Priceline Hotel: 4.5* Los Angeles (Santa Monica - Marina Del Rey) Name Your Own Price

[Ziff73]

I would appreciate help identifying a hotel for an upcoming trip that is listed on priceline name your own price

Star rating 4.5 stars

Guest rating 8+

Santa Monica, CA

Dates of travel 7/24/15 - 7/27/15

Amenities: indoor or outdoor pool – pets - restaurant - fitness center - business center

Looks like it could be the following as these are the only 4.5* listed hotels in Priceline. Am I thinking about this correctly?

Casa Del Mar

Shutters on the beach

the rose hotel (though I don't see a pool listed in amenities, nor pets)

Any thoughts? I would take the first two, not sure about the rose.

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

The amenities shown by PRICELINE on the 'Name Your Own Price' side of their service are amenities that are offered by every hotel in the zone at that star rating, NOT a specific hotel that you would be bidding on (in fact, at this point of the bidding process they have not yet even checked for inventory for your dates).

When bidding on PRICELINE you need to be willing to accept any hotel in the zone at the star rating (or higher) that you choose... if you're trying to take a guess or have some insight as to the property before you purchase you will need to use PRICELINE EXPRESS (or HOTWIRE)

Please use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases... or thru our sister site MAPS and HOTELS.com for your regular rate purchases.

Let us know your thoughts on the above and how you would like to proceed and we'll advise accordingly.

[Ziff73]

Two follow up questions...

If all hotels in the area at that star rating include the shown amenities, the. Why does rose hotel show up in list view at that star rating but doesn't include the shown amenity. (Pool and pets)

Does the list view show all hotels at the selected star rating? Meaning is there a way to see all 4.5* hotels that I may be bidding on?

Thanks

[thereuare]

Each arm of PRICELINE uses a different universe of hotels so some hotels that are (for example) on the 'retail' side may not participate in the 'Name Your Own Price' side, and vice versa. Therefore, you can't use 'retail' listings to determine what it is that you may get when bidding on PRICELINE.

See the related link in our PRICELINE FAQ.

Please use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases... or thru our sister site MAPS and HOTELS.com for your regular rate purchases.

Let us know if/how you'd like to proceed.

[Ziff73]

Thanks. I'll review.

[thereuare]

Let us know whatever you decide for this stay or how we can be of further help.

Please use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases... or thru our sister site MAPS and HOTELS.com for your regular rate purchases.

Good luck!

[Ziff73]

I would imagine the universe of 4.5* hotels must be limited for the area, no?

I read the FAQ. So I guess there is no unofficial list?

Thanks for clarification on the different business units!

[thereuare]

Yes, the list would be somewhat limited, but as each booking agency using their own criteria to rate hotels, you won't be certain if you have covered them all (and guessed if PRICELINE rates a hotel a little lower at 4* or a little higher at 5*)

This would be my list of possible 4.5* properties:

Casa Del Mar

Shutters on The Beach

The Ritz-Carlton Marina Del Rey

The Rose Hotel

NOTE that if you did bid and received a hotel that didn't have the amenities that were guaranteed (ie- PRICELINE guarantees a Pool amenity but the hotel does not have one) then it should be enough for PRICELINE to offer to cancel the purchase (although these types of situations are handled on a case-by-case basis, so we can't say for certain how they will handle any specific instance).

Please use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases... or thru our sister site MAPS and HOTELS.com for your regular rate purchases.

[Ziff73]

thanks for the clarification. i'll let you know if i make any progress.

 

cheers

[yellowdog]

Thank you for keeping us updated with what you decide.

 

Please let us know if you have any further questions.

 

Please use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases... or thru our sister site MAPS and HOTELS.com for your regular rate purchases.

 

Yellowdog.

 

 

 

 

[Ziff73]

Update: I've been bidding, unsuccessfully.

200, 225, 250 and 275.

What percent off retail is reasonable?

Thx

[AaronJB]

What would be your desired max bid? Hot.wire has a 4* for $268 and a 4.5* for $370.

 

Please use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases... or thru our sister site MAPS and HOTELS.com for your regular rate purchases.

[thereuare]

What percent off retail is reasonable?

It doesn't necessarily work this way...

If a hotel has 200 rooms and they have booked 195 rooms, only leaving 5 available with three months to go, they may only offer a very small discount (or none at all) since there is obviously high demand and they would prefer to sell the rooms on their own at full price... if on the other hand they have only booked 25 of their 200 rooms, then demand is low and they would likely be willing to offer very deep discounts in order to increase occupancy and cover some of their fixed costs (housekeeping, front desk staff, maintenance, restaurant workers, etc... all of which need to be staffed regardless of whether the hotel has 1 guest or 200 guests)

Using our sister site MAPS and HOTELS.com, what is the best retail rate you're able to find at an acceptable hotel in this zone? How much of a discount would you need to make an 'opaque' purchase worthwhile? (or before you consider another zone which may be less expensive for these dates)

Please use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases... or thru our sister site MAPS and HOTELS.com for your regular rate purchases.

[Ziff73]

update: bid up to 450 so far with no success.

 

Retail listings of 4.5* hotels... (i realize this might not be the same universe of hotels on the name your own price side)

 

Casa Del Mar - 675

Shutters - 750

[thereuare]

With rates $675+ you're more likely looking at the first case scenario above where demand is high and hotels already have high occupancy levels, and therefore are more likely to offer very shallow discounts (if any discount at all)... do you know if some event taking place in the area over this time frame?

Please use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases... or thru our sister site MAPS and HOTELS.com for your regular rate purchases.

[AaronJB]

If you bid up to $450, would the Hot.wire 4.5* in Santa Monica for $370 be of any interest?

 

Please use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases... or thru our sister site MAPS and HOTELS.com for your regular rate purchases.

[Ziff73]

I believe that's the shore hotel, which happens to be my backup refundable reservation. (At a higher price of course.)

I was aiming for casa or shutters. So far bid up to 550. Think I'll hold off for a few weeks and try again in May.

[AaronJB]

Please keep us updated with what you decide and let us know if you have additional questions.

 

Also, our free service, RateDrop.com offers rate drop alerts for regular rate listings, PRICELINE EXPRESS listings and Hot.wire listings.

 

Please use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases... or thru our sister site MAPS and HOTELS.com for your regular rate purchases.