Quad Occupancy

[janae]

Is there anyway to guarantee we'll get rooms with 2 double beds? I'm travelling with a group of 10 and we wanted to stay in 3 rooms. I know priceline and hotwire won't guarantee, but can I call the hotel after I book?

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

Yes, you can call the hotel after you book and request 2 beds per room, but it's still just a request and not guaranteed. If the hotel is sold-out or has high occupancy, there just may not be any rooms available when you check-in to satisfy your request, but if rooms are avialable i don't see why your request shouldn't be honored. I think this is the same situation whether you book with Priceline/Hotwire or most other 3rd parties (Orbitz, Expedia, Travelocity"]Travelocity, etc), as most do not guarantee bedding type. The hotel's website will usually guarantee bedding type, but even then there is a <small> chance that you show up and there just aren't any rooms available with the bedding you reserved.

There are some things you can do to improve your chances, like check in early in the afternoon when the most rooms are unassigned, call the hotel after you book to put in your bedding request, join the hotel's affinity program, etc.

I think it also depends upon what area you will be visiting. In a family oriented area (like Orlando) i would suspect that most rooms are designed for more than 2 people (ie- families on vacation) and would be more likely to do this there than in an area like NYC which are known for small rooms to begin with. You also need to know the flexibility of your group... will it spoil the rest of the vacation if somebody had to sleep on a rollaway bed for the nite?

I'd also consider if there is an extended stay hotel in the area that i might get (like Embassy Suites or AmeriSuites) and if so, perhaps i'd be willing to pay a few extra dollars with Hotwire if i saw a hotel come up with the "Suite" icon.

If you need one, feel free to request a bidding strategy for your stay in the appropriate state category.

[KJC]

The trouble with "suite" hotels is that they often have one bed plus a saggy sofabed, when what you wanted was a room with double queens.

[dragonman64]

I have just a bit of confusion about the "Suites" being offered by hotwire.

I checked for available hotels in the MPLS/St. Paul/Bloomington area for 10/17-10/20 for 3 adults and came up with some uninspiring selections save for a 3-star in Bloomington West which I believe is in a location that would not be advantageous for travellers without a car.

Out of curiosity, I changed the no. of adults to just 2 and, lo and behold, a customer favorite 2.5 star in the Bloomington East area popped up and this one happens to be a "Suite." How come this one does not appear when I place 3 adults, assuming that they provide accomodations that can nicely fit in at least 3 adults?

Would appreciate inputs on this...

[thereuare]

The suite hotel, for whatever reason, has not allocated rooms for more than double occupancy.

This could be for a variety of reasons:

-originally all rooms thru HOTWIRE were for double occupancy and hotels has to 'sign-on' to accept more, some hotels just may have never done so

-the hotel could only have one bed rooms and a non-pullout couch (some locations of the Candlewood Suites is an example)

So you're assumption that "all suite hotels can have accomodations that can nicely fit 3 adults" may be true in most instances, it is not necessarily true in all cases.

[dragonman64]

Thanks for the clarification!