Priceline can be a good way for travellers to save on hotel accommodations in Seattle. With Priceline’s Name Your Own Price, hotels in Seattle with excess inventory sell off their rooms to Priceline, meaning cheap discounts for customers like you. The only catch — you don’t know the name of the room until after you’ve bid and your hotel room bid has been accepted. While you can save money on Priceline, it’s worth learning a bit more about which hotels are in each bidding zone, which zones are good, and which ones to avoid.
Priceline Bidding Zones
Like most major cities, Priceline breaks Seattle up into several different zones. Most travellers stay in either the downtown area of Seattle, or near the airport. Here’s a quick of the major Priceline bidding zones.
Airport – SEA: This bidding zone has a handful of 3 star, run of the mill airport hotels. Many have an airport shuttle and some even include complimentary breakfast. But since hotel amenities are not guaranteed on Priceline, you might want to consider using Hotwire if you need to have a particular amenity.
Bellevue: Not too far from downtown Seattle is the city of Bellevue. If you have a car, you might save a bit of money by staying in Bellevue instead of downtown Seattle (plus you’ll save on parking for sure). There are some good hotels in Bellevue such as the Hyatt and the Westin.
Lake Union: This area is not too far from downtown Seattle. For most, it’s not within walking distance, but if you have a car, this hotel might be worth consideration. Many hotels, such as the Silver Cloud Lake Union have a complimentary shuttle to 3 stops downtown (Pioneer Square, Pike Place, and the Space Needle). They also include free parking, free breakfast, free wifi, and they have a swimming pool. For me, a dad with 3 kids, this is perfect. Bargains to be had from Priceline.
Seattle Center – Space Needle: This area is not as great as it sounds. When one thinks of Seattle, they think of the iconic Space Needle, but the area isn’t the nicest, and the hotel selection in this area isn’t that great, especially when you’re bidding on 4 star hotels. I’m not a huge fan of this area, and it would take a good deal before I bought here.
Seattle Downtown – Pike Place: This zone is the hub of Seattle. This is the preferred Priceline zone for most visitors to Seattle. There are at least 7 4-star hotels that have been reported as coming up on Priceline in this zone and all of them are great (some better than others). You’ll be charged a lot for parking, and in many case you will have to pay extra for wifi and other add-ons, but the area is so central to everything, it’s hard to reside.
Special note for cruisers: If you’re cruising out of Seattle’s Pier 66, The Edgewater Hotel is a real gem if you can snag this on Priceline. it’s in the Downtown – Pike Place zone. It’s within easy walking distance to Pier 66, whereas some of the other hotels will require a cab or shuttle ride.
Use The Priceline Hotel List To Identify Your Hotel
An excerpt from HotelDealRevealed.com's Seattle List of Priceline Hotels
HotelDealsRevealed.com maintains a list of Seattle hotels known to be on Priceline, as reported by actual customers. This is helpful in identifying your hotel, or at least narrowing down the possibilities of what you might get. You can also see what others are paying for Priceline hotels in Seattle. Before bidding, these two resource are worth consideration help reveal the name of your hotel, and to find out what others paid.
If you purchase a hotel in Seattle via PL, it would be really helpful if you could share your winning bid information. This is a form that you can fill out (it takes about 2 minutes). It helps keep the list of hotels up to date and gives other people an indication what people are paying for on Priceline.
Enjoy your time in Seattle, and happy bidding.