MiSsMoMmY

I tried everything but no luck, thanks everyone for your tips. We ended up camping for three more nights in a $35 per night site and driving the extra hour to portland and back.

FYI, No luck at all, tried every combo and so did my girlfriend. Everything from 3* to 1* for just 8/16-8/18 and 8/16-8/19 and went up to 85 for the three nights with no luck. :( Looks like we may be camping out all 7 days. There were a couple of hotels in my price range on Orbitz, but they only had smoking rooms, or nonsmoking rooms with only one bed and I need two.

No luck for my priceline bidding with similar dates of 8/16-8/19 too. :(

What do you mean 5 increment? What did you do exactly? Thanks!

Well I am going to be bidding early in the AM on the 10th so I likely won't have time to post and wait for a reply. I'm just looking for a general strategy to allow me the most possible bids. There are three zones 1. Biddeford Saco, which has its highest hotel as a 2 1/2 star 2. Portland West, which has a 3 star 3. South Portland Scarborough, which has a 3 1/2 star Any of these areas would be fine as my overall goal is the cheapest room. I plan on bidding as many times as possible for the three night stay, and if I don't win a bid, decreasing to the two night stay, which will allow me to big again (?). In order to get the max number of bids, can I select Area 1, bid $60 and if I don't win, add area 2, bid 70, then add area 3, bid 80 etc? Then if that doesn't work, change to the two-night stay and repeat?? I guess I just don't understand how the rebidding works -- should I start with the 3 1/2 star zone and work down, or is it okay to do the above strategy and work up, to give me chances to increase my bid? If I can't get the hotel at a really good price, my plan is just to extend my campsite reservations, which are only costing me $28 per night, but are an hour drive from Portland. (Oh, and to answer Romelle, 250 is the total I want to spend - I'd like to get three nights, but if not, two nights for 250 or less is fine.)

Oh, and my goal is to get the least expensive room possible, but I would really prefer there to be a pool and/or hot tub at the hotel (dont care what the room is like), so thats why I said 2 star.

I am going to wait to bid until the 10th as I am using a debit card and I will need to have the funds in there before the transaction goes through.

I've been trying to read everything about how to bid but it is all confusing. I want to bid on a hotel in Portland, ME for the nights of August 16, 17th and 18th. I will not have the money in my account until August 10th. I get price alerts from them and have gotten numerous alerts that one in scarborough - south portland is booking at $70. Do I start bidding on a 3.5 star (the highest) even though I only really want a 2 star? My favorite hotel in the area is the Howard Johnson Plaza and it is a two star. I don't want to pay any more than around 250 total including taxes, so if it will be more than that I would like to only reserve it for august 16th and 17th. Any help or ideas on how to bid for this? The rate for the howard johnson on their website is 155-165, 140 with my AAA discount.