Priceline Hotel: Portland, OR zone suggestions plz

[terpfan1980]

I'm looking for suggestions on what zones I should be looking at for a one night stay in Portland, OR from 7/7/10 - 7/8/10

I've never been to the area and don't really know what might be considered the best area to stay in or sites to see in the area, hence the seeking of suggestions and tips if anyone has some. If it's possible to balance cost versus accessibility to whatever sites I should try to see, that'd be great, but again without knowing what's there that I should consider "can't miss", it's hard to know where to begin.

[schriff]

For a one night stay I would probably stay at one of the 4 or 5 stars downtown. There is a ton to do downtown and you're close to a lot of museums, shopping restaurants. Portland is a bit spread out so if you start getting into the suburbs it can be kind of a ways to anything.

[tilepusher]

How are you planning to get around in Portland? The most cost-effective place to stay in Portland would likely depend on whether you'll be driving or using public transit/taxis.

[terpfan1980]

I wound up bypassing Priceline and Hotwire for my reservations for this one and went directly with Marriott to reserve a suite (2 bedroom) for my stay in the area. I suspect the Resident Inn that my reservations are for is in the northern zone (Jantzen Beach or some such?) area that I had tried for a couple of rooms in via Priceline. While I'd have been ok getting two rooms, the price for the suite that I got was not much higher than it seemed that I'd have been bidding to get a pair of single rooms (and my bid might have landed me at either Courtyard or Residence Inn or another hotel).

If someone knows how to bid on larger suites and/or how to reserve larger suites rather than the typical "single" room that you'd be bidding on I'd love the tip, but I couldn't figure out a way to make a discounted deal on the bigger rooms (suites).

After checking around on another site that I frequent and reading through some tips that some residents in the Portland area offered I figured I'd be better off sticking more to the north side of town in Portland, close to the interstate. We'll (my family and I) be coming down from Vancouver, BC (Canada) later in the day and figure that by staying a bit north of Portland, or at least on the north side of it, we'll save some drive time. We'll be trying to see of Rocky Gorge and will also be riding over to the Tillamook cheese factory for a tour there (my kids love cheese so they are looking forward to that) which is to the west of Portland by a few hours. The northern area around Portland puts us a bit central for the driving that we'll be doing which is good for us since my kids don't like to ride in the car with me too long :) :)

[yellowdog]

terpfan1980

Thanks for the follow-up and closing this thread with your ultimate decision.

If someone knows how to bid on larger suites and/or how to reserve larger suites rather than the typical "single" room that you'd be bidding on I'd love the tip, but I couldn't figure out a way to make a discounted deal on the bigger rooms (suites).

You can't bid on a suite with PRICELINE. You need to go with HOTWIRE for this.

Please use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases.

Yellowdog.

[terpfan1980]

I did use the HOTWIRE and PRICELINE links to start my search :) but couldn't find a way to get anything other than a "standard" room type with HOTWIRE either, at least not when looking at the hidden hotel types (where you buy a room without knowing the hotel name first).

[Colfax]

Hotwire has a Suite icon. You don't see it very often, and even some all suite hotels don't display the Suite icon. The Suite icon just means the room will have separate living and sleeping areas. Purchasing a Hotwire hotel with Suite icon (if you can find it), doesn't guarantee two bedrooms, which it sounds like you wanted.

[terpfan1980]

Hotwire has a Suite icon. You don't see it very often, and even some all suite hotels don't display the Suite icon. The Suite icon just means the room will have separate living and sleeping areas. Purchasing a Hotwire hotel with Suite icon (if you can find it), doesn't guarantee two bedrooms though, which it sounds like you wanted.

Exactly correct. From what I was finding in my losing bids at PRICELINE and prices shown at HOTWIRE, I'd have to have gotten two rooms (which may or may not have been suites) when it was cheaper for me to go with reserving directly through the hotel chain to get a two bedroom suite.

With 3 people (my daughter, my son and myself), the two bedroom suite works well since we can have one person crash on a couch/sofa while the others each get a bedroom and privacy (and get away from the snoring of the others :) :) )