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Priceline Hotel: Scottsdale/Phoenix area newbie - looking for advice


HarryK
By HarryK,
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EDIT: Just wanted to note that my sub-title got cut off. I was trying to say "what areas to skiP" but it looks like "ski". I'm not looking to do any skiing. Sorry for any confusion :)

I never knew that Phoenix consisted of so many different Arizona cities (Scottsdale, Tempe, Peoria...) I'm looking to stay at a nice (4*, 5* or 'resort') that hopefully has a nice view of the surrounding landscape. I've gone to Priceline and determined that there are probably a lot of multi-bidding options available, since there appear to be SEVEN areas that DON'T offer 4*, 5* OR resorts. However, there are SO many areas that it's boggling my mind a bit. This is what I know, as of today:

I can make additional bids on a 4* or 5* place by safely adding: Apache junction, Chandler Vicinity, Downtown Phoenix, Mesa, Metrocenter, Phoenix Airport, and Phoenix West

Additionally:

- Avondale-Goodyear-Buckeye has 'resorts', but no 4* or 5*

- Fountain Hills has 'resorts', but no 4* or 5*

- Phoenix North has 'resorts', but no 4* or 5*

- Tempe has 'resorts', but no 4* or 5*

- Carefree has 4* and 5* but no 'resorts'

- Peoria-Suncity-Glensale hast 4* but no 5* or 'resorts'

- Scottsdale has 4* and 'resorts' but no 5*

SO, "Carefree" seems to be the only place with a 5*. If I want that, I can add every other region on the list and keep bidding, but I don't see anything on the list as to what that 5* might be.

If I want a 4*, it'll either be in Carefree, Peoria-SC-GD or Scottsdale. Again, the Peoria-SC-GD area only has a 2.5* on the list, so that's a mystery as well. Keeping all of this in mind, it seems like Scottsdale is my best bet.

I've never bid in a Priceline area with 'resorts' before, but adding "Scottsdale" automatically adds "resorts" to the bottom of the list. I find this curious since it's listed below that 1-star. Should I care about that? I would naturally guess that a "resort" is going to be at least as good as a 4* or higher, would that be a poor guess on my part?

There are a number of locations listed as 4* or 'resort' on the Priceline list, so if I go for "Scottsdale", there's a lot left to chance, but it's clearly a popular area. Are there any big 'risks' or 'losers' in the list of Scottsdale 4* or 'resorts'? There seem to be enough options that I could multi-bid on either 4* OR 'resort', so if one of those lists is sporting a real loser, I can skip it and just focus on the other.

I guess my final question would be whether or not I should try for the 5* in Carefree. I've never even heard of Carefree before tonight :)

Thanks for any thoughts or advice.

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You are right, the Resort IS below the 1 star, but it is definitely in the 4 star genre (IMO it usually means it has a spa on site and maybe a tennis court or something that classifies it as a "resort"). Heads up alot of the resorts DO have a Resort Fee that is later added on, but nothing too ridiculous, usually in the $15 dollar range, which they justify by saying you get to use the "resort ammenities".

That said, the North Phoenix/Scottsdale area resorts (JW Desert Ridge Marriott, Tapatio, Squaw Peak) are all going to be very nice and have nice views. Some of the "regular Phoenix/Scottsdale" may be in the downtown Scottsdale area, and while still very nice at the 4 star and resort levels, may have not quite the same "landscape views". All the resorts listed in North and regular Phoenix/Scottsdale (JW Desert Ridge, Tapatio, Squaw Peak, JW Camelback, Hyatt Gainey Ranch, etc) are very nice with great ammenities, I can vouch for all those :)

So, I would say North Scottsdale area, you are safe no matter what you are looking for. In "regular Scottsdale", some of the hotels, while very nice, are the "boutique" type, very trendy, maybe with pools on the roof, that kind of thing, so just depends on what you are looking for really (Example Hotel Indio).

I'm assuming the 5 star in Carefree is the Boulders Resort? Hmm... I havent looked in awhile, but not sure I have seen anyone actually get that before (a 5 star)! Please let us know if you do and all the details :)

As for the four star hotels listed on the list I'm looking at (4* Doubletree Paradise Valley (previously 3*), 4* Hilton Scottsdale Resort, 4* Orange Tree Golf Resort, 4* Scottsdale Plaza Resort (previously Resort) ), I've stayed at the Scottsdale Plaza and the Orange Tree, and both are nice, not nearly as nice or as new as the resorts listed above, but very do-able and functionable. Not familiar with the Double Tree PV or the Hilton unfortunately.

Defintely stick to North Phoenix and Scottsdale areas... (again, I guess that really depends on what your activities are... a car is definitely needed for the resorts, etc. to get around)

It seems like you are on the right track and have the free bid zone areas figured out. I would be leery of aiming for that 5 star hotel and mainly focus on trying to get an accepted bit for resort or 4 star.

(Just a side note that I lived in Tucson for 18 years, and we had to come to Phoenix alot for various things, and now I actually live in Phoenix and work out in North Scottsdale by the JW Desert Ridge, which is why I am kind of familiar with a lot of the hotels). I'm sure others will be able to help you more on the re-bidding questions, etc :o

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Priceline offers Resort bidding in five zones and 5* in Carefree, but virtually 100% of reported Resort/5* wins are in just two zones: Scottsdale and North Phoenix.

Unless you have a reason for wanting to try for a Resort in the other zones (or a 5* in Carefree), my offhand opinion is to stick with Scottsdale and North Phoenix, because they're popular and known.

What are your travel dates? What's your budget per night? Your dates and budget will dictate your bidding options.

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AaronJB,

Thank you for pointing out that I failed to properly acknowledge jaycee200's detailed, entertaining, and informative survey of Phoenix area 5* and resorts. It's hard to convey attitude on the internet and I'm not being snarky or sarcastic. Rereading the thread now I'm embarrassed that I didn't acknowledge and praise jaycee200's post at the time. Your post made me aware of my omission, and I probably wouldn't have been aware of it otherwise. Now I have the opportunity to thank jaycee200 for his terrific post, and to apologize to him for being dismissive, which I was. So thank you.

jaycee200,

That was a great post, coming from a longtime Arizona resident and someone with firsthand knowledge of what he speaks. It deserves to be thumbtacked as a permanent resource for BetterBidders wanting a quick snapshot of 5* and Resort options around Phoenix. I hope you'll share your expertise on BetterBidding whenever you can. I apologize for not acknowledging your post when I read it.

HarryK,

I apologize to you too. I've never stayed at a 5* or Resort in Phoenix, and I hope I didn't convey the impression that I had.

Something that might not be apparent to you or others reading is that I'm responding to posts in cities I don't know well because thereuare is on vacation and asked me to respond to posts in his absence. If thereuare was here I wouldn't be responding to an Arizona post. I'm here, along with others, to help ID Hotwire hotels and give Priceline bidding strategies wherever they're asked for, including cities I don't know well.

My comments were directed towards giving your hotel search some focus, moving it forward. A long discussion of the features and advantages of different resorts is interesting but if at the end your bidding limit turns out to be $50 then you can't afford any of them and the time was wasted. I was requesting the same things we request from everyone at the start of a thread---your travel dates and budget.

I hope this clears up any confusion. Feel free to talk about the different resorts as much as you want. I didn't intend to discourage helpful and informative posts like jaycee200's, or to discourage further discussion between yourselves of the various resort options.

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I'm back from vacation (although my brain is still a little mushy :) ) but if you let us know if you've decided upon acceptable zone(s) and the date(s) of your stay we'll try to suggest a strategy accordingly.

Please use these PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links to begin your travel purchases.

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

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Thanks for all the replies. Great info from everybody.

I don't have dates at this point, I'm looking to do a 3-day getaway sometime in the next couple weeks, but it's going to depend on my workload here at home, the price of airline tickets and what seems to be available.

The first decision I made was after reading tons of reviews on TripAdvisor and almost decided to just go for the Chaparral Suites because it is highly reviewed, was available for about $140/night and wouldn't necessarily require me to rent a car.

Then I decided to check Hotwire, but there wasn't much available for very much less than $140/night AND a LOT of those amenities looked the same or weren't identified here so I wasn't even sure where I'd end up. I figured if I was going to pay the same amount of money, I'd probably just go with a known factor like the Chaparral rather than possibly get 'burned' AND have to rent a car

But THEN I saw the posts in the Priceline forum here and was seeing rates like $65/night or $55/night thrown around and it became a whole new ballgame :) If I can get a 4* for $55/night, I'm all over that. And since I was already willing to pay upwards of $140, I started setting my sights even higher! A 5* for ~$120 maybe? A resort for the same price? But since there were so MANY options and so MANY possibilities of 4* Priceline hotels in Scottsdale, I figured it would be best to ask. $60/night is a good rate unless the place really sucks and then it's not such a great deal anymore.

At this point, I'm probably looking at checking in on Sunday the 11th and checking out on the 14th. Right now Hotwire shows a 4* for $59/night and a 4.5* for $94/night. That $59 is definitely better than what I was seeing yesterday (maybe slightly difft dates) but neither one exactly matches hotels listed in the pinned threads, which is why I'm a little leery. I mean, there are apparently a lot of 4* hotels in Scottsdale. There are four 4*s on the Pinned Hotwire list and none completely match the amenities. Factor in the possibility of star-ranking-numbers changing and the possibilities are endless. For $59 it might be worth a gamble, but then all the prices go up quickly from there (the others are $122, $169, $255, $346, $400) at which point I have no interest in gambling. That's why I figured I'd look into Priceline. At least there might be more than one option under $100/night

I completely appreciate all the opinions, and I'm still up in the air on what to do. This really is a getaway. I'm not interested in shopping, going out to dinner, playing golf or anything like that so that kind of 'location' doesn't matter to me. I need a few days to just relax, get away from the cold weather and do absolutely nothing. I'd love to open the windows and see the landscape and get lost for a few days and I think the desert is beautiful. The problem is that it seems there are so many possibilities that I'm not sure what I'd get on Hotwire for under $120/night and with Priceline it looks like a total crapshoot. The only thing close to certain seems like it would be for me to completely stick to trying to score The Boulders. :) If there's only one 5* out there in CareFree, then I could multi-bid and see if I get it. It's either that or I just say "Okay, any 4* in Scottsdale is going to be okay and I just won't bid over $??/night"

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I know how you feel re: cold weather.

Let us know when your dates are locked in and we would be happy to help from there.

PRICELINE and HOTWIRE are great choices for getting a deal, but you have to be willing to accept what you get. With some research and planning, PRICELINE and HOTWIRE can really get not only terrific deals, but terrific deals on very nice properties.

If you do not feel like taking the risk re: HOTWIRE/PRICELINE, there are coupon codes that will at least get you some discount via regular rate services (FABSAVE10 should take 10% off each night for a 2+ night stay on Orbitz, and STAY10 is $10 off per night for 2+ night stays for Expedia, for example. (FAN50 may also work to get $50 off 3+ night stays on Expedia.com

Links: Expedia.com, HOTWIRE, PRICELINE, Orbitz.

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Thanks Aaron,

Most of my Priceline/Hotwire experiences have been positive, MAINLY because of betterbidding.com! In the past, I've only been burned once and it was by Hotwire who gave me a hotel that was outside of the area they described. With Priceline I don't always know what I'm getting, but it's always been a great deal as far as price goes.

For me, thats the difference between HOTWIRE and PRICELINE. PL has always been cheaper and because of that, I'm willing to accept some randomness on the location. HOTWIRE has always been more expensive than PRICELINE, but I pretty much know what I'm getting for the money. So if the location really matters or if Priceline has too many possible locations and some suck, I'll pay a little more for Hotwire. Unfortunately in this situation, things are different. The Hotwire hotels aren't dirt cheap AND they're unknown locations. I'm willing to trade off one for the other (money or location), but not give up both and pay $140/night with no idea of where I'll end up. That's why I'm leaning towards Priceline in this situation.

Hopefully by the end of the weekend I'll have a better grasp on my schedule. Thanks again for everybody's help. You all are certainly more active in here than in other regions of betterbidding where I NEVER see any conversation about the locations.

Thanks

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I think I'm going to shoot for the 5* in Carefree and see if I get it for ~$110 or so. The resort fees for The Boulders appear to be around $35/night (WHOA!) so I'm not sure how high I'll go, but if I can get three nights at the boulders for a total of ~$150/night, then why not. (I'm curious though, if The Boulders IS the 5* location and it's not listed as a "resort", then can they still charge me 'resort' fees?)

If that doesn't work, then I'll go back to trying to get a 4* in Scottsdale for under $70/night. If I can't do that, then I'll try an entirely new plan. I'm going to avoid 'resorts', I think, because it makes the bidding process much more complicated for my tired brain. The 4* and 5* availability are pretty straightforward.

So, lets see if I can come up with a bidding plan here. Carefree is the ONLY place with 5*. So I start there, then move through the locations with no 4* OR 5* available, then I can always drop down to a 4* and try to get one in Scottsdale (as long as I stay away from Peoria.) I guess the only risk with this plan, it seems, is that I MIGHT end up with a 4* in CareFree since I've added it from the start.

If I ONLY want the 5* in CareFree, it looks like I easily have a TON of bids, but I probably don't need that many. So Let's say I want the option of 7 Bids to try and get the 5*

BID1 - $?? for 5* in CareFree

BID2 - $??+? add Apache Junction (no 4* or 5* available there)

BID3 - $??+? add Chandler Vicinity (no 4* or 5* available there)

BID4 - $??+? add Downtown Phoenix (no 4* or 5* available there)

BID5 - $??+? add Mesa (no 4* or 5* available there)

BID6 - $??+? add Metrocenter (no 4* or 5* available there)

BID7 - $??+? add Scottsdale (no 5* available there)

I could then DROP my bid price and start shooting for a 4* in Scottsdale

BID 8 - $? (lower bid) add 4* (at this point, only Scottsdale & Carefree are on the list & offer 4*)

BID 9 - $?+? add Phoenix Airport (no 4* or 5* available there)

BID10 - $?+? add Phoenix West (no 4* or 5* available there)

BID11 - $?+? add Avondale-Goodyear-Buckeye (no 4* or 5* available there)

BID12 - $?+? add Fountain Hills (no 4* or 5* available there)

BID13 - $?+? add Phoenix North (no 4* or 5* available there)

BID14 - $?+? add Tempe (no 4* or 5* available there)

Again, the only risk here is that there ARE 4* locations available in CareFree which is a location that I've already added to my list of options at the very start, so as I go through bids 8-14, I could end up with a 4* in Scottsdale OR in Carefree. Hmmm, I can't remember, if I LOG OUT of Priceline after Bid7, could I re-start the process with a 4* and NOT have Carefree on the list? It's been a while since I've done this

Okay, anybody see any flaws in this plan? To me, the biggest 'risk' is that I really don't know what I'll end up with as a 4* in Scottsdale. It looks like it could be: Doubletree Paradise Valley, Hilton Scottsdale Resort, Orange Tree Golf Resort, Scottsdale Plaza Resort (and spa) and possibly even Hyatt Regency Scottsdale (previously a 4*) or JW Marriot Camelback Inn Resort (previously 4*)

And if I end up with 4* in Carefree, it is likely the Carefree Resort and Villas

NOTE TO SELF: NEVER ADD PEORIA-SC-GlenDale! There are 4* available there!!!

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Hmmm, after more investigation and reading reviews of the 4* locations in Scottsdale which I might get through Priceline, I'm starting to think that the 4* in Carefree is more what I'm looking for.

The Hilton and Doubletree just sound like normal hotels and not many people posting here have even gotten those locations recently.

The Scottsdale Plaza Resort doesn't sound very great at all. It also seems like the Scottsdale Plaza Resort is frequently the location that people end up with here when bidding on 4* in Scottsdale. If there's a good chance that I end up at the Scottsdale Plaza Resort, then bidding on 4* Scottsdale locations through Priceline might not be the way for me to go and it seems likely that I'll either get The Scottsdale Plaza or the Orange Tree. The Orange Tree would be fine but I don't think I'd be thrilled with Scottsdale Plaza.

SO, let me revisit my bidding plan and come up with something that would work for "resorts" instead of 4*.

Start with 6-bids for the 5* in Carefree, just for kicks:

BID1 - $?? for 5* in CareFree

BID2 - $??+? add Apache Junction (no 5* available there)

BID3 - $??+? add Chandler Vicinity (no 5* available there)

BID4 - $??+? add Downtown Phoenix (no 5* available there)

BID5 - $??+? add Scottsdale (no worries because there's no 5* here)

BID6 - $??+? add Phoenix North (no worries because there's no 5* here)

I could then DROP my bid price and start shooting for a RESORT in Scottsdale or Phoenix North

BID 7 - $? (lower bid) add "resort" (only locations so far with "resort" should be Scottsdale & Phoenix N)

BID 8 - $?+? add Mesa (no 5* or "resort" available there)

BID 9 - $?+? add Metrocenter (no 5* or "resort" available there)

BID10 - $?+? add Phoenix Airport (no 5* or "resort" available there)

BID11 - $?+? add Phoenix West (no 5* or "resort" available there)

BID12 - $?+? add Peoria-Suncity-Glendale (no 5* or "resort" available there)

This plan would focus the first 6-bids on the 5* in Carefree and the final 6 bids on getting a resort location in either Scottsdale (Resort Hyatt Regency, JW Marriott Camelback Inn, Scottsdale Resort & Conference) or Phoenix North (JW Mariott Desert Ridge, Pointe Hilton Squaw Peak, Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs). Okay, now I'm off to see which of these are most frequently won on Priceline and if any of them look like they're terrible :)

NOTE TO SELF: In this scenario (looking for resorts) I can NOT add, Avondale-GY-BE -or- Fountain Hills -or- Tempe because they all potentially offer resorts

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Okay, anybody see any flaws in this plan?
Yes...

When you bid for 4* hotels, you could be upgraded to a higher rated property... such as a 5* or a Resort. Therefore, you can't add a hotel to your 4* bidding which also offers Resorts (even if it doesn't offer 4* bidding)

Also, as noted at the top of the Priceline Hotel List, DO NOT use the hotel lists to determine your re-bid zones:

DO NOT USE THIS LIST to determine what areas to add when attempting to bid again within the 72 24 hour window
The correct way to determine your re-bid zones is explained in this thread: Priceline Re-Bidding Explained

At the 5* level you have actually have 13 re-bid zones and at the Resort level you have 8... please use the method explained in the Priceline Re-Bidding Explained thread to determine your re-bid zones, and feel free to ask questions and/or confirm your re-bid zones with the board before bidding.

Please use these PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links to begin your travel purchases.

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

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Yes...

When you bid for 4* hotels, you could be upgraded to a higher rated property... such as a 5* or a Resort.

Okay, so "resorts" are considered higher than 4*? That's not clear to me since they're listed at the bottom of the list on PRICELINE.
DO NOT USE THIS LIST to determine what areas to add when attempting to bid again within the 72 24 hour window
If you mean that I shouldn't use the list to determine what zones contain what star ratings, I'm not. All the star-rating information listed in my posts came directly from the PRICELINE page.

Based on the information from the Priceline page, I came up with those options listed above. Of course, if 'resort' IS considered to be higher than 4*, then that throws a wrench into things which is why I asked about the resort listing placement at the bottom of the list in a prior post. But as far as being upgraded to a 5*, I went through and made sure that there were no 5* options in areas used with later bids and noted each one on my lists by saying "no 4* or 5* available there"

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Okay, I've re-read the "Bidding Again before 24 hours" thread again and the 'resorts' issue still isn't clear to me. The resort interaction with other star-levels is only mentioned in 2 posts in that thread from three years ago.

"if you bid for a resort in an area, then 4* for that area is also greyed out and vice versa if the initial bid is rejected"

with a followup that says

"It can be overcome if you bid Resort and then 4*, but not the other way around. "

As I mentioned in the very first post here "I've never bid in a Priceline area with 'resorts' before" and while the "Priceline Rebidding thread" discusses the 'resort' interaction with 4*, it's still not clear to me how the "resort" option interacts with the 5* option.

The resort option is at the bottom below the 1*. Is "resort" HIGHER than 5* or is 5* HIGHER than "resort"?

If I bid on 5* FIRST will the "resort" option be greyed out?

Thanks

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Currently this is the "Star Rating" hierarchy (regardless of the fact that the Resort class is placed at the bottom of the list on PRICELINE's page):

5-Star hotels

Resorts

4-Star hotels

3.5-Star hotels

3-Star hotels

2.5-Star hotels

1-Star hotels

You still do have 13 re-bids when bidding 5* and 8 when bidding 4*. You can place all your 5* bids, then close the browser, re-access PRICELINE using our link, and start with a 'clean slate' for your 4* bidding... you dont' have to 'watch' what you add at the 5* level since you can essentially uncheck a zone for your 4* bidding by closing the browser (which is what i think you're trying to do, which is limiting your bids at the 5* level). Does that make sense?

Please use these PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links to begin your travel purchases.

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

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Currently this is the "Star Rating" hierarchy
Thanks! That's good to know.
You can place all your 5* bids, then close the browser,
Yeah, I used to do that. I'd come up with long lists of when to open/close/start again, but I don't really need that many bids these days. I'm no longer bidding in $3 increments like I used to :) And I think I'm going to skip the 4* anyway. From reviews and photos of the 4* Scottsdale Plaza Resort, I don't think I want to stay there. I'm going to shoot for the 5* in Carefree and then decide what to do after that, depending on whether or not I win.

Thanks again

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As of today I cancelled my trip. I bought plane tickets last week to make sure I got a decent flight but I knew I might have to cancel and that's what I had to do. Too much work and stuff going on now but I'll definitely make this trip in the future and I'm going to shoot for the 5* in Carefree when I do, so I'll be back.

Thanks again for everybody's help

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