GM Mike

I feel obligated to mention... Please strongly consider booking a fully cancellable/refundable backup reservation somewhere NOW, just in case you end up waiting and nothing from priceline or hotwire works out.

Your strategy looks good, aside from the obvious ideas of lowering quality/adding additional acceptable zones. I think you MIGHT be a little early in your bidding, actually. I suspect a lot of the revenue managers plan a month-out to start thinking of adding rooms to priceline, especially with San Francisco so busy. Only you know how urgently you want to get this settled. My opinion (and it's only an opinion) would be to bid in the price range you have been, every few days, and think about going higher in a week or two, when you get closer to check in date. One trigger to you might be to watch hotwire rates. 4* is very high right now. You could run hotwire searches and when you see a low 4* price pop up, it could signal you to bid low on priceline. Not foolproof but has worked well for a lot of people here.

Occupancy levels are VERY high right now because the track in Saratoga is open. Have you considered staying downtown? Parking charges can be high but you may actually be able to get the Crowne Plaza around your bid amount (showing $99 for a retail booking).

I'm sorry, I'm not sure I quite understand. Could you please list for us: 1) The check in and check out dates for the stay you already won 2) The winning bid 3) The winning zone 4) The last bid you made before your winning bid. Then, could you please start a NEW topic for the new stay you're looking for? We prefer to keep threads on separate stays in separate topics. When you start the new thread, please tell us exactly which zones you're interested in - or give us a more detailed picture of what you do and do not like in an area and we can make suggestions. Also give us the maximum bid amount you're willing to make, the precise check in and out dates, and the minimum star (quality) level you will accept. Thanks.

That's usually an indication you're close. Many of us get wins at half or less of the difference to that "counteroffer". Patience. Know your budget and inch toward it.

A friend needed three nights (Friday-Monday) for the big race. Holiday Inn Indianapolis Northeast (3*) Indianapolis North - Fishers 9780 North By Northeast Boulevard Fishers, Indiana 46038 Check-In Date: Fri, Jun 15, 2007 / After 03:00 PM Check-Out Date: Mon, Jun 18, 2007 / 12:00 PM Your Offer Price Per Room, Per Night: $90.00 Subtotal: $270.00 Taxes & Service Fees: $50.36 Total Charges*: $320.36 The backup plan was $159/night at 2.5*. This hotel is showing sold out! Bid History, using free re-bid zones: Airport Zone, 3*: $60, 70, 80, 90 Downtown, 3*: $60, 70, 80, 90 East, 3*: $60, 70, 80, 90 Airport + Downtown together, 3*: $95, 100, 105, 110 North - Fishers, 3*: $60, 70, 80, won at 90 ALL BIDS THRU THE LINK AT SAVINGSBARN.COM

As long as everyone is arriving on the same day, you may want to consider bidding for 3 rooms for 5 nights. It may be cheaper for you to not use those 3 extra room nights than to buy at full price. If people are arriving on different nights, then this probably won't work. (The shorter reservations would no-show and be cancelled without refund.) It'll be important for you to figure out what your full priced, cancellable backup plan is, then you can bid accordingly. (Another thought is to check HOTWIRE and see if the same hotel appears to come up for all 3 reservations. Then there's a better chance you'll be getting the same hotel. Tho there is the risk that buying one of the rooms removes the inventory when you try to buy the others...)

:) She must go to the conference, otherwise she fails. I think she has the right attitude tho, turn it into a vacation. :)

What a royal pain in the neck. Had to split the bid after winning just Friday night. Bidding only for a Saturday night rarely works out well. Backup plan is Sheraton in Cambridge ($215). Selected 3* Downtown, bid $90, rejected, added rebid 1... Bid $100, rejected, added rebid zone 2... Bid $110, rejected, added rebid zone 3... Bid $120, rejected, closed browser and using a fresh bidding session... Selected 3* Copley, bid $100, rejected, added rebid zone 1... Bid $115, rejected, added Downtown... Bid $125, rejected, added rebid zone 2... Bid $135, rejected, added rebid zone 3... Bid $140, rejected, closed browser and using a fresh bidding session... Selected 3* WTC, bid $115, rejected, added rebid zone 1... Bid $125, rejected, added Downtown... Bid $141, rejected, added Copley... Bid $150, rejected, added rebid zone 2... Bid $155, rejected, added rebid zone 3... Bid $160, rejected, closed browser and using a fresh bidding session... Selected 2.5* Downtown, bid $140, rejected, closed browser and using a fresh bidding session... Selected 2.5* Copley, bid $140, rejected, added Downtown... Bid $150, rejected, closed browser and using a fresh bidding session... Selected 3* Cambridge, bid $130 (was already rejected up to $120 before splitting bid), rejected, added rebid zone 1... Bid $140, rejected, added rebid zone 2... Bid $150, rejected, added Downtown... Bid $161, rejected, added Copley... Bid $170, rejected, added WTC... Bid $175, ACCEPTED w/ free upgrade to 4*: Westin Boston Waterfront World Trade Center 425 Summer Street Boston, Massachusetts 02210 617-532-4600 Check-In Date: Sat, Oct 14, 2006 Check-In Time: After 03:00 PM Check-Out Date: Sun, Oct 15, 2006 Check-Out Time: 12:00 PM Your Offer Price: $175.00 Number of Rooms: 1 Number of Nights: 1 Taxes & Service Fees: $31.55 Total Charges*: $206.55 Not a great location for tourism but it's a new hotel (July) and across the street from public transportation into downtown. Hotel website rate $395, AAA $309, savings of 43%. ALL BIDS USING THE LINKS AT SAVINGSBARN.COM

Bidding for a college friend who found out she had the choice of either going to a conference at Harvard tomorrow morning or failing a class. :) Bidding at 4pm for tonight and tomorrow night: Cambridge 3* $75, rejected, add rebid 1... Bid $85, rejected, add rebid 2... Bid $100, rejected, add rebid 3... Bid $115, rejected. Cambridge 2.5* $120, rejected. At this point the situation is critical. Best rates found traditionally were around $250... Working with a max bid of $135 before adding in other potential zones. Bidding just tonight: Cambridge 3* $100, ACCEPTED, Hyatt Regency Cambridge :o :) So I probably overbid. But she has a place to sleep well below her max bid so she's happy. Ah well. Hyatt.com rate $229, AAA rate higher. Savings of 56%. Starting a new thread for Saturday. Now that she's forced to split, she figures she might as well just stay Downtown and enjoy it. ALL BIDS USING THE LINKS AT SAVINGSBARN.COM

If you check the list of reported HOTWIRE HOTELS on the site here, that exact amenity combination is a match for the Marriott Plaza. So that would be our best guess. Please keep all posts for the same stay in the same thread. We'll move it if needed when you win. So what do you think of probably the Marriott for $97? Is it worth it to you to bid on priceline for lower? Or keep bidding for that resort you want...?

Are the EasyClickTravel deals fully cancellable? I'd book a backup reservation now and keep bidding. About the only thing you can do.

Ok. That makes more sense. Rates are high for your dates. Rates are much lower by O'Hare. Have you considered staying out there? Chances are you get a hotel with an airport shuttle. You could take the L from the airport to downtown. It's a 45 minute trip. Another option is splitting your bid. Rates for Saturday are high downtown. You could try the first two nights downtown and the last night at the airport. What do you think of those ideas?

You tell us :) It's our policy not to list them for you. You should check them every time you bid. If you want to list them here, we can confirm as of when we look, but you should check them every time. UPDATE: Actually you have six rebid zones. "West" is not a rebid zone technically, because it offers Resort bidding... But that would be fine for you. So can you pick out the one zone that is NOT a rebid zone?

I'm very confused. I listed one zone. "Millennium Park, Loop & Grant Park Area" What is the second zone?

There is no "Downtown" zone in priceline bidding. You have bid "Millennium Park, Loop & Grant Park Area" ? Have you bid any other zones?

Select 4* and the Downtown-Riverwalk zone... Bid $50, if rejected add re-bid zone... Bid $55, if rejected add re-bid zone... Bid $60, if rejected add re-bid zone... Bid $65, if rejected add re-bid zone... Bid $70, if rejected add re-bid zone... Bid $73. I know you really want to get this DONE, but I think if you raise your bid faster than that, you risk overbidding. You can go higher tomorrow. and/or... you can wait for thereuare, who is going to be wayyyy better at picking out the pricepoints than I am.

You can do that without waiting. Note that you only have five rebid zones when bidding 4* Riverwalk. Not sure what the bid breakpoints would be. Maybe thereuare will jump in right now. In the mean time I'm going to poke around and see if I see a pattern. (Have you checked HOTWIRE just to make sure nothing on there works for you?) Oh one more thing... Have you considered splittng your bid? You could bid for some days at a Resort and some at 4*. If you're ok changing hotels we can see if there's a specific day causing you problems and bid around that.

What zones are you bidding in? Have you checked HOTWIRE?

The classic five options :) 1) Bid higher (after 24 hours). 2) Lower the acceptable quality level. 3) Include other zones. (tho obviously this would include lowering the quality level, right? only 1 zone has resorts?) 4) Wait a while and try again (to see if more inventory opens). 5) Try hotwire. Do you have a cancellable backup reservation somewhere?

From the home page, scroll down to the section "Hotels - United States Priceline and Hotwire Winning Bids". Find the state you want (for example, "New York"). Then click "Priceline - New York". You'll see a list of every reported win we have for that state. If you want a specific city, try using the search box at the bottom of the page with the name of the city. For example, "Syracuse".

You're still taking a risk. Assuming you even get the Radisson, there's no reason at all that they can't upgrade someone else into a junior suite and give you a regular room. In fact, it's more likely they'd do that than give you a junior suite. You have to be willing to accept the possibility you get the worst room in the hotel. If you can't, priceline probably isn't for you. Have you considered hotwire? They will show you a list of amenities in advance. Sometimes you can see a "Suite" amenity in the listing. You'd at least know you can get a large-ish room that way. Really, tho, you have to ask yourself. If I show up in San Antonio and the hotel has reserved a small smoking room with a queen sized bed... Can I make the most of that? Or will I want to throw a fit at the front desk?

Note that almost everyone dislikes the Tremont. Check the reviews on Tripadvisor. I stayed there about 4 years ago and it was pretty good then, but that's a long time ago in hotel time.

Three observations: (1) $281.70 from Frontier out of Midway, several flights available (2) $217.10 on Southwest out of Midway, 8am return is your only choice at that rate (3) If you could travel on Saturday instead of Sunday, could be big savings. Tuesday instead of Wednesday might also help. Good luck.

Lying to desk clerk makes desk clerk :) ! Just :D and :) a lot and clerk will be :o or even :) ... (betterbidding has a five emoticon maximum per post? *surprised looking guy here*)