rainpetal

I am excited about this hotel, it looks nice and I'm actually perfectly fine with it not having a casino. My husband and I have never been to Vegas and we are interested in seeing it all, not just the casinos.

I started bidding Strip North and Strip South at $90 and went up by $5 increments to $115, no luck.

After that I started bidding in $1 increments and finally got the Vdara at $119/night.

Priceline is now referring to this hotel as Days Inn New Cumberland, but the Days Inn website refers to it by both names.

Bid 45, then 50, then won at $55.

Still at least $15 off their posted Priceline price, so not bad. Especially since we are headed to an extremely large car show in Carlisle and everything else is probably booked solid already.

After talking with my husband and deciding that we were willing to go down to 3.5* in hopes of getting a cheaper price and noticing a 3.5* on Hotwire for $102, I decided to try bidding really low. I started at $75 and increase by $5 increments until I got this hotel for $90/night.

3.5* The New York Helmsley Hotel

4/8/12-4/10/12

$90/night

$45.58 taxes and fees

$225.58 total

More than 51% off from my back up hotel's cost. I'm a bit nervous about the fact that they are under renovation, but I guess I will just pack earplugs and hope for the best.

My dates are finally set for April 8-10. I was looking at Hotwire for comparison today and found a 3.5* in Midtown East with the following amenities:

Restaurant, Business Center, High-Speed Internet Access

Based off the hotel list, I think it might be the Helmsley New York. Could it be anything else? My only concern is that the Helmsley is under rennovation and I worry a bit about the construction noise. But that would also help explain the dramatic discount.

My back-up reservation is the Holiday Inn Express Pensacola West-Navy Base for $112/night. We saved so much with our Charlotte hotel and we are using accumulated points to cover our other hotels, we figured we just wanted a nice, reliable hotel even if it is a bit more expensive. Free breakfast is always nice too. :)

Took the bidding up to $75 for a 2.5* with no luck. At this point, I'm just going to stick with my back up reservation since it doesn't appear that bidding is going to get me much of a discount.

Thanks for the help anyways.

The Sheraton Charlotte Airport Hotel is now a 4* on Priceline.

Bid 3.5* in the Charlotte Airport and Executive Park - Airport South starting at $45. Used rebid zones to increase my bid by $1 at a time until I got the following:

Sheraton Charlotte Airport Hotel

4* - Charlotte Airport area

$56/night, $74.14 after tax

Very happy with this. The Sheraton is closer to the airport, a higher star rating, and much cheaper than my back up reservation.

Thanks to all who helped out. It was a great learning experience.

I have found a 4* Sheraton on PRICELINE for $129 and a 3* Courtyard on HOTWIRE for $79.

No luck today. How often does it happen that an amount isn't accepted one day, but is on another day? I'm trying to decide if I should reconsider my max bid or my star level, or if I should keep trying for a little while longer before changing?

Looks like I read my list wrong when I made my first posting. I meant to list Univ. Mall area instead of Pensacola Beach. Pensacola Beach is too far from where we need to be.

Tried bidding a low ball amount today just to check it out.

1st bid: Pensacola Bay, Univ. Mall Area 3* @ $30 - rejected

2nd bid: added Navarre @ $35 - rejected

3rd bid: Added Pensacola West @ $40 - rejected

I will try a little higher amounts tomorrow. I was more trying to get a hang of it all today.

Yes, you are correct. I want to start bidding for 4* hotels in the Airport CLT zone and just see what happens. If nothing works out at 4*, I will then branch out to 3.5* in either the Airport CLT or Executive Park-Airport South.

The reason I thought $50 might be possible was because I saw on hotwire's retail side the 2.5* Baymont Inn at $50/night. I know that the 2 sides are necessarily compatible, but I figured that if that price was available for a hotel where you can see the name, it might be plausible for bidding as well.

I personally would rather bid the 4*s first up to the max before trying the 3*s. My husband is willing to pay $70 a night, but I guess I want to try a max of $50 for a 4* for a little while to see if I can get anything before I start either going higher in bids or lower in stars.

Just following up as requested. My schedule for this trip is still not totally firm. I won't know the exact dates until MId-March. I will follow up again when I know our April work schedules.

Thanks for understanding.

I haven't decided anything yet for my NYC trip. That request for help is still pending until I know the firm dates for the trip come mid-March. I will follow up on that one when I know more. Unfortunately, my husband's schedule in only available 1 month at a time. We just don't know April's schedule yet.

Thanks for understanding.

I haven't decided anything yet for my NYC trip. That request for help is still pending until I know the firm dates for the trip come mid-March. I will follow up on that one when I know more. Unfortunately, my husband's schedule in only available 1 month at a time. We just don't know April's schedule yet.

Thanks for understanding.

Would like to stay in Charlotte on March 25th. Would like to stay in either the Charlotte Airport or Executive Park - Airport South areas for hopefully a $50 max bid. I would love to stay in a 3 or 4* but I'm not sure if $50 is too low of a max bid.

Any bidding suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Looking for a hotel in Pensacola on March 24th. Would prefer a 3* but will do 2.5*. I don't really want to go over $50 and would like to stay in either Pensacola Bay, Pensacola Beach, or Pensacola West (2.5*).

Any bidding suggestions would be appreciated. Not sure if my max amount is too low.

Thanks.

I've never tried PL before but I've been reading about it on the forums and I think I have the basics down. I was just looking for a bit more detailed advice.

I'm hoping to bid for a 4* hotel in the TS, MTE, MTW, CPS areas for travel days of April 8-10. Our dates won't be firmed up until mid-March so I won't be bidding until then but we have theater tickets on April 9 so the dates are at least set in wet cement.

I'm hoping to try to bid no more than $150/night, which I understand might be a bit low for the area and the time of year, but I figured I would at least try for something a bit cheaper that the $200/night cancellable reservation at the DoubleTree Metropolitan I currently have set up. I understand the re-bidding concept of adding areas that don't have 4* hotels and increasing my bid incrementally. My main question is, say I start bidding, using my re-bid zones and incrementally adding to my bid until I run out of re-bids at $150 and haven't won anything, what is the next step? Do I wait the 24 hours and then do the exact same thing the next day, or does the strategy change? If I repeat the same bidding system multiple days in a row, how long do I go until I determine it isn't going to happen at that price point and either increase my bid or change my criteria for stars and/or location?

I appreciate any help you can give me.