Hotwire Hotel: 3.5* Seattle (Downtown - Pike Place) Crowne Plaza

[buzzard]

My husband and I are looking for a Seattle hotel in the Pike Place area

for the night of Aug. 5. We are going to spend one night in Seattle

before we depart for an Alaskan cruise.

I have already bid on Priceline for $110 for a 4-star hotel in the

downtown area (with no luck). Now, I am ready to try Hotwire. I noticed

they are offering a 3 1/2 star hotel with a restaurant, fitness center,

hi-speed internet, and business center for $109. If this is the Crowne

Plaza, I am ready to bid. My only concern that it is not the Crowne Plaza

is that I have read on a previous post that the Crowne Plaza is a

"Customer Favorite" and that phrase is not displaying. Do you think the

hotel being offered is the Crowne Plaza? If not, which hotel do you think

it is? We would also consider the Red Lion on 5th.

Thanks,

Julia

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

We can't be 100% certain that is the Crowne Plaza (we're never 100% certain until after the hotel name is shown) so there is always some risk involved... although this is a risk most of us are willing to accept for the savings involved.

The Customer Favorite designation does change so that may very well be the case in this instance. Unfortunately it's usually somewhat easier to figure out when a Customer Favorite designation gets added to the hotel than when it's removed (since you can use the customer comments to see if it applies to the hotel that wasn't formerly a customer favorite).

I see that the CROWNE PLAZA website is offering their hotel for $135 for your nite but i couldn't find anyone offering it for less.

If you want to give Priceline another trip i'm fairly confident you could be successful for another $20 or so. Did you use all of your re-bids to get up to the $110 level?

[buzzard]

No, I did not use all my re-bids. I rebid for $120 on Priceline and still did not get a 4* room. I may rebid again for $130 and see what happens. I like the fact that Priceline offers the $5 cancellation insurance for case of illness, etc.

If I don't get the Priceline room, I may buy the $109 3* room from Hotwire. If it is not the Crowne Plaza, I will try not to be disappointed. I went the the Crowne Plaza web site, but the $135 rate is also non-cancellable, so there is no real benefit to purchasing it versus the Hotwire site except the guarantee that it is the Crowne Plaza and the fact that a non-smoking room is guaranteed. The non-smoking guarantee is fairly important, so maybe I should just go ahead and reserve a room via the Crowne Plaza web site.

Thanks,

Julia

[thereuare]

The difference is about $25, so that's what you'd be paying for the certainty of it being the Crowne Plaza. For the same price i'd book direct over using Hotwire or Priceline, but the price is almost always cheaper with the opaque services.

If you were going to book the CROWNE PLAZA directly, i'd sooner take a shot for a 4* at $130 with Priceline.

[buzzard]

After raising my bid to $130 at Priceline and still not winning a bid for a 4* hotel, I decided to bid on the 3.5* at Hotwire. The price had dropped to $100 (before tax), and I purchase it. It was the Crowne Plaza. I feel happy with my decision.

Julia

[thereuare]

All is well that ends well... glad everything worked out!

Enjoy your time in Seattle!