Yellow Hammer

anyone?

went and did a search through the BB HOTWIRE link for 8/17-8/19. Looking for a 3* preferably in downtown Fresno. Ordinarily I wouldn't mind driving a few miles and going to a cheaper area, but Fresno is always over 100 degrees in the summer and since this isn't Las Vegas I'd rather not be outside much at all. It is currently listed at $62, $103 at other sites. I've pretty much eliminated it down to two hotels, the Holiday Inn or the Radisson (formerly Four Points). I want it to be the Radisson since that's where the event is located. I'm afraid though that it is the Holiday Inn. Please help. Amenities: Fitness Center Pool(s) Restaurant(s) High-Speed Internet Access Accessible for the deaf Free Parking Accessible path of travel In-room accessibility Accessible bathroom Handicapped parking

not me but someone else in my entourage. She did the BNA zone and the 5 free rebids back on 3/5, from $45 up to $55 and hit the Radisson at $55. I think she said the total for the 3 days was around $200. Pricing on other sites (Radisson, Expedia) is $89 a night before taxes, so a decent deal.

IMO not much of a deal. Priceline (and probably other places) has the room for the same night for $66 after taxes (outright, not by bidding), plus it has Club Hotel as a 2.5 star, not a 3.

turns out another person in the group that I am going with did choose that same 3 star place for 5/13-5/14, and it turned out to be the Club Hotel Nashville Inn and Suites. Interesting, I thought that was a 2.5 star places. $63 after taxes and fees.

question: how accurate is the description of "smoke free rooms"? If it is really accurate as opposed to say guarantee a room that is "non-smoking", then using the Hotwire filter criteria, I come up with 2 hotels in the Nashville Airport area that are 3 star, has an airport shuttle, a business center and a complimentary breakfast, and that is Hyatt Place and Residence Inn. Does this sound about right? I think I'll probably pull the trigger sometime today if it is accurate - I would be satisfied with either.

done...also, site says 1.6 miles from the airport, which to me means either the Holiday Inn or Doubletree Suites?

Hi Aaron - for the hotel in question, the date is for one night, checking in 5/13. Price per night is $48, list is originally $101 Now there is also the 3.5 star one that has a HOTWIRE price of $60 (list price of $117). I assume that one is the Preston? Which I'm not too hot about, been there once a long time ago when it was the Radisson. Though if I could get it on PRICELINE for $45 I might do it.

need help identifying this hotel. None of the hotels listed in the Hotwire list for 3* Airport has a Business Center 3-star Hotel in Nashville Intl Airport BNA This Hotel features the following amenities: Airport Shuttle <amenity names only please... not descriptions> Smoke Free Rooms Guest rooms at this hotel are always smoke-free. Complimentary Breakfast <amenity names only please... not descriptions> Business Center Guests have access to business equipment and services; an additional charge may apply. Laundry Facilities (self-service) <amenity names only please... not descriptions> High-Speed Internet Access Guestrooms are equipped with high-speed Internet access; an extra charge may apply. TIA!

I got 3 rooms for 3 nights at $60/night Your Offer Price Per Room, Per Night: $60.00 Subtotal: $540.00 Taxes & Service Fees: $68.46 Total Charges*: $608.46

my experience is that you don't get many good deals with Priceline for Las Vegas. It used to be that you could get the non-weekend $99 a night deals on Priceline for Venetian, but that doesn't seem to be the case anymore. You're better off with using non-Priceline bookings. Even my last winning, at Luxor for $70 a night, that was only $10 off of the website rate.

got lucky and got a room in the West Tower instead of one of the dingier Pyramid rooms. Big difference in the room size and newness of the rooms. Very confusing to navigate Luxor, took us a while to figure out where to catch the elevators. Nice place, once we figured out the lay of the land. Internet service was $13 for a 24 hour period. Self parking was a long walk and it was like a million degrees last week, so after the initial time we went exclusively to valet parking.

some comments on this place - I'm guessing this place used to be an apartment complex, with a lake on the property. Has a motel feel to it, not too impressive. Pretty convenient to Legoland and to Wild Animal Park. Lots of restaurants not too far away. Nothing too impressive about the property itself, except that the room was pretty large and they were nice enough to throw in a small fridge at no extra cost. Internet service cost $10, which got waived because the water was shut off for 2 hours at around midnight and I complained.

just wanted to add some comments about the stay, since there doesn't seem to be a review of this place. Newer hotel, only 6 years old, yet signs of wear and tear are evident. Negatives: Rooms are smaller than average, the air conditioner sounded like a helicopter, and it costed me 3 dollars to use a computer to print out a boarding pass. The first room that I stayed in, the carpeting was still wet and one of the lamps was not working, so when the maintenance guy came in and tried to take off the lightbulb, the light bulb shattered all over the floor. Needless to say we got another room. Also, costs $3 to board the bus to go to Disneyland. Front desk would not keep my laptop for safekeeping. Positives: parking was free, internet service was free, got a room with a Disneyland view. For $50 or so a night, I guess it was ok.

Las Vegas Strip Vicinity South 3900 Las Vegas Boulevard South Las Vegas, Nevada 89119 702-262-4000 total for 2 nights, with fees and the like, was $162.87 started first bid for *4 South Strip at $65, added free rebid at $70 and got this place. Not really that good a deal, since the website was pricing this at $80 and Bally's was going for $74 on Orbitz.

Holiday Inn Anaheim Resort Disneyland Area 1915 South Manchester Avenue Anaheim, California 92802 714-748-7777 with fees and the like, total for 2 nights is $108.75 started bidding last night (only 3 nights before check-in date) at $43 for a 3*, added a free rebid at $45 and got in. Was actually expecting Hyatt, but hopefully this place is decent with 7 year olds. This apparently is the newer Holiday Inn Resort in Anaheim that is newer and a bit further out than the much older Holiday Inn on Walnut Ave. that is a block away west from Disneyland. This one looks to be a mile or so away, east of Disneyland, along Interstate 5.

1025 La Bonita Drive Lake San Marcos, California 92078 760-744-0120 Check-In Date: Tue, Aug 28, 2007 Check-Out Date: Wed, Aug 29, 2007 including taxes and the like, total cost is $85.58. Has an additional $9 resort fee apparently as well, which covers parking, internet service, tennis court use, etc. Wanted something up north of San Diego, since we were headed to Legoland and then to Las Vegas. First bid was at $60, wanted the 2.5* Country Inn Suites in Sorrento Mesa for $65 but going on the website, that day seemed to be unavailable even though the front desk person said that 27 rooms were still available for that day. So I changed strategies slightly. Went up to 3* and $70 and added Escondido-Vista and Poway, and surprisingly got this place at the price. Location is very ideal for us but I never heard of this place until now, so if anyone has any experiences with this I would appreciate feedback. I noticed on Hotwire that this same place (99% sure it's the same place) was selling for $88 and Orbitz had it for $128.

free rebids starting from $45, surprised that I got $50.

started bidding on Thanksgiving Day at $50, using free rebids and a 2nd credit card/address to go up every $1 up to $59. Looked at Hotwire, saw that something describing the Hilton or the Doubletree could have been gotten for $69, so I knew I was in range. Bid on 11/26 at $60 and got in. New Year's Eve in Disneyland, New Year's Day at the Rose Bowl...

Started bid at $40, Priceline came back with $52. Went with free rebid zone 1, $44, no go. Went with free rebid zone 2, $47, accepted. Your Offer Price: $47.00 Number of Rooms: 1 Number of Nights: 3 Subtotal: $141.00 Taxes and Service Fees: $24.75 Total Charges: $165.75 The real nice part about this is that since I'm a Hilton Gold Card member, I got upgraded and most likely will be able to get a suite for those nights.

Opened at $29, closed at $29. Should have done this for the following week too but I got stupid and tried for the Milpitas Homestead (so that my brother could be closer to where I live) and got burned.

screwed up big time here. I was looking for a place (for my brother visiting) with a kitchen, namely either TownePlace or Homestead. I was calling the usual 2* suspects (I live in Milpitas) - Towne, Homestead, and Inns of America (which I didn't want), and heard what I wanted to hear - Inns of America was up to the 40ish mark, and Towne and Homestead were getting a few Priceline reservations in weekly. So I took a chance on Milpitas. Went $29 and they asked me to go up $7. Did a new reservation, went $32 and got this place. The place itself is ok, relatively speaking not the greatest part of Milpitas (Milpitas by and large is a nice place to live). Should have stuck with the safe choice and went with Fremont Homestead Studios.

it's good to know where the major public parking lots are in the downtown SF area: 5th and Mission (which another poster said), is a huge one, costs $22 per day. Stockton and Sutter Portsmouth Garage (Kearny and Clay) serving the Chinatown area Golden Gate, on Battery

2 rooms, 2 nights, total cost 3 bills. Went up in $1 increments over the past 3 days all the way from $40 using my 4 free rebids plus some other tactics. Was about to quit at $60 and stay at my sister's house (some 75 miles away) but saw a post for a winning bid around the same time for $65 so I said what the heck, went a few more iterations and got an acceptance bid at $65. Probably about $10 more than what I would have wanted to pay since I could have easily stayed elsewhere, but the fact that it is a Hilton makes it worthwhile. I'm a Gold VIP member and hopefully I'll get upgraded to the 12th floor.

also, can someone ID this one, also in Milpitas? 2*, $41 08/14-08/18 Selected amenities include: Restaurant(s), Complimentary Breakfast, Pool(s), Fitness Center, High-Speed Internet Access, Business Center. I'm hoping it's something like Homestead Studio Suites...