jaylee

Hi, all. I have a quick question about the Strip North 5* with these amenities: Casino, fitness, pools, restaurants, business center, hi speed internet. golf nearby, tennis nearby, spa. This hotel charges a resort fee. Any guesses? Oops I posted the wrong dates; they should be May 7-8. Thanks! I always use the link from this site.

Hi, all. I don't know if this should go with my former post as it is for the same dates I was discussing earlier via Priceline. I've used the link from this site and been biding my time, bidding every other day or so, and bidding up to $154, all of which have been rejected. Today I bid 4* Monterey area, $111-- rejected. Since none of the other areas has 4* properties, I added Carmel and increased my bid to $119, and got the notice: "Your new request has already been submitted and received. We'll be able to tell you in 15 minutes whether or not we were able to find a hotel in the Monterey, CA area that was willing to accept your price. Please check back soon." Anyone else ever get this and/or know what this means?

Thank you both for your help. I'll try the permutations method, after first confirming 4* is only available in the one zone-- and as always using the PRICELINE link. I did realize that comparing star ratings of Hotwire vs Priceline was not equal; that's the point I was attempting to make about the Hyatt being 4* for Hotwire, but 3.5 for Priceline :) Once my 24 hours is up, I'll try again and let the board know of my progress. Thanks again!

I tried J'R's excellent strategy for a 4* in Monterey on the days of 10/8-10. I'm hoping for the Clement. I don't know if it's because it's Columbus Day weekend, but I wasn't successful at the price point I was hoping for. Here was my strategy: I checked rates, and Intercontinental Clement was $255/night (Friends and Family rate); Plaza Hotel was $270. Marriott was unavailable. Yesterday, using the PRICELINE link, of course, I tried: First bid: Zone 3, select 4*, $99 = rejected Next, added Zone 4, $104 = rejected Then, added Zone 2, $111 = rejected Added Zone 1, $116 -> rejected Today: First bid: Zone 3, select 4*, $114 = rejected Next, added Zone 4, $119 = rejected Then, added Zone 2, $124 = rejected Added Zone 1, $129-> rejected Is it possible that I need to wait until it gets closer to October? And, if I decide to book there at $255 for insurance, will that cause a problem if I continue to try to book via PRICELINE? Any and all advise appreciated. I did check HOTWIRE, but only one 4* came up, and my best guess on that one was that it was the Hyatt with the amenities listed. PRICELINE apparently rates the Hyatt as a 3.5*.

Very nice, well-described bidding process. I'm trying for the weekend of Oct 8-10, hope I get as lucky!

Just to update, a friend I planned to visit while I was there offered to let me stay at his place, so I don't need a hotel after all. So, I'll save even more money than I'd hoped! Thanks for everyone's help, it is much appreciated!

Thanks for letting me know! I was beginning to wonder if I'd been imagining things!

Thanks, I do use the HOTWIRE links on this site whenever I do my searches. I'm not sure what I'm missing, but I can't seem to find the Tripadvisor rating on HOTWIRE when I checked for the hotel today. Again, I was looking around the MCO area. I know I saw it before- can someone point me to where it is? Thanks in advance!

Hi, all. Using the link from this board, I checked HOTWIRE for 5/16-17 and a four star hotel for $59 came up, but from what I'm reading in this forum, it could either be the Renaissance or Regency, is that correct? The icons show a shuttle, fitness, swimming, restaurant, business center and high speed internet. If I click on "see all" nothing else shows up. I'm not sure if I really have a preference; ie, if one is better than the other, but it would be nice to be able to identify it, if possible, before booking. Thanks in advance for your help! PS: I did read the post below about how to tell the difference in the two hotels. My confusion arises because it says more than 85% of the people recommend, but ALSO it rates a 4.5 in customer satisfaction. In reading trip advisor, lately Rensaissance got some really bad reviews (granted some are also quite complementary).

Just a quick update... I'll give a more detailed review when I get back. What can I say? The Wynn is great. Gave the young gal at the desk a $20 bill between my credit card and license, and got a panoramic room, one of the top floors, absolutely perfect strip view. We also can see the freebie show, Parasol Down, from our room as we are directly above it. It's very cool! Food is great, and several places have actually quite reasonable food (comparatively). Le Reve at the Wynn and the Phantom at the Venetian are both amazing. I'm so glad I did both of them. Hint: with the economy slipping so badly, half-price shows are very easy to come by at Tix4tonite. Unfortunately I didn't find that out until too late, so I wanted to pass that on for everyone else. Valentine's might be different, but I'm guessing any other time will have tickets available. Both the Phantom and Le Reve had quite a lot of empty seats. We noticed that the Venetian was much busier than the Wynn, both generally just walking around, and in the casino. The casino at the Wynn was really not busy at all... many of the gaming tablest were empty with the dealers just standing there. The shops at both the Wynn and Venetian were pretty much empty, particularly the higher end ones. Much different from my previous trips here!

While I'm impressed with Hotwire for doing that, people are still having issues with Wynn. Some family friends booked for next weekend and got Sunday and Monday, but not Saturday (Valentines). The hotel told they were on a waiting list for Valentines, and they'd call if there was any availability. Our friends booked the Palazzo as a safeguard. I've been following the issue on this site and trip advisor, and when people started saying that Wynn was attempting to re-book the original reservations, I called our friends and gave them a heads up (they did not book through Priceline or Hotwire thought-- too afraid they'd get a property she didn't want. The wife specificaly didn't want Trump-- because she doesn't like The Donald :) ). Anyway, each time I talked to her today, Wynn still hadn't called to offer them the third night. Curious, I went to the Wynn website and plugged in their dates, and there was availability in almost every category in both the Wynn and Encore! So she called them and they at first said there were still no rooms ( :) ) then when she said she understood the hotwire patrons were being booked, they offered her a room for the third night for over $400! Their original cost was something like $149 a night, so that was quite shocking to her. Add that to the fact that they HADN'T been called when they were assured they would be contacted if things opened up was not really great customer service. I suggested she call back and be really firm with them because that just wasn't right. I haven't heard from them to find out what happened as of yet.

I'm hoping for an upgrade to Encore for my Wynn stay this weekend, but maybe that is where they'll put me anyway. It'll be interesting to see.

Maybe I can get a REALLLLLY good upgrade this weekend since it sounds like they may have some of their primo rooms unexpectedly sitting empty (kidding). Apparently their reservations were to start on Friday, as is mine. Wow. Can you imagine the loss of reservations for rooms for 1000 employees for 12 days... that's a huge loss. It'll be interesting to see if the Wynn suddenly begins running some specials!

Yeah, Colfax, I'm beginning to see what you mean. Doesn't that strike you as deceptive? As a follow-up, my aunt did go to Priceline and bid 16.00 a night for a compact car and immediately got it accepted by Hertz (I can't bid because I'm not 25 yet). She'd tried last night, also at 16.00, and it wasn't accepted, so with today's win we both feel good about how it turned out. Thanks for letting me vent!

Point taken. Nonetheless, if you've seen it before, then THEY'VE seen it before, and it should be fixed or they are going to have a lot of people unhappy at them... and their reputation is at stake. As my aunt says, if you are happy with something, you tell one person, if you are unhappy, you tell the world. It's not earth shattering and won't prevent world peace lol.. but in my opinion its poor business. It's pretty disappointing and no one likes to feel like they are being deceived. Again, these are my opinions and my feelings, and I'm sure others have differing opinions.

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Just wanted to mention my experience with Hotwire in the past week that I am very unhappy about. My aunt and I have been looking for a car in Phoenix, AZ, for the upcoming horse show we are attending. Of course using the HOTWIRE link, she put in the dates she was looking for a car, and a compact came up for 19.95. She figured she would wait til the weekend, and she would check again. On Friday she got an email saying that the rates had changed to 15.95, so she thought, how awesome, and clicked the link. The link took her to Hotwire, where it suddenly showed $17.95 for a compact car. She thought, well it must have changed in the three hours since she got the email, but ok, that

Thanks! I'll be sure to update as soon as I start bidding.. and of course I'll use the HOTWIRE or PRICELINE links :)

I thought that might be the case, except there was no spa, so that made me wonder if it was something else. Thanks for the response! I will be sure to use the links. Right now I'm just trying to decide where in SoCal to go, so I'm doing my research before I make any definitive plans. Anywhere from Santa Barbara to San Diego sounds good, my girlfriends and I have some time off so we want to take a short road trip that weekend. Do you think it is a bit early to be booking in August?

I'm looking at Huntington Beach/Newport Beach for 7/31 to 8/2, and the 4* that came up was: Fitness, pool, restaurant, business center, high-speed internet, golf, tennis. That doesn't match any of the ones I saw on the list for this area as a 4*. Anyone have any ideas?

Read through this thread, and check the Priceline and Hotwire Calendar of Wins link above. That's a good place to start. Actually you get quite a good bang for your buck on the strip right now since there has been such an economic downturn. so no sense NOT staying there. Besides if you plan to do anything on the strip, it makes things a lot easier. The times I've gone before, traffic has been a bear and taxis are expensive, so weigh the time and money saved by staying on the strip and being able to walk or take the monorail with any price savings of being off strip. Good luck!

Have you checked the link above-- the one that says Priceline and Hotwire Calendar of Wins? Check dates around the time you're planning your vacation and that might give you a general idea of what hotels in those star categories are going for. Also read through this thread and see what others have won. It will be helpful too to read the thread that gives the hotel list for Vegas so you can see what hotels are in which star category.

I went back and read the reviews again. The biggest complaint seemed to be overcharges on the credit card, so I'll watch my charges carefully. Otherwise, everyone seems to like the rooms, so, especially for the price, I think I got a good deal. I will be sure to come back and report on my experience, since I note that a lot of people seem to Wynn (I can do it too, Thereuare!) but no one who has purchased through Priceline seems to have given a review. It's always great to see the support here, thanks so much! Oh, and it hadn't dawned on me that the Venetian might not respond to bids for weekends. Good point! Jaylee

Well I decided to chance Priceline and hoped I wouldn't get the Wynn based on the reviews I've read on trip advisor. I did use the link from here to PRICELINE. $80 Strip North Rejected. $90 add LV Airport area, rejected. $95 add Summerlin, rejected. $100 add LV Convention Center, rejected. $110 accepted. Wynn. I guess I'll see how it goes. I probably should have just stopped and tried another date. Oh well.

Thanks, Number One (lol just had to say that once since i saw you were the #1 board member lol- star trek reference :) ) I can always go another date.. it would have to be March, but don't know when would be good and would miss spring break and/or conventions. I'd also have to go Fri-Sat-Sun. What do you think? If I try HOTWIRE, I think I'm getting the Wynn, not Venetian, with that link. If you read tripadvisor, there have been some unhappy people who've stayed at the Wynn lately.