Priceline Hotel: 3* San Diego (Downtown-Harbor Island) Holiday Inn on the Bay

[hudsonst]

Hello everyone-

This is my first post using this site, although I've used Priceline and Hotwire before.

I'm booking a hotel for Comic-Con of next year. If anyone know anything about the San Diego Comic Con, you know how hopeless I was. I was just hoping against hope something might pop up. And something did!

I bid $90 yesterday in a throwaway bid for a 2.5 star, only in Downtown, 7/23/08 to 7/28/08. That was rejected of course.

I went on Hotwire today, and saw that there was a 3 star for $119. I freaked out, and tried really hard to figure out what it was. Looking at this website, the Trip Advisor ratings and the amenities, I figured it was the Holiday Inn On the Bay. What clinched it was when I did a vacation search - the price of this hotel right downtown on the bay showed up next to hotels out in the middle of nowhere.

So I went on Priceline and also did a vacation search there. The Holiday Inn on the Bay showed up there too, also at a low price. So I figured I'd bid on Priceline to save some money.

My first bid was for a 3 star in the Downtown area, same dates, $100. Rejected, with a counteroffer of $22. I skipped that, used a free rebid and went to $110 - Accepted! Yay!

I'm very excited. I got Travel Insurance (this is so far out), but my total is:

Your Offer Price Per Room, Per Night: $110.00

Travel Insurance: $25.00

Subtotal: $575.00

Taxes & Service Fees: $76.31

Total Charges*: $651.31

The fly in the ointment is of course, that I went back to Hotwire, increased date range to add 7/22, and a 2.5 star hotel showed up for $85! But whatever, I'm still happy. Even using the con's booking service, the lowest I could have gotten downtown would have been like $153 or so, if you can even get through. The rack rate was $219.

[wishful]

Good for you, I booked my reservation at the Hampton Inn down the street from your hotel for $120 via their 800 number. The only reason I haven't used Priceline is that I'm sot sure of my dates and the Hampton Inn doesn't even take a deposit so I'm "safe". Your price is very tempting though...see you at the con next year!

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

Thank you for sharing your winning bid with the board.

Enjoy your stay.