Priceline Hotel: 3.5* San Antonio (Airport SAT) Crowne Plaza

[JunoReactor]

Hi everyone,

New to the forum, but from what I'm seeing it's a great resource. I'm looking to book for a few nights this next weekend, maybe Thursday-Sunday or Friday-Monday in the San Antonio Airport area. I've stayed there several times before for business and have gotten, via Priceline, the airport area Doubletree for ~50/night. Sometimes, unfortunately, I'd be stuck at the airport area Holiday Inn, which before was alleged to be a 3.5 star but from my experience is 2 stars at best.

Apparently, however, the Holiday Inn in question was recently downgraded from 3.5 to 3 stars, which is much closer to what it actually should be rated. Now, here's my question, and hopefully some of the more experienced Priceline users can help answer this for me: From what I can tell, the Doubletree is one of the only 3.5 star hotel in the San Antonio Airport area. I also notice that its listed in Priceline's regular search for San Antonio's airport as regularly being $79/night; apparently, so is the Hilton San Antonio Airport. I know they're probably both very nice hotels but I personally prefer the Doubletree. So, my question is, if I bid $50/night and only on a 3.5 star hotel in the airport area, is there any way of gauging my chances of getting the Doubletree? Perhaps this is over-simplifying it but from what I can see, it looks like a 50-50 chance for one or the other at this point given that they're both the same regular price.

Additionally, is there any way of knowing how low I can actually bid (ie, lower than $50/night) and still get a 3.5 star hotel, and preferably the Doubletree? And just offhand, if I wanted Embassy Suites airport, would there be any way of bidding to be sure I get a room there? Embassy Suites at the San Antonio airport area is $139/night with normal Priceline pricing.

Another question: I'm potentially travelling with several other people and as such might require 5 rooms. Some of them want two beds per room. Is there any way this can this be requested while using Priceline's bidding feature? If not, is there any way to ensure I can get these requests fulfilled once I'm checking in?

Thanks in advance for any advice, I know it's a lot of questions so I appreciate anything anyone can tell me.

[AaronJB]

Welcome to Betterbidding. :)

A few notes:

There is no way to ensure a particular property when bidding. There are 4 "known"/reported to the board 3.5* properties in this zone - there may be others (new hotels participating in bidding or ratings changes can happen at any time) and if bidding 3.5* for this area, you have to be willing to accept any of those four. If you bid higher in an attempt to get/avoid a particular property, you could very likely end up overbidding for the hotel you would have gotten had you bid lower anyways.

PRICELINE only guarantees double occupancy/one bed. One can put in a request with the hotel for rooms w/2 beds, but that is up to the hotel and the hotel could be unwilling, unable or could charge an upgrade fee. Guests generally have more trouble asking for two beds in major cities, but hotels can deny a 2 bed upgrade anywhere.

In terms of trying to spot a particular property via a discount service, HOTWIRE would be a better option, given that one can try to make an "educated guess" as to what's showing, based upon the information given. However, HOTWIRE is more expensive. HOTWIRE also allows one to enter the amount of people in the party, which ensures some form of bedding for the party.

Please let us know when you have confirmed dates, what your desired budget would be and your thoughts on the above.

Thank you for using the site's HOTWIRE or PRICELINE links to start your purchases and searches.

[JunoReactor]

Thanks AaronJB,

I bid $65/night, and this was with an additional $5/night added by Priceline with a special e-mail deal I found elsewhere; so technically $70/night, although my amount was only $65. I got a room at the Crowne Plaza, in the San Antonio airport area but realistically about three miles from where most of the hotels are. The place was once a Doubletree and I had stayed there when it was a Doubletree, and at the time it was very nice. It's still a nice enough place, but personally I think the 3.5 star rating is a stretch. The room was tiny, which has happened before when I book through Priceline, and makes me wonder if these places have a "Priceline floor" where they put guests who use such a service--my fiancee pointed out that when we stayed there when it was a Doubletree, and booked via Doubletree's regular service, it was a much bigger room. It was still a nice enough room. The rugs could have used a cleaning and the soda vending machine area, the stairwell, and other places that aren't guest rooms are VERY poorly maintained, a huge mess--this is not what would be expected from a 3.5 star hotel. We had to request they clean our room three times in one day, and even had to go to the front desk to make sure they did so. The worst part came about when I added a night. I hadn't had a chance to call and ask if we needed to check in again or anything, but at about 2 pm on the day we were originally supposed to check out (ie, far after the check-out time would have been), I called from the phone in the room and asked, was told no, great, went to shower, and while in the shower my fiancee answered a call from downstairs stating we suddenly DID have to check in again, and furthermore we were going to be moved to another room. Of course I called as soon as I got out of the shower and had words with "Dolores" who basically "straightened things out" with a manager. I have added nights before and never had to put up with this, and never ever have I had a problem with a failure to clean the room when we ask; most times its just done automatically.

It is by no means a bad hotel and a decent stay for the price I paid. Your experience may be much better and I hope it is, as San Antonio is a great city. But just know going in that it's probably overrated in the amount of stars. Furthermore, I think I could have gotten a lower rate if I had bid further in advance than three days.

[thereuare]

Thank you for sharing your win with the board... sorry to hear you had some issues with the hotel.

Can you 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.

Please note that you can still use your Bonus Cash along with the board's PRICELINE links as follows...

1) click the PRICELINE link on the board

2) go to the MY PROFILE >> MY REWARDS link at the top right of their home page

3) use the bonus money link in the MY REWARDS section of your profile (not a link from an email) and bid as usual

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

Enjoy your stay.