Priceline Hotel: 3* San Francisco (USE) Chancellor Hotel

[Colfax]

This was a Saturday night stay, bid the night before.

Rejected bids:

$63/4* USE, USW, SOMA, Embarcadero

$60/3.5* USE, USW, SOMA

$55/3* USE, USW

Immediately after my bid was accepted the Chancellor showed sold out on its own website and on other websites. When I checked in the hotel confirmed that they were sold out for Saturday night.

As a Priceline guest on a sold out night I was expecting maybe a room with issues but they gave me a good room, 6th floor overlooking Powell, with treetop views of Union Square and Macy's. Rooms overlooking Powell also get some cable car noise. Not everyone agrees but to me the cable noise is "good noise". Rooms at the back of hotel are quieter but also get less light and view.

My room had two twin beds and was adequate sized...not the small room you sometimes get at older Union Square hotels. Chancellor was built in 1914 and has the "old world charm" without sacrificing modern conveniences (no problems with heat, hot water, etc.) 32" LCD flat panel TV in room and free highspeed worked well.

Guest parking is $24/night with in and out privileges at an affiliated garage around the corner on Sutter.

Luque's Restaurant in the hotel lobby is a good spot for casual breakfast. Chancellor guests get a 10% discount.

This was my second time at Chancellor, both on Priceline, and I've had two good stays. You won't find a more central location in SF. Btw, Chancellor restricts occupancy to two people per room, other than suites.

Bids were placed through the BetterBidding PRICELINE link.

[Gallus50]

Glad to hear you got a good room. I have a feeling twin bed rooms are harder to fill, but perfectly fine if you happen to be traveling solo ....

[thereuare]

Sound like a good stay... and even more impressive given the sold-out condition at this property.

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

[Colfax]

Glad to hear you got a good room. I have a feeling twin bed rooms are harder to fill, but perfectly fine if you happen to be traveling solo ....

I hadn't seen two twin beds in a hotel room in a long time.

Travelling solo does make using Priceline easier, at least in zones like USE and USW where there are still a lot of older hotels with smaller rooms. I can think of several Priceline rooms I've won, mostly in Union Square or Civic Center zones, that were perfectly acceptable for me alone, but would have been uncomfortable for two people sharing. When I'm alone I can accept most anything. My Chancellor room wasn't a very small room though. Two people could easily have shared the room; they just couldn't share a bed.

Two other things I liked about Chancellor:

1) There's a sturdy Chancellor unmbrella in every room. And I needed it.

2) The thermostat was so easy. There's one big knob on the wall. Turn it right for warmer. Turn it left for cooler. That's it. And it works. Lately I've stayed at some hotels that had "high-tech" thermostats with 6 or 8 buttons and controls, all sorts of flahsing icons, timers, auto resets, etc etc and after three nights in the same room I still had no clue how the thermostat worked. Sometimes the old-fashioned way works best.