Colfax

The Hotwire 3* in Beverly Hills-West Hollywood for $143 is something new and unreported to the board. I'm unable to ID it but with 60% approval it seems a somewhat risky purchase, and I expect you can do better for $143. For a few dollars more, $149, Hotwire has a 3.5* in Century City-Westwood with 85% approval that appears to be Hotel Angeleno. Boutique, Fitness, Restaurant, Pool, Highspeed. After their parking charge Angeleno will end up costing about the same as your Courtyard Marina Del Rey for $184 because parking is free at that Courtyard. I think you can probably beat the above rates bidding for a 3.5* or 3* on PRICELINE, in the BH-WH and/or CC-WW zones, maybe in the $80-120ish range. If you're interested let us know which zones/quality levels you want to try and someone can give a strategy.

I didn't notice you'd already bid WW-CC before I wrote my last comment. I still think success at $140 or less is likely in BH-WH or WW-CC closer to your travel dates. Do you have any interest in trying for a 4* in Hollywood zone? (W or Roosevelt Hotel.)

Moderators, please move thread to Hotwire board. :)

Moderators, please move San Jose thread to Cali-Other board. :)

It's a refreshing change to see someone win a great 4* deal on their very first bid. This summer most bidders have needed to do dozens of bids over days and weeks before they have something....and usually for a much higher price than $110. Enjoy your stay!

Two beds in the City--either Downtown or Fisherman's Wharf--will probably cost in the $140-180 range. There are zones outside the city, including Airport, San Mateo, Redwood City where you can often get a 4* or 3.5* for under $100. As a first-time visitor you'll probably have the best time staying Downtown or Fisherman's Wharf though, closer to the attractions. HOTWIRE has a couple options with two beds guaranteed. (Search on 2 adults/2 children): 1) 3* Fisherman's Wharf $165: (Fitness, Pool, Restaurant, Business, Laundry, Highspeed). This looks like the Holiday Inn Fisherman's Wharf. 2) 4* USW-Nob Hill $159: (Fitness, Restaurant, Business, Highspeed). This could be any of Hotel Nikko, Clift, Hilton, or Mark Hopkins. You can likely beat those HOTWIRE rates bidding the same zones on PRICELINE but two beds aren't guaranteed on Priceline. Another option: the Hilton SF is a popular choice near Union Square and it's $177.65 prepaid for two beds on Hilton's website. All the car rental agencies are across the street from Hilton, so this would work out well those days you want to rent a car. Do any of these interest you? Please use this HOTWIRE link if you buy one of those options. If you purchase the Hilton please use the Hilton link in the Support/Travel Link page. Thanks! Let us know if you have other questions.

If a 4* in Bev Hills-WeHo is your first choice I think you have a good chance at $140 or less if you're patient and keep bidding every few days. It could take weeks though and no guarantees. It's not for me to say if you should wait it out or try for something else now. The hotels that come up most often in Westwood-Century City are Hyatt Regency and Intercontinental. You can look at their websites and some TripAdvisor reviews to help you decide if you want to try for them now or wait for BH-WH. (Another 4* could come up too, but those two are the most common.) Or try for 3.5* in BH-WH.

$140 seems high enough to bid for a stay almost two months away. Hotwire doesn' t have any 4* available in the zone so PL might not have anything either. If you want to hold out for a 4* you're likely to get something closer to your dates. If you don't want to wait you might win a 4* in Westwood-Century City for under $140 now, or a 3.5* BH-WeHo. Please use these PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links for your purchases.

Congrats on your first Priceline deal! From the earlier conversation I'm guessing you didn't intend to bid for 3* in Commerce-Norwalk-Rosemead. I think it will work out fine since you have a car and Doubletrees are pretty dependable, but I'll mention the following to maybe help with your future Priceline bidding. When you decided to drop from 3.5* Pasadena to 3* Pasadena you should have exited Priceline completely, closed the browser, then started over for 3*. The C-N-R box got checked during your 3.5* bidding and once a zone is checked you can't uncheck it, so it automatically got included in your 3* bid. Exiting and starting over you would have gotten a fresh bidding board with nothing checked, and you could have bid Pasadena 3* by itself that way. But $65 for a $164 Doubletree is a really good deal; plus free choclate chip cookies. Have fun in LA!

Welcome to the board, mtp116. Before we talk strategy do you understand you're not bidding for the Courtyard specifically, but for any 3* hotel in the zone? Several 3* hotels have come up in the zone, including Hotel Erwin and Marina del Rey Hotel. Let us know if you still want to use Priceline for this.

Have you decided which two nights you're staying in SF? Plan on paying to park at any 3.5* or 4*, maybe $35-50/night. If you're spending most of your two days around Downtown and Fisherman's Wharf you can probably take cabs everywhere for less than a rental car plus parking will cost.Priceline only guarantees double occupancy, which could be a room with one bed. If you require two beds Hotwire is the better option because you can enter "2 adults/2 children" and be guaranteed bedding for four. When you search 2/2 on HOTWIRE do you see any options you're interested in?

Personal decision, but I'd pay the $20 for secure parking. Nearby streets are metered so you'll have to wake up early to move your car anyhow.

I assume you won the Claremont Resort since that's the only reported 4* in the zone, but please confirm. Enjoy your stay.

Welcome to BetterBidding, dotsdaddy. I'm not seeing this hotel on my own search and the 4* I am seeing is $218. Is this a one-night stay (checking out 8/2) or a two-night stay (checking out 8/3)? Are you searching on 2 adults/0 children or some other combination? Please use these HOTWIRE and PRICELINE links for your purchases.

If you only want 3* Pasadena you can just do one bid every 24 hours. With your trip ten days away I suggest starting around $65 for a 3*, then raise $5 every 24 hours. If a 3.5* has a lower Priceline rate than the 3*, which is very possible, your bid will be upgraded. If you're in a hurry to secure something then raise $10 every day instead of $5. Please start with the board's PRICELINE link. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

I think Westin is the most likely. 1) Westin's the only one reported with those exact icons before. 2) This Hotwire listing has a 4/5 TripAdvisor rating, which matches Westin. Hilton is 3.5 on TA. 3) Sheraton was rated 3* at last report. So I'll go with Westin. The "% recommended" changes frequently so we don't track it or use it to help ID hotels. Please use this HOTWIRE link if you purchase and let us know what you get.

Welcome to the board, Rani. You can't bid for a particular hotel on PRICELINE. Seven different resorts have been reported to the board in Rancho Mirage-Indian Wells-Palm Desert zone, and you could win any of them. There's no strategy that improves your odds of winning the Hyatt. HOTWIRE might work better for you because you can often ID the hotel being offered in advance. Hyatt Grand Champion has come up on Hotwire as a 4* in HW's La Quinta-Indian Wells zone. (Hotwire uses dift zone names than Priceline in Palm Springs area.) If you check HOTWIRE for your date do you see a 4* offered in LQ-IW? If you'll post the icons you see (Pool, Restaurant, etc) someone can give an opinion whether it looks like Hyatt GC or not. Please use these PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links for your purchases and searches.

There's not much 3* bidding history in Pasadena. If you enter "Pasadena" in the Quick Search box at the top of the page you'll find only one 3* Pasadena win in the last year and that was for $95....more than a 3.5* sometimes costs. The Courtyard is the only reported 3* in Pasadena but there's always a chance some new 3* could come up for the first time. The problem with bidding 3* in San Gabriel area is every zone has a 3* so there are no rebids. If you only have one acceptable zone--Pasadena--you can only make one 3* bid every 24 hours. If you'd like to try I suggest $65, which is a lowball bid on a night when Courtyard is $180. Then wait 24 hours and try $75. I think a 3* in Monrovia-Duarte, which is next to Pasadena, might suit you too from a safety standpoint, and a 3* there is usually less than Pasadena. Also all the 3* in Monrovia-Duarte have free parking (unless something's recently changed) and the Pasadena hotels usually charge. If Monrovia-Duarte and Pasadena are both acceptable you could try this: Bid $50 for 3* Monrovia-Duarte. If rejected exit Priceline, close browser, reaccess PRICELINE via link and... Bid $50 for 3* Pasadena If rejected add Monrovia-Duarte and bid $55. If rejected wait 24 hours and try the same, but at $60/$65. Your thoughts?

I guess it's possible what you describe--Priceline adds a new 4* at the exact moment your bid is being processed, and you win it; even though 4* option wasn't showing when you placed the bid. I haven't heard of it but it's possible. Usually when people win a hotel in the "wrong zone"--a zone they thought was a rebid zone--it's because something changed and they didn't check * levels before bidding.

Oh! I thought the ratings were the same in HW opaque and retail. Sorry if I steered you wrong, antcwong. :)

And I see your limit now in your first post: I'm hopeful you won't need to go as high as $100. Pasadena zone is in the LA-San Gabriel cluster. Enter "Pasadena" as your destination, not LA, to see the bidding options there. When bidding for 3.5* in Pasadena you have two rebid zones--Commerce/Norwalk/Rosemead and Monrovia/Duarte. Those two zones only go up to 3*, so you can add them to your 3.5* Pasadena bids without risk of winning a hotel in those zones. Priceline never gives you lower than you bid for. Before each bidding session you should confirm on your own that C/N/R and M/D only go to 3* because things can change at any time. Please click this PRICELINE link to start. I suggest $70 for a 3.5* in Pasadena. If rejected add C/N/R and bid $75. If rejected exit Priceline, close browser, and reaccess PRICELINE through the link. Then select 3.5* Pasadena and Monrovia-Duarte and bid $80 for 3.5. If rejected add C/N/R and bid $85. If that doesn't work you'll have to wait 24 hours to try $90, but hopefully $85 will be enough. Good luck and please let us know how your bidding goes.

You got em, bluegreen! Here's a way you can bid up from $105 to $150 in $3-$5 increments: Click the PRICELINE link, select USE and USW (or just one zone if you prefer) and bid $105 for 4*. Add rebid zone 1 and bid $108 Add rebid zone 2 and bid $111 Add rebid zone 3 and bid $114 Add rebid zone 4 and bid $117 Add rebid zone 5 and bid $120 If rejected exit Priceline, close browser, then reaccess PRICELINE again. Select USE and USW plus rebid zone 6, and bid $125 Add rebid zone 1 and bid $130 Add rebid zone 2 and bid $135 Add rebid zone 3 and bid $140 Add rebid zone 4 and bid $145 Add rebid zone 5 and bid $150 Good luck and please let us know how it goes.

People have different opinions about USE vs USW. A few hotels in USW are near the Tenderloin, which is kind of a rougher area. Some people only bid USE to avoid the Tenderloin. But USE only has three reported 4* hotels while USW has nine. That means you greatly improve your odds of winning something if you bid both zones. Some of SF's largest and most popular hotels, like the Hilton SF and Parc55, are in USW zone. Personally I think both zones are fine. But don't just rely on my opinion. Scan though some of the threads here and read others opinions too. If you prefer one zone over the other you can bid to $150 in just that zone first. Then if rejected bid to $150 in the other zone. Or if you want the least expensive 4* available in either zone bid them together. I suggest starting at $105 and raising in $5-10 increments up to your $150 limit. You can do it anyway you want, including $3 increments or $1 increments, but that will take a lot more time to bid, and you'll run out of rebid zones before you hit $150. Up to you though. It's important that you understand how to determine your six rebid zones before you bid. If you don't you could end up in a neighborhood you don't want. If you need help with figuring them out just ask. You can post the names of the six zones here if you want confirmation before you bid. When you get ready to bid please start with this PRICELINE link.

The 3* Residence Inn that usually comes up in Vacaville was sold out. $60 was rejected and $65 accepted. This Courtyard hasn't been reported here before. Nice place across from the outlet malls. Bids placed through the BetterBidding PRICELINE link.

Did you bid up to $115 for a 3.5* too? Or just 4*?