TMO Tip: Macworld At The 4-Star Grand Hyatt For $106 Per Night!

by , 7:00 AM EST, November 30th, 2004

As you all may remember, we here at The Mac Observer try to get great hotel rooms at great prices when we travel to Macworld Expo each time around. In years gone by, we have found great rooms through both Hotwire and Priceline; better yet, we have once again put together our instructions for how to do it for your own Macworld hotel room.

As with last year, Priceline has made things difficult by combining the Union Square, Convention Center, and Embarcadero areas into one. What this means is that you could possibly get a room at the Marriott Downtown, but also just as easily wind up way over in the financial district. We don't mind some risk, but hey, we're not crazy, either!

As such, just like we did last year, we turned to Hotwire to solve our problems. For just US$106 per day (plus fees and city taxes, of course), we found ourselves rooms at the Grand Hyatt Union Square. It's just a few blocks north of Market street, straight up from the Moscone. We've stayed there in years past, and it's a great location, both for the Expo, and for evening activities thereafter. Here's how we did it:

A word of warning: We must state that Hotwire's policy is such that you must purchase your room before they tell you at which hotel you'll be staying. You get to pick the area of the city, the price, the nights, and the star/quality rating of the hotel, but you DO NOT get to pick the hotel itself. We have done this at least 4 times and gotten the Grand Hyatt every time, but there's no guarantee that you will get the same results (though we expect that you would, based on our experiences). That said, as long as you're in the right area and paying the price you want for a 4-star hotel room, who cares where you wind up, right?

1. Go to Hotwire.com
2. Click on Hotels at the top of the screen
3. Type in "San Francisco, CA" for the City
4. Set your Check-in/out dates as well as the number of rooms you'd like, and click "Find a Hotel"
5. Choose "Union Square East" as the City Area, and click "Find Hotel Deals"
6. When Hotwire comes back, look for the listing labeled "Union Square East (Downtown)" for US$106 (or, really, depending on what days you're booking, anywhere from $101 to $111). It's usually listed as a "Customer Favorite!" with a red Thumbs Up icon to its left. It's also got 4 icons below it: Hotel, a knife/fork, a barbell dude, and a printer. Click "Continue" on that listing.
7. At this point, Hotwire will ask you to login or create an account. You'll need to complete this process in order to continue.
8. Once you're logged in, Hotwire will present you with a summary of your stay options and proposed charges. Confirm that this is right, and then fill out the Guest and Billing information appropriately.
9. You should get one more confirmation screen at this point, after which Hotwire will charge your credit card and let you know the details of your purchase, including which hotel you'll be staying at.

That should do it for you! Hotwire, Priceline, and the rest of their ilk can really delivery splendidly when it comes to hotel rooms. Over the past 5 years I have used one of these services to book my lodging almost every time I've traveled, be it on business or with my family, and it has worked out very well. While they do require that you be flexible with exactly which hotel you get, by being able to pick the price, specific location, and star level, there's really no gamble involved at all. Check it out for yourself, and let us know how you did with your comments below!

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