WxGuy1

OK, one final post (I promise) to close out this thread. I ended up taking a non-"hot Rate" price for the Bellevue Hotel. After checking each hotel's websites, there were almost no 4*s in Pike Place area for 7/28-7/31... I made a few Priceline bids up to $180/nt for a 4* for 7/29-7/31, but those were rejected like every single other bid I've made for this time period in the past 3 weeks. The price that I got for the Bellevue Hotel on the retail side of Hotwire was quite a bit lower than was available on the hotel's website. The average nightly rate I got was $188, which beats the Hotels.com average rate of $232. This is *far* from a very good deal, but I wasn't having any luck getting any better of a deal. I was expecting to be able to pick up a 4* Pike Place room for $110/nt, but my wife and I just happen to be traveling during an extremely busy time for hotels, evidently!

One more update for today: I bid $170/nt for 7/28-7/31, and it too was denied. There was a 4* Pike Place hotel for $169 on Hotwire that I thought I had locked up (I just wanted to get this over with), but, after entering my payment information, I was given the message that the room was no longer available. So, sometime in the 1 minute it took me to enter my credit card and contact info, someone else must have snatched up the room. Whatever is taking up so many of the room this week is making it difficult for me to save a lot of $$ via Priceline or Hotwire...

I've tried bidding two ways this afternoon: 1. Continue to get 4* Seattle Pike Place zone 7/28-7/31. I bid up to $150/nt, all bids unsuccessful. 2. Since a lot of 4* are booked solid on the night of 7/28, I tried to remove that night and bid only for 7/29-7/31. I bid up to $135/nt, all rejected. I'm not sure I want to go above $150/nt, so it looks like I'll need to leave Priceline behind for this trip. I'll try to bid once more tomorrow (I'll book a hotel near the airport for 7/27 and trim off that night from my backup), but I'm not hopeful at all. I suppose I could try a 4* in Bellevue instead of Seattle Pike Place, but I don't know.

I just finished my daily bidding, and I went up to $135/nt. No dice. Looking at the retail rates, I know there's more limited availability Thursday (7/28), since about half of the 4*s aren't showing any rooms available. If that's the case, then I have to assume that lodging is tight with the other 4*s as well for that night. I thought about trimming 7/28 from my bid and trying just 7/29-7/31, but the hassle of switching hotels between two 2-night stints (i.e. nights of 7/27-7/28 at one place and nights of 7/29-7/30 at a different place) is really upping the "ugh, it's a hassle" factor.

I'm continuing to bid nearly every day (sometimes every other day), but I haven't had any success so far. I've bumped my max bid up to $125, and I've changed the dates to include 7/28-8/31. The retail rates were highest for 7/27, so I decided to try to leave out that date in hopes that it'd improve my chances for other days. I've also been bidding on a Seattle airport zone for 7/27 up to $65/nt, but that too has been unsuccessful. To make sure I'm doing this right, is the following message what I'm supposed to get when a bid isn't accepted? "We're sorry, but we can't accept your offer of $125 for a hotel room in the Seattle, WA area. Your credit card has not been charged for Request Number XXX...". Others seem to be having some successful for a 4* in the Pike Place zone on similar dates, so I don't know why I'm coming up blank all the time. I have until Tuesday morning to cancel my backup reservation, so I only have more two days (Sunday and Monday) to bid. I suppose I could trim a night or two off the start of the backup reservation to give me a bit more bidding time and just keep bidding until I can at least pickup an SEA airport zone hotel for 7/27...

Just did another course of bidding starting ~$90 and stopping at $110/nt focused on Seattle Downtown - Pike Place (rebidding by adding no-4* zones). No dice yet. I feel comfortable bidding all the way up until 7/25 (when I can still cancel the "backup" for 7/27+), so I'm not in a hurry.

Rating: 4 * Dates: First tried 7/27-7/31, then narrowed it down to 7/27-7/29 Location: Seattle Downtown, Pike Place desired. I've added other zones for rebidding purposes in the standard manner Bids: I started near $85 back in the end of June, and I've been bidding just about every day going up to $115. I do have a "cancellable" backup in place in Bellevue, and it's a good enough rate that I don't want to go above $120 for the Pike Place hotel. Staying in Seattle DT will make our tourist stuff easier, but that convenience will only be worth up to about $120/nt, particularly since our flight comes into SEA ~9 pm on 7/27. P.S. - thereuare - I haven't used Priceline since 2006, largely because I haven't traveled much and, frankly, I've forgotten about it!

For what it's worth (probably not much ;P), I've come up empty so far up to $125 for very similar dates in the same area. I don't mention this because I want help bidding (I'll start a new thread if I do); I mention this to let you know that at least someone else is having a problem snatching up a Priceline hotel for those dates. I did notice that Hotwire 4* rates were $50 high for the first two nights of my stay (7/27-7/29) than the second two (7/39-7/31). Maybe there's something Thursday night (7/28) that's taking up many of the rooms? I looked at the City of Seattle calendar of events, but I don't see anything that I'd think would require an exorbitant number of rooms. I've booked a backup already that I can cancel at least 24 hrs ahead of time, so I'll keep bidding up to the 24th.

Sure -- 8/3/06-8/9/06

I had read mostly good reviews for the Hapuna Prince Beach north of KOA on the Big Island, and I was thinking that the safest bet would be to use Hotwire, which had it for $243/nt in early August 2006. I figured I'd try Priceline, however, since the other "Resorts" in that area were good as well. So, I tried $175/nt. The Prince website was showing something like $310/nt at the cheapest, but those rooms (presumably) sold out, since the past few days have only shown $400/nt rooms. My first bid on PL was $175, which was rejected. I got an "up-the-bid" page from PL, suggesting that I increase the bid by $25. From a tactic I heard on this site (thanks, btw), I chose not to do this. Instead, I chose to "change my bid" by including the Hilo section as well. Hilo does not have any Resorts, so this was safe. I upped my bid $10 to $185/nt... Lo and behold, the bid was accepted by Hapuna Prince Beach, and I saved another $15/nt (hey, it's something better than nothing) over NOT taking the "suggested bid increase" of $25 that I received after my first bid was rejected.