Priceline Hotel: Help with San Juan, PR Stay

[crispylineta]

I am planning a trip for two to San Juan, PR from October 20-25. We want to stay at a beach resort in San Juan and are considering using Priceline's "Resort" category to name our own price for the stay. I did some background research on rates from internet sites and here is what I came up with:

Priceline Expedia Travelocity Orbitz Hotels Hotel website

San Juan Marriott $168 $158 $178 $158 $158 $158

Intercontinental $149 $163 $149 $149 N/A $149

Condado Plaza N/A $221 $185 N/A $221 $221

El San Juan $225 $170 $177 $173 $225 $225

La Concha $199 $199 $199 $199 $199 $199

Caribe Hilton $179 N/A $156 $152 N/A $152

I think that covers most if not all of the resort hotels on the beach in San Juan (obv. taxes etc are extra). From this list it seems that the best option would be to do the Intercontinental for $149 a night, which I hear is pretty nice. Any ideas or advice on where I should bid on Priceline under its San Juan - Resorts category to try to get something cheaper? Also, if I do choose the San Juan - Resorts option, is there some risk that I get some random, non 4-star equivalent hotel? Any advice or guidance any of you have would be much appreciated, and I'll be sure to post the details if I do end up using Priceline!

Thanks.

[crispylineta]

The formatting of the table above with prices got a little messed up - the prices in order from left to right are Priceline (not the name your own price option); Expedia; Travelocity; Orbitz; Hotels.com; and the hotel in question's website. Sorry about that.

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

...if I do choose the San Juan - Resorts option, is there some risk that I get some random, non 4-star equivalent hotel?

If you choose the Resort star level you will receive a Resort class hotel as rated by priceline. (so you are at their 'mercy' of what they consider to be a Resort property)

I would think the risk here would be the Caribe Hilton, which is a hotel i enjoyed, but while they have a small beach area, it's man-made and not really what i would consider to be a 'real' beach. Also, a recent guest reported that the Marriott is under going renovations and it affected their stay somewhat (enough that s/he complained and received a credit, from what i could gather to use at the hotel (probably against incidentals and restaurant tab))

I've stayed at the Inter-Continenal as well, and while the rooms could use some renovating, the pool was recently re-done and it has an excellent location on the beach. If you do end up booking this hotel directly, please use our Inter-Continental.

Let us know how you'd like to proceed and we'll advise accordingly.

Please use these PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links to begin your travel purchases. (or our Inter-Continental link if you go that route)

[crispylineta]

Thanks for the response. I just went through the link to the intercontinental's website to at least have a "back-up" booking in case I do use PRICELINE, and the price is now $187 a night from $149 yesterday! Do you guys see jumps like this normally? Any chance they might come back down? If they don't I think Priceline is looking a bit more attractive although I guess I'm a bit worried about the Caribe Hilton after reading what you said.

[thereuare]

Yes, price changes are common as hotel rates are constantly changing based upon the most recent calculations of supply vs. demand and time before your stay.

What are your thoughts regarding the Marriott (given the renovations taking place)... i think i may have a way to get a good deal there?

[crispylineta]

I just called the Marriott Stellaris in San Juan to ask about the status of any renovations and they said that there are no renovations currently ongoing nor are there any scheduled to begin in the next month or so - how long ago did the guest report that renovations were going on? I am definitely interested in a deal on this property it seems like a pretty nice place. Thanks much.

[thereuare]

I can't seem to find it right now... maybe i have my properties confused?? :)

Search the Marriott website (please use our better.cheker to do your search and purchase) and you'll see the Marriott has a rate of $188/nite (actually shows as $185 but if you click continue you'll see the last nite goes up to $199). Book this thru their website after confiming it's fully cancellable (on the summary page if you scroll down you should see that there's no penalty if cancelled at least one day ahead of arrival)

Then go to PRICELINE and search their "retail" product for the same dates and hotel... same room type is availble for $168.20/nite. Take a screenshot of this and copy the URL too, and sent to Marriott's Best Rate Guarantee. If successful they'll match the price and give an additional 25% off, bringing your net cost down to ~$126/nite. If the claim is rejected from some reason (you never know with some of these companies) you can simply cancel your original reservation.

Thoughts/Questions?

[crispylineta]

This is quite a good idea, I must say. I just made the reservation (through BetterChecker) with Marriott for $185/night, and confirmed it is cancellable. I then submitted a best rate claim form as you suggested below and sent in a screenshot of the website as well. I will let you know what happens - if it does not work, I will probably cancel the reservation and try using the PRICELINE name your price service (and I will use your link for that as well). Thanks much!

[thereuare]

Let us know how it goes... keeping fingers crossed for you.

[crispylineta]

Got a response back from Marriott - they rejected my claim saying that I had not booked the lowest rate - there was a Sand Dollar promotion available through their website that I guess you had to go through "Specials" to get to - so they modified my reservation for me to reflect that promotion, which is the fifth night free and a $50 resort credit. So the ending rate for this reservation is $198 / night but with the 5th night free which comes to $158.40 a night. So that seems like a good back-up reservation but I may still use PRICELINE, especially because they said there are no rooms with 2 double beds instead of a king available at this time.

[thereuare]

I never understand why some chains "hide" their promotions... i had a similar situation with Starwood once, but at least now you have an acceptable back-up. :)

I see what i believe to be the El San Juan Hotel and Casino available for a similar price as you have for the Marriott, i think teh reviews are a little lower but it is in Isla Verde so you'll be around lots of others hotels, restaurants, etc.

Let us know if/how you'd like to proceed and we'll try to assist.

[crispylineta]

Sorry to not follow up on this earlier - I ended up cancelling the Marriott reservation and instead booked a special rate at the El San Juan. The total came to just $120 a night pre-tax after getting a night free which was a pretty good deal.

My impressions of the hotel:

1) Lobby - very nice in that old style dark wood kind of way, with great live music at night and quite a dancing scene to go along

2) Rooms - quite unimpressive - dirty, poorly furnished, not that big; if I had paid the full price I would have been quite upset

3) Pool - nice, big, with a swim up bar which is always a big plus...

4) Location - Was good, walk-able to many nearby restaurants etc, and the beach was nice

As an aside, we did a one day trip to Culebra, an island off the eastern coast of Puerto Rico that was fantastic - the beach there was a perfect horseshoe shaped with white sand and the water was lovely. We just rented a car, drove the 1.5 hours to the eastern tip of Puerto Rico and then took a ferry. Highly recommended!

[AaronJB]

Thank you for following up to close out this discussion.