Priceline Hotel: 4* San Francisco (USE) Westin St Francis

[Beski]

I am trying to get a 4* Hotel for San Francisco in Union Square East (USE)

Travel Dates - 4 Nights from 6/19 to 6/23

I have read all the bidding tips, and with the various zones that DO NOT offer a 4* hotel I was able to re-bid 5 times yesterday and 5 times today with NO Success !! My Starting Bid yesterday was $67 and my High Bid Today was $87

The 2 Hotel Choices seem to be the Westin St. Francis and the Grand Hyatt - Both of which would be fine for our travel plans.

I also noticed that the Westin has a rate on their website of $116 per night which is getting close to my $87 High Bid.

I have seen various "Wins" for this area in the $67 to $72 range with just about the same travel dates, except my dates include the weekend - is it possible that the weekend dates are driving the price up ??

Thanks in advance for your help and advice !!

Tom

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

It is a bit surprising your rejected bids given the lower rate at the Westin. To look at this further, i looked at each nite individually and rates are higher for the Sun-Tues leg of your stay than the Fri-Sun leg of your stay... .actually every nite individually is higher than the average of your 4 nites together since your longer stay qualifies for a 35% discount (which is not likely used at the basis of their opaque/PRICELINE rates)

Here are your options (some better than others):

1) split your bid and bid on two separate stays, Fri+Sat nites and then Sun+Mon nites, note that you may need to change hotels

2) book the Westin direct for $112/nite (please use this Westin link or the one in our support page if you go this route)

3) HOTWIRE has a 4* hotel in the USE zone for $93/nite with Restaurant, Fitness, Internet, Business icons. This would be cheaper than the $112 direct thru the Westin, but the hotel is 'unknown'... the Palomar, Grand Hyatt, and Westin Market Street have all been reported with these amenities before, so any of them are possibilities, and these icons are very common in San Francisco so it could also be a new hotel with this description

4) HOTWIRE is also showing a 4.5* in this zone with Restaurant, Pool, Fitness, Internet, Business and a TA rating of 4.5/5.0 which is a match for the Inter-Continental and that would be our best guess... which gets GREAT REVIEWS but not sure how it would work for your plans

5) wait it out another week and continue to bid daily in hopes that some low priced inventory gets released

Let us know your thougths regarding the above and/or any questions you may have.

Please use these PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links to begin your travel purchases. (or our Westin or Inter-Continental links if you book either of those direct)

[Beski]

Hi thereuare,

THANKS for the Great Reply and Suggestions !!

I checked my 4 individual nights at the Westin and Hyatt and it appears the Monday Night is the highest price and causing my problems!! One thought was to BID on the first 3 nights and then pay the regular rate for the 4th night. (Westin $140 and Hyatt $170) This way I would at least get 3 nights at the Lower Bid Rate !

Another thought....I can remembere a few years ago when I won a Priceline Bid (without knowing about this site) and after I won, they offered "additional" nights at the same rate as my winning Bid. Is this common, or does it only happen in select cases ? I thought maybe I could try and "win" the first 3 nights and see if they offer me the 4th night at the same rate to try and get me to extend my stay ?

My arrival date is now 2 weeks away....is there still time to win a Bid at the prices I already tried ? Just because my Bid was rejected today, is it possible it could be accepted tomorrow or the next day ?

Thanks again,

Tom

[thereuare]

The "add a nite" feature is only offered on some wins, and even when offered, doesn't guarnatee availability... but if you're open to the possibility of chaning hotels you can try SPLITTING YOUR PRICELINE BID and hope for the add a nite offer (although even if offered there is a decent chance your attempt with come with 'no availabilty' or that there is availability but only at a higher rate, which you will have the option of accepting or rejecting)

Rates are dynamic and constantly changing based upon the most up to date supply/demand and hotel occupancy... if a large tour bus suddenly calls the hotel and needs room for your nite(s) you can see rate rise... if they get a larger than expected number of cancellations you could see them fall.

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

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

[Beski]

Well, after looking through the various options, I decided to try one more set of bids. I figured there may be a chance that I could do better as the travel dates got closer, but I really didn't want to take that chance they would go higher, and there are other aspects of my trip I wanted to start planning (rental car, baseball tickets etc.), so I wanted to get the hotel booked and out of the way !!

I also looked at the "Calendar of Wins" and realized the 2 nights at the end of our stay were at a higher price ($89) compared to the 2 nights at the start of our stay ($67-$77), so that must be a more popluar week after school gets out and summer vacations start etc. There was a "win" for $89 so I figured that would be the magic number and I only went up to $87 on my first attempt. I didn't want to split my bid for fear of getting 2 different hotels and the $89 price still seemed lower then the current 4* hotels on Hotwire.

So.....using the various zones, I re-bid $77 - $80 - $83 - $86 which were all Rejected, and then I finally won at $89 !!

So I ended up with 4 nights at the Westin - St. Francis for $89 (6/19 - 6/23)

Yes, I used the PRICELINE link to begin my travel purchases.

*** Does anybody have tips to get a room "Upgrade" so I don't get stuck in the extra small Priceline rooms at the Westin-St. Francis ?

Thanks for your help thereuare and thanks to this board for the many tips in bidding !! I will send you ALL a post card !!

Tom

[thereuare]

Congratulations on your success!

Glad to hear you gave it another try... looks like you did well!

Hope you're happy with the results and this is convenient for your plans. Not sure how to impove your room assignment, but you could always try Tipping the Front Desk Clerk if it's worthwhile to you.

Thank you for sharing your win with the board and using our PRICELINE link to begin your bidding.

Enjoy your stay.

[Colfax]

When I stayed at WSF in April the front desk told me Priceline and Hotwire are assigned one double or queen bed in the Historic Tower, and that's what I got . For $35/night I had the option of upgrading to 1 king or 2 beds, in either tower of my choosing. I'd read some complaints about noisy rooms in the Historic Tower--near the ice machine and/or elevator--and my room, though small, wasn't TERRIBLY small, and not near the ice or elevator, so I kept it.

But another Priceline guest who checked into the Westin the same day as me reported here that she was given a KING bed in the NEW tower and the $35 subject didn't come up.

So I don't know what to advise. You might get a large room for free without asking and you might have to pay $35 for it. Or maybe a tip less than $35 does the trick.

Although the small rooms and small beds seem to be in the Historic tower don't assume you're getting a small room just because you're in that building. There are large rooms, two-bed rooms, and two-room suites in the Historic building as well. If I'd paid the upgrade I probably would have asked to stay in the Historic building because I like that "classic old hotel" feel.

If you think of it please report back after your trip how room assignment/upgrade went for you. Good luck!