Your Bargain Huntress: Hotel for a Weekend

Sharel writes:

"Taylor and I are planning a little trip to San Antonio June 26-28. Looking for a great hotel for a reasonable rate, preferably near the Riverwalk area.

"Any ideas?

"Thanks,
Sharel"

Here are her options:

1. Airfare.com: Holiday Inn El Tropicano Riverwalk (89.24/night= 208.37 total with taxes )

• Located on Riverwalk.
• Payment due in advance.
• If cancelled more than 7 days prior, she can get a half refund.

2. Hotwire.com: a 3.5 star hotel ($89/night = 212.54 total with tax); or a 3 star ($79 = 187.66 total with taxes).

• Both must be paid for without knowing the specific hotel.
• Both of these are located within 2 or 3 blocks from the Riverwalk.
• Neither is refundable.
• Examples of a 3.5 star hotel: Hilton, Millenium, Crowne Plaza.
• Examples of a 3-star hotel: Holiday Inn, Radisson, Double Tree.
• I have always been pleasantly surprised by Hotwire.com.

3. Crowne Plaza Riverwalk: 4-star, $126/night (total of 300.03 with taxes on crowne plaza's website). Non-refundable rate.

4. Priceline.com: name your own price.

• Choose 4-star (hyatt, marriott, sheraton, hilton), downtown/riverwalk, $89.
• Hotel "revealed" after Priceline accepts your price and charges your credit card.
• If Priceline doesn't accept, change to 3.5 star and offer $79.
• Or try in a day or two at 4-star with a little higher price.

5. Another alternative is to find the hotel you want, (eg, the Crowne Plaza or Holiday Inn above), contact the local hotel to see if they can beat the lowest published price. Maybe they can throw in breakfast, upgrade your room, or lower the price.

WWBD: Try Priceline.com first 2 or 3 times. If that fails, go with Hotwire.com's 3.5-star hotel for $89.

Update:

"You rock!

"We decided to go with the Hotwire.com 3.5 star hotel for $89. We will be enjoying the St. Anthony - A Wyndham Historic Hotel. It looks really nice. I was a little bit nervous to try Hotwire, not knowing exactly what you'd get, but we were pleasantly surprised. We checked the normal rates for that hotel, for those same dates, and it runs $134 a night. So I think we got a great deal!!!

"Thanks for your help."