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Priceline Hotel: 4* San Antonio (Downtown-Riverwalk) Emily Morgan


wklkj
By wklkj,
in

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Hello! I guess I'm still learning how to use Priceline but I think I'm going in the right direction by being a member of this message group. Here's what happened to me...

We started planning about a month ago to use Priceline to book 2 rooms for 5 days in San Antonio to see our son graduate from the Air Force. After checking the areas on the map for 'name your own price' in Priceline, we decided to stay in the River Walk area. Using the star ratings, I noticed that the only area in San Antonio that offered 4 star hotels was the River Walk. Great! I could add other areas if my price wasn't accepted and still be assured to get the River Walk. No problem.

Next, I looked on this forum to see what recent results had brought other people. Great again! I saw someone who just got rooms at the Westin and another person who got rooms at the Mariott! This is going to be great. I checked the prices that these people spent and started my bid on Priceline...

First, $52 for 4 star in the River Walk area. Sorry, not accepted.

Then upped the bid to $57 and added an area that didn't have 4 star hotels. Sorry again.

I tried $65 (the price the other 2 people won bids at recently) and Yay! Bid is accepted. Congratulations, your bid was accepted at the Emily Morgan.

Emily what? What the heck kind of hotel it that? First, its several blocks from the end of the riverwalk but right next door to the Alamo.

Now, I find out my first mistake. I set up the bid for 2 rooms for all 5 nights. After I won the bid, I read a post where someone recommended to only bid for one night. If you don't like what you get, you can rebid the next night after looking at the hotel. If you like the hotel, you can extend your stay. The problem is, I didn't want to take a chance and use Priceline after we got there for booking a hotel the same night as the bid. What if there's nothing available?

Anyway, once we got the the 'Emily Morgan', I could not believe this hotel is classified as a 4 star. It was old, smelled like mold, mildew, and rotted wood. The decorations in the rooms, bathroom and halls was institutional - like a hospital. And something else I didn't expect...everything cost extra. There was no complimentary coffee in the lobby, no continental breakfast, I had to pay for WiFi, and parking was next door outside and cost $28 per night. To top it off, I had to pay $8 just to print our return flight boarding passes on the 'public' computer in the lobby.

Whew! That's my vent. Now for my actual question (thanks for reading). How the heck do you avoid one dumpy hotel that is rated wrong (in my opinion) when all the other hotels in the area are truly high class? It made me so mad that we had to stay there for 5 days when I knew that by the luck of the draw I could have gotten a really nice hotel.

What's the secret?

Thanks again for listening.

Wayne

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Call Priceline and complain that the rating is incorrect. Priceline does re-rate in response to clients. While it is most likely you'll receive only a credit (I seem to recall $25 is commonly reported), it can't hurt. As long as you treat the Priceline rep with respect, you'll probably get a little something.

As to the "bid one night first" strategy, I think what is meant is: bid/win one night, you'll find out the name of the hotel, research said hotel, and if acceptable bid the remaining nights IMMEDIATELY, as opposed to waiting until after check-in.

I hope this helps.

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Welcome to BetterBidding!

Next, I looked on this forum to see what recent results had brought other people. Great again! I saw someone who just got rooms at the Westin and another person who got rooms at the Mariott! This is going to be great. I checked the prices that these people spent and started my bid on Priceline...

First, $52 for 4 star in the River Walk area. Sorry, not accepted.

Then upped the bid to $57 and added an area that didn't have 4 star hotels. Sorry again.

I tried $65 (the price the other 2 people won bids at recently) and Yay! Bid is accepted. Congratulations, your bid was accepted at the Emily Morgan.

It would be appreciated if you shared your results with the board as you recieve them (not just when you have an issue) so that others can benefit from the information, just as you had benefited from the posts of others.

Since you used the board to see what was won recently, imagine if somebody else had won this property just before you but chose not to share their win with the board... if they had posted, you would have considered it as a 'real' possibility :)

With the above noted, some comments regarding your post:

I'm sorry to hear you didn't enjoy your stay. However, with Orbitz, Expedia, and Travelocity all rating this proerty 4* i'm guessing it is probably fairly rated at 4 stars.

Regardless of PRICELINE's (or HOTWIRE's) name for a zone, always look closely as to the boundaries of the zone. Some zone names may describe the majority fo the zone, even though the zone extends beyond what most may consider to be "downtown" (or in this instance the "Riverwalk")

Don't necessarily expect the same hotels that others have won recently, especially when their dates are different than your own. Rates are date specific, and hotels won can vary greatly depending upon the dates of your stay. All that you can really expect is a hotel within the boundaries of the zone at the minimum star rating (as determined by PRICELINE) or higher.

If you're looking to target/avoid a specific hotel in the area then HOTWIRE can often be a better option as you can take an educated guess as to the property offered based upon the amenities shown before your purchase. This also leads into the part about booking one nite... that advise was for HOTWIRE (not PRICELINE) and only after seeing if the same hotel (based upon the amenities shown before the purchase) appear for both the first nite as well as for the balance of your stay.

Can you please add a reply to this thread with the date(s) of your stay so we can add this information to the topic title and enable your win to appear in the Priceline and Hotwire Calendar of Wins.

Free fee to ask for help before your next purchase and please use the requested PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on teh board to begin your future travel purchases.

Hope your future stays are better.

Please use this HOTWIRE and these PRICELINE LINKS: HOTELS, CAR RENTALS, and AIRFARE to begin your travel purchases

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Thanks for the response, and yes I'll be happy to include the detailed information from now on. I guess I'm still learning. Here's the info you're asking for:

We won our bid for the Emily Morgan - 4 star in the river walk area of San Antonio at $65. The bid progression was as follows:

$52 - lost

$57 - lost

$65 - Won ($65 was a common winning bid that I found on this forum).

Our stay was from October 14th to October 19th.

I bid for 2 rooms.

After winning the bid, I called the hotel and asked for non-smoking and double beds. They would not guarrantee double beds and said that "if you use Priceline, we will give you the smallest room we have available with one bed. We keep our better rooms for our 'real' customers, not Priceline". I guess that set me off right away. I asked to upgrade and they allowed me to do that for $20 per room. They talked up the better view (Alamo side) and the whirlpool tub (old, rusty and dirty) in both rooms.

I should add that my wife and I are not crazy people (early 50's) but we know what we like. We do not like old, old hotels that have smells, odors, and dirty showers and walls. The way I look at it, if the room smells and looks dirty, how clean are the things that you don't know about? Sheets, pillow cases, rugs, etc. We travel quite a bit, especially cross country on our motorcycle and know exactly what we like. We enjoy a newer built motel, fresh smelling halls and rooms, a lobby with an open area for continental breakfast and usually free coffee, free WiFi, and free parking.

I want to make sure to mention that we've been using Priceline for probably 10 to 12 total nights at different hotels/motels and every single time it's been a positive experience except this one. Many of the 'wins' we've gotten were actually 2 room suites with plasma TV's, huge beds, and clean as clean can be. Beautiful, fantastic places and we've never paid more than $55 before this trip. We love Priceline and won't let this experience change our mind. I like to learn from my mistakes and here's what I've learned:

I think I'm confused between a motel and a hotel. I also think I'm convinced that the majority of my mistake was to bid in an area of the city where there are naturally, old hotels - river walk/downtown. My better option would have been to look at the outlying areas near the freeways. Those 'exit' stops where there are several motels at an exit ramp always seem to be new builds, and things that we've come to expect - like free parking, free coffee, free breakfast, free wifi, are all more commonly expected.

Here's my strategy for the future:

Stay out of downtown areas of a city

Bid only one night to see which hotel I get. If I like the choice, increase the nights immediately. If I don't, bid the second night separate. This strategy may get me a one night dissapointment at worst case.

This is a fantastic forum and website. It has really been very helpful and I appreciate everyone who's working hard to keep it up. Thanks,

One more thing. Under the 'hotel' tab, I looked up the Emily Morgan. It seems that other people do not share my dissappointment in this particular hotel. I don't know if I'm just a 'lower class' Hampton Inn bum or very particular on cleanliness (I didn't think I was) but it does strike me as strange that I'm the only one who doesn't like this hotel. As I said before, maybe I'm more of a 'motel' person than a 'historical hotel' buff.

Wayne

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Here's my strategy for the future:

Bid only one night to see which hotel I get. If I like the choice, increase the nights immediately. If I don't, bid the second night separate. This strategy may get me a one night dissapointment at worst case.

This strategy may very well also land you in different hotels for each purchase.

If you're going to use this approach i would sooner do so with HOTWIRE than PRICELINE, first making sure that what you believe to be the same hotel is appearing for each subset of your stay.

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

Please use this HOTWIRE and these PRICELINE LINKS: HOTELS, CAR RENTALS, and AIRFARE to begin your travel purchases

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I think the TripAdvisor website reviews show lots of people share your opinion. There are two reasons I don't bid on hotels in downtown San Antonio on Priceline: I don't want to get Emily Morgan and all the hotels I researched charge ~$20 per day for parking. The airport area hotels are a quick shot down hwy 281 to get to downtown.

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Free breakfast, free coffee, free WiFi, and free parking are rarely found at 4* hotels; much more likely at 2-3*.

I can understand why the Emily Morgan in general might appeal to some and not others (pool and fitness facilities for example are poor) and Priceline is always luck of the draw. Have been there myself on Priceline and although it wouldn't have been my first choice it was OK enough for me. Then again I was given a room upgrade free from the 'Business Queen' to 'King Room', and didn't have any cleanliness or smells issues.

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Funny, I stayed at the Emily Morgan last year, and we were upgraded to an *extremely* nice room with an Alamo view and huge, clean bathroom with Jacuzzi. The room we first put in was smaller, did not have as good a view, but was clean. We were very pleased with our stay, and we didn't get quite as good a deal as posted here. I did not book it on Hotwire or Priceline (this was before I found out about Better Bidding!), but I believe we booked it on Hotels.com and did not have any issues with getting a lower quality room.

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