Priceline Hotel: Resort Puerto Rico (San Juan) Wyndham Condado Plza

[surferboy]

Hello -

I am looking to book a hotel in San Juan on the 23rd of October for 1 night. Thanks to this website we have already figured out our hotel for the other nights.

My question is: Which hotel is a 2.5* in San Juan on 10/23 on Hotwire that lists:

Near Beach, Restaurant(s), Complimentary Breakfast, Business Center.

Thanks so much for your help!

Surferboy

[thereuare]

Thanks to this website we have already figured out our hotel for the other nights.

Welcome to BetterBidding!

Part of the reason why this board was so helpful in you figuring out your hotels stays is because other users were kind enough to share and post their winning bids. Please do the same and share your results with the board so that others can benefit from your own experiences.

Thanks.

[surferboy]

Hi again-

Sorry for not listing the hotel in the earlier post - we didn't actually book the three nights, but from your Hotwire hotel list description, we figured the 3.5 star San Juan hotel from 10/20-10/23 at $83/night must be the Embassy Suites San Juan. (FYI: this price wasn't available for a 10/20-24 booking, if it helps anyone to know that). However, this is all still unconfirmed since we haven't made the booking yet.

Since our last post, we've read that the Caribe Hilton may be bookable on Priceline for even less, and hopefully for the full 10/20-24 stay. Embassy looks like a great hotel, but we're shooting for the Condado. (I'm going to start a separate thread about that, but feel free to throw in any thoughts here if you'd like)

But in case we go with Hotwire - any idea what the 2.5 star hotel is on 10/24?

Thanks again,

Surferboy

[surferboy]

Hello-

Thanks for setting up this board - what a great idea! I've never bid on Priceline before, so it's really appreciated.

I was looking for a 3* resort in the Condado, on or right near the beach, for $60-75 on the nights of Wed 10/20 - Sat 10/24. I'm willing to move to another Condado hotel for one night on 10/24 if that helps the bidding. If I put in these prices, which resorts are likely to show up (if any)?

I stayed in the Caribe Hilton many years ago, (is that considered Condado or Dorado?), & there or anywhere of comparable quality in the Condado would be great. (Read some not-so-good reviews of it lately on TripAdvisor.com though, and when I called they said they're having construction from 8am(!) to 6pm in several sections till 2005, so another might be preferable. Do Priceline hotels ever move your room if you're awoken by jackhammers?)

Thanks in advance,

Surferboy

[surferboy]

Oops - sorry, that was supposed to be another thread....

[surferboy]

Sorry, Moderator, this is SO weird: My initial Hotwire post was in the Hotwire section (or so I recall), but after I tried to start a brand new thread with a separate Priceline question in the Priceline section, my earlier thread seems to have jumped to the Priceline section, too, somehow, and come on attached as a reply.

Please let me know if I should start a new thread with the Priceline question to correct this. Thanks.

edit by thereuare: i merged the posts since they're for the same stay

[thereuare]

Thanks for clarifying all of the above... here are my thoughts:

I'm not sure of the 2.5* hotel above but the fact that no pool is listed may be a tip-off.... i have a few possibilities but nothing that matches up perfectly. However, i would be very cautious about booking any hotel under 3* in San Juan.

The island is not well known for high service (although it is known for high prices)... and this combination accounts for many of the mixed/poor reviews you generally read about Puerto Rico hotels.

To continue on this subject... is there a reason your favorable towards the Condado Plaza? It has mixed reviews just like all the others, and in my opinion the Caribe Hilton has a slight edge if given the choice, although the Hilton has negative reviews as well. I would say that if you want a 'true beach' then the Isla Verde section is the place to be (and Embassy Suites is a great choice)... if you want the Condado area then the Hilton is my first choice (with the Condado Plaza second).

With both Priceline and Hotwire, the Condado area and the Isla Verde are in the same zone... all falling within the "San Juan" zone. Therefore, you won't be able to target the Condado area with Priceline, and with Hotwire it can only be done if you are able to figure out the hotel beforehand (relatively 'safe' in this area... although never guaranteed). So it is conceivable that if you split the bid and use Priceline that one hotel could be in the Condado area and then the other part of your stay would be in the Isla Verde area.

In a nutshell the problem with bidding Resort in Puerto Rico is that it excludes the Embassy Suites (since that is a 3* rated property)... the problem with including 3* in your search is that you could end up with a less desirable property like the Park Normandie.

So if you want ot start with Resort bidding, could you also accept a resort anywhere in the San Juan zone? (not just the Condado area)

[surferboy]

Thanks for such a thorough reply.

To clarify: I have no interest in the Condodo Plaza (is that the name of a hotel?)-- just want to stay in the Condodo area in any good resort with a pool, and on or close to a Condodo beach. I don't mind that Embassy Suites is excluded from Priceline, since my best guess is that the $83 Hotwire selection I mentioned earlier is that one. Embassy would be great at that price, but it's far from the Condodo and I figured: why not shoot for an even cheaper resort that's closer to the area we want to be in?

I also may have been unclear: I will just include "Resorts" in my search, not "3 stars", although it's my understanding that resorts are 3+ stars by definition. The Park Normandie doesn't look too good, so I'd like to avoid this if possible.

My hope of getting a Condado area resort on Priceline came from these posts:

"Got the Caribe Hilton (Resort-San Juan area)) for 2 nights for $65/night - 8/06/04-8/08/04. Bid $60 dollars for Resort in San Juan area, got rejected. Added the Dorado area since there is no Resort property in that area and raised my bid to $65.00 and my offer acepted.

...And yes there is a resort property in Dorado. The Hyatt Dorado Beach resort, but since I'm familiar with this area I knew that this resort is way to expensive at this time in PR. "

Is it worth shooting for a $60-75 Condodo resort on Priceline using this method, or are there any other methods/pitfalls I should watch out for? If the Caribe Hilton is in the Dorado area, that would be fine.

Thanks again,

Surferboy

[thereuare]

Sorry, I was confused above when you said "....but we're shooting for the Condado". Many people refer to the Wyndham Condado Plaza hotel as 'the condado' and that's what i thought you were refering to, not necessarily that you wanted the Condado zone.

You still have a 'problem' that the condado area is part of the San Juan zone, and the zone is much larger than just the Condado area. Can you accept ending up anywhere within the San Juan zone? There are other resort class hotels besides the Caribe Hilton in this zone... and some of them are not in the Condado area.

I'm doubtful that you'll be successful for a resort for less than you're currently seeing the Embassy Suites offered. If the resort would cost more than the Embassy Suites, would you sooner stay there for less money? If not, what is the maximum you would want to bid for a Resort hotel?

Let us know and we'll provide a strategy.

[surferboy]

Based on what you have told me, I may be ready to do the $83 relatively safe 10/20-23 Hotwire buy, plus a separate Sat. night booked the regular way at a less lavish Condado hotel. But before I do that, I am willing to try betting $60-75 for a San Juan "resort" for all four nights, so $75 is the max...

But before I do that, I guess what I was hoping to get from this board was a list of the likely resorts I might end up with betting this price range for 10/20-24, and if you think it'd be worth repeating the Caribe Hilton strategy (which he got grouping in Dorado) someone posted about before. If the Priceline resorts you think I might get are about the same quality-wise (and distance-wise from the Condado) as the Embassy, then this would be the way to go. If there's a resort out there that's come up on Priceline within this range that you have heard sucks or is off in the hinterland, PLEASE let me know.

[thereuare]

There are four resorts that have been reported in the San Juan zone and you can see them in the PRICELINE HOTEL LIST. Is that what you're looking for? Of them, the Caribe Hilton and the Wyndham Condado Plaza come up the most.

Of them, the Wyndham Condado Plaza probably gets the worst reviews... although not all of the reviews are bad and many people have no problem with their stays there (remember what i said earlier about San Juan not typically being a 'hotel friendly' market... high prices and low service levels account for very mixed reviews).

If you choose to bid Priceline i would bid $75 for your complete stay, and then try for the subset of your stay (this would not be considered a duplicate bid since you changed the dates). Unlike the user that added the Dorado zone, i do not recommend that practice as you could very well end up in that zone! Although it worked out ok, this CHICAGO USER added a zone that was thought to be too low to be accepted and sure enough the user was accepted in that zone! There are no true re-bids in the zone, so you basically get one chance for each set of dates.

Any further questions feel free to ask.

Good Luck and let us know how it goes.

[surferboy]

Thanks for all the help. On 10/4 we finally got around to bidding Priceline. The $83 10/20-23 was gone from Hotwire by this point.

We bid $80 on Resorts in San Juan for 10/20-23 and got nothing.

We then bid $85 on Resorts in San Juan and Dorado (taking our chances) and got the Wyndham Condado Plaza. I'll let you know how it is - at least it's closer to the Condado than Embassy for the same stay.

Then realized I'd made a mistake and should have bid for 10/20-24 to include Sat night, but ah well. May not have gotten this price with a Saturday stay anyway.

Tried bidding $75 on Resorts for 10/23-24 in San Juan- nada.

Then bid $82 for 10/23-24 on Resorts in San Juan and Dorado - nada again.

I have some decent cheap hotel ideas for that night anyway, so we'll see.

All the best,

Surferboy

[thereuare]

Glad you got some of it settled.

If you have a digital camera please take some pics of the room and property and post them at RealHotelPhotos.com. I had stayed there 10+ years ago and thought it was great, but more recent reports get mixed reviews. It would be nice to be able to see the current conditions first hand.

Enjoy your stay.