Priceline Hotel: 1* San Jose (Mountain View) Ramada Limited Mountain View

[Irish80122]

Hi all,

I am hoping someone knowing San Francisco can help me since I have never been there before. I have an interview at the Palo Alto VA and I am trying to find a reasonable hotel in the area, preferably through PRICELINE since I can't afford to pay too much. I would love to have a hotel with free parking and free breakfast, so probably a 2* or 2.5*. I will have a rental car, so distance isn't a huge issue, but traffic in the morning may be since I have to be at the VA at 8 for the interview.

The problem I am running into is when I search Palo Alto, Santa Clara, etc. it keeps telling me that no hotels in the area have any availability. Therefore, I have been looking at the San Francisco (San Mateo) hotels, but that still seems like a long ways away. Does anyone have any advice? If not, I may just book the Motel 6 in Palo Alto.

Thank you very much in advance, I really appreciate the help!

[thereuare]

The problem I am running into is when I search Palo Alto, Santa Clara, etc. it keeps telling me that no hotels in the area have any availability.

The opaque side of PRICELINE doesn't show availability... are you bidding and being rejected, looking at the 'retail' side or price or searching HOTWIRE?

What is your budget for this stay?

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

[Irish80122]

When I try to login through the non-opaque version it will tell me that there are no hotels with availability in those cities. However, it seemed odd that there were absolutely no vacancies in Santa Clara, for instance, unless something big is going on. That is why I was wondering if there was another city or area I should be searching. My ideal budget is 40-45 per night, that is what I have done in other cities, but I have accepted that I will have to go higher and will do whatever it takes because I need a place.

[thereuare]

It looks to be as if PRICELINE is having a problem recognizing the city entered for this region as any cities i this area, for any dates, shows the 'no availability' message.

However, as per the related link in our PRICELINE FAQ you can't really use the retail version of PRICELINE to determine opaque availability as the two arms of their service us a different universe of hotels... many hotels participate with both, but there are also some which only participate in one side of their service and not the other.

As well, i wouldn't recommend using your successful bid amounts in other cities to determine a bidding strategy or maximum bid in this city... if you were visiting NYC would you expect to win a hotel for $45/nite simply because you once received a hotel in another part of the country for that price? You should find your best deal thru conventional booking channels... then use some discount of that rate to determine your maximum bid in order to account for the 'unknown' factor of PRICELINE.

Have you done any bidding for Palo Alto yet or did you not even try based upon nothing showing thru the retail version of PRICELINE?

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

[Irish80122]

I haven't tried to do any bidding yet, I will give it a shot tomorrow. I just want to get as close as I can to the VA. I know I can't assume that I will get 45 in San Fran, but that doesn't mean that I won't try :). Thanks for your help, I will check back with results.

[thereuare]

If you let us know the zone(s) you're willing to accept, desired star rating and maximum bid we suggest a strategy for you to follow.

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

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

[Irish80122]

I was able to get into where you can bid even though the non-opaque doesn't show any availability (I didn't know you could do that, I always went through the non-opaque site and then hit name your own price. For some reason I always thought of the links up top as ads instead of a way to get into PRICELINE, sorry, but I will use it now. I am going to do some research on the hotels in Palo Alto and the neighboring regions and will report back. Thank you for your help thus far!

[Irish80122]

Alright, here is the plan. I am shooting for the 3* in Palo Alto and am using Mountain View to get a re-bid. Since I have a few days and I didn't see any previous wins, I decided to start low, so my first offer was $46, which was rejected. I re-bid $51, which was also rejected. I will try again tomorrow since all of the other areas have 3 star hotels.

[thereuare]

Since you have the time you can continue bidding and increasing your bid as you have above, but at the moment i'm guessing you'll likely need to be closer to the $65-$80 range to be successful.

Keep us updated and let us know if we can be of any help along the way.

Thanks for using the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links to begin your bidding.

[Irish80122]

I finally have a resolution for you. I kept increasing my bid, added in Redwood and Mountain View, and dropped my star preference to 2.5 (actually hoping for a Holiday Inn Express). However, I got up to 66 with all three of those areas selected and still was having no luck.

I did a search on HOTWIRE and found that there was a 2-star hotel (1 star on PRICELINE) listed at $43 per night. Using your wonderful list, I was able to determine this was the Ramada Limited Mountain View. Looking at the hotels website, it looked like it would meet my needs, but the reviews were a bit sketchy. However, I figured that for half the price, it would be worth it.

Since the asking price on HOTWIRE was $43 dollars, I took a chance and put $33 per night into PRICELINE for January 17th through 19th. My $33 dollar bid was accepted, so I will be staying at the Ramada Limited. I will be interesting to see how it really is, since the reviews are so mixed. I am not a very picky person, so I will probably like it just fine.

So that is my update. I didn't get the star level I was hoping for, but overall, I am very pleased with the hotel and the price I paid. Thank you for your help!

[thereuare]

Congratulations on your success!

Hope this property ends up working well for your needs and that you're happy with the results.

Thank you for sharing your win with the board and helping us add this property to the Priceline Hotel List.

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

Enjoy your stay.