aussie36

I had the opposite of second class treatment for a lot of my trip. Hyatt Regency in Phx upgraded me to a bigger room on a top floor with view, same with Trump in Vegas and in Seattle, the Grand Hyatt moved me from a room with 2 doubles and a view of the parking garage, to a big king room with water views and a bath on a high floor! No bad treatment for being a priceline customer and it clearly didn't count against me in terms of upgrades either.

For future knowledge, the 'Pax' video game convention is held the last weekend of August in Seattle every year. Combine with a lot of cruise ships returning before school starts and travellers, the hotel confirmed today that the last two weeks of August through Labor Day weekend are their busiest of the year, in particular this year. I know a lot of people were having trouble winning hotels at rates that were seen frequently throughout the year. Thought this could be helpful information for those bidding last weekend of August in future years.

Just a heads up for everyone that was trying to book 8/25-8/30 there is a massive video game conference in town. Its big enough for the Hyatt to produce special keys for the guests. The Hyatt is fully booked and has been this entire week. Last weekend there was a medical conference and it was booked too. Apparently the majority of downtown hotels are booked this weekend as there are over 150,000 gamers in town for the conference, plus there are some people arriving earlier for the bumbershoot festival over labor day weekend. Seattle is pumping thats for sure and there are nerds everywhere! Hyatt is very very nice. I got upgraded from a room w/ 2 beds on a floor with a view of the garage to a room on a high floor w/ a view of lake union and a king bed which was my preference. Location is great, hotel is great. I got an amazing deal!

I called the hotel and they confirmed a 3.5* rating, so I called PRICELINE. Their official line is that name your own price is not based purely on a hotels assigned rating, but also based on customer satisfaction/ratings and amenties of a property. Just like a property must have a restaurant and other things to be considered for a 4 star or above rating, PRICELINE considers what the hotel offers guests and assigns it a star rating accordingly. The staff member all but conceded it is technically a 3.5* but it has guest ratings of 7.2 which they consider to be very good and has particular amentities so they will not rate it lower then a 4*.

It happened to me. I bid on 4star in the Atlanta Perimiter area, I got the hotel on my first bid so I know I only entered 4 star and the area I wanted, happened to look at reviews for the hotel and every single site, including the hotel website itself says it is 3.5 stars! If I had wanted to bid on a 3.5 star hotel I would've. Not impressed at all.

To close this thread: My friend is the driver so I let her choose where she is comfortable staying and she chose the Atlanta Perimeter area as if we got lucky the hotel would be on the road to Alpharetta for the concert we are attending and right near the highway to drive home. I ended up using priceline instead of Hotwire and got the 4* Atlanta Perimeter Hotel and Suites for $47 :) The going rate on their website is $169 + tax, so we ended up saving over $100!! It is also on the exact road we need to go to the concert, seems easy enough to get too from Atlanta and easy access to the highway to drive back. Thanks for all your help.

Seattle has been really expensive for all of August going by the bids reported. We have friends who have decided to go from 25th-30th and have been bidding on priceline with no luck for these dates (they aren't registered on these boards but I believe they have bid up to $190 for a 4* and $145 for a 3*), then checked hotwire and there is no option in the Downtown-Pike Place area for these dates at any star rating. I'm surprised how expensive Seattle is, considering other popular summer destinations have been much more affordable.

After bidding regularly finally managed to secure the other 5 nights of my trip a couple of weeks ago, after splitting the 10nights in half. Was very lucky to end up at the same hotel, no need to move hotels! The hotel have linked my 2 reservations in the hope if they aren't crowded we won't even need to move rooms which is a bonus. Hyatt customer service has been amazing. Was a bit scared about prices after seeing so many people struggling to win anything for the weekend dates 26 & 27 and seeing a winning bid of $195 for a 3.5*. The rates on the Hyatt website is $340 a night plus taxes!! Cheapest I have seen is $270 a night plus taxes for these dates so I am very very happy to have my hotel booked. My original deal was $130 a night 20-25th at Grand Hyatt for anyone that can't be bothered finding my original thread. 25-30th August Grand Hyatt Seattle $140 a night

I had a look myself and found about 3 properties that had non-smoking rooms/facilities but not quite a 95% rating. I'm hoping it is the Hyatt cos its close to where we need to be, some of the others are 8miles away which would be a bit of a hassle. Going to check with my travelling partner then will report back what I do!

Used the link to double check and yes it does have a fitness icon. Not sure how I missed it the first time! Any ideas of the hotel?

Thanks! Any help would be appreciated!

I am looking at booking a hotel and need help identifying a few options. I googled where we need to be and location of hotels and it looks as though the Roswell or Alpharetta South are the two closest zones, but I can stay in Alpharetta North if there is a particularly great hotel. Stay is for one night, Sun 8th August. 1st Hotel: Roswell 3 star Amenties: Laundry, Hi-Speed Internet, Fitness, Business Centre. Reccomended in 90% of reviews. $57 2nd Hotel: Roswell 2.5 Stars Amenties: Comp Breakfast, Fitness, Pool, Hi-Speed Internet. $38 3rd Hotel: Alpharetta South 2.5 Stars Amenties: Pool, Fitness, Hi-Speed Internet, Comp Breakfast, Laundry $45 Potential Option: Alpharetta North 3 star Non-smoking, comp breakfast, hi-speed net, business center, pool. Reccomended in 95% hotwire reviews. $48. If this is close to where we need to be, it probably becomes my preference. I used the sites link!

I got the Grand Hyatt for $130 for the first 5 nights. No luck so far on the last 5 nights. Thanks everyone for their help. Fingers crossed I get something for the last 5 nights!

I start off bidding on the downtown zone, then include the seattle center zone to get the 2nd bid. Thanks for the link to the other thread! That was particularly helpful reading. I was actually going to do 6/4 days at that works better for us in case we need to change hotels. 5/5 could work too.

That's a possibility! Not so sure about more then 2 bids as that would be lots of moving around, but I would be happy to make two sets of bids of 5 nights duration each. Potentially, would this increase my chances of my bid being accepted? I have been using the links provided, thanks.

20-30th August, $115 a night (will go up to $125 tomorrow). Thanks, I appreciate any help!

Hi all, Just wondering if anyone has had success with 'name your own price' on Priceline for longer stays? I need to book a room for 10 days in August and so far all my bids have been rejected. I've got a little more room in my budget to increase on my next bid attempt, but wondered if it was the length of the stay, and not the price I am bidding that is causing it to be rejected. (I'm trying for a 4* in downtown area) Any tips? Thank you