Priceline Hotel: New to bidding; heading to San Francisco

[plonus]

I'm new to PRICELINE / HOTWIRE bidding and thought I might try it for an upcoming trip, but I have a couple of questions.

Do any of the San Francisco hotels available through PRICELINE and HOTWIRE include free parking? Is there any way to restrict my bidding to hotels that offer specific amenities (such as free parking)?

Do the bid prices include taxes and fees? If not, is there any way to determine what these will be prior to bidding, or are there any guidelines for how much to budget for them (in San Francisco)?

Also, how consistent are the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE ratings? Are ratings equivalent between the two? Is there anywhere that provides a description of what to expect for each number of stars?

Thanks!

[Colfax]

You can't restrict your bids to hotels that offer free parking. If you stay in the city you should plan on paying to park, around $25-50/night, depending which hotel you win. There are private parking garages near most downtown hotels that charge less than the hotels. Parking at hotels in Priceline's Civic Center zone usually costs less than the other Downtown zones, and the hotels cost less too.

If you want to stay Downtown with free parking there are some 1* and 2* motels in SOMA, including a couple Best Westerns and a Rodeway Inn, that have free parking and breakfast. You would need to book those conventionally though; not via Priceline, and those are bare bones/no frills motels.

All the hotels in the South San Francisco zone have free parking, and parking is free at some hotels in the Airport zone, but not at all of them.

Bid prices don't include taxes and fees. You'll see the grand total, including taxes and fees, before you place your bid though.