Priceline Hotel: San Francisco / SFO North - San Bruno / Need help with bid

[sonnyg95]

Will be in SF from 9/24/2011 - 10/01/2011. My budget is between $60-$100/night (after taxes, etc). Would like to stay in 3* or higher, but from my research, looks like 3* are the only ones that usually provide free parking (a plus for me!). Planning on using a car for day trips to Monterey Bay and to Napa/Sonoma, but also plan to ride BART on a couple days to the city.

I found that I would be happy with Staybridge hotel suites (free parking, close to BART), but don't mind other 3* in this zone. Are there specific bids that would help steer me towards Staybridge? :) Looks like past bids were in the $40-60 range. I am also willing to go down to SFO Burlingame.

Any help and suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[sonnyg95]

Would also like to add I'm open to other zones closer to the city. From what it looks like, I don't think its feasible for my price range (and parking situation), thought I could be wrong.

Thanks again.

[Colfax]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

Staybridge San Bruno is a great value---two room suites with parking, breakfast, and internet included. And it's walking distance to a BART station, which few (if any) other airport area hotels can claim. Staybridge hardly ever comes up on Priceline though. Checking the Priceline Calendar of Wins the last time anyone reported getting Staybridge was more than a year ago. It's possible they no longer participate in Priceline, or that they've raised their PL rate to a level that other 3* hotels come up first, at a lower rate.

Staybridge is $138 for your dates.

Hotwire has a 3* in SFO West-San Bruno for $113 that could be Staybridge OR the Villa Montes. (It's new icons, so I'm not sure which.) Still over your budget.

If you're looking for the lowest price with parking taken into consideration my suggestion is to bid for 2.5* in South SF and SFO-North zones. I know you said you want 3* or higher, but in both those zones there are 2.5* hotels that are newer and nicer than some of the 3*, and those 2.5* include breakfast, which the 3* don't.

But if you want to stick to 3* I still think you're likely to win something under your $100 limit, including parking charge if any.

If you're open to something other than Staybridge, let us know if you want to bid for 3* or 2.5*; and if both zones (South SF and SFO North) are equally acceptable, or if you only want to bid in one. Someone will offer a strategy.

Please use these HOTWIRE and PRICELINE links for your purchases and searches.

Would like to stay in 3* or higher, but from my research, looks like 3* are the only ones that usually provide free parking (a plus for me!).

Actually it's the other way around...the higher the * level the more likely you'll pay to park. I don't think any 2* hotels near the airport charge to park, and most of the 2.5* don't. At 3* level pay parking is now the norm near the airport, with a couple of holdouts (the Staybridge and Radissson), which us parking cheapskates are grateful for.

[sonnyg95]

Thank you for a detailed response Colfax, especially with regards to looking at 2.5* hotels. I'm pretty new to all of this so this is another route I did not consider before your response.

What should my starting bid be for a 2.5* for my dates? I was thinking of starting at $70 or $80 for 3*, so maybe $50 for 2.5*?

I will definitely take a look at these other options once I get home and will update you guys.

Thanks again.

[Colfax]

The strategy will differ depending which zone or zones are acceptable to you. Once you've looked into the 2.5* hotels let us know:

1) are SFO-North and South SF both acceptable, or do you prefer one zone over the other? (I'm assuming you don't want SFO-South zone because of potentially higher parking charges there, but if that's not correct let us know.)

2) do you want to bid to your limit for a 3* first; then if rejected try lower for a 2.5*? Or are you looking for the least expensive 2.5* or higher that's available in your target zone(s)?

Please use these HOTWIRE and PRICELINE links for your purchases and searches.

[sonnyg95]

Sorry for the delay. My gf and I may be changing dates and/or zones. It will still be in San Francisco, but we may end up ditching San Bruno and looking to go up towards the city. If that is the case, we'll only be renting a car during the second half of the week, and be relying on the public transporation system the beginning of the week. It's our first time and friends suggested we should try lodging in the city.

We're willing to increase our budget for lodging up to $125-150 bid price but would still prefer to see our money go towards our activities if necessary. I'm just increasing it since it seems my old budget would not have been able to win anything decent. We're still looking to stay at either a 2*, 2.5* or 3*. We would prefer USE/USW based on other posts on here that its a pretty safe area, but would gladly take other suggestions. Regarding dates, we may just need lodging between 9/26/11-10/1/11. I'm also guessing there's no free parking in these zones now, regardless of star rating?

Lastly, would it be possible to change the titles of this post to be more general San Francisco rather than be specific to San Bruno?

Definitely using the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links while doing my research :)

[Gallus50]

Hey Sonny - Late Sept/Early Oct is one of the busiest times in SF. Prices are high every year, this year even more so. Tough time to find a deal.

I would start bidding up to my limit using rebids ASAP. Try for 4, 3.5 and 3* until you win a place or get shut down.

HW listings are almost all above $200 in the desirable areas, so that probably isn't an option. LastMinuteTravel.com does have the 3* (they say 3.5*) Hotel Diva for $123. Considering the time period, this is a pretty good deal. You can ID LMT listings using the BEAV's method in the Run of House section. LMT also has the Warwick for $168, costs more but in a very similar location.

The $94 3.5* listing on LMT sounded tempting, but it's the Hotel Metropolis. Looked it up on TA and the reviews are really bad, mostly because the location is right in the Tenderloin. I would not stay there if I were you.

Hope this helps. Let us know what you end up with.

[thereuare]

My gf and I may be changing dates and/or zones... Regarding dates, we may just need lodging between 9/26/11-10/1/11.

It's not clear from your post... are your dates and zones now confirmed? One they are, please clarify the dates you need in each area and the zone(s) you're willing to accept.

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

[Gallus50]

Also BTW sonny - I'd be careful w/2* hotels in the city. They might be ok, but it's not as safe a bet as it is in the airport zone and suburbs. I'd stick to 2.5* and above. You should certainly be able to find something within your price range.

[valencia]

we booked the howard johnson san bruno west near sfo for $68 including taxes through the support link here for our last night in California. The hotel is fine, Has free parking, free breakfast and no surprises. The room was clean and we can recommend this place. Not sure how near it is to public transport. If you can afford it i wold stay downtown, but this is definitely a decent place. I also had a discount coupon applied,i think, to get 10% off.

If you DO stay in SFO area, calculate the BART fees everyday to make true comparisons. They aren't cheap.

[fan_jiang]

Where to find the discount coupon? I'm trying to book this hotel, would you help to advise? thanks a lot!

[roothy]

Where to find the discount coupon? I'm trying to book this hotel, would you help to advise? thanks a lot!

I'm not the person who suggested using this hotel, so I don't know where he/she got the discount coupon. However, I DO know that you can often find discount coupons on roomsaver.com or other sites like that online. There is usually a coupon book in places like iHop, tourist info centers, etc. which have coupons. However, most are not good for the weekends.

Just wanted to warn you about a 2 star hotel on Priceline, which apparently uses PL and Hotwire to get customers. It is CitiGarden Hotel, and I think it's in South San Francisco (not SFO North but close). I got it on PL for $64 but after looking at the reviews on TripAdvisor, am afraid I may have to take a bath on my choice (close to $85 with taxes/PL fees) as it sounds like a dump. Many reviewers state it is like a Motel 6 and not well maintained, noisy, etc. The web site and amenities look great, but the best thing that people on Trip Advisor had to say was that it had a great lobby! Of course, $64 for a Friday night in October in the SF area, even industrial South San Francisco, will never be cheap, I'm afraid.

Anyway, just wanted to warn you and any other people who read this. Maybe I should have explored the Ho Jo - although I didn't see the post until now!

[sonnyg95]

Ok, another pivot :)

Got a sweet deal for a place in the city with friends without using bids, so my gf and I only need lodging for 9/29-10/01 now.

We've decided to just stay in either San Bruno or Burlingame. We tried bidding through the PRICELINE link but I think we were asking for too low of a price (although we saw some wins that were lower than our bids)

We started the bid with 4* starting at $55. Move up to 57, then 60, then 64, then 74, then 78, until we stopped at 80. We were hoping to land a 4* for less than 200 bucks total for 2 nights.

We are now looking for either 3* or 4* hotels.

Will try another bid tomorrow, at 3*'s

[Colfax]

4* rates aren't especially high for your dates, so I think you might be bidding too early. Hotwire doesn't have any 4* in SFO South now, but if rates don't go up I expect they'll get something as your dates approach.

Hyatt $147

Hilton $147

Marriott $169

If you want a 4* my suggestion is to wait a week or so and try again. If you don't want to wait you could try for a 3.5* in SFO South-Burlingame before dropping down to 3*.

Please use these HOTWIRE and PRICELINE links for your purchases.