omahacityweekly.com

As part of our city hotel guides we are featuring some local attractions for each. For our Omaha page, Omaha Cheap Hotels: How to Find Them, we are featuring some local places to check out. Andrew Hershey, Media Director of the Bemis Center (currently ranked #8 of Tripadvisor’s things to do), was kind enough to answer some questions in regards to the Bemis Center:

What does the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts offer to visitors?

Visitors to the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts are able to explore exhibitions in the three main galleries and experience a variety of special events from musical performances, lectures, panel discussions, opening
receptions and open studios.  For upcoming events check BemisCenter.org.

Your exhibitions can be viewed by the public for free?

Yes, admission to the center during regular gallery hours 11-5pm Tuesday through Saturday is free as well as most events.

The art work is made exclusively by your artists-in-residence?

The Bemis Center’s exhibition program highlights multidisciplinary work that denies boundaries between media and genres and is socially engaged. Current exhibitions and projects are suffused with humor, rigor, and risk-taking and look for generosity of communication and the possibility of unexpected collaborations. We are excited by art that changes its audience and are interested in artists who allow their audience to change them.

Most exhibitions are by former artists-in-residence, but not exclusively.

I see that you also offer shows. What type of shows can visitors expect to
see?

The Bemis Center’s shows explore contemporary art in it’s many forms, from performance and theater to music and public art to exhibitions and installations.

Josh Hallett, “Downtown Savannah at Night” May 21, 2006 via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution.

If you are looking for Savannah cheap hotels, you’ve come to the right place. I’m not going to give you a “top 10″ list of cheap hotels in Savannah, I’m going to show you how you find them by yourself. With all the travel sites out there, you might be a little confused as to where to start your search. Here are your options:

1. Use Priceline’s Name Your Own Price Service. I tell you how to use it in Using Priceline to Find Cheap Hotels in Savannah.

2. Use Hotwire. I explain the differences between Hotwire and Priceline in Hotwire vs Priceline: A Comparison.

3. Find a cheap hotel in Savannah GA using some combination of travel sites, metasearch sites, hotel booking sites, websites from hotels themselves, and call to the hotel. Unfortunately there is no one “best” way to book your hotel, which always gives the best price. Hotel prices do not vary wildly and there is a price floor which they settle down at. Because hotel prices change all the time, do 10 minutes or so of homework and book a hotel. You might not be getting the best deal, but you’ll be getting a deal that is good enough. Even though Metasearch sites gather hotel data from all of the hotel booking sites, they are not miracle makers, as I discuss in Chattanooga Cheap Hotels Guide.

Price Match Guarantees of the Major Booking Sites: If prices do change, wouldn’t it make sense to book with the one, which has the best price assurance policy?

Orbitz.com=Cheaptickets.com and Hotels.com=Expedia.com?: Save yourself some time. These sites are like two pairs of identical twins.

Omaha Hotels Case Study: Here I tried to see which booking site had the best prices. I found that Hotels.com and Orbitz.com lead the way. However, for the Savannah area, other hotel sites can have better prices. Often I see that one particular website has very good prices for one area, but not for another.

Colorado Springs Hotels Case Study: Here, I found out that low price has a lot to do with cancellation policies.

Local Attractions (more to come!):

www.savannahbnb.com

Our interview with Jennifer McKenzie, Innkeeper of Savannah’s Bed and Breakfast Inn

Chris Watson, “Dolphin Jumping in Wake” April 14, 2007 via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution

Our interview with Amy of Dolphin Magic

One of the best ways to find cheap hotels in Savannah is through Priceline’s Name Your Own Price Service. Because Priceline allows you to rebid (naming your own price) it is in your best interest to know where to start to bid and how to maximize the number of bids that you have…

If you don’t know where to start your bid and/or don’t know how to rebid, you’ll be forced to bid high.

Betterbidding.com and biddingfortravel.com allow users to post winning bids for the Savannah area, which specify which zone the winning bid was for, what star level it was for, what dates it was for, and, of course, what the winning bid amount was. If you search for the Savannah area on Priceline you’ll see that there are 6 zones available.

Savannah Airport (SAV)
Savannah Gateway
Savannah Historic District
Savannah Midtown
Savannah North
Savannah West-Garden City

If you go to both of the aforementioned sites you’ll see recent winning bids for each zone. For example, for the Savannah Historic District I saw winning bids from $60-$90 for a 31⁄2-Star Upscale-Plus star hotel. Although most of the winning bids were closer to $90, I’d start my bid at $60 and bid higher each time (which I’ll tell you how to do pretty soon). Unfortunately, you’ll find that for some zones, there aren’t many recent bids posted.

If you click and unclick on each zone you’ll find the maximum available star level within each zone.

Savannah Airport (SAV): 3-Star Upscale
Savannah Gateway: 21⁄2-Star Moderate-Plus
Savannah Historic District: Resorts
Savannah Midtown: 3-Star Upscale
Savannah North: 21⁄2-Star Moderate-Plus
Savannah West-Garden City: 2-Star Moderate

Why did I put down “Resorts” as being the maximum available star level in the Historic District zone? Although it is on the bottom of the list, according to Betterbidding.com, resorts are rated higher than 4-Star Deluxe in Priceline’s system.

Why did I find out the maximum (“best”) star level for each zone? Because knowing this information will allow us to figure out what the dummy zones are so that you can rebid.

Let’s say that you want to bid for a 3-Star Upscale hotel in Savannah Midtown (3-Star Upscale is your chosen star level and Midtown is your one chosen zone). Your first bid gets rejected. Priceline allows you to rebid immediately if you change something about your criteria: your star level, dates, or zone criteria. I’m pretty sure that you don’t want to change anything in order for you to bid again. How do you do this? Simply change the zone criteria by adding a zone whose maximum available star level is lower than the one which you are bidding on. To bid again right away in our example, simply add the Savannah North zone because its maximum star level is only 21⁄2-Star Moderate-Plus. When you bid again with the Savannah Midtown zone and Savannah North zone (your dummy zone), you know you won’t end up staying in the Savannah North zone because its maximum star level is only 21⁄2-Star Moderate-Plus, lower than your chosen star level, which is 3-Star Upscale.

There are, of course, many ways you can rebid. Below I show you how you should bid for each zone by telling you what zones you should have selected for each rebid. For each green bid (odd numbered except the first one) you’re going to have to start a brand new bid by clicking the Priceline logo in the top left hand corner because Priceline does not allow you to easily change your zones (you’ll see what I mean once you start bidding yourself).

Savannah Airport (SAV) or Savannah Historic District (3-Star Upscale as chosen star level), substitute either zone into letter “A”.

1. A
2. A+Gateway
3. A+North
4. A+North+Gateway
5. A+West-Garden
6. A+West-Garden+Gateway
7. A+North+West-Garden
8. A+North+West-Garden+Gateway

Any zone except West-Garden (21⁄2-Star Moderate-Plus as chosen star level), substitute either zone into letter “A”.

1. A
2. A+West-Garden

Unfortunately, there are no rebids available if you select 2-Star Moderate or 1-Star Economy because there are no dummy zones, which we can use.

Savannah Historic District (Resorts, 4-Star Deluxe, or 31⁄2-Star Upscale-Plus as chosen star level. Make sure to only use one star level at a time for each set of rebids)

1. Historic
2. Historic+Airport
3. Historic+Gateway
4. Historic+Gateway+Airport
5. Historic+Midtown
6. Historic+Midtown+Airport
7. Historic+Gateway+Midtown
8. Historic+Gateway+Midtown+Airport
9. Historic+North
10. Historic+North+Airport
11. Historic+Gateway+North
12. Historic+Gateway+North+Airport
13. Historic+Midtown+North
14. Historic+Midtown+North+Airport
15. Historic+Gateway+Midtown+North
16. Historic+Gateway+Midtown+North+Airport
17. Historic+West-Garden
18. Historic+West-Garden+Airport
19. Historic+Gateway+West-Garden
20. Historic+Gateway+West-Garden +Airport
21. Historic+Midtown+West-Garden
22. Historic+Midtown+West-Garden +Airport
23. Historic+Gateway+Midtown+West-Garden
24. Historic+Gateway+ Midtown+West-Garden +Airport
25. Historic+North+ West-Garden
26. Historic+North+ West-Garden+Airport
27. Historic+Gateway+ North+West-Garden
28. Historic+Gateway+ North+West-Garden +Airport
29. Historic+Midtown+ North+West-Garden
30. Historic+Midtown+ North+West-Garden +Airport
31. Historic+Gateway+ Midtown+North+West-Garden
32. Historic+Gateway+ Midtown+North+West-Garden+Airport

Above I’ve covered all the rebids you could possibly have if you want to rebid again without changing anything about your stay. If your zone location is flexible and you happen to run out of bids for one zone, try the rebids for another zone. If you run out of bids for one star level in a zone, try to bid for the same zone using another star level.