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Priceline Hotel: 3.5* Orange County (Disneyland - Convention Center) Great Wolf Lodge Southern California


miguele3
By miguele3,
in

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Beware- The hotel fee was added after the bid was accepted. Although I have decades of experience with Priceline, I wasn't ready for that. The hotel has an indoor water park but we likely won't use it. Coming in a Monday night and leaving Thursday early but still being charged for 4 days. So although $90 x 3 days we are paying for $433...ugh. I made a mistake. Despite the hotel being 1/2 the price of the listed rate, we are screwed and despite calls to Priceline and the hotel there is nothing we can do about it. My wife to say the least is mad at me because I like naming my own price. Just learn from my mistake. The charge will come after your award. Read it carefully. IMO this should fall under a resort hotel like they do in Vegas.

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Welcome (officially) to BetterBidding!

 

25 minutes ago, miguele3 said:

Although I have decades of experience with Priceline...

Assuming you have had a few purchases in the 2+ years since joining the board, it would be appreciated if you started to share all your results so that others can benefit from the information (not just when you have an issue).

 

In regards to your situation above, PRICELINE does show the resort fee prior to your purchase (they actually show the maximum resort fee that is charged by a hotel of this star rating in this zone, sort of as a 'worst case scenario').  If the hotel you ultimately receive does not charge a resort fee, or charges a lower resort fee than what is shown prior to you submitting a bid, then there will be no fee charged (or the lower resort fee would be charged).

 

To see what, if any, maximum fee is shown for a 3.5* hotel in this zone i see this on the bid preview page:

Offer Price Per Room, Per Night:US$ 90.00

Subtotal:US$ 270.00

Taxes and Service Fees:US$ 52.44

Total Room Charges*:US$ 322.44

Hotel Fee:US$ 115.50

Total Cost*:US$ 437.94

No surprises! Total cost includes estimated hotel fees (e.g resort fees). Your total cost will never be higher than displayed above.

 

So in the future if you ever encounter a situation where the total amount is more than indicated on the bid preview page you should have better success challenging the charge with PRICELINE.

 

Thank you for sharing your win with the board and helping us add this property to the Priceline Hotel List.

 

Please remember to return to BetterBidding and use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases... or thru our sister site MAPSandHOTELS.com for your regular rate purchases.

 

Enjoy your stay (and the water park if you do find any time to attend).

 

Thank you for

Please use this HOTWIRE and these PRICELINE LINKS: HOTELS, CAR RENTALS, and AIRFARE to begin your travel purchases

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  • 5 weeks later...

Upon arriving, I asked what was included in the resort fee. I was seriously told cleaning the room and bathtowels. Can you believe that? I asked if there was anything else and they said 2 bottles of water! Typically resort fees offer something above typical expected services of cleaning the room and bath towels. At this point, how do I trust Priceline. Most times a 3.5 will have amenities like a swimming pool. They have a huge waterpark, but is $50 per person. I am going to research what should be included in a Priceline 3.5 star. Rooms are no better than 3 star and possibly 2.5 stars. There is something ugly in these absurd fees, for a normal service. Beware! I have stayed in the 4 star offerings and they are true 4 star in the Disneyland area. IMO, the Great Wolf is at best a 3 star. My advice, bid the 4 star. Do not risk getting ripped off at this hotel. A 2.5 star per Priceline should have housekeeping services

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I dislike resort fees as much as everyone else, but it's a fact of the hotel industry these days and you have to learn to work around it.

 

As noted above, you were told of the possibility of a resort fee prior to your purchase:

On 1/7/2018 at 10:06 PM, thereuare said:

To see what, if any, maximum fee is shown for a 3.5* hotel in this zone i see this on the bid preview page:

Offer Price Per Room, Per Night:US$ 90.00

Subtotal:US$ 270.00

Taxes and Service Fees:US$ 52.44

Total Room Charges*:US$ 322.44

Hotel Fee:US$ 115.50

Total Cost*:US$ 437.94

No surprises! Total cost includes estimated hotel fees (e.g resort fees). Your total cost will never be higher than displayed above.

If the hotel you ultimately won did not charge any resort fee then there would be nothing more to pay directly to the hotel, if the resort fee is less than indicated above the amount you pay directly to the hotel is the lesser amount... PRICELINE is showing a you a 'worst case scenario' should you receive the hotel in the zone with the highest resort fee.

 

The towels the front desk clerk was referring to that are included in the resort fee are those that are stocked in the water park (not in your hotel room).  I'm surprised the hotel does not have a sheet of paper with what is included in their resort fee, but here is a complete list of what their resort fee covers:

Quote

Great Wolf Resorts charges a nominal resort fee to all guests in order to provide additional services that are often charged individually by other resorts. This fee covers services such as wireless internet, fitness center access, towels in the water park, two bottles of water, access to fax, local phone calls, concierge service and wolf ears for children 12 and under.

 

6 hours ago, miguele3 said:

They have a huge waterpark, but is $50 per person.

As far as i know, the water park was included in your room rate.  The $50 charge is if you need additional wristbands (ie- if you have friends in the area visiting you at the hotel for the day).  Directly from the hotel's website:

Quote

Our water park is exclusively reserved for our guests. In the event you have visitors during your stay, a limited number of additional water park wristbands (valid for one day only) may be purchased. Additional wristbands are $50 each and you may purchase one guest band per registered guest (3 yrs+) in your suite. For the safety and security of our guests, wristbands are required at all times when inside the water park facility.

 

If you need more specific data on the resort fee than what is shown on the 'preview your bid page' then start to use PRICELINE EXPRESS or HOTWIRE where the resort fee shown is for the specific hotel being offered... not a 'worst case scenario' for the area.

 

Feel free to ask the board for help before your next opaque hotel purchase (and please begin to share your wins so that others can benefit from the information!!) and we will try to help you land something that is more suitable to your needs.

Please use this HOTWIRE and these PRICELINE LINKS: HOTELS, CAR RENTALS, and AIRFARE to begin your travel purchases

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The only towels provided were bath towels. The waterpark is not included, this I can assure you. We were not given access to the water park, nor a list of amenities when we asked what was included no list was provided. When given the bill at the end of the stay, they charged us $18/day for parking, but we didn't have a car. Are you saying that is acceptable? I totally disagree with you. In no way should parking be charged when you don't have a car. I'm not sure why you are defending this hotel so much, but charging $18 for parking when you don't have a car is crap.

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31 minutes ago, miguele3 said:

they charged us $18/day for parking, but we didn't have a car. Are you saying that is acceptable?

No, i didn't ever say that this is acceptable (and this is your first mention of any parking charge so obviously i didn't comment on it one way or the other previously:smile:)

Please use this HOTWIRE and these PRICELINE LINKS: HOTELS, CAR RENTALS, and AIRFARE to begin your travel purchases

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OK, sorry about that. But I do think automatically charging for parking is a scam. I believe charging a resort fee and not including the water park is a scam. I think their resort fee is a scam telling me it was for towels and cleaning the room. I recommend staying away from 3.5 bidding at Disneyland in this zone. I would recommend bidding on the 4 star options which gives you plenty of free rebid options.

The 4 star hotels are much nicer than the Great Wolf which is tacky and gaudy. There are no closets, just a hanging rod with space below. There were 3 drawers in our room with extra pillows and a blanket in case the sofa bed was desired. You had to pull them out if you wanted to use the drawers. The carpet felt a little damp with all the water use. I would recommend bringing slippers. We only used the Dunkin store for facilities. That was very convenient with nice breakfast sandwiches, donuts and coffee.

 

The hotel is reportedly refunding the $18/day parking charges, but they never should have been charged in the first place. They never even asked.

The resort only offers transportation via reservation to Disneyland at very restrictive times. At 2.2 miles away walking could take an hour with the long waits at traffic lights, we used Uber or Lyft which ended up being $6-7 each way plus tips. That was a great way to go. Another option is to walk up to the nearest hotel that does offer shuttle service, which isn't very far away.

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