Have you gotten a "Tips for Successful Bidding" email from P, a bit of a lecture Options

[WillTravel]

Instead of a simple rejection email, I received an email with the title:
priceline.com Tips for Successful Bidding to Seattle, WA -- March 29, 2009

As you recently reviewed on priceline.com, your offer for a hotel in Seattle, WA was unsuccessful. Listed below is information pertaining to your offer and tips for successful bidding. Please review these tips and try your offer again.

[The email then goes on to give tips about adding zones and raising my price.]

This email arrived about 10 hours after I tried the bid today.

I actually received two such emails. The first refers to my most recent bid of $50 for 2.5* for Seattle - Pike Place, and a few minutes later I did another bid for $47 for Seattle - Space Needle 2.5* (that one attracted a +$13 counteroffer). (I'm proceeding very slowly here, as I would prefer the Pike Place zone in this case, so I am reluctant to try to hone in on the Space Needle counteroffer.)

Has anyone else started getting informational rejection emails? I guess there could be some merit, particularly for inexperienced users.

[Colfax]

I get "Tips for Successful Bidding" emails after most failed bids now. Sometimes hours later, like you.

The two tips are 1) "Change Area, Star level, or Dates" or 2) "Change Your Price". In the email Priceline puts a link allowing you to bid again higher right now, but they don't mention the 24-hour lockout rule, which is still in effect. If you bid higher through that email link before 24 hours your bid gets kicked back as a duplicate and that resets the 24-hour lockout clock back to zero, unless that's changed.

[thereuare]

In the email Priceline puts a link allowing you to bid again higher right now, but they don't mention the 24-hour lockout rule, which is still in effect. If you bid higher through that email link before 24 hours your bid gets kicked back as a duplicate and that resets the 24-hour lockout clock back to zero, unless that's changed.

PLEASE don't use the links in PRICELINE's emails as they overwrite our own referal ... please return to the board and click our own PRICELINE link to begin your bidding.

THANKS!!

[Colfax]

Just to clarify...I use BetterBidding's links almost always, and I encourage others to do so as well.

I've bid through Priceline's "Tips for Successful Bidding" links twice, as sort of an experiment or trial. Much of my bidding happens a day or two before arrival, or even the same day, and if my bids are rejected sometimes there's not time to try again, due to Priceline's 24-hour lockout rule. The wording in Priceline's "Tips" emails suggests that bidding through their link might override the 24-hour lockout rule; i.e. that you can bid higher immediately without changing any parameter but price.

If that was true then there are infrequent situations when I might need to use Priceline's "Tips" link, rather than the board link, because I don't have 24 hours to wait.

But having tried the "Tips" link twice now, and having my bids rejected as duplicates both times because they were within 24 hours, I can say there's no advantage to bidding through Priceline's "Tips" emails. In fact that "Tips" link creates an issue and a delay, since using it brings rejection AND possibly resets your 24-hour clock back to zero.

So yes, everyone, ignore those "Tips" emails and please use links that help sustain this board.