Colfax

On Holiday Inn's website the hotel's name is "Holiday Inn SF International Airport North" 275 South Airport Blvd San Francisco, CA 94080

A hotel could sell out the rooms they've allotted to a convention and still have rooms on Priceline. You could win any 4* hotel in the zone. It's impossible to quantify the chances of winning any particular hotel or hotels unless there's only only hotel in the zone. You can view the historical data to see which hotels have come up most often, but that doesn't tell you what will happen in the future.Since you have concerns about winning certain hotels I suggest bidding for 3 nights instead of all 6. If you win a hotel you like you can then try Add a Night for the other three nights. If you win something you don't want you won't be stuck there for 6 nights and can make other arrangements for the other 3 nights.

Your original Hilton reservation and the Add a Night one are two separate reservations in Hilton's system and they'll have to check you out and back in, at least in their computer system. That doesn't necessarily mean you'll physically have to check out and in or switch rooms. Just let them know you have two reservations when you check in and they'll tell you their procedure. The hotel does have the right to switch your room for the second reservation and I think it says so on your Add a Night acceptance page. An example situation: you arrive during a slow time and get an upgraded room for free, but the hotel has high occupancy for the nights you added and you have to move to a standard room. In practice I don't think that happens often. No guarantee. I think they offer it with every hotel reservation now. The offer to try Add a Night doesn't mean Priceline has anything.

First, just to be sure, is the Warwick Regis the hotel you won? Priceline can always upgrade a bid. That's their rules. You'll get the class you bid for OR HIGHER. Although they don't make it as clear as they could Priceline considers Boutique sort of like a 3.5*. That means 3* bids can be upgraded to Boutique, a higher level. On Priceline's Union Square bid pages the format is: 4* Boutique 3* 2.5* That's sort of a visual clue that Boutique is an upgrade from 3*, but again, it could be made clearer. I'm not sure why you're unhappy if the Warwick is the hotel you won. The location is very central, just two blocks from Union Square, and reviews are better than average. I hope it works out for you.

Can you define what your limit for a 2.5* in Bothell is with a specific price like $44 or $48? That's the maximum you're willing to pay for a 2.5* in Bothell before going down to a 2* or bidding in some other zone. "High 30's, low 40's" is a little too squishy. Also do you understand how free rebidding works? I think you probably do since you mentioned Everett and North Everett, but I want to make sure.

Oops, we crossed. :) I'll yield the floor to thereuare for now.

You said you want to bid 1-3 weeks in advance but your first dates--August 24 and 25---are almost six weeks away. Usually we don't suggest bid strategies until you're actually ready to bid because strategies are based on current hotel rates. Three weeks from now hotel rates might be different and the bidding strategy would change accordingly. If your first set of dates are firm and you're ready to bid now someone can suggest a strategy. Otherwise let us know when you're actually ready to bid. Also...both the options you mentioned---a 4* Downtown around $120 or a 2.5* in the suburbs for much less---are possible. Which do you prefer? You have to bid for one or the other first. If you go for the suburban 2.5* (or a 3* or 2.5* Downtown for that matter) please look at Priceline's Seattle map and let us know exactly which zones are acceptable to you and if you have any preferences among them.

From Priceline's Help section the cutoff time for same day bidding is 11pm Eastern Time. If you're in New York you can make a same day bid until 11pm, but on the West Coast only until 8pm.

As thereuare says Priceline will refund the difference between your bid and a lower published rate but your request for a refund must be submitted within 24 hours of your accepted bid.

The time it takes to get a response from Priceline has no meaning. Acceptance can be fast or slow, and so can rejection. Have you confirmed with the hotel that they'll honor your $199 rate for 8/17 if you cancel the other two nights? You shouldn't assume that they will. If cancelling two nights negates your entire reservation and you have to reserve 8/17 at Marriott's current price of $299 then you really won't be saving much by using Priceline, even if you win 8/15 and 8/16 at $120. $199 + $199 + $199 = $597 $120 + $120 + $299 = $539 PLUS Priceline fees

Congratulations on your win, Steak2007. $160 is a substantial discount off the HIE's best price of $289 on 7/17. The HIE still shows sold out on 7/18 but you might as well try Add a Night. You've got nothing to lose. I second thereuare's suggestion of reserving the King George as a backup. The location is excellent. I think there's a fair chance you'll be able to win a better hotel than the KG on Priceline or Hotwire once you get to SF. At big conventions like this there are always a few people who have unforseen events which lead them to depart earlier than expected and some reserved rooms may open up. I wouldn't be a bit surprised to hear that you win a 4* in USE or USW for $85 or $90 while the convention is in progress. And if that doesn't happen...the King George ought to work just fine too.

Thanks for the update, eekelly. Unless you deleted the email that included the voucher you should be able to access it off any computer. Just log in to your email account and locate the old email. After all the work you put into this you deserve that $10 voucher! Also can you please look up at your Beverly Pavillion win under the "My Trips" tab on Priceline's homepage. Does it now say 2* or 2.5*? We've got it listed as a 2.5* in the Hotel List and if Priceline is now showing it as a 2* thereuare will want to update the list. Thanks.

Santa Barbara has always been tough on Priceline. If you're looking for weekend dates during summer you can almost forget about it. Priceline is selling excess inventory and most weekends there's just not any excess. Also until a few months ago Priceline only offered 2* bidding in Santa Barbara. Most visitors to Santa Barbara are looking for something higher than 2* so there just was never much bidding. Priceline is now offering 2.5* in SB though. The hotel hasn't been identified yet.

With Add a Night you don't enter an amount. Priceline submits a bid for additional days ONLY to the hotel you already won and at the same price as your accepted bid, which in this case was $80. You already tried Add a Night once for this stay, when you tried adding two nights to your accepted bid at the Hilton; so I know you know how to do it. As the Hyatt is sold out on 7/25 I don't think your Add a Night bid will be accepted. If it is accepted though that will save you another hotel move. It's worth trying. After that you can try bidding for ANY 4* in the zone and maybe get the Hilton again. But since Hilton is sold out on 7/25 too I don't think you'll win that either. Probably it's time to start looking at a 3* in Santa Clara or bid an adjacent zone. Or you can book a cancellable backup reservation somewhere and keep bidding for a 4* in Santa Clara every day until your stay, hoping for cancellations.

Congratulations. Three down and one to go. Sorry you'll have to move. I don't think the Hyatt has showed sold out on 7/26 since this thread started. It's showing $219 now, so $80 is a very good deal. The Hyatt IS sold out on 7/25 though, which is the one night you still need. Even though Hyatt shows sold out you should try Add a Night first. Occasionally a hotel that shows sold out on its website will come through on Priceline. So try Add a Night first and let us know whether you get acceptance, counteroffer, or rejection. Good luck!

You wrote that your conference is 11/16-11/20 but you're staying in San Diego from 11/15-11/22. I presume the discounted convention rates are only good on the days of the convention and not for your weeklong stay? Are you wanting to stay all seven nights in one hotel? If you're staying Downtown the first five nights to be near the convention your family might enjoy staying the last two nights at a 4* in the Coastal zone for a change and to be nearer the ocean. Breaking your bid up that way also improves your chances of acceptance.

Prices don't look unusually high for your dates so I think you might just be bidding a little early. I suggest reserving a cancellable backup (so you know you have something) and trying to $52 every few days now.

Thanksgiving isn't typically a busy time for San Diego hotels. I wouldn't bid higher than $100 for a 4* on Priceline this far ahead. You can probably win something for around that price if you're patient. Priceline might not be the way to go though since your family is four. Priceline only guarantees double occupancy and you could win a 4* room at $100 with one double bed. HOTWIRE is probably a better option for you since you can input a party of four and only be offered options with two beds.

Your stay is Weds/Thurs/Fri. Current Marriott rates are $249/$249/$299. Rates are the same for double occupancy or quad occupancy. It's possible the $110 you bid is enough for Weds and Thurs night, but not Friday. You could try bidding for Weds/Thurs alone, then use your $199 reservation for Friday night. The risk in that plan is that you might win some other hotel than the Marriott. If you want to take the chance you should first confirm with Marriott that they'll honor the $199 rate on Friday night if you cancel Weds and Thurs (without mentioning that you plan to bid on Priceline).

You can bid up to $120 for both days and if rejected then bid to $120 for 7/26 alone. You don't have to wait 24 hours to bid for a different set of dates. It's possible you could win the Hyatt on 7/26 though and some other hotel on 7/25. That would mean three hotels in three days.

Almost everything near Union Square is sold out, including 3* and Boutique. What's left on Expedia is: Omni $668, Ritz Carlton $699, and Le Meridien $449. With those prices I doubt you'll succeed for a 4* in USE or USW now. Even the Best Western Civic Center, which usually costs about $100, is $332 and the Travelodge on Market is $250. HOTWIRE's ONLY offering near Union Square is a 2* in USW for $165. The best value I see now is a HOTWIRE 2.5* in Fisherman's Wharf at $202. That looks like the Holiday Inn Express, which gets pretty good reviews and has free breakfast and highspeed. Regular rate is $289. You might be able to get a better price than $202 by bidding for a 2.5* in FW on Priceline. I suggest trying $150. I suspect the poster who won the Renaissance at $78 was reporting a bid made several weeks ago.

Checking quad occupancy on HOTWIRE for your revised dates: 2.5* Lombard $95 2* Lombard $84 1* Lombard $93 Unfortunately I'm unable to identify any of the hotels. Personally I don't think the savings are enough vs a conventional booking on Lombard to compensate for the "mystery" factor. If you want to chance it I'd stick with the 2.5*. There's a 1* on Nob Hill for $69 with quad occupancy but that location will have a steep parking charge.

I guess I would start at about $80 and go up in $10 increments. That the Hilton isn't sold out doesn't mean Priceline has rooms though. Remember when you tried Add a Night for the Hilton a couple days ago you got back a "no inventory" message and the Hilton wasn't sold out at that time either. You also could try Add a Night from the link on your acceptance page once more, but this time try to add just the one night 7/26, instead of both. 7/26 has a lower price than 7/25 so more likely to be on Priceline. Priceline's rules say you can only attempt Add a Night one time off an accepted reservation and you've already attempted once. But I've heard of one instance where someone tried Add a Night a second time a couple days after a rejection and got accepted, even though the rules don't allow it. Probably that was a fluke or a glitch and I doubt you'll duplicate that success. It might be worth a try though.

Sorry about your bad stay. If you go back to Milpitas you can win a 3* there for less than $50 many nights. Thanks for posting this warning. Some posters here like the 2* Extended Stay in Milpitas and try to win it. Sometimes after complaints like yours Priceline will downgrade a hotel. You can check if they've downgraded the Park Inn by locating your reservation under the "My Trips" tab on Priceline's homepage. If they downgrade it to 1* your acceptance page will update and say "Congratulations! You got your price for a 1* hotel...."

On Priceline another poster won the Omni for your exact dates at $80 yesterday. That's a 4* in Union Square East. OMNI WIN