RETIRED: New Zone Boundaries, Star Levels, Name Changes?

[runNgun]

WInter Garden zone in Orlando has only 1* hotels (for now).

also the Hilton Riverfront in Jacksonville, Fl is converting to a Crowne Plaza in April 2006

[slruud]

Radisson Hotel Santa Fe Plaza zone is now The Lodge at Santa Fe.

[thereuare]

Hotwire has merged the (Anaheim-Disneyland North) and (Anaheim-Disneyland South) zones into one new zone... (Anaheim-Disneyland Area).

The two previous zones bordered each other and i'm assuming the new zone is simply a merger of the two (with no new boundaries). Can anyone familiar with the area please look at our newly combined list in the HOTWIRE HOTEL LIST and let us know if anything seems out of place in the currently combined zone.

Thanks!

[WillTravel]

This hasn't come up very much, but the Mermaid Hotel in Copenhagen closed at the end of October, and reopened in November as Hotel 27. It no longer has any Le Meridien connection.

[ufjoe21]

Ocala, FL no longer offers 3* hotel via priceline

[GM Mike]

3* Lenox Suites in Chicago (Magnificent Mile - Wacker Drive) on Hotwire has closed. According to www.lenoxsuites.com it's opening as the James Chicago Hotel "early 2006".

[thereuare]

I've made the change to the hotel list... thank you.

[bbbb]

San Diego Hyatt Regency Islandia is now a 3* on PL vacation packages. Sorry I don't remember the dates I was checking.

[thereuare]

THANKS!!

[SavannahMacGuy]

Apparently, for Atlanta, Priceline has added a TON of new suburbs, just in the last week or so - radically increasing the number of free rebids for both 3* and 4* hotels in Atlanta.

Before, bidding 4* Buckhead was much easier than bidding 3* Midtown, because you had virtually no free rebids for Midtown. Almost every other suburb, save one or two, had a 3 star property.

Now there's also Stockbridge, Kennesaw, Morrow, Forest Park / Union City.

I have made hundreds of bids in the Atlanta area and these suburbs have never come up before.

None of these areas have 3 or 4 star properties, to my knowledge, and none were available when I checked area by area. This is creating many new opportunities for Priceline bids in Atlanta.

[thereuare]

Thanks for the update... looks like a change for the better (for us bidders).

So no zones have actually changed boundaries... it's more so that some outlying suburbs are now included in the 'general' Atlanta region?

[dahammer]

in New York City Airport (JFK) zone, 2.5* Doubletree Club will be changing to a Marriott Fairfield Inn soon

[AllCape]

Hotwire has added another hotel to its 3.5* class in the Quincy Market- Financial. They already had the Hyatt as a 3.5*. The amenities are Restaurant and Fitness and the compared rack rate was $159. The only hotel I found that matched was the Millenium. It previously was a 4* hotel but Expedia also rates it as a 3.5*. Expedia also offered the same "list" price of $159.

[jbq]

In the last 2 weeks or so, the HOTWIRE Reno South area (which contains the Peppermill and the Atlantis) and the Reno East / Reno Airport area (which contains the Reno Hilton) have been merged into a single zone.

To the best of my knowledge, before the change the 2.5* w/ casino was the atlantis lodge (typically significantly cheaper than the other options), the 3* w/ resort+casino was the atlantis tower, the 3.5* w/ kids activities was the Reno Hilton and the 3.5* w/o kids activities was the Peppermill (I got all 4 of those in the past).

Things may have changed during the area merge, and at the moment all I seem to be getting is 2.5* and 3.5*, both with casino/shuttle/restaurant/pool/fitness/spa/golf/tennis - I'm thinking that Hotwire may have worked to make it impossible to distinguish between the Atlantis tower, the Peppermill and the Hilton (time will tell).

[Daniel1978]

During the research for my forthcoming trip to Boston I found out some changes in Hotwire for the 3,5* hotels in the Boston Back Bay - Copley Square area.

3,5* Customer Favorite with amenities Restaurant, Pool, Fitness, Hi-Speed Internet and Business is NOT supposed to be the Hilton Back Bay any more, but the Sheraton Boston Hotel.

The Hilton Back Bay is NOT showing Hi-Speed Internet, although the description on the Hilton.com site says it has hi-speed internet (other amenities Restaurant, Pool, Fitness, Business).

I found this out when scanning the packages, where both the Hilton Back Bay and the Sheraton Boston were listed.

So long,

Daniel

[hannahb352]

The Bugetel Inn (which was part of the Baymont Hotel Chain) in Appleton WI has now become a La Quinta Inn. Although when researching it on the La Quinta website in their own description of the hotel they mistakingly still refer to the hotel as the Bugetel.

I reported winning this hotel as the Bugetel Inn on Hotwire about 2 years ago.

[micheles]

just for information thereuare - to update hotels in this region

wyndham buttes - phoenix is now 'the buttes' a marriott resort

change happened end of march 2006

possible good news - i believe the wyndham buttes had mixed reviews

[BEAV]

Today's San Francisco Chronicle is reporting the Pan Pacific San Francisco has been sold and will imediately be rebranded a JW Marriott property.

Pan Pacific now JW Marriott

I did a search on Travelocity"]Travelocity for a date next week, and sure enough, the hotel is already coming up as JW Marriott.

EDIT BY THEREURE: and here it is on the Marriott website: JW Marriott San Francisco

[Neelee]

In February 2006, when I started bidding for Mission Valley area, there were only 12 zones. Last week or so I noticed that PL added another 2.5* zone. TONIGHT, as I was preparing to rebid after my 72 hours, I noticed that Carlsbad is gone! That was one of my free rebid zones. There are now a total of 14 areas to bid on.

As the FAQ for this site warns, always check the zones and star levels before bidding.

Instead of the original 2 free rebid zones I had back in Feb. 2006, I now have two additional ones to play with

Happy bidding everyone!

[Blueskies]

Hi,

Boston appears to have a new Zone - World trade center which has a 4* (the new Westin Waterfront, I presume)and 3*. I was looking at October dates (23rd and 24th) and as I have never visited Boston before I took a look at the zones and I spotted this one, which does not appear on the list or the map as far as I can tell.

Cambridge and Brookline are split as well into Cambridge and Brighton-Brookline. South Boston only up to 2.5* level when I looked.

Blueskies

[thereuare]

Thanks, i'll send thenewbie a note to see if he can take a quick look and easily re-classify the zones :)

[Blueskies]

Hi,

I was looking at the London map, Heathrow Airport in particular (re the flyconcorde post) and I note that the Renaissance and the Marriott are not shown on there. Is this intentional?

It would be helpful if they were added. Let me know if I can help.

Blueskies

[thenewbie]

Downgrade -- info matched Packages section:

Boston (Quincy Market - Financial District)

3.5* Millenium Bostonian (previously 4*)

Amenities: Restaurant, Fitness

[slruud]

Just checking Hotwire rates for San Francisco Embarcadero area, and noticed 4.5* Hotel going for $119, regular retail $360. Went to Hyatt and to check rates, for Park Hyatt, which I think is the only 4.5 in the area, and website stated that as of 5/9, the Park Hyatt is no longer managed by Hyatt. I assume this will impact Priceline 4* bidding also.

[BEAV]

Just checking Hotwire rates for San Francisco Embarcadero area, and noticed 4.5* Hotel going for $119, regular retail $360. Went to Hyatt and to check rates, for Park Hyatt, which I think is the only 4.5 in the area, and website stated that as of 5/9, the Park Hyatt is no longer managed by Hyatt. I assume this will impact Priceline 4* bidding also.

The San Francisco Park Hyatt has been rebranded Le Meridien (Starwood property).

SF Park Hyatt now Le Meridien (Starwood)

As mentioned in the post above, Hotwire is still selling a 4.5 property in the Embarcadero zone (I did a search for July 2-4). Since the Park Hyatt was the only known 4.5 in the zone, I was hopefull Hotwire had upgraded the Omni from 4 to 4.5 stars. But a search of Hotwire's vacation package for the same dates still rates both Omni and Hyatt Regency Embarcadero as 4 stars. So it remains a mystery what Hotwire is selling as 4.5 stars in this zone since there are no other real contenders that could possibly qualify as 4.5 stars (aside from Omni being upgraded).