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Thanks for the response, and yes I'll be happy to include the detailed information from now on. I guess I'm still learning. Here's the info you're asking for: We won our bid for the Emily Morgan - 4 star in the river walk area of San Antonio at $65. The bid progression was as follows: $52 - lost $57 - lost $65 - Won ($65 was a common winning bid that I found on this forum). Our stay was from October 14th to October 19th. I bid for 2 rooms. After winning the bid, I called the hotel and asked for non-smoking and double beds. They would not guarrantee double beds and said that "if you use Priceline, we will give you the smallest room we have available with one bed. We keep our better rooms for our 'real' customers, not Priceline". I guess that set me off right away. I asked to upgrade and they allowed me to do that for $20 per room. They talked up the better view (Alamo side) and the whirlpool tub (old, rusty and dirty) in both rooms. I should add that my wife and I are not crazy people (early 50's) but we know what we like. We do not like old, old hotels that have smells, odors, and dirty showers and walls. The way I look at it, if the room smells and looks dirty, how clean are the things that you don't know about? Sheets, pillow cases, rugs, etc. We travel quite a bit, especially cross country on our motorcycle and know exactly what we like. We enjoy a newer built motel, fresh smelling halls and rooms, a lobby with an open area for continental breakfast and usually free coffee, free WiFi, and free parking. I want to make sure to mention that we've been using Priceline for probably 10 to 12 total nights at different hotels/motels and every single time it's been a positive experience except this one. Many of the 'wins' we've gotten were actually 2 room suites with plasma TV's, huge beds, and clean as clean can be. Beautiful, fantastic places and we've never paid more than $55 before this trip. We love Priceline and won't let this experience change our mind. I like to learn from my mistakes and here's what I've learned: I think I'm confused between a motel and a hotel. I also think I'm convinced that the majority of my mistake was to bid in an area of the city where there are naturally, old hotels - river walk/downtown. My better option would have been to look at the outlying areas near the freeways. Those 'exit' stops where there are several motels at an exit ramp always seem to be new builds, and things that we've come to expect - like free parking, free coffee, free breakfast, free wifi, are all more commonly expected. Here's my strategy for the future: Stay out of downtown areas of a city Bid only one night to see which hotel I get. If I like the choice, increase the nights immediately. If I don't, bid the second night separate. This strategy may get me a one night dissapointment at worst case. This is a fantastic forum and website. It has really been very helpful and I appreciate everyone who's working hard to keep it up. Thanks, One more thing. Under the 'hotel' tab, I looked up the Emily Morgan. It seems that other people do not share my dissappointment in this particular hotel. I don't know if I'm just a 'lower class' Hampton Inn bum or very particular on cleanliness (I didn't think I was) but it does strike me as strange that I'm the only one who doesn't like this hotel. As I said before, maybe I'm more of a 'motel' person than a 'historical hotel' buff. Wayne

Wow, I didn't know there were 2 Emily Morgan hotels in San Antonio. We stayed on the 7th floor - 2 rooms. As the elevator doors opened, the stench of the carpet odor almost turned me around and back to the lobby. Maybe the room smells better. One room was just ok, the other one smelled bad. Back down at the lobby, the guy tried to explain that "all the rooms stink until you turn on the air conditioner". Another guy behind the counter said "This is an old, historic hotel. You can't expect it to smell like a new hotel"! I asked for a new room and they happily gave us one. This one smelled better. No flat screen TV's. I know, I know, who goes to San Antonio just to watch TV, right? The room had 2 double beds and was advertised as 'family friendly'. I guess that means that when dear old dad bends over naked in the bathroom to take a shower behind the transluscent glass doors, all the other family members say "hey, let's go look out the windows at the Alamo!". Seriously, there were (4) floor to ceiling glass doors separating the bathroom area from the bedroom. I'm no prude but let's be serious. I'm just glad my mother was in the other room. Delicately speaking, the toilet room (separate from the bathroom) was wonderful. Metal door, metal door molding, brown walls, brown molding, brown door, brown floor and nothing else. The room echo'd something terrible. It was like a rubber room in mental hospital without the rubber. It was void of everything. We also got the whirlpool bath. As someone else mentioned, it was filthy. We agree that it was not something you'd want to sit on. The shower walls were dirty and the whirlpool bath was rusted and dirty. Had to pay for WiFi. I guess I'm not used to paying at the hotel for WiFi. I wouldn't work in our room. There's a public computer area next to the lobby. Great! I can print our return flight boarding passes so I don't have to do it at the airport. For only $8. That's right, you pay by the minute and by the piece of printed paper to use the computers in the lobby. $26 plus tax to park car each night. Here's the sign in the lobby. Valet parking, $26...Park yourself, $26. ???? I still don't understand that one. Highpoints of the hotel? We got to see the roof of the Alamo from our hotel room. Low points? We got to see all the great hotels of the city that we didn't win a bid at on Priceline. I can't believe people are enamored by the use of the word 'historical'. The place was a dump.

Hello! I guess I'm still learning how to use Priceline but I think I'm going in the right direction by being a member of this message group. Here's what happened to me... We started planning about a month ago to use Priceline to book 2 rooms for 5 days in San Antonio to see our son graduate from the Air Force. After checking the areas on the map for 'name your own price' in Priceline, we decided to stay in the River Walk area. Using the star ratings, I noticed that the only area in San Antonio that offered 4 star hotels was the River Walk. Great! I could add other areas if my price wasn't accepted and still be assured to get the River Walk. No problem. Next, I looked on this forum to see what recent results had brought other people. Great again! I saw someone who just got rooms at the Westin and another person who got rooms at the Mariott! This is going to be great. I checked the prices that these people spent and started my bid on Priceline... First, $52 for 4 star in the River Walk area. Sorry, not accepted. Then upped the bid to $57 and added an area that didn't have 4 star hotels. Sorry again. I tried $65 (the price the other 2 people won bids at recently) and Yay! Bid is accepted. Congratulations, your bid was accepted at the Emily Morgan. Emily what? What the heck kind of hotel it that? First, its several blocks from the end of the riverwalk but right next door to the Alamo. Now, I find out my first mistake. I set up the bid for 2 rooms for all 5 nights. After I won the bid, I read a post where someone recommended to only bid for one night. If you don't like what you get, you can rebid the next night after looking at the hotel. If you like the hotel, you can extend your stay. The problem is, I didn't want to take a chance and use Priceline after we got there for booking a hotel the same night as the bid. What if there's nothing available? Anyway, once we got the the 'Emily Morgan', I could not believe this hotel is classified as a 4 star. It was old, smelled like mold, mildew, and rotted wood. The decorations in the rooms, bathroom and halls was institutional - like a hospital. And something else I didn't expect...everything cost extra. There was no complimentary coffee in the lobby, no continental breakfast, I had to pay for WiFi, and parking was next door outside and cost $28 per night. To top it off, I had to pay $8 just to print our return flight boarding passes on the 'public' computer in the lobby. Whew! That's my vent. Now for my actual question (thanks for reading). How the heck do you avoid one dumpy hotel that is rated wrong (in my opinion) when all the other hotels in the area are truly high class? It made me so mad that we had to stay there for 5 days when I knew that by the luck of the draw I could have gotten a really nice hotel. What's the secret? Thanks again for listening. Wayne