tilepusher

Unusual Priceline updates: 1. Many Homewood Suites hotels have been downgraded to 2.5* stars; I don't know why. The following reported hotels have been downgraded; I'm sure that others can find more in other cities: Seattle: Homewood Suites Seattle Downtown (Seattle Center - Space Needle) and Homewood Suites Convention Center - Pike Street (Downtown - Pike Place). Phoenix: Homewood Suites Phoenix Metrocenter San Francisco: Homewood Suites San Francisco Airport North (South San Francisco) Orlando: Homewood Suites International Drive/Convention Center (Sea World - Intl. Drive - Convention Center) 2. As discussed in the Las Vegas forum, the Las Vegas Strip Vicinity North zone has been split into Las Vegas Strip Vicinity North and Las Vegas Strip North. The new Strip Vicinity North zone was created solely to isolate the Trump from the other hotels in the old Strip Vicinity North zone, which are now in the new Strip North zone. Judging from the zone description given by Priceline, they're not even really trying to hide this fact. Perhaps they were losing too much business to Hotwire.

This hotel has not been identified; my best guess is the Holiday Inn Fountain Hills. If you decide to book this hotel, please start your purchase from the Hotwire link on this site.

If you change the search parameters to 2 adults/1 child, the 3* hotel in this zone has the above amenities plus Smoke Free and Pool, which makes it a match for Aloft. Since it has the same customer feedback as the hotel in your original search, my guess is that it's the Aloft as well. You may want to book as 2 adults/1 child because of the "stronger" match (the rate was the same when I checked). If you decide to book this hotel, please start your purchase from the Hotwire link on this site.

Welcome to BetterBidding, UVB-76. The above set of amenities is a match for the Hyatt at Olive 8 on Hotwire's old vacation packages, so that's my best guess. Unfortunately, this deal seems to have disappeared. The 4* hotel I'm seeing is $152 and has the following amenities: Fitness, Restaurant, Business, High-Speed Internet, and Spa; this is a match for the Grand Hyatt. If you decide to book a hotel through Hotwire, please start your purchase from the Hotwire link on this site.

The Hilton isn't in the Space Needle zone. Without being able to see the listing for myself, since you didn't give the dates for this search, my best guess is the Edgewater Hotel.

Someone else asked about the same condo very recently. My reply was: I don't have a good guess for the 3.5* condo. If forced to, I would guess the Scottsdale Links Resort, but that's purely a shot in the dark.

It's likely that this hotel has been reported here before with a different set of amenities, given that Hotwire has collected over 500 reviews for it. My best guess is that this is the InterContinental Toronto Yorkville in a new guise (at 208 rooms, I think it's small enough by downtown Toronto standards to be considered boutique). Unfortunately, these guesses aren't going to help you for this trip. If you select more than one room in your search, you must enter the total number of adults/children staying in these rooms. The hotels that came up when I tried the search for 2 rooms/6 adults/0 children were different.

The 3.5* hotel I saw when I tried the search had Resort as an amenity, but not Restaurant; the rest of the information is the same, however. If this is the hotel you saw as well, and you simply made a mistake when you reported the amenities, then my best guess is that the Orange Tree Golf Resort has been downgraded to 3.5* because of the current closure of its restaurant. I don't have a good guess for the 3.5* condo. If forced to, I would guess the Scottsdale Links Resort, but that's purely a shot in the dark.

My best guess for the condo you found when you searched for 3 adults is the Sheraton Desert Oasis, though I'm not as confident in that guess as I'd like to be. The condo in your 2 adult search could be the same, but there's not enough information to made a good educated guess.

I'm guessing that you're trying to avoid getting a resort, and the resort fee that would likely come with it. Unfortunately, there's no way to do this. As mentioned before, any bid of 4* or lower can be upgraded to a Resort property. Also, don't confuse Priceline's Resort star level with the more informal use of the term "resort". Any hotel can call itself a resort and charge a resort fee; Priceline can assign any star level to these "resorts".

Just to clarify this -- are you saying that you believe that this hotel is the Red Lion Portland Airport (I'm pretty sure that's what it is), or that you purchased it and Hotwire revealed it to be the Red Lion?

Welcome to BetterBidding, travelmango. Please start a new topic when reporting a purchase or requesting assistance. Also, please list all the amenities that Hotwire shows for this hotel; otherwise, we don't know if we're looking at the same hotel that you are.

The Westin Kierland Resort is my best guess as well, for both 4/16-20 and 4/21-24. If you did book this hotel for both sets of dates, what would you do for the one night in between? If you're thinking about using Priceline, what zone(s)/minimum star level would you be interested in, and would you be willing to accept any hotel within those parameters? My best guess for the 3.5* you asked about initially is the Orange Tree Golf Resort, which was rated 4* when last reported. Its restaurant is currently closed (at least according to recent TripAdvisor reviews), and the remaining set of the amenities is a match for the Orange Tree on Hotwire's old vacation packages.

The set of amenities is a match for the Sheraton Bellevue, so that's my best guess.

The set of amenities is a match for the Coast Plaza Hotel; it's likely that the hotel has been upgraded back to 3.5* since it was last reported. If you decide to book this hotel, please start your purchase from the Hotwire link on this site.

Priceline's Travel Guides and BB's own Maps and Hotels are useful tools for researching hotels that are available through Priceline. A look through the Travel Guides shows two 4* hotels in Whistler: The Nita Lake Lodge and the Fairmont Chateau Whistler.

No. There's no way to know how much you need to bid to be accepted at the Hilton for any given date; if you're wrong, you can easily end up at the Sheraton for more than you needed to pay. Generally speaking, Priceline is not a good option if you're trying to target a specific hotel.

Priceline updates: The Wyndham Orlando International Drive has been downgraded to 3*. The Silver Cloud Broadway in Seattle (Downtown - Pike Place) has been downgraded to 3*, likely due to the temporary closure of its restaurant for renovations. The restaurant is scheduled to reopen in June under a different name. The Mondrian Scottsdale is now the Hotel Theodore; there doesn't appear to be a listing for it yet on Priceline.

My best guess is the Holiday Inn Express Portland-NW Downtown.

I'm seeing it. That looks like a match for the Suites at One King West.

My best guess is the Ramada Victoria. At first I thought it might be a Travellers Inn, since the amenities listed are the same as the 3* Vacation Inn that Hotwire lists non-opaquely. However, none of the Travellers Inns appear to be a match for the information given by Hotwire.

I'm attending the same event at the Holiday Inn Portland Airport as last year. The Holiday Inn seems to be coming up less often on Hotwire than last year, so I decided to book it once it came up (I've been checking periodically for about two months). Hotwire's rate was $39 for 2 adults and $44 for more than 2 people; since I'll probably have a roommate, I decided to book for 4 adults (Hotwire booked a room with 2 double beds when I did this last year) and pay the extra $5/night. Our group rate is $89/night, about the same as the HI's Advance Purchase rate. Amenities: Shuttle, Fitness, Pool, Restaurant, Business, Laundry, High-Speed Internet.

The Orlando Metropolitan Resort no longer exists -- the property is a Radisson again. Having said that, the Radisson Orlando - International Drive is my best guess as well.

First of all, please confirm that Priceline places this hotel in the Airport West zone by going to the itinerary page (either from "My Trips" in your account, or from your confirmation e-mail). The zone should be listed between the hotel's name and address. If Priceline claims that this hotel is in fact in the Airport West zone, I believe you have grounds to dispute this bid, as I'm almost certain that Priceline has this wrong. I spent a lot of time trying to locate this hotel when Priceline split its old Toronto Airport zone, finally resorting to using the street level view on Google Maps. The hotel is located just off Terminal Access Road 3, which is clearly in the Airport East zone. The problem is that Priceline, in its listing for the hotel, has this hotel mapped within the airport in a spot that would place it in the Airport West zone. I checked this spot using Google's satellite maps, and there's no building in the vicinity. Which is not surprising, as it's right next to a runway! Lastly -- and most importantly for future bids -- never use the hotel lists to determine your rebid zones. For various reasons, the hotel list does not always show the highest star-level available in a given zone. The correct method of finding your rebid zones is described in Priceline Rebidding Explained; don't use any other.

Not by itself. This is from Hotwire's Star Rating Guide: "How we calculate our Star Ratings: * Take the average rating on three top travel sites * Factor in customer feedback -- we receive over half a million reviews per year * Adjust the ratings downward if a majority of customers say we should" The three websites I cited above would justify Hotwire's rating of 4*.