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How to Use Hotel Bid Alerts


nsxtasy
By nsxtasy,
in

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Priceline has a new feature called "Hotel Bid Alerts". You can specify a price, area, and star level - e.g. downtown St. Louis, 4 stars, $80 - and they will send you an e-mail whenever someone else submits a winning bid, at that price or less, for the area and star level you specify.

This can be useful information. It's actually similar to seeing the winning bids posted here on betterbidding.com except you don't see the actual price. In the example I give here, all you know is that someone bid no more than $80, and you don't know whether their winning bid was for $80 or for $60. So it tells you that you probably won't need to go any higher than the amount you specify, but it doesn't really tell you whether you could get an accepted bid for lower than the amount you've entered.

I'm accustomed to starting my bidding really low, well in advance, and then rebidding while increasing my bid by $1-5 dollars every 24 hours until it's accepted. Of course, I can continue to do this, as long as it's not a last-minute reservation, but I'd like any advice about where to to set this alert to give me more knowledge about how much to bid. I'm guessing that it might be most useful if I set the alert for $5-20 less than the accepted bids posted here on betterbidding.com so that it can tell me if/when a lower bid might be accepted, but that's just a guess.

I'd be interested in any advice anyone can give regarding how to use this new feature to best advantage while bidding.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm also a bit confused about how the alerts work when you set them for more than one star level. For example, in one Priceline neighborhood, I have set the following alerts:

4* $65

3.5* (can't set alerts, although hotels can be bid on)

3* $50

2.5* $45

2* $45

A few days ago I got two alert e-mails at the same time, saying that a 3* was accepted for $45 or less. Based on my alerts, I figured this probably meant that someone bid on a 2* (or 2.5*) for $45 or less, and won a 3*. But then this morning I got three e-mails at the same time, saying that a 4* was accepted for $65 or less, and I don't know why I got three e-mails instead of one.

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  • 2 months later...

The alerts do not apply to you specific dates... they're more of a way for PRICELINE to remind you to come back to their site and bid again. ;)

If you decide to continue the alerts, please remember to return to the board here to begin your bidding, and not any links in PRICELINE emails.

Thanks.

Please use this HOTWIRE and these PRICELINE LINKS: HOTELS, CAR RENTALS, and AIRFARE to begin your travel purchases

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