Hotwire Hotel: 4* Toronto (Downtown East) Westin Harbour Castle

[ConfusedTravel]

If anyone could help, I would greatly, greatly appreciate it. In short, I'm ready to bid on a 4-star in the downtown toronto area that is willing to go at $100 a night. Does anyone have any idea which hotel this may be? I need to be somewhere near the Eaton Center / AMC / Scotia Bank cinema area, and am worried that this might not be anywhere in the vicinity. Being near Ryerson or the Varsity would be fantastic too. ANy tips would be mega appreciated. Also, I'm extremely new to this, so if you have any tips at all as to where I can safely bid for a good hotel in this area, I'm open to anything!

[yellowdog]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

I have edit your posts, if you think anything got lost.

The first thing you should do is to decide if you want to go with PRICELINE or HOTWIRE. This is a link that explain the diffrent service between the two. I've never used Priceline or Hotwire

If you're trying to target a specific property then HOTWIRE can often be a better option if you're successfully able to identify it based upon the star rating and amenities shown before your purchase... the trade-off is that HOTWIRE usually costs a little more than PRICELINE, so you need to decide what is most important to you for a given stay, the lowest possible price OR the ability to take an educated guess as to the property you may receive.

Second thing is to determ the zone you want to stay in. You can use the HOTWIRE maps to search for a specific adress. Maybe this is better since you want to stay close to a special point.

Let us know your thoughts and we'll go from there.

Yellowdog.

[ConfusedTravel]

Thanks, Yellowdog. Searching by address appears to be a US-only option. I already do know the zone that I would like to stay in (as per my initial posts), but Priceline is extremely broad in it's zoning "downtown Toronto" can be a lot of areas, unfortunately. I'm open to using either HOTWIRE or PRICELINE, and am praying I can get some good guidance here before I roll the dice.

[ConfusedTravel]

Hotwire is showing a 4-star hotel in Downtown Toronto East going for $110 a night. Amenities are: smoke-free, fitness center, pool, restaurant, business center, internet, tennis nearby and spa services. Would anyone happen to know which hotel this would likely be?

[yellowdog]

Searching by address appears to be a US-only option

Sorry! i have been gone from the board a few days and not thinking straight :)

If you feel that the PRICELINE zone is to big so go with HOTWIRE. Please list the amenties HOTWIRE associates with the 4* DT zone hotel you're looking at and we'll have a look at this and see if we can ID this property for you.

Yellowdog.

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

[ConfusedTravel]

Thanks. As I wrote before, HOTWIRE is showing a 4-star hotel in Downtown Toronto East going for $110 a night.

Amenities are: smoke-free, fitness center, pool, restaurant, business center, internet, tennis nearby and spa services.

Would you know which hotel this would likely be?

[thereuare]

Please include the date(s) of your stay and we'll have a closer look.

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

Thanks.

[ConfusedTravel]

Oops, sorry, good point! Dates are Sept 10 - Sept 17.

[ConfusedTravel]

Thanks for any help at all that you can give me. I will certainly buy through your PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links when I make the buy.

[AaronJB]

The Westin Harbour Castle has been reported with these amenities and the TA rating matches.

Thank you for using the site's HOTWIRE link to start your purchase.

[ConfusedTravel]

The Westin Harbour Castle has been reported with these amenities and the TA rating matches.

Thank you for using the site's HOTWIRE link to start your purchase.

Thanks, Aaron. Is that downtown? Or, I should ask, is it a major distance from either the Varsity / Cumberland cinemas or the AMC / Scotia Bank ones?

[ConfusedTravel]

Hotwire is giving me the option of 135 a night in Downtown West Toronto, dates Sept 10 - Sept 18, with the following ameneties: fitness center, pool, restaurant, business center, high speed internet, spa.

Would anyone have a good guess as to which hotel this may be?

[tilepusher]

This hotel is a match for the InterContinental Toronto Centre.

[tilepusher]

The Westin is not very close to any of the theatres (the closest is the AMC, which is about 2 km away). But at this point, you're not going to get a great deal on a 4* hotel that's close to one of the theatres; you'll need to make some compromises. You have to ask yourself:

1. How much are you willing to spend?

2. How close to you need to be to the theatres?

3. What class of hotel do you need to stay at?

When we know the answers, we should be in a better position to suggest a course of action.

By the way, you mentioned that a hotel was willing to accept a bid of $100 on Priceline. Was this a counteroffer? If so, how much had you bid when you received it?

[yellowdog]

ConfusedTravel

Please keep all posts in the same thread since posts are for the same dates.

[ConfusedTravel]

This was an original submitted offer that was accepted.

I do need to be close to the theaters and would be better off going for a 3-star hotel instead of a 4-star if it meant better proximity. As long as the place doesn't have paper-thin walls / noise issues, I'll be happy. :) Have you got any tips?

On the subject, Hotwire is showing a 3-star in downtown West Toronto for $138 a night Sept 10 - Sept 18. Amenities listed are: restaurant, laundry, internet and tennis nearby. Would anyone know what this likely would be?

[tilepusher]

This was an original submitted offer that was accepted.

I'm not following you. By "bid," are you referring to the Hotwire price for what we believe is the Westin Harbour Castle? If so, then please excuse my confusion, but we don't refer to searches on Hotwire as "bidding."

As for the 3* hotel, my best guess is the Holiday Inn Midtown. It's within 1km of the Varsity and Cumberland Theatres.

Are you planning to attend all of the theatres you mentioned earlier, or just one?

[ConfusedTravel]

Hi Tilepusher,

The 3-star no longer seems to be there at the earlier price. However, I'm seeing a 4-star in Downtown West Toronto with the following amenities listed: fitness center, pool, restaurant, business center, internet and spa. It's going for $128 a night. Sept 10 - Sept 17. Any guesses as to which one this may be?

Also seeing a 3-star in downtown West Toronto, amenities are restaurant, laundry, internet, and tennis. Going for $116 a night, Sept 10 - Sept 17. I think this is the same one that was going for $135 a night just before (Ramada Plaza?).

I'll be attending all the cinemas during the festival, but the most heavily attended will definitely be the Varsity.

Re: the bid, that case was a Priceline one, not a Hotwire one (one of the mods merged my posts).

[thereuare]

The 4* West property is a match for the Inter-Continental Toronto Centre (on Front St)... the 3* has not yet been identified but i'll add that i don't believe it to be the Ramada Plaza.

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

Let us konw what you decide or if we can be of futhter help.

[tilepusher]

I believe that the 3* in Downtown Toronto West is still the Holiday Inn Midtown. In my last post, I was mistakenly identified the 3* in Downtown Toronto East the first time (which I think is the Ramada Plaza), then edited my post when I realized my error. I apologize if I created any confusion.

Speaking of confusion, I'm afraid that I still don't understand that $100 bid. Was this your own bid, or someone else's bid? And was it for the same dates?

According to Google Maps, the Holiday Inn Midtown is 1km from the Varsity; I don't know if that's close enough for you. But it should be noted that the AMC is about 2.5km from the Varsity and the Scotiabank Theatre is about 3km away. If you're planning to attend all of them, you'll have a fair amount of commuting no matter which hotel you stay at.

[ConfusedTravel]

I believe that the 3* in Downtown Toronto West is still the Holiday Inn Midtown. In my last post, I was mistakenly identified the 3* in Downtown Toronto East the first time (which I think is the Ramada Plaza), then edited my post when I realized my error. I apologize if I created any confusion.

Speaking of confusion, I'm afraid that I still don't understand that $100 bid. Was this your own bid, or someone else's bid? And was it for the same dates?

According to Google Maps, the Holiday Inn Midtown is 1km from the Varsity; I don't know if that's close enough for you. But it should be noted that the AMC is about 2.5km from the Varsity and the Scotiabank Theatre is about 3km away. If you're planning to attend all of them, you'll have a fair amount of commuting no matter which hotel you stay at.

Thanks. I'll be going to all the venues for screenings, but the Varsity is definitely my main priority. Are there any tips? Last year I stayed at the Holiday Inn on King (which has since been renamed as a Hyatt hotel), and that was perfect for me. It was around the corner from the Scotia Bank Cinema and an 8 dollar cab to the Varsity. Do you see that place showing up at all on Hotwire?

About the priceline bid, it was my bid of $100, for the same dates, that was accepted.

[ConfusedTravel]

BTW, do you see anything that looks like the Toronto Marriott Downtown Eaton Centre Hotel showing up? That place would be ideal if I can get it!

[ConfusedTravel]

Nevermind, I got antsy about time running out and booked the 4-star in downtown Toronto East at $107 a night, which turned out to be, as you had guessed, the Westin Harbour Castle. It's going to mean daily taxi's, but the price was amazing and the hotel looks incredible for the price. Thanks for your help, and I did make the booking through your HOTWIRE link. :)

WOUld anyone know roughly how steep a cab bill it would be to get from this place to say, the Varsity / Manulife building area?

[thereuare]

Congratulations on your success!

Glad to see you received the hotel you were hoping for and that you're happy with the results.

I don't know the taxi cost (although somebody else may be able to chime in with that info) but i'd also look into mass transit options, i'm not sure where the theaters are but Toronto has a pretty good transit system, afaik.

Thank you for sharing your results with the board and using our HOTWIRE link to begin your purchase.

Enjoy your stay and the film festival.