BEAV

Per a Hotwire Vacation package search Nov 20-22, you can add business center to the list of amenities at the Concord Crowne Plaza hotel (Oakland/East Bay - Concord-Walnut Creek zone). Hotel is still rated 3 stars. Complete amenities are: Fitness Center, Pool, Restaurant, and now Business Center.

Friends of mine stay at this hotel frequently. There is a charge for parking Mon-Fri, however free on weekends. I would suspect they won't charge for parking on Thanksgiving, but just in case they do, you can park for free in the Target lot adjacent to the hotel. My friends do it all the time and never any problem.

I would contact the hotel again, and hopefully this time you'll reach someone more helpful. If you're unable to accomplish this today (the 16th), I'd call back tomorrow, your official check-in date, let them know you won't arrive until the 19th and see if they'll take your credit card number (for incidentals) over the phone and officially check you in. IMO this is not a Hotwire issue, but something that needs to be worked out directly with the hotel. Hopefully you'll get someone a little more helpful than when you first called. Good luck and keep us posted.

Bids of $80 and $90 rejected. $95 bid produced counteroffer to add $22. Added another free zone, bid $97 and accepted. San Francisco Marriott Soma - Moscone Center 55 Fourth Street San Francisco, California Check-In Date: Thu, Dec 11, 2008 Check-Out Date: Sat, Dec 13, 2008 Price Per Room, Per Night: $97.00 Subtotal: $194.00 Taxes & Service Fees: $36.87 Total Charges: $230.87 Bid placed through BetterBidding link to PRICELINE.

Welcome to Better Bidding! Was $90 your first bid, or did you bid a lower amount, initially, and work your way up to $90? Thanks!

Good catch, slruud. I checked a few dates in November, too, and they're 69% off.

I just noticed in the Pleasanton-San Ramon, CA zone (Oakland/East Bay area) both the recently upgraded 3.5 Marriotts in Pleasanton & San Ramon are now back down to 3 stars again. I first noticed this when going to bid this zone and, the 3.5 category was grayed out. I checked a couple other dates and with the same results. Then I accessed two recent bids (one at each property), and sure enough, they're listed as 3 stars again. These two hotels were recently upgraded during Priceline's restructuring just last month. Next I searched a variety of dates in the vacation package section and noted that the recently-upgraded 3* Courtyards and Residence Inns in this zone are still 3 stars, meaning you now have full service Marriotts and Courtyard/Residence Inns all rated the same. I haven't a clue why the two full service properties would have been downgraded, but IMO it makes no sense for such different products to be common rated. Is anyone else seeing this in their own local zones?

I just noticed in the Pleasanton-San Ramon, CA zone (Oakland/East Bay area) both the previously upgraded 3.5 Marriotts in Pleasanton & San Ramon are now back down to 3 stars again. I first noticed this when going to bid this zone and, the 3.5 category was grayed out. I checked a couple other dates and with the same results. Then I accessed two recent bids (one at each property), and sure enough, they're listed as 3 stars again. These two hotels were recently upgraded during Priceline's restructuring just last month. Next I searched a variety of dates in the vacation package section and noted that the recently-upgraded 3* Courtyards and Residence Inns in this zone are still 3 stars, meaning you now have full service Marriotts and Courtyard/Residence Inns all rated the same. I haven't a clue why the two full service properties would have been downgraded, but IMO it makes no sense for such different products to be common rated. Is anyone else seeing this in their own local zones?

Let me add my welcome to Better Bidding as well! With regard to your $8 overbid compared to Hotwire's $92 rate, you could have started a fresh bid from scratch in the USW zone rather than continuing to "build" on your Embarcadero zone bids. Adding zones (USW) with the same quality level as your original $75 bid in the Embarcadero zone combined with increasing your bid amount can lead to an overbid situation. If Hotwire's rate was $92, chances are you could have been successful with Priceline in USW for $75-$85. I hope that is helpful for your future bidding adventures, assuming you're a newbie. As to your hoping for the Mark Hopkins in USW, another great tool is looking at Priceline's vacation package. If you do a package search (air + hotel) from LAX to SFO for Nov 14-16, you will see the per person price at the USW Hilton is $277 while it is $384 for the Mark Hopkins. This is a pretty clear indication that the Hilton has a lower Priceline rate than the Mark Hopkins. If I'm trying to avoid a certain hotel in a certain zone, I often use the vacation package search to see what price it's coming in at compared to other hotels in the same zone. I hope some of this can be helpful for your future bidding adventures, assuming you're a newbie. At any rate, you came out with a great deal and congratulations for that! :)

Waiting a few days paid off, as previously the 4.5 star prices in this zone were $139 (Palace Hotel) and higher for this date. Amenities remain the same as those on the hotel list: Restaurant, Pool, Fitness, Hi-Speed Internet, Business InterContinental San Francisco 888 Howard Street San Francisco, California CheckInDate: Thu, Nov 13, 2008 CheckOutDate: Fri, Nov 14, 2008 Price Per Room Per Night: $119 Purchased through the BetterBidding link to HOTWIRE.

Although never reported here before, the former 4* Argonaut Hotel in San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf zone has been downgraded to 3.5 stars. This was the last remaining 4 star hotel in the Fisherman's Wharf zone after the Sheraton was earlier downgraded 4* to 3* (and eventually upgraded to 3.5 in Priceline's restructuring last month). As a result of the Argonaut's recent downgrade, this zone no longer offers 4 star bidding. This change provides an additional rebid zone when bidding 4 stars in greater San Francisco.

4* bidding is no longer available in the Santa Rose-Rohnert Park (CA) zone. A Priceline vacation package search 11/4-11/6 reveals the former 4* Hyatt Vineyard Creek hotel in Santa Rosa has been downgraded to 3.5 stars.

Bidding for a friend, my initial bid of $45 produced counteroffer to add $13 ($58). Added free rebid zone, increased to $47 and accepted. Both the 3.5 San Ramon & Pleasanton Marriotts are superior to the still-3 star Sheratons & Radisson in Pleasanton/Dublin, so the PRICELINE rating restructuring in this zone is a positive move IMO. Marriott San Ramon 2600 Bishop Drive San Ramon, California 94583 Check-In Date: Tue, Sep 30, 2008 Check-Out Date: Wed, Oct 1, 2008 Price Per Room, Per Night: $47.00 Taxes & Service Fees: $12.68 Total Charges*: $59.68 Marriott.com rate is $239. Priceline rate of $47 represents an 80% savings over retail. Bid placed through Better Bidding link to PRICELINE.

Karan97, congratulations on your winning bid. If possible, could you report your win on a separate thread? That way it will make it onto the Priceline & Hotwire Calendar of Wins here on the Better Bidding board and be helpful for anyone else looking to bid your travel dates. Also, since biggsoo placed this bid about 10 days ago, the Hotel 480 has supposedly been upgraded from 3 to 3.5 stars by Priceline. Can you confirm your winning bid at the 480 is rated 3.5 stars? Thanks!

I forgot to mention the HOTWIRE 4 star hotels for your dates are all $200-$300 per night, except what appears to be a match for the Parc 55 in USW at $174 per night, before taxes/fees. With a HOTWIRE price of $174, I think $140-ish would be a good ballpark figure to try with PRICELINE. Good luck!

I did a check of PRICELINE's vacation package (air + hotel) for 10/3-10/10 just to get some sort of idea which zone is coming up cheapest. Of the 4 star hotels, the Westin San Francisco Market Street in the SOMA zone was the least expensive, followed by the Parc 55 in USW. The package price for one person, flying from LAX to SFO was $1376 at the Westin SOMA and $1400 at Parc 55 USW. If you back out $200 for the airline ticket (it could possibly be less than that -- just ballpark figures here), that would leave roughly $168 a night at the Westin SOMA (including nightly taxes & fees). A bid of $140-$145 a night would probably wind up to be about $168 when you add taxes/fees. While it may be possible to get a lower rate accepted for some of your dates, it can often take higher prices to be successful for a bid of seven nights. Hope this helps a little!

One amenity icon that's always a dead-ringer for Embassy Suites is the oceanfront display. Although it's really only "bayfront" none of the other hotels in the zone are located directly alonside the water's edge like Embassy Suites.

Exactly. For the sake of updating hotel lists it would be beneficial to have all former 3-star hotels that offer full service restaurant and room service be rerated 3.5 stars. But apparantly there is a degree of brand separation going on here as well. Priceline's own description of 3.5 includes "these hotels feature high quality hotel rooms and well-decorated public spaces.". I wonder if this is their way of leaving the Holidays Inns at 3 stars as they are often criticized as being run down and in need of renovation. If a zone has a decent Marriott property and a "so-so" Holiday Inn, then I think Priceline has done a good thing here. But I can see disadvantages, too.

It appears that former 3-star hotels that offers a full service restaurant (one that serves breakfast, lunch & dinner) as well as room service has been upgraded to 3.5 stars. I believe this used to be the requirement of 3-star properties. The new 3-star description now covers hotels that offer limited type meal service (such as breakfast only) and room service is no longer a requirement. That explains why we're seeing Marriott Courtyards (for example) being upgraded from 2.5 to 3-stars.

My mistake. Harbor Court is rated 3 stars, not 3.5

Digging a little deeper, I'm seeing several former 2.5 Marriott Courtyards upgraded to 3 stars, with Radissons, Holiday Inns, etc, remaining at 3 stars. This is surprising to me as I view a Courtyard as a completely different product than a Radisson or Holiday Inn which usually offers things like full restaurant, room service, etc. We've obviously got a lot of work ahead getting the hotel lists updated. It's not going to happen overnight!

MAJOR PRICELINE CHANGES NATIONWIDE! It appears that Priceline has created a new layer of hotel bidding with the advent of 3.5 star hotels. At first I discovered the changes in San Francisco and thought Priceline was simply changing the former boutique category to 3.5 stars. However in looking a little further (Oakland/East Bay and Denver, for example) it appears 3.5 is a new quality level across the board. Changes of this degree are going to require a lot of legwork in order to determine which former 3 star hotels are now 3.5, which former 4 star hotels might now be rated 3.5, etc, etc. One of the easiest ways to determine at hotel's current rating is to research the Priceline vacation package product. And perhaps accessing previous and future bids in your Priceline profile will shed some light as well. If there are any cases where you had an accepted bid at a 4 star hotel and it has now been rerated 3.5 stars, I would think Priceline would be obligated to refund your stay IF that is what you want. For starters, here are the changes I've discovered in San Francisco: Former 3 stars now 3.5 stars: Hotel 480 (USE) Marriott Fisherman's Wharf Sheraton Fisherman's Wharf Hyatt Fisherman's Wharf Former Boutique now 3.5 stars Harbor Court (Embarcadero zone) Former Boutique now 3 stars Triton (USE) Will report others as time permits.

If you're still around, Travelingal :) , HOTWIRE is now selling a 4-star in USW for $139 for your dates. And who knows, you could possibly score even better on Priceline. Are your hotel award points returnable in the event of a last-minute cancellation?

Yes, apparently just yesterday Priceline redesigned the SF zones, which is a major enhancement for the positive. Here's a synopsis of how which hotels fall into which zone: http://www.betterbidding.com/index.php?sho...400#entry188195 Good luck with your bidding in USE, Embarcadero or SOMA zones. The Hyatt Regency I referred to in my earlier post today is in the Embarcadero zone.

If Priceline's new Embarcadero zone is acceptable, you might be successful on Priceline for $150 or less. At the moment, Hotwire is selling what I suspect is the Hyatt Regency Embarcadero for $159. In many cases, PRICELINE will beat HOTWIRE.