Priceline Hotel: two kids in San Fran

[momoffive]

Hi,

Taking our 10- and 12-yr-old to San Francisco over Fall break: Thursday, October 11 thru Monday, October 15. Would love to get the Omni in Financial District (or Hotel Monaco wouldn't be bad on Nob HIll). I see that two forum members got the S.F. Omni in September this year for $219 and $181. We are considering splitting the trip up and doing a night or two south of S.F. in Monterey. Am I better off bidding for the city on Th/Fri or Sat thru Mon morning? Homebound flight is Mon eve at OAK airport.

[thereuare]

Please follow-up your previous Priceline Washington DC thread with whatever you ended up doing for that trip, then reply to this thread and we'll have a look at your post above.

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

[momoffive]

OK, I used the link you provided to provide follow-up comments on the D.C. trip, so will now await your reply.

[thereuare]

Please add another reply to your Priceline DC Hotel indicating how you booked (non-opaque where you know the hotel beforehand or if you actually ended up bidding). Please also remember to follow-up your threads as you make a decision/purchase as it helps keep the board better organized and most useful for everyone, as well as will avoid any delays in having your future requested responded too.

As far as your San Francisco stay there are a few issues before you're ready to bid/purchase and decide if you should SPLITTING YOUR PRICELINE BID or not:

1) As before, you can't bid on a specific hotel when using PRICELINE, you have to be able to accept any hotel in the zone at the star level (or higher) that you choose. With HOTWIRE you can often take an educated guess as to what is being offered based upon the amenities associated with the property, but it's still a 'best guess' and no guarantees you will receive the hotel you're hoping for. As well, HOTWIRE only shows one hotel at each star level per zone, so there is a chance the hotel you're hoping for isn't the one which is offered for your particular dates.

2) PRICELINE only guarantees double occupancy, after that it's at the discretion of the hotel, and you could receive a room with only one bed. While you can call the hotel you win and request a room with two beds, the hotel may not be able, or willing, to honor your request. If this is not a risk you're willing to accept, HOTWIRE may still be an option as they allow you to search for up to quad occupancy and ensure sleeping accommodations for everyone you include in your search (although this usually means two beds, the second 'bed' could be a sofabed, rollaway, etc)

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

Let us know how you'd like to proceed and we'll take it from there.

[momoffive]

I've always risked it and used Priceline. I tried $215 San Francisco Embarcardero (Financial District) tonight, hoping to get the Omni, with no luck getting anything. Question: do I risk getting the 4* hotels that are going for the low $100s when I bid this high? As in, I could pay $100 more per night than other bidders on this forum for the same hotel on the same night? How does that work? Once I cross a certain price threshold, does that automatically align me with the nicer hotels, even though they're all in the same 4* category?

[thereuare]

Pleas add another reply to your Priceline DC thread with the room rate per nite so we can edit that topic title to reflect your win... or if you click the EDIT TO REPORT WIN button on the lower right corner of that page you can edit the topic title yourself. How to view your bid history to get the price paid is given in our reply to that thread.

Raising your bid does not eliminate lower priced hotels from being received, but PRICELINE does have a Best Rate Guarantee when bidding should you pay more than current retail rates. See this Don't Bid Higher For a Specific Hotel thread for more on this subject.

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

[momoffive]

Final decision with San Fran trip: after trying $215 for a 4* in Financial District with no luck, I purchased the Omni San Fran on Expedia for $235/nite Th/Fri 10/11-12 and don't know yet about 10/13-10/15. Thanks for your help.

[thereuare]

If you didn't, please note from our Support Page that we are an affiliate of Expedia (as well as most other major hotel chains and online booking agencies) and use the links there whenever possible.

Also, please add the room rate to your Washington DC Priceline thread so we can edit the topic title to reflect your purchase and that win can appear in the Priceline and Hotwire Calendar of Wins and Priceline Maps.

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

Thank you.