Priceline & San Francisco hotels
 

OK, this topic has been beaten to death, but I need a little advice. So far, I've had no luck on Priceline, bidding for 4* hotels in the Union Square East area. I'll be in San Francisco 9/11-9/15.

Surfing the Fodor California forums, a lot of people have posted opinions about their favorite hotels. As a result, I checked some of them out and found I could get a room at a few places for a reasonable rate.

For example, The Grand Hyatt has a special until 8/26 for $217. The Hotel 480 and Sir Francis Drake are $209 and $206, respcetively.

I really want my first trip to the city to be memorable and would hate to have it shadowed by a mediocre hotel stay.

My question is this, should I go ahead and book a room directly from the hotel or keep trying on Priceline? On other sites, people have mentioned that because they bid on thier rooms, they were given less desireable room locations.

Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

Thanks.

One would have to ask what price you have been bidding? Did you use the free rebid feature?

Sure, you could go ahead and reserve a room that would be cancellable up to 6pm on the date of arrival. Just remember to cancel when you get a winning bid on Priceline.

Of the hotels you have listed, the 460 and the Drake are both 3* hotels, while the Grand hyatt is a 4* on Priceline, so for that small differential in price, I'd suggest reserving the Grand Hyatt.

The Argonaut is the only 4* listed for Fisherman's Wharf and that's a very nice hotel as well.

So you could bid ONLY the 4* level and add in the other districts while upping your bid price until you are successful. Whatever you do, please don't go down in star level.

Good luck!

I went up to $125. I've seen winning 4* bids in the Union Square area for less. I have been using the free rebid, too. My guess is since I'm bidding for 4 nights, that's what's keeping me from winning. But, I don't want to split my bid and then waste time moving from (possibly) moving from one hotel to another.

I want to stay at a 4*, so I'll try again this evening and go up more in price. Wish me luck and thanks.

I've never felt that I have been given a less desirable room with a PL reservation, more than with other booking methods. If I don't like the room, I ask for a change, and it usually not a problem to do so.

I would keep on trying. I would keep the 4*, but raise by $5 to 140. What is your max?

Did you ask for advice on BFT? ((*))

Blacknight, I feel your pain. I live in the SF Bay area and overnight in SF several times a year. We usually get the Hyatt Regency (Embarcadero) for $75 to $80. I've been bidding without success for any night between September 10 and 15. If you check out recent bids at biddingfortravel.com, you'll see that the bids have to be a lot higher for that time period due to several conventions in SF around that time.

I've quit bidding for a few days, thinking maybe I started too soon. Since we are within a 45-minute drive to SF, getting a room isn't critical as we can always drive in. In your case, I'd reserve a cancellable back up and keep bidding until the last minute.

Let us know how it goes, and I'll do the same.

Oops, to address your second concern, in all the times we've stayed in SF through PL, I've never felt we had a less than desirable room.

You should definitely go ahead and book the best room you can find that you can cancel, as September is a very busy month in San Francisco, and rates will increase as your dates get closer.

Then, check the pinned hotel lists for 4*'s on both BiddingforTravel and BetterBidding. Unless you find objectionable reviews, you may want to include other zones in your Priceline bidding.

San Francisco isn't that big, and you'll want to go all over, so shouldn't restrict hotel location to the Union Square area.

You're probably correct that bidding 4 nights is what is making you fail.

Try bidding 3 nights and if you are successful, then use the "Add a Night" feature.

I'd guess that it would be easier to add a Sunday night rather than a Thursday night, so if you bid for Sept 11-13 and were successful, you could try and add the night of the 14th.

OTOH, Your rates are high because of that Thursday night. If you were to bid three weekend nights Friday to Monday, you could probably get the rooms for less. Would you be willing to pay the going rate for Thursday night?

Here's a convention calendar. Looks pretty busy!

http://www.sfcvb.org/convention/calendar.asp

Yikes! Thanks for the calendar, Betsy. Darn those dentists! Since I'm coming for Chicago, my other option would be to sleep in MacAuthur Park.

I've got a post on BetterBidding, too. Between both posts, I've gathered quite a bit of info. I have found BFT more confusing, though.

Easytraveler, I have given thought to bidding for 3 nights and then booking the last night through the winning hotel. I was unaware of the an "Add a Night" feature. I'll probably use my AAA membership.

At this point, if I can keep it under $200, I'll be happy. I get to rebid at 9pm, so I'll let you know how it goes. Good luck to you, too.

Blacknight: I've been thinking (and this is a dangerous sign! :) ) - if you bid Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights on Priceline, you SHOULD be able to get something for slightly over $100 or even less.

Then, when your bid is successful, the Priceline page that tells you that your bid has been successful will also ask you if you want to "add a night?" You can add a night either before or after your successful bid nights (in your case, either Thursday night or Monday night). You can just specify that you want to add a night at the same rate. Sometimes Priceline will tell you that there is nothing available for that added night or that the rate will be higher.

Good luck tonight! :)

Hi ET! Is the "add a night" option always available? I was under the impression that it's offered sometimes but not others.

Since the other times I bid and won, I never noticed the "add a night" option. At any rate, I got shot down, again! My final bid was $160, even after adding Union Square West.

I plan on charting both Thursday and Sunday night rates for 4* hotels in the Union Square area. Then, based on which night has more reasonable rates, I'll drop that night and bid for 3. If I win, I'll purchase the 4th night directly from the hotel (unless the add a night feature is offered).

Thanks again for your input and I'll let you know if (when) I win.

Hi, Betsy!

Yes, as far as I know. I noticed this option less than a year ago and have used it a few times since.

It's only one night though.

If you wanted to add two nights after a successful bid, you'll have to add one and then bid again on the additional second night.

I've been most successful in winning nights on weekends and then backtracking and picking up the previous Thursday. It's a little trick I learnt when being unsuccessful in getting three or four nights in a row.

Sometimes I've been successful in bidding Sunday and Monday night and then adding Tuesday night.

The rate for my added night has been, about half the time, the same as the other nights and the other half the rates have been a bit higher.

Hope this helps!

Thanks for that strategy, ET.

I'm bidding for any one night, Sept.10 thru Sept. 15, but I prefer Sept. 12. I'd like to get the Grand Hyatt, like we always have, but would accept any USE 4*. I checked the Hyatt rates on each of the dates above, and they're lowest on the 12th and 13th. I just bid, without success, up to $100 for the 12th, using all of the available free rebids.

I'm posting this to let Blacknight know what I'm experiencing. He'll probably have the best luck by bidding for the nights of the 12th and 13th. The rates for the Hyatt have dropped in some of their rate categories since I started bidding a week or so ago, so I'm going to watch their rates and try bidding again in a few days. Hoping they (or someone in USE) give PL some lower priced inventory.

Wow! Besty, you haven't been able to get night at a reasonable rate? I'm doomed.....

Yes, it looks like the likeliest dates would be either the 12th or the 13th, since the tech convention of 13,000 will end on the 12th and the dental convention begins on the 12th.

checking BFT, it looks like 4* USE comes in at $110 on up.

If it were me, I wouldn't wait several days between bids, but would keep trying every day. The conventions make the likelihood of any Priceline rooms opening up between now and your dates pretty slim, so you want to snatch whatever comes along as quickly as possible.

For example, I wanted two rooms for two nights for an event that is booked a year ahead of time. I had to make reservations at a real hole of a hotel because it was the only thing available. However, I kept trying and just last week, something opened up on Priceline, and I was able to snag a 4* - at least for one night. Couldn't add another night, no matter what I tried, so it looks like we'll have to stay in the "hole" one night and in the 4* the other. :)

Blacknight, how about Hotwire? They're offering $185 for a 4.5 in the Embarcadero area for Sept. 12. I think the moderators at Better Bidding will tell you which hotel is making the offer. There may be a specific format for framing your request.

Don't forget that you'll have to add almost 20% to your total bill in taxes. :-(

Last week, I bidded for a SF hotel via PL for the labor day weekend. Since our stay is for 5 nights (including a Thurs), I ended up breaking up my bid to two bids, one for Thurs only and then one for Fri-Mon.

My experience is that the hotels will release more rooms at a lower rate, sometimes for just one day, then take them away again. I find Hotwire useful to judge what hotels are available at what rate. Also, on PL, if you don't use the "Name your own price" feature, it'll give you a list of hotels and their rates. I tend to start bidding about 60% off the published rate and go up using free rebids.

I was successful in getting my rooms at 50-60% off the lowest rate posted on the hotel website.

The "Add a night" feature is only offered after one has successfully win a bid; however, you may or may not be successful in adding a night. In my situation, I won my bid for Fri-Mon; but when I clicked on the "add a night" feature to add on Thurs night, it was rejected.