Reasonably Priced Vancouver Hotel

[lily0329]

I'm booked on an Alaskan cruise departing from Vancouver in July and am looking for a reasonably priced hotel for two nights. I'm meeting a friend, who is staying at the Westin on Bayshore Dr. but I'd rather stay somewhere less expensive and save my money for the cruise excursions and extras. Ideally the hotel would provide transportation from the airport. Any suggestions?

 

We're arriving two days early so we can see some of the Vancouver highlights. Is public transportion available from the hotel? I'll need to meet my friend for activities.

 

Linda

[cntrydncr1]

Linda;

We got the Westin Bayshore for only $75 a night on Priceline which I think is pretty reasonable and I know some people got it even cheaper than that. It is easy to bid and get 4* hotels cheap in Vancouver. I used suggestions from betterbidding.com on how to bid as I had never done this myself and was a little nervous. Vancouver is supposed to be one of the best cities for bidding through priceline.

[dam1050]

You really can't beat those bargain prices for the Westin Bayshore. It's a great hotel in a fabulous location on Coal Harbour within easy distance of Canada Place and at the entrance to Stanley Park. Another bonus is that all Westin hotels are totally non-smoking now. My personal suggestion would be to join your friend by staying at the Westin Bayshore also.

 

Dave

[ilion]

Been bidding up to $130 for a four-star vancouver hotel to no avail for Aug 10 -12. Any other hotel recommendations?

 

Thanks

[ilion]

Been bidding up to $130 for a four-star vancouver hotel to no avail for Aug 10 -12. Any other hotel recommendations?

 

Thanks

[Indycr]

I was able to get the Westin Bayshore today for $91/night + tax, for nights of 20 and 21 July '06

[yodgo]

Last night I was able to get the Westin Bayshore for 3 nights at the end of August for $85/ night on Priceline. With taxes and fees it works out to be about $100 U.S. per night.

[LEtue]

I like using Hotwire and got the Crowne Plaza for $67 for two nights when cruised in May. There is a mall across the street (under the Hyatt Regency) that includes a small food court. We walked to the Gaslight District and to Canada Place to see the ships sail out the day before. It is a nice location and there were buses going by out front so it should be easy to use public transportation from there.

 

You might want to give it a try!

[jdmss]

lily0329,

 

The Westin Bayshore is a beautiful, great hotel but a few blocks from downtown right in Coal Harbour, any hotels you book downtown you will have to walk or take the bus down West Georgia St, hop off and walk two blocks north to get to the Bayshore. If you don't want to pay the Bayshore hotel rates, you can either bid on Priceline for a 4 star hotel and HOPE you get the Westin, (I got Pan Pacific June 1 for $111), depends on what is going on in the city at the time, or check out Hotwire.com, I got a fabulous deal last year for Listel HOtel on Robson for $45 or book St. Regis (boutique hotel), stayed there many times.

[showdog]

we used hellobc.com to reserve a room at the Pan Pacific as someone had suggested here and we saved a lot of money. Our full harbor view room was less than 280 dollars a night. Why would anyone want to stay any where other than the Pan Pacific before going on a cruise? This was our 2nd time staying there and the view from your room watching the ships come in to dock in the morning is like an wonderful tour in itself.

 

They come in around 5:30 in the morning and with a room on one of the upper floors with a full harbor mountain view you can watch the ships come in under the bridge, get a full above view glance at the ships when they are docked, and have your luggage taken right from your room to the ship. Well worth the money to me.

[GGS]

Last night I was able to get the Westin Bayshore for 3 nights at the end of August for $85/ night on Priceline. With taxes and fees it works out to be about $100 U.S. per night.

I have attempted Priceline a few times, and whenever the refuse the first bid it always ask me to change not only my bid but also the number of stars or something else. I only want to take a chance on a 4 star hotel. I can't see how all of you got the Westin Bayshore, can you ask for it specifically???

[Indycr]

In Vancouver there are only two priceline areas that have 4 stars, downtown

and there is 1 at the airport.

 

Keep changing you bid and combine downtown with one of the other areas,

but do not do any bids that include the Airport Area. This gives you about

5 attemts to get the Bayshore, but of course you may get another 4 star...

it just depends on who is accepting what price level. You cannot search

for just a single hotel, but it does seem that the Bayshore is being the most

agressive on prices and that is why so many are scoring what they want.

[K.T.B.]

My only suggestion is avoid Ramada Inn Downtown. Great location, but the rooms are smaller than an inside cabin.

[BEAV]

I have attempted Priceline a few times, and whenever the refuse the first bid it always ask me to change not only my bid but also the number of stars or something else. I only want to take a chance on a 4 star hotel. I can't see how all of you got the Westin Bayshore, can you ask for it specifically???

 

No, you can't ask for a specific hotel on Priceline. As you've already discovered, Priceline divides the Vancouver area into zones (downtown Vancouver, Coquitlam-Burney, Surrey, Vancouver Airport, etc). Assuming you want to bid only for downtown Vancouver, and only for 4 stars, you have a number of immediate "rebid" opportunities at your fingertips.

 

First off, look at each of the Vancouver-area zones one at a time. Jot down on paper all the zones that only offer up to 3-star hotels (in other words, zones that don't have 4-star hotels). You will see there are a number of zones that don't have any 4 star hotels. This is the key to immediate rebidding for a 4-star hotel in the downtown Vancouver zone.

 

Once your initial bid for a 4 star hotel in downtown Vancouver is rejected, you can immediately rebid again, only this time adding one of the zones that have no 4 star hotels (such as Surrey, for example). By adding the Surrey zone, you have now satisfied Priceline's insistance that you alter your strategy for your next bid. Remember to keep your next bid set at 4-stars. Do not select any other star level. Increase your bid amount by $5 over your previously rejected bid and spin the dice again. If rejected a second time, add yet another zone that has no 4-star hotels and keep going.

 

Yes, I know you'll be scared to death to add Surrey, Delta, Langley, etc to your bid, but as long as you always keep your bid at 4 stars, there is no way Priceline will assign you a hotel in either of those zones (simply because there are no 4-star hotels in those zones!). This is a tried-and-true method, nothing at all new!

 

If you've exhausted all your free rebid zones and you still haven't been successfull, then Priceline allows you to start the entire process over again after 24 hours has passed.

 

Getting back to downtown Vancouver zone and the Westin, there are many 4 star hotels that participate with Priceline (Marriott Pinnacle, Hyatt Regency, Sheraton Wall Centre just to name a few). The determining factor in which hotel you'll be assigned has a lot to do with how much inventory each hotel allocates to Priceline as well as price. If the Hyatt Regency sets their Priceline rate at $100, then you won't be assigned that hotel on a bid of $85. So by the posts on this thread, it sounds like the Westin gives Priceline a fairly good amount of inventory and at a good price, too.

 

If you need further help with your Priceline bids, someone else already mentioned going to www.betterbidding.com, which is a great suggestion.

 

Good luck!

[GGS]

I did exactly what you told me to do and sure enough finally after alot of back and forth over several days I finally got the Hyatt Regency for $119 a night for 2 nights the weekend of August 11-13th, I booked two rooms. I started at $85.

 

I looks like a nice place. I cancelled my reservation for the Renaissance Hotel which i had gotten the old fashion way, which was 200 for one night and one room.

 

Thanks to all who advised!!!

[BEAV]

Congratulations! So glad that worked out for you and hopefully the mystery of Priceline is a little less clouded!