Priceline Hotel: 3* St. Louis (Forest Park - Clayton) Sheraton

[BEAV]

New hotel for your list....

Bid this for a relative attending the Cardinal's game on Sept 5.

Struck out in downtown St Louis up to $125 at the 4* level for both Saturday night alone, as well as two nights Sat and Sun. I also tried Fri/Sat night combination and struck out as well. Later discovered I was wasting my time as all 4* participating hotels are sold out!

Then I went to Priceline vacations and found a package at the 3* Renaissance Suites (downtown zone, 1/3 mile from stadium) for $261 for one person, including all taxes and fees, flying from Chicago. Note, my relative lives near Kansas City and will be driving. Checked several air cities (DFW, MEM, IND, ORD, MCI, DTW) and flying from Chicago produced the lowest price. Since I had been given $125 per night before taxes and fees as my maximum to bid, the air/hotel package for $261 including taxes and fees worked out great. So I went to purchase the package only to have Priceline respond that the price was now $286. I did another search of the vacation package, and sure enough, the same package was coming up at $286. I have had this experience numerous times with Site59's weekend packages, where the price suddenly goes up when you go to purchase. At this point, I didn't want any part of the vacation package, even if only for another $25! Had the $261 package gone through without a hitch, it would have been interesting, to say the least, to secure a package that included air fare which would have amounted to less than booking hotel-only at $125 per night. Although the Renaissance Suites is rated 3* I wasn't interested in bidding for hotel-only in that zone due to bad reviews at other participating hotels.

Relative said the Forest Park-Clayton zone would be fine and she'd just drive into the game on Sunday. Wound up with the 3* Sheraton at $70 per night, after rejections at $50 $55 and $60.

[thereuare]

Thank you for the new addition to the list!! as well as the trouble you went thru to secure this room. It's a good lesson that sometimes it's easy and sometimes not so easy, but in the end the savings are almost always worth the effort.

As always, thanks for posting.