kennancat

I've bumped our flight dates up so that we'll overlap less with the convention. Our plan now is to get in the evening of Tuesday, May 13, and stay at a downtown hotel until Friday, May 16. On Friday, we'll move out into the 'burbs for the wedding. We've already got our hotel for that part of the stay, but thanks for the offer, AaronJB; I appreciate it. For the downtown hotel, I'm now definitely planning to use Priceline. Saving money on that part of the trip will make me feel better about having paid change fees to the airline :) I've looked over the guidebooks and I think the Millennium Park zone will be closer to what we want to do. I'd like to keep our total hotel stay including taxes and fees under $500 plus parking. It looks like that works out to about a max of $140 per night before Priceline adds anything else. I'd be happy with a 3 or 4 star, but I'm thinking to start with a 4 star bid so that I can use the Midway zone for a free rebid. I'll probably start at $70 and bump up by $10 until I find something. Please feel free to pass along any suggestions or concerns with this plan.

Yes, it is. Thanks for the link - I had searched on "convention" on this board and had not come across that particular thread. We've got family commitments in the area at that time, so we unfortunately can't choose a different weekend. We will due our best to work around the convention (and sounds like we'd better make some restaurant reservations too!).

I'm looking to book a trip to Chicago and trying to decide if I want to use Priceline or not. The weekend that I'm looking at has the National Restaurant Association in town for their annual convention. I've seen estimates that there will be 74,000 attendees. This seems like a large convention to me, but I'm not familiar enough with the area to judge.

I'm looking for information on Priceline hotels in the Atlanta West - Six Flags area and not having any luck. Is there a different name used for this area, or is it just not very popular? The highest available is only 2.5*, so I'm wondering if it's worth it to go through Priceline at all, or if I should just try to book direct.

We were happy with our stay here (9/9 - 9/11/06). Room was a good size, in excellent condition, and clean. I had requested a king nonsmoking room and at first got one with double beds, but they were able to move us. Those double beds looked tiny. The cookies were darn good. The location is great for visiting Disneyland - you're one exit away on the I-5. There are a few different entrances to DL, so you have options. Self-park is $8 (which did seem a little silly) and we drove to the parks rather than wait on the shuttle.

We stayed here 9/14 - 9/16/06. We ended up keeping the rental car, but we left it in their parking garage during our stay. Self park was $28/day and we had no trouble finding a spot (try saying that about anyplace else in SF!). The garage had an attendant and seemed secure. The elevator went directly from the garage to the hotel floors, so we were able to get our luggage to the room easily. We arrived early (9:00 AM) and they could have given us a room then, but not what we wanted. We came back around 5 PM and got exactly what we wanted - nonsmoking, king, on the interior of the hotel. The room was clean and quiet and a good size. Wired high-speed internet was $9.95/day and expires at 3 PM - didn't read that one too closely before signing up, else I'd have waited until 3:01 PM! No priceline attitude whatsoever. The concierge desk was very helpful. The hotel is at a good location - Fisherman's Wharf, the Powell-Mason cable car turntable, and a couple of good bus lines are very close. It was all easily within walking distance, as were North Beach and Lombard St. If you plan to use public transportation, I would highly recommend buying the real map from MUNI instead of relying on the ones they give away.

Yes - it's the one in San Bruno.

Okay, I got one. 2.5* Courtyard By Marriott San Francisco Airport for $58 for a total of $207.76. They've got free parking and internet access is available (although I can't tell if there's a charge or not), so I should be good. Cheapest nightly rate on their website is $179. I originally bid $55 on the SFO region for 2.5*. Then I got back another one of those Priceline "Raise your bid and we'll let you bid again right now" responses. They wanted me to raise it $15. I raised $3 to $58 and added the San Francisco South zone and got accepted. Makes me think I could have come in lower for my Fisherman's Wharf bid, but it was getting to the point where it wasn't worth my time to keep trying just to save an extra $10. I'm just glad I'm finally done bidding and can now plan out the fun parts of the trip! :) ETA: Just read their web site a little more carefully and the internet access is free. Woo-hoo!

I did check Hotwire and didn't have a lot of luck. I felt like I could find similar pricing through Expedia or Travelocity"]Travelocity and have more control over what I end up with. Worse comes to worse, I could wait until we get to the Hilton and use the high-speed connection there. I think it's the parking situation that concerns me more - I'd hate to bid $45 for a 3* in the SFO area and then end up paying $20 a night for parking when I could have gotten a 2.5* for $60 and had free parking. I think it's the lack of consistency for what's included/not included that's really bothering me right now.

I'm trying to complete my San Francisco stay. We need a hotel for three nights, checking in on the 11th and checking out on the 14th. While there, I will need high-speed internet access. I've tried bidding on a 2.5 in the San Francisco South area and got rejected at $56. I've thought about trying for a 2.5* or 3* in the SFO area, but I'm concerned about parking and internet access. It seems like you can get a hotel with free parking, internet, and breakfast or you can end up paying more and then having to add on these things. I've been going through old posts, the maps and other online reviews, but I can't seem to think of a good strategy. Any suggestions? ETA: I could probably get away with having internet only one day of the stay.

Well, after bidding USE with no luck for over a month, I gave up and went to Fisherman's Wharf. It took a couple of weeks, but I finally got something today. I also decided to drop down to 3*, trying to save a bit of money. I bid $90 on a 3* in the Fisherman's Wharf area, and got a response back that if I raised my offer by $22, I could bid again immediately. Having read about that on this board, I instead raised my bid by $11 and added the Civic Center zone, and ended up with the Hilton. My dates and number of rooms have also changed as the other couple we were going with decided to do a cruise instead. Summary: Hilton San Francisco Fisherman's Wharf Thu 9/14/06 - Sat 9/16/06 at $101 a night for a total of $240.09 with taxes and fees. I was hoping to get a lower price as I've seen in other wins, but I guess I can't complain too much when the lowest advertised price is $219 a night. I'm still trying to get something down near the airport for 9/11 - 9/14. I assume I should start a new thread with that one when it finally comes through or if I need help? ETA: I started my bidding through Savings Barn.

I think we're just going to do the wait-and-see plan. If we still can't get USE, then I'll look into adding zones and potentially dropping to three stars. We've also talked about splitting the stay to spend two nights downtown and one out by the airport to keep average cost without budget. Wish us luck!

Replace - We're on about version 7 of our California trip :) I think this one is final though. Something I forgot to mention in my original post: I'm trying to get two rooms as we're traveling with another couple. Could this be why I'm not getting anything?

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Thanks for fixing it - I'll make sure to get it right on my next post :)

Dates are 9/9/06 - 9/11/06. Started with Disneyland Resort Area at $40, rejected Added Anaheim Hills and went to $42, rejected Added Laguna Hills - Mission Viejo, went to $45, rejected Added Seal Beach- N.Huntington- Fountain Valley, went to $47, accepted. 2 nights @ $47/night with $19.28 in taxes and service fees for a total of $113.28. I started my bidding at SavingsBarn.com. I tried to edit the topic to include the dates, but can't figure out how to add it. Sorry!

Hi - I'm hoping to priceline a resort for the San Fransisco area checking in 9/1 and checking out 9/3 (Labor Day weekend). I'd like to stay on the east side as we're planning to visit Yosemite on our way back to LA. We'll have a rental car, but I'd prefer not to get reamed for parking charges downtown. That's why I'm thinking to stay out of the city and just use BART to get to the major attractions. However, I have no idea which area to choose. I looked at the BART map online, but it's tough to tell how that actually lines up versus the priceline map. Plus, I am not familiar with the area and don't want to choose an unsafe area. I'm thinking a 2.5 to 4 star (clean, safe, and cheap are the goals) hopefully under $60 a night. Any advice?

Looks like $28 is still the magic number in Valdosta :)

I stayed here through Priceline in July of 2001. The hotel was run by Doubletree at the time. The staff was very nice - they weren't very booked, so they let us check in around 11 AM. The room was clean and tastefully decorated. I was very satisfied with my stay. I haven't been back since Hilton took over - I'm sure I would miss the cookies :)

Just finished this series of bidding today (5/19/2005). I wanted a 4-star hotel in the Tampa Airport (TPA) & Westshore area, which is the only area in Tampa offering 4-star hotels through Priceline. First bid $40 for Tampa Airport (TPA) & Westshore at 4 stars. Rejected. Added Brandon and increased bid to $50. Rejected. Added Busch Gardens and increased bid to $55. Rejected. Added Tampa Downtown and increased bid to $60. Rejected. Added Tampa East - Fairgrounds and increased bid to $65. First time I didn't get the "Your bid has a low chance of being accepted" warning. Rejected. Added Tampa North and increased bid to $70. Accepted :) I've stayed at this hotel before, in August 2002, and was very satisfied. Got in then for $50.