Priceline Hotel: 3* Oakland - Eastbay (Airport OAK) Holiday Inn

[headtrip]

I had a really nice trip to San Francisco this month, but a friend of mine I was going to visit my last day in Union City was off to Alaska, so I ended up bidding one night on the Oakland side before taking Amtrak from Jack London Square back to LA. I was hoping to get something downtown or close to the station, so I bid the following first, not rebiding other zones since I wasn't worried if it was a lower rated hotel:

Oakland Downtown for 8/10/2004

3* $35 failed

+2.5* $37 failed

+2.0* $40 failed

+1.0* $35 failed.

Because I was in a little bit of a hurry, I decided to start again with Oakland Airport expecting the Hilton and see how it went.

3* OAK airport $40 failed

+OAK Downtown $45 accepted

1 night was $45 + 10.94 tax = $55.94

Received the Holiday Inn Oakland Airport (shown on the betterbidding list as 2.5).

Althought the price was right, and the night spent there was fine, I can say quite confidently that this property is not a 3 star hotel. The following is the feedback I provided to priceline:

The Holiday Inn Oakland Airport is not a 3 star hotel. The registration desk at the front of the hotel had worn carpet, no bellman, and all the trappings of a typical motel with a coffee shop added on. My room on the second floor had no elevator and because there was no bellman I had to carry the luggage upstairs myself. The room itself was adequate with a king size bed and 19 inch TV (with poor reception), but there were no extra features or special ammenities like ironing board or internet outlet. Overall, I was very disappointed when expecting the services provided by a 3* hotel.

~Stephen~

[thereuare]

Sorry to hear of your poor stay. I think Holiday Inns are one of the feared hotels on Priceline due to varying range of quality throughout their chain. Take a look at some of the comments i just made regarding Holiday Inns in the second post of this HOLIDAY INN thread.

Thanks for the notification of the upgrade, i've made changes to our hotel lists, but hopefully they'll downgrade it sometime soon.

[headtrip]

It was just hard for me to imagine when I won the bid that the Hilton and Holiday Inn could both be 3*s. Putting them side by side, There is a complete difference in the quality of service provided by the staff that isn't reflected by "does it have a restaurant?"

I feel motivated to write a pro-Hilton piece too, but I'd be going off-topic here....I'll save it for when I post my other stay.

[thereuare]

You can always add comments to our HOTEL REVIEWS section.

Your point is very well taken about the differences in star rating not being reflected by answering the question "does it have a restaurant". Unfortunately there is no universal rating system in the industry although the hotel business is long overdue for one! :) As Priceline's system is really only based on a 1 to 5 scale, i equate it to students and their grading system... one student may get an 80 while another an 89, yet both will receive a "B" on their report card. The two are far from equal, yet the simplification of the system makes them appear as such to the inexperienced eye.