Priceline Hotel: San Fran vacation bid strategy

[Square]

I was looking for some help planning a San Fran. vacation for Sept. Basically we are sending my wife's parents on a vacation for her Dad's 70th Birthday. We are flying them into SF on Monday 9/19 and they will be leaving on 9/26. I want to bid them a room in the USE area (but USW would probably work as well) for 4 nights. Then, they will rent a car and drive to Monterey for 2 nights. The last night they will drive back to the SF airport area and stay for one night before they fly home. I guess I am wondering what you suggest I start my bidding at for these places? They really wouldn't care if it was a 3* or 4* place because they don't spend much time in the hotel anyway. A boutique would probably be fine with them. I know some people don't think it is worth spending your time trying for 3* in SF USE/USW area, but I might give it a shot anyways. I am going to keep looking through old posts, but I would appreciate any suggested strategies you could give.

Thanks,

Square

[Square]

Looking to stay in USE from 9/19 - 9/23 and the only hotel that came up in Hotwire for that time is a two star hotel for $62. The amenities listed are Boutique and Business Center. I appreciate any help in identifying this hotel.

Thanks,

Square

[thereuare]

So let's start with their first stay in this thread, and then start NEW TOPICS for the remainder of their stay(s).

Please keep all posts for the same stay in THIS THREAD.

For this leg of their trip, is USW only worth trying if USE fails, or would you bid both from the start? What is the maximum bid for this stay?

I've just merged your Hotwire post over here... are they looking for 2* quality hotels? You mention above 3* and 4* type proprties, which are quite different than a 2* on Hotwire... please decide what it is they are looking for and we'll try to help.

[Square]

I guess my surprise was that Hotwire ONLY listed a two star in USE as available. I am wondering if I should take that into consideration as I bid on Priceline. What do you think?

[lowballer]

So you want to stay in the city during the week, then go out to Monterey during the weekend.

Are you aware it will probably be substantially cheaper to switch this around, even taking into account renting a car at a higher weekday rate? You are seeing only 2* in USE probably because hotels don't "need" to release inventory to HW during the week.

OTOH, Monterey will probably be cheaper during the week because people drive down from the Bay Area for the weekend. Also there will be fewer people around and less traffic going down to Big Sur or whatever.

You'd still be in the city for a couple of weeknights (Wednesday and Thursday?) but doing it this way will likely make bid-splitting more successful, and at the very least you should be able to PL/HW something for the weekend. Also, they can stay in the city that Sunday night too and head down to the airport the next day, quite possibly for the same as Friday and Saturday cost. Finding a place at the airport would be the least of your problems, assuming this is SFO. In fact if it's a late flight into SFO on Monday you can consider a hotel at SFO on Monday night, *then* drive down to MRY the next morning.

Maybe your folks want to be in a certain place on a certain date, but as I tell people, the more flexible you can be the more you can save.

[thereuare]

Square, based upon the info above let us know if your parents want to stick with the original intinerary or not and we'll take it from there.

[Square]

Staying in Mont. during the week is a good idea. I will check their itenerary when I get home today to see if they would have time to drive to Mont. that Monday night or if we should keep them in SF the first night and then have them go to Mont. for 2 nights and finish the rest in USE / USW area. I am thinking for the USE/USW portion that I would like to stay under $75-80. It would be nice to get cheaper if possible, but I think we can spend that much and be ok. Monterey is only two nights, but I don't know what to expect for pricing. The board seems to have people all over the place. I guess if they stay in Mont. on either Mon & Tues or Tues & Wed. I would appreciate any suggestions on what to bid at. Ill post back later today on the exact dates because I gotta get this thing figured out soon.

Thanks for your help,

Square

[Square]

I just checked hotwire and they have a 3* for $66/night in Monterey for Tues. 9/20 and Wed 9/21. Selected amenities are:

Selected amenities include:Boutique Hotel, Near Beach, Spa Services, High-Speed Internet Access

Sounds like a decent deal for the Monterey area. I guess I would like to stay around the 3* area for hotels (eventhough they are fine with anything). People seemed to say that 3* were not worth really bidding on in SF area, so that is how I ended up talking about 4* places. A decent 2 or 2 and a half is probably what they would pick if they were making the decisions. We'd like to get them some place decent without breaking the budget (which is not really a planned budget...we are all just splitting the costs).

[thereuare]

Have you firmed up the dates?

[Square]

Yea. The dates are Monday 9/19 - through Monday 9/26. They will get into SF that Monday at 10AM, so they will have plenty of time to drive down to Monterey. I am looking to have them stay in Mont. for Monday 19th and Tuesday 20th. Then, driving back to SF and staying in USE (preferred) or USW for the rest of the week. Hotwire has a 3* in Monterey available on 19th and 20th for $66/night. Do you think I should put a priceline bid for a 3* in that same area for around $55 and see what happens? I'd also like a suggestion on where to start bidding for the USE / USW SF area for the time from 9/21 - 9/25 for a 3* (or a 4* if there is nothing cheaper available).

[thereuare]

There are too many stays being discussed in this one thread that i can't keep them straight. From above:

So let's start with their first stay in this thread, and then start NEW TOPICS for the remainder of their stay(s).

So what are the dates and area of their first stay.

[Square]

From above

"The dates are Monday 9/19 - through Monday 9/26. They will get into SF that Monday at 10AM, so they will have plenty of time to drive down to Monterey. I am looking to have them stay in Mont. for Monday 19th and Tuesday 20th. Then, driving back to SF and staying in USE (preferred) or USW for the rest of the week. "

[Square]

I guess I am a bit baffled how you got confused on this. Lowballer read the same post as you and understood it fine. Regardless, I figured it out on my own. I booked the Mont. stay and the SF hotels through Hotwire. I tried some bids for the Mont. area that were under the $66 3star on Hotwire, but none were excepted. I ended up with the Spindrift Inn in Monterey. The hotel looks nice and I have read some positive reviews. The next thing I did was book the SF USE trip through hotwire. They had a 2 star boutique in downtown USE for $65/night. That ended up being the Baldwin Hotel. Apparently, it is one block from Union square and faces china town. It is not very big, but the place is clean and very centrally located by all accounts. So, I guess I'm a little dissapointed in the lack of help with an actual bidding strat. Lowballer helped by pointing out (what should have been obvious to me) that the weekday rate would be much better in Monterey. Other then that....I could have just posted what I ended up with and saved you the bandwidth. Regardless, I appreciate the info I get off this site but I doubt I will ask for a bid strat in the future.

[thereuare]

I followed this post at the same point lowballer did, but you posted 5 additional times since then.

I read well over a hundred posts a day on this board, and look for certain information in order to help with a bidding strategy, which is why i asked from the start that you keep this thread specific to one set of dates (which you didn't do). It also wasn't much more than 12 hours ago that you posted that you still weren't sure of the dates of your stay.

So i'm sorry if you are disappointed, but i too am 'baffled'.

[BEAV]

If I could, I would like to offer some impartial comments and hopefully constructive criticism.

I've followed this thread occasionally over the past week, but have to admit I resisted jumping in to help with any bidding strategies. The thread was going in too many directions for me to even want to get involved. As a "lay person" I have that priviledge to participate or ignore. I confess, I chose the easy way out! Kudos to lowballer!

For the OP's sake for the future, the best way for anyone to give you a bidding strategy (lay person or site moderator) is to provide current conventional hotel rates for the dates of your stay. I would not encourage using Hotwire's rates to form a bid strategy for Priceline. In general, Hotwire assigns higher hotel quality ratings compared to Priceline. All too often, a 4 star hotel on Hotwire is rated 3 stars by Priceline. By that fact alone, I would not encourage using Hotwire as a model for Priceline bidding.

I hope my thoughts are taken as helpful advice for your future Hotwire/Priceline attempts.

I hope your family enjoys their trip and the Hotwire properties. If the two hotels you purchased aren't already on the Hotwire hotel lists here at BetterBidding, would you be so kind to provide us the star rating and amenities? It's always great to have new hotels added to the list.

In closing, let me say you will find no friendlier, more helpful website on the Internet dedicated to Priceline/Hotwire assistance. Speaking frankly, I don't know how thereuare does it!