounds like you want a "Downtown" type of experience...walking distance to stores and restaurants. Unfortunately Priceline's San Jose zone doesn't just include Downtown San Jose but also the airport area. Bidding 4* in the San Jose zone you're likely to get the Doubletree, which is a nice place but it's an "airport hotel", kind of a sterile area with not much to see or do for visitors. Not a walking area. The 4* Montgomery sounds more like what you're looking for---a restored classic hotel Downtown and walking distance from museums, restaurants, etc. But no guarantee you'd win the Montgomery on Priceline. I think the Doubletree comes up more often. If you want to stay Downtown let us know the dates are and maybe we can identify a Downtown hotel for you on Hotwire. Also if you don't mind the drive I think either the Cypress or Moorpark Hotels in the Cupertino/Campbell zone would work. Or try for a 4* in Los Gatos. Hardly anyone bids there but the Priceline 4* hotel must be Hotel Los Gatos. It's a very upscale area, but still casual feeling with sidewalk cafes, galleries, boutiques all within strolling distance of the hotel. (Los Gatos doesn't appear as a zone on Priceline's San Jose page. You have to enter Los Gatos as your destination.)

I'm scatterbrained tonite and forgot about the Monterey Marriott, also a Priceline 3*. :) The Marriott's $319 for your dates. You'll probably need to bid higher than $110 to win something.

Monterey Hyatt (Priceline 3*) is $279 on Thurday and $289 on Friday. Not much difference. Hilton Garden Inn (Priceline 2.5*) is sold out both nights. Hotwire has a 3* in Monterey zone for $229. The amenities don't match any of the 3* hotels in BetterBidding's Hotel List. It could be the Hyatt with a new set of icons or a different 3* hotel. I think you'll need to bid higher than $110 for a 3* on Priceline. $140 would still be a great deal---more than 50% off. Hotwire also has a 2* at $99, available both nights. I don't know what hotel that is. Probably I would try bidding to $99 for a 2.5* on Priceline before that, even though the Hilton Garden Inn shows sold out. There are other potential 2.5* hotels in the area besides the Hilton Garden Inn.

I see now that you DID include your travel date in the subject line. I'll look at this a little closer and get back to you.

Were you rejected at $110 for a 3* only? Or you bid $110 for 2.5* too? What are your exact travel dates? That way we can look up rates and see what's going on. Generally Friday and Saturday nights in Monterey are more expensive than weekdays. Summer weekends can be especially difficult. Add a Night isn't always available. Maybe the hotel has rooms on Thursday and sold out on Friday, in which case your Add a Night request would be rejected.

It sounds like you're only considering colleges in cities that have good Priceline deals. :)