Nice hotel in Seattle for under $300???

[barndweller]

Okay got the timeshare in Victoria. Got the plane tickets from SW. Need hotel for 3 nights in Seattle. Would like something downtown so we don't need to rent a car. Would be nice to have a view but not a strict necessity. Willing to spend $200 to $250 a night. Dates are 8/01-8/04. What I'm seeing is outragious and I'm used to San Francisco! Help anyone?

[Luanne]

I did a quick look through Travelocity and I'm seeing the Hilton, where we stayed when we were in Seattle, for $239/night.

[JoAnn]

We stayed at the Red Lion on Fifth and it was within walking distance of Pike Market, The Cheesecake factory, lots of other restaurants and stores. I just did a search and see that their rates start at about $170. Room was nice size and clean, bed was very comfortable, good service.

[dougp26364]

There shoud be a good selection in downtown for under $300. If not, you can always look to Hotwire or Priceline for a better bargain. http://www.betterbidding.com can help you figure out what the hotel behind the price is on Hotwire.

We stayed at Marriott's Springhill Suites, which is on the northern edge of downtown. Very nice room and is only a few blocks away from the downtown "FREE ZONE" for the Seattle busses. If you don't want to walk there is a free shuttle that will get you downtown. They have stops at one of the downtown malls, the convention center and the space needle. The shuttle runs on the hour. We only paid $125/night and I considered it a bargain.

If you decide to rent a car and drive out the Mt. Rainer or Mt. St. Helens, there are three car rental agencies within walking distance. We rented a car for a day from Hetz. Their office was located by the convention center. Thrifty is also close by. With Hertz we were able to rent downtown and drop off at the airport or no extra charge. Saved us the cab fare getting back to the airport and gave us a car for the day.

[barndweller]

I'm looking at hotwire right now. Pretty great prices even on 4* but since I've never used them before I'm sorta skitterish..know what I mean. Great info here from you guys. I'm sure we will find something that's perfect. I'm fuzzy on locations. What's better for us retired folks ranging in age from 60-80yrs who don't mind walking: downtown or Pikes Market? Don't know how many blocks we're talking here.

[Luanne]

Originally Posted by barndweller

I'm looking at hotwire right now. Pretty great prices even on 4* but since I've never used them before I'm sorta skitterish..know what I mean. Great info here from you guys. I'm sure we will find something that's perfect. I'm fuzzy on locations. What's better for us retired folks ranging in age from 60-80yrs who don't mind walking: downtown or Pikes Market? Don't know how many blocks we're talking here.

And remember, much of the city (at least the way I remember it) is on a hill. We turned in our rental car when we got back to Seattle and got around through a combination of walking, cabs and the monorail. The Hilton was probably considered more "downtown", but it wasn't right in the center of town.

[JoAnn]

While we were at the Red Lion, we walked down about 3 or 4 blocks to Pike Market several times, and yes, it's up hill coming back, but we are in our mid 70's. It was 3 or 4 blocks to the Cheesecake Factory, and that was uphill (but not steep) going. Depends on what street you take coming up...we picked one that was very steep and had to stop a couple of times to catch our breath.

[Bill4728]

Originally Posted by barndweller

I'm looking at hotwire right now. Pretty great prices even on 4* but since I've never used them before I'm sorta skitterish..know what I mean. Great info here from you guys. I'm sure we will find something that's perfect. I'm fuzzy on locations. What's better for us retired folks ranging in age from 60-80yrs who don't mind walking: downtown or Pikes Market? Don't know how many blocks we're talking here.

First, Betterbidding.com has a list of hotel you are likely to win if you bid hotwire in Seattle.

Pike street market is just 3-4 blocks from the heart of downtown (westlake). Red Lion, Sheraton, Hilton are all almost as far.

As far as hills, Yes there are some but most are going east west and the city is long in the north south direction. So the only time you'll have to deal with hills is when you come up from the waterfront and when you came back from the pioneer square area.


Good Luck

[Bruce W]

Used Priceline ( with advise from the Better bidding site) for the day we came back from the Tug cruise (7/30/06) Got the Sheraton 4* downtown for $115 plus fees. Great hotel.

Bruce W

[Bill4728]

Just check hotwire and a 4* was only $149

Per betterbidding could be Grand Hyatt, Weston or Sheraton. ALL these would be a great place to stay in downtown Seattle.

[PStreet1]

It's been our experience that www.Priceline.com is about 20% less than Hotwire on a consistent basis; sometimes it's MUCH less. www.biddingfortravel.com shows that the Westin is being accepted on Priceline for $110-$125 per night, and the Sheraton is being accepted for $98 per night. Lots of people don't like the moderator of www.biddingfortravel.com, but the information is good, and I don't have a problem dealing with her attitude if it saves me money. Read the list of hotels Priceline uses in each area and the *category of each. There are also links to TripAdvisor for reviews. You really can't go wrong with a 4*hotel, and using Priceline you can probably get it for $100-125 a night.

Read the primmer on bidding on www.biddingfortravel.com in order to learn how to get the most hotel for the least money. It's true that you won't know the exact hotel until after the bid is accepted, but you'll know the * category, and you'll know where it's located within a few blocks--and with biddingfortravel, you'll know it will be one of about 5 hotels, none of which would be bad. What's not to like?

[barndweller]

WooHooooo! It's the Westin for $149 for the 3 of us. I used Hotwire because I needed a room for 3 adults. Thanks you guys. Now on to Ferry schedules.....