tilepusher

This hotel is a match for Fitzgeralds Casino & Hotel on Hotwire's Vacation Packages, so that would be my guess. Fitzgeralds is cheaper on Expedia, so I wouldn't recommend buying this hotel through Hotwire. If you decide to do so anyway, please use this HOTWIRE link to start your purchase.

Judging from the listings on Hotwire's Vacation Packages and the Tripadvisor information, I believe this is the Best Western Lakeside. If you decide to make a reservation through Hotwire, please use this HOTWIRE link.

The Holiday Inn was actually my first guess, and definitely a possibility, but the Best Western appeared to be a slightly better match for the amenities and price. But I've discovered a major complication: when you select 2 adults and 1 child, the pool icon appears -- and neither hotel has a pool! So as you can see, guessing the identity of Hotwire hotels is far from an exact science. But here's a summary of my methods: 1. Look at the list of identified hotels on this board. A obvious step, but even if the hotel hasn't been identified, looking at the lists will help you to judge how Hotwire rates hotels. 2. Look at Hotwire's Vacation Packages. There they give names of hotels and their amenities; sometimes you can match a hotel on the opaque side with a hotel on the VP's. This is possibly another strike against my guess: the Best Western appears on the VP's with Airport Shuttle listed as an amenity (but the other amenities are the same). 3. If the above methods fail, then a lot more detective work is needed. I use Tripadvisor, Expedia, Kayak, and hotel websites to try to match the information that Hotwire gives (amenities, retail price, Tripadvisor information when given) as best I can. To be honest, I've never actually bought anything on Hotwire before; I consult it mainly to help guide my Priceline bidding. By the way, if you're looking for a guide to Victoria's attractions, one place to start is Tourism Victoria (www.tourismvictoria.com).

Welcome to BetterBidding, lukaphoto. This hotel has not yet been identified, but from what I know about the types of hotels that Hotwire rates as 3*, and the amenities shown (and the ones not shown, such as swimming pool and business center), my best guess is the Best Western Carlton Plaza. It would also explain why Hotwire does not promise any savings for this hotel: it's available on Expedia.ca for $67Cdn on the nights you're staying. If you wish to purchase this hotel, please use this HOTWIRE link. But I would not recommend it for two reasons: 1. It's generally not a good idea to purchase hotels through Hotwire if they're not claiming to save you any money; often it means that comparable rates are available for the hotel through non-opaque sources. Why put up with the disadvantages of Hotwire (opacity, non-refundable reservations) unless you're reasonably confident of saving a lot of money? 2. $66 is really not a particularly good rate for that time of year. Victoria hotels, which rely heavily on tourism, often give deeply discounted rates during the late fall and winter months. For example, the Marriott Inner Harbour, a good 4* hotel, is available for $99/night on Marriott.com. If you're willing to book a hotel through an opaque provider, I think you would be better off bidding for a 4* hotel on Priceline. If you would like assistance, please feel free to ask us.

I found it by selecting 2 adults and 1 child.

Someone else asked about this one before; at the time I'm pretty sure that I misidentified it. After researching this again, my best guess is that this place is the Holiday Inn Main Gate East. My advice is the same as before, though: I would strongly recommend against booking a non-refundable room at a hotel that has received a 2.5 overall rating from Tripadvisor, especially when you're not sure what hotel you're getting.

You can't make a bid whose parameters are more restrictive than any bid you've made in the past 24 hours. This means: 1. You can't bid for a higher star level in the same zone for the same dates. So if you bid for a 3* in zone A, you can't subsequently bid for a 4* in zone A without waiting 24 hours. Priceline doesn't allow this because by selecting 3*, you are automatically bidding for all hotels in the zone that are rated 3* or higher. You can go the other way, though; if you bid for a 4* in zone A, you can immediately try for a 3* in zone A, because that would increase the set of hotels that could accept your bid. 2. You can't bid for a set of zones that is the same or a subset of any other set of zones you've bid for previously. For example, if you bid for a hotel in zone A, then zone A + zone B, you can't then bid for zone B alone without changing another parameter or waiting 24 hours. However, if you bid for zone A, then for zone B (by starting a new bid), you still have the option of bidding for zone A + zone B.

The Hyatt Regency Bellevue has a similar offer: for $169/night, you get a $50 gift certificate for the Bellevue Collection for each night, plus free parking and late check-out. You may want to book this as your back-up. The Westin Bellevue also offers the Holiday Shopping Package: $229/night, which includes a $100 Bellevue Collection gift card for each night. If you're willing to wait an extra week, the price goes down to $199/night. They don't throw in the parking, though.

Why should the Hyatt allow you to do so? The Hyatt appears to be the only 4* hotel in Bellevue that offers discounted rooms through Priceline (judging from your previous posts, you know this already); if they offered huge discounts on Priceline all the time compared to Hotwire or their own website, there would be little incentive for anyone to book though those other channels. One advantage that the Hyatt gets by selling through Priceline is that if they're projecting low occupancy for a particular night, they can drop the rate they're willing to accept without having to disclose the rate the way they would have to on Hotwire or their website. Since December weekends are not a busy time for hotels in Belleuve, I agree with Colfax: be patient, keep your bidding fairly low, and wait for the Hyatt to make its move. I see no reason to be tempted by Hotwire's rate: after you factor in Hotwire's booking fee, the savings aren't good enough in my opinion to forego the option of cancelling or selecting the room type you want.

Even if a hotel in the Space Needle area is better suited to your needs than one in the Pike Place area, I don't think it's a good idea to lock yourself into a $169/night room this far in advance when: 1. You don't know what the hotel is, and 2. Hotwire is claiming a savings of only $10/night.

I saw it too; it's probably Sutton Place. I would recommend that you not consider taking this deal until you've reached your absolute maximum ($150) for 4* on Priceline first.

If all of your 4* bids are rejected, I would suggest that you try again in a couple of weeks rather than drop to 3*. There is a sizable difference in quality between the 4* and 3* hotels, and there is the ever-present danger of getting the Plaza 500. The hotel has received a lot of bad reviews (see TripAdvisor) and is right next to RAV/Canada Line construction. I don't know what state of construction Canada Line will be in by next August, but service is not scheduled to start until 2009.

Welcome to BetterBidding, auntsis. The first one appears to be the Best Western Lake Buena Vista Resort. The second place has not been identified yet; my best guess, based on the amenities and TripAdvisor information, is the Regal Sun Resort. However, regardless of what this place actually is, I would strongly recommend against booking any hotel that has a 2.5 rating on TripAdvisor, especially when you must prepay for the room before you know what you're getting.

Thank you for the acknowledgement; I'm glad that you found my post to be helpful. And congratulations for getting such a good rate from Priceline on this hotel. I think you got a better rate than others who have reported wins around the same time because you're staying during the Remembrance Day long weekend. Holiday weekends are a particularly good time to get deals from hotels that primarily cater to business travellers.

You haven't specified the star level or price. I see a 2.5* in the Seatac zone for $91 with those amenities. Is that the one you're referring to?

What are the check-in/check-out dates for your stay?

If you're reporting this as a purchase, please add the date(s) of your stay and tell us whether this is the Red Lion at the Quay in Vancouver or the Red Lion on the River in Portland/Jantzen Beach.

If the $90 rate is available to the general public, then contact Priceline (800-PRICELINE) within 24 hours of the time your bid was accepted and they'll refund the difference.

Priceline might give you a credit for the sake of goodwill, but I'm afraid you have no grounds for a refund, as the room satisfies the parameters of your bid. The Coquitlam-Burnaby zone includes a fairly large portion of East Vancouver, including Kingsway up to Knight Street; the Days Inn Vancouver Metro is about six blocks east of that intersection, well inside the zone boundary. It's not the best area of Vancouver, I'll agree, but it's far from being the worst. And car theft, unfortunately, is a problem throughout the Lower Mainland. I have never bid below 2.5* on Priceline before, and would never do so in a large city. The best values on Priceline are generally at the higher star levels, and there are too many hotels at the 1* and 2* star levels with serious quality issues. The potential savings on a 2* room through Priceline, particularly for a one night stay, is generally not worth the risk of getting something that you won't like. If you are going to bid for a 1 or 2* on Priceline, it's important to research the area carefully before bidding: the -whatever- approach will frequently get you in trouble.

Welcome to BetterBidding. The list of amenities is a match for the Aqua Island Colony on HOTWIRE's Vacation Packages, so that would be my guess. It's hard to tell for certain which zone this hotel is in, but it does appear to be just inside the Waikiki South zone.

On HOTWIRE's Vacation Packages, the list of amenities is a match for the Edgewater Hotel, so that would be my guess.

Yes, but girlofloyalty's win, and Colfax's question, predate the creation of the Convention Center - Lloyd Center zone. At the time, both Residence Inns were in the old Downtown Portland zone. However, the Residence Inn Lloyd Center has not been reported in a long time, and I have a feeling that they no longer use Priceline to sell their rooms.

Priceline's inventory for its opaque and retail sites are different; as Priceline itself warns you when you bid, you may win a hotel that is not listed on the retail site. If Priceline allows 3* bids in a given zone, then you should assume that there is a 3* hotel available in that zone. Don't assume that a hotel is sold out because it's not coming up on the retail site: you should use the hotel's website to check rates and availability. If, after thoroughly researching a zone, you're fairly certain that your bid won't be accepted in that zone, you can try adding that zone to your bid, but understand that you're taking a risk. I would strongly recommend not doing it unless you really need the extra bids; if you can afford to wait 24 hours, then I would do that. What dates are you bidding for?

I would set your maximum lower than that. When the cruise ship season ends, rates for hotels in Vancouver go down considerably. Most of the 4* hotels available on Priceline are available on non-opaque websites such as Skoosh and GTA Hotels for less than $120/night. For now, I would go no higher than $90. I might try the following strategy: Start with 4* Vancouver at $65 Add Burnaby-Coquitlam and bid $70 Add Delta and bid $75 Add Langley and bid $78 Exit and start a new bid for 4* Vancouver + Surrey-Pitt Meadows at $81 Add Burnaby-Coquitlam and bid $84 Add Delta and bid $87 Add Langley and bid $90 Last year, $90 would almost certainly have gotten you something, but things may be different this year, thanks to the increase in the value of Canadian dollar against the American dollar. I would not bid for a 3* in Vancouver during the off-season; the savings are not worth the risk of getting a poor-quality hotel in a less-than-ideal location.

When you select a quality level for your bid, you are bidding for that level OR HIGHER, because Priceline can upgrade you at any time. That's why the Resort quality level was checked on the bidding screen when your bid was rejected. Exiting and starting a new bid won't prevent a possible upgrade. Keep this in mind when you're adding zones. If you want to add a zone, but don't want to win a hotel in that zone, make sure that zone only has hotels of lower quality than what you're bidding for. When you added Tempe to your 4* bid, you left yourself open to the possibility of being upgraded to a resort in Tempe.