Priceline Hotel: 3.5* Orange County (Disneyland) Sheraton Garden Grove-Anaheim

[phillyphan]

I had a great experience here last time when I booked my trip to Maui so I wanted to try again. I'm looking for some help on a deal for the Orange County-Disneyland region from March 15th to March 21st for a 3.5* (Hilton, Hilton Suites). My first bid at $45 dollars did not get accepted on PRICELINE. I did not want to change the zones without everyone's help first. Thanks in advance.

[phillyphan]

One other question for those of you that have used PRICELINE in the past. Is the room generally big enough for a family of 5. I didn't have that problem the first time because our trip to Maui was just me and my girlfriend. This time it's the whole family. I want to make sure we're all able to fit. Again thanks for everyone's help in advance.

[thereuare]

Generally speaking hotel rooms in the US are designed to accomodate double or quad occupancy.

PRICELINE only guarantees double occupancy, after that it's at the discretion of the hotel. HOTWIRE allows you to search for up to quad occupancy, but even then, they don't guarantee five.

Not sure of the age of the kids, but would two rooms work for you? (it's often cheaper than booking one room for five direct) I would probably take the risk of booking two PRICELINE rooms and assume that i would be able to get at least one of the rooms with two beds (to accomodate three people) given it's a 'family friendly' area where hotels would likely have a greater percentage of rooms with two beds (vs. a large city such as NYC where space is at a premium and rooms are notoriously small and many hotels only have a few rooms with more than one bed)... but i think looking for 5 person occupancy when only double is guaranteed is pushing things a little (i'm sure there are some families of 5 who do it frequently, but it would be more risk than i would want to take, prefering to relax on vacation and have fewer worries)

For a further discussion see the related link in our PRICELINE FAQ.

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

[phillyphan]

Do you know which zones I could use that would still keep me in the Disneyland area?

[phillyphan]

One more thing the kids ages are 1, 5, and 9. I was hoping I could win a suite and I wouldn't have to worry about it. I guess we'll see.

[phillyphan]

Okay I tried a variety of combos using the 3.5* and rebid zones Anaheim Hills, Laguna Beach, Seal Beach and of course Disneyland which is the only one out of the four that has a 3.5* hotel. Went from $45 up to $55 for two rooms and didn't get accepted. I'll have to wait a couple days before trying again. I believe I tried about 10 different combos.

[thereuare]

Since one of the children is 1 year old, you may also want to try searching HOTWIRE for one room, 2adults/2children, since their dropdown menus only specify the number of adults (18+ years old) and childre (2-17 years old)... so technically you'd be entering the correct number of people as per their website. Then upon receiving the hotel you can call and request a crib and confirm that the room can accomodate the crib. If there is a problem then contact HOTWIRE as i think you'd have pretty good argument since you did indicate the correct number of people in your search (as per the ages listed on their website)

I would lable this as a 'small' risk, but one i'd be willing to take given the zone (family friendly area so rooms would likely accomodate a crib) and the potential savings involved since you'd be purchasing one room instead of two.

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

Thoughts?

[phillyphan]

I like the HOTWIRE idea, but I just checked and for that area for a 3.5* the hotels are $86 a night. Should I expect to pay around that price even with priceline too?

[thereuare]

PRICELINE is usually a little cheaper than HOTWIRE on an apples-to-apples comparison... however, you may not be comparing apples-to-apples.

First, each service (PRICELINE and HOTWIRE) don't necessarily rate the same hotel with the same star rating, so this 3.5* HOTWIRE hotel may be 3.5* on PRICELINE, but it could also be a 3* on PRICELINE. As well, each uses different zone boundaries, so this hotel may not even be in the equivalent zone on priceline. Lastly, if you're searching for quad occupancy above, some hotels charge more for this (or may not be the lowest priced offering shown vs. if you were searching for double occupancy), so this may be a little higher (not just the 'typical slightly higher cost of HOTWIRE') than if you were only searching for double occupancy.

HOTWIRE also offers an advantage in that you can take an educated guess as to the hotel you will receive based upon the amenity combination shown, so that is the trade-off of the slightly higher price vs. PRICELINE (as well, in this situation, HOTWIRE will give you the possibility of only reserving one rooms with less risk (since you can book for quad occupancy rather than double occupancy) than booking one room via PRICELINE)

If the HOTWIRE offering is an option let us know the amenities HOTWIRE associates with the property and we'll try to take an educated guess.

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

Let us know your thoughts and how you'd like to proceed or if we can be of further help.

[phillyphan]

These are the amenities listed for the Anaheim Disneyland South region for the 3.5* hotel that's being offered at $89.

3.5-star hotel in Anaheim - Disneyland South

This hotel features the following amenities:

Fitness Center

Guests have access to exercise equipment; an additional charge may apply.

Pool(s)

Property offers at least one pool area; hours and dates of operation may be seasonal.

High-speed Internet Access

Guestrooms are equipped with high-speed Internet access; an extra charge may apply.

[thereuare]

Unfortunately this property has not yet been identified... another user i believe was recently looking at the same property and although i tried, i wasn't able to gain much insight.

Since this is a six nite stay, one option you have is to see if the same hotel (based upon the amenities) appears for the first (or last) nite of your stay and then again for the balance. If so, you could purchase the solo nite in order to 'look behind the curtain'. If you're happy with the results purchase the remaining nites, if not, make alternate plans for the balance of your stay. Not the ideal situation (especially traveling with 3 children), but one way to play it a bit safer if the price of this is attractive and you want to try dipping your toe in the water rather than jumping right in.

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

Let us know your thoughts and/or what you ultimately decide to do for this stay or if we can be of further help.

[phillyphan]

Tried again today ranging from $50-$60 still no luck on PRICELINE. Do you think I'll have better luck waiting until the dates get closer?

[thereuare]

Nobody can say if rates will go up, or down, between now and your stay. There is a further discussion in the related "bid early or close to check-in" link in our PRICELINE FAQ.

What is the best avaialble deal you're able to find thru conventional booking means? (use our BetterChecker to assist in your search)

[phillyphan]

Tried again today and won at $70 a night for 6 nights for a total of $514.53 at the:

Sheraton Garden Grove-Anaheim

Disneyland Area

12221 Harbor Boulevard

Garden Grove, California 92840

714-703-8400

I don't see this in the Priceline hotel list for the site so maybe it's something new. I did see a Sheraton but it's a different address. I checked the hotel website and they have the rooms starting at $159 a night so I saved more than 50%. Thanks for the help, again.

Just checked the website and the hotel was just built in July 2008 so it looks like it can be added to the Priceline hotel lists for this area.

[thereuare]

Congratulations on your win!

Hopefully you're happy with the results and this property will work well for your needs.

Thank you for using our PRICELINE link to begin your bidding and for sharing your results with the board, helping us add this property to the Priceline Hotel List.

Enjoy your stay.

[phillyphan]

I wanted to add one more note about my second experience. My first bid yesterday was at $68 and Priceline came back saying if I raised my bid $17 more I'd get accepted. Well I ignored that and just raised it $2 and got accepted. So just an FYI to everyone don't be fooled by that. $70 might be a little high but when I was looking at $159 I considered it a great deal. I'm going during spring break so I didn't want to get stuck not having a hotel. Thanks again.

[phillyphan]

Another quick question. How hard is it to cancel one day off a reservation? I purchased the insurance and I was thinking about cancelling one of the days and staying two days down in San Diego but didn't know if this was possible. Has anyone tried this before?

[thereuare]

I don't think it will be possible to cancel one day of the reservation.

If you check the terms of the insurance it mostly covers sickness and such, not "i changed my mind" or "my plans changed".