Priceline Hotel: 4* Vancouver (Granville Entertainment District) Sheraton Wall Centre

[terpfan1980]

Hello again BetterBidding forum members (and admins :) )... it's been a little while since my last post (July 2009, reference rooms in Phoenix and/or Las Vegas areas, on a trip with my wife). Sadly she was killed soon after that trip, but thanks to the help from here on arranging that trip last year some of her last days were some of the happiest we had had. Back now to arrange a trip with our kids, this time in the Vancouver, BC area (among other places) for a few days.

Used the PRICELINE search links above (from this site).

Tried Downtown originally with a bid of $75 (hey, I can hope can't I :) ) - rejected.

Added Granville-Entertainment District and increased bid to $80 - again rejected.

Added Downtown-City Hall and increased bid to $107 (having seen another forum member's winning bid of $108 for the Sheraton Wall Centre) - accepted.

Two rooms for two nights @ $107 per, not too bad (even if I would have liked it to be cheaper).

I checked the "rack rates" via the hotel's own website - Canadian price of $179 at a minimum.

Out of curiousity, what makes the rates that much higher in Vancouver for the summer months? Is it that much the vacation destination in the summer?

[yellowdog]

Welcome back and congratulations on your success!

Thank you for sharing your win with the board and using our PRICELINE link to begin your bidding :)

Can you also please add a reply to this thread with the date(s) of your stay so we can add this information to the topic title and enable your win to appear in the Priceline and Hotwire Calendar of Wins.

Enjoy your stay.

Yellowdog.

[blkjck1]

Out of curiousity, what makes the rates that much higher in Vancouver for the summer months? Is it that much the vacation destination in the summer?

Vancouver tends to fill up in the summer. Nothing specific, but Vancouver is just a nice place to be. It can also be a transit point for people who are going on to Victoria and the rest of Vancouver Island, the Sunshine Coast, and Whistler. Lots of cruise ships also dock in Vancouver in the summer as well.

[terpfan1980]

{ Homer Simpson }

d'oh!

{ / Homer Simpson }

I had the stay dates in the subject line, but it apparently got truncated when my message posted.

Stay dates: 7/5 - 7/7/2010

[terpfan1980]

Vancouver tends to fill up in the summer. Nothing specific, but Vancouver is just a nice place to be. It can also be a transit point for people who are going on to Victoria and the rest of Vancouver Island, the Sunshine Coast, and Whistler. Lots of cruise ships also dock in Vancouver in the summer as well.

Thanks for your reply and information. I wondered if it was just a popular summer destination and it sounds like that's the case. At least I've got my rooms booked early and won't have to worry about not having a reservation when I get there :)

[AaronJB]

Thank you for the follow-up. :)

[overhear]

Dear TerpFan,

I am so sorry to hear of your loss. Glad to hear that you will continue to be enjoying traveling with your kids along. It's a great experience to share.

All the best,

[terpfan1980]

Just a quick follow-up for this property and visit. My family (kids and I) had a great time and enjoyed our stay in this hotel. The few complaints we might have is that internet access wasn't free unless you venture down into the "Linked@" area (in the breezeway between the two towers) where the "business center" computers are. Once there you can get up to 2 hours of wireless internet access for free then you would have to repeat the process of establishing such access again (which should remain free). Second complaint is about this properties use of a seemingly standard "big city" hotel practice of charging for car parking. The car parking fees alone are more than many budget hotels would charge a person to stay (or so it seems). Not out of the ordinary at say NYC, San Diego, and many other "big cities", but still a charge I don't care for that has to be factored into the costs of your stay.

Otherwise rooms were nice and comfortable, flat screen TVs in each room (though the hotel cable seemed to be a bit noisy with a "hum" line/bar that kept scrolling in the picture). The view of the city can be very nice depending on which room you wind up in, with some of the rooms getting a bit better view than others. Reasonable walking distances from the hotel to just about everything you might need.

[AaronJB]

Glad to hear you had an enjoyable stay at this property! :)

[i_love_vacations]

Just a quick follow-up for this property and visit. My family (kids and I) had a great time and enjoyed our stay in this hotel. The few complaints we might have is that internet access wasn't free unless you venture down into the "Linked@" area (in the breezeway between the two towers) where the "business center" computers are. Once there you can get up to 2 hours of wireless internet access for free then you would have to repeat the process of establishing such access again (which should remain free). Second complaint is about this properties use of a seemingly standard "big city" hotel practice of charging for car parking. The car parking fees alone are more than many budget hotels would charge a person to stay (or so it seems). Not out of the ordinary at say NYC, San Diego, and many other "big cities", but still a charge I don't care for that has to be factored into the costs of your stay.

Yeah, it seems all hotels in the area do this. I'm going to be staying in the hyatt, they're charging $12 for internet and $28 for parking (still cheaper than the $48 that sheraton charges). Glad to hear you had a good stay though.

Also, you mentioned you went with family. Anything special you would recommend?

[terpfan1980]

Yeah, it seems all hotels in the area do this. I'm going to be staying in the hyatt, they're charging $12 for internet and $28 for parking (still cheaper than the $48 that sheraton charges). Glad to hear you had a good stay though.

Also, you mentioned you went with family. Anything special you would recommend?

There are lots of activities in the Vancouver area all at a variety of prices. The least expensive (relatively speaking) is FREE once you get there (reasonable walk from the Sheraton Wall Centre, or approx. $10 cab fare from same if you want to ride over, though we didn't figure out where to pick up a returning cab and wound up walking back) -- that would be Stanley Park and the walk around there.

If you don't care to walk or can't do much of that you can take a cab ride down to Stanley Park and then ride around on one of the horse drawn carts or take advantage of other offerings in the area. Costs for those seemed to be in the $40/person and up range depending on the type of package you opted for.

You can do Trolley tours around Vancouver in various packages including a package (if I recall correctly) that offered a Plane + Trolley package so you could get a view from the sky as well as on the ground.

Whale Watching packages were out of the price range and time budget that I had available for the trip. A friend (who lives in Canada) checked for some of those packages. Pricing seemed to be in the $120 or more per person range. Those packages involve climbing into a boat, riding out to the area where whales would normally be spotted and then hoping that whales would be active during your ride.

For food and such there are several nice restaurant choices. I took my kids to "Hys" steakhouse. It was on the same road that the hotel is (on one side of that hotel), about 4 - 5 blocks away. The only issue with that excursion is that Hys isn't all that well marked as to it's entrance. There's no awning or protruding exterior signage. The only real indication that you've found the place is that they have their name on the stepping stone outside their establishment which is in the base of an office type building. In other words you have to be looking for the place to find it. The service there was really good, the food was really good, and prices were in the Ruth's Chris/Morton's type range.

The Sheraton Wall Centre had a "Vancouver" visitor's type guide book in the rooms. Those are supposed to (and I did leave it there) be left in the room, not taken as souvenirs, and not taken from the room by guests. The guide book is a magazine with a hard cover, but basically simply a magazine. Nice and slick with pretty pictures of the various eateries and such. One of the eateries that was mentioned was a Brazilian style BBQ (Churrascaria) in the style of Texas de Brazil or Fogo de Chao, but when I tried to gather information on that particular restaurant later (to give to my Canadian friend) I hit reviews that were less than favorable for it.

The Indigo Bistro restaurant within the hotel seemed to be fairly well reviewed. We didn't try it, but it was supposedly a fairly nice restaurant.

Within a reasonable walking distance was Le Croccodile restaurant which offered French cuisine. There was also a nice Italian restaurant and if memory serves a Thai restaurant as well. Those are just ones that I noticed as close to the Sheraton. If you ventured farther out there were plenty of other options too.

If you've got the time, I'd say try to spend at least 3 - 4 days in the area and load up your bank account/credit card with some room to pay for some activities and enjoy your visit. It is a beautiful area and was nice to visit. The only negative that I might offer is that the traffic takes some getting used to. The lanes in the roadways are much narrower than the lanes most U.S. citizens would be used to. If you are driving around in a small car you probably won't feel it that much, but in a full-sized vehicle you'll get claustrophobic. The vast majorities of the cabs in Vancouver are Toyota Prius. Given the higher fuel costs there, and the skinny lanes, that makes sense, but us Yanks down here in the lower 48 might feel squeezed a little in riding around in a cab.