notfes53

Using the UK Priceline website, I bid from

thereuare - please edit subject line! Well, a successful bid for Fort Lauderdale, following the advice given above. I wanted to get two rooms, for three nights, at the Marriott Harbor Beach for less than $100 each, and have been successful. Here are the details: Check in: July 22 2004 (Thursday) Check out: July 25 (Sunday) Best rate available on Internet was Marriott's own website - Standard room $179. Expedia showed it as fully booked. The rate normally goes up to $199 for Friday Saturday and Sunday - if one of these is your first night, but there's a special rate plan on the Marriott site - if your first night is a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, then you get to keep the 'weekday' rate over the weekend. I assume that this rule works for Priceline too. I checked on Hotwire and a hotel 'looking' very much like the Hyatt Pier 66 was on at $118 ($117.20 at www.hotel411.com) 1st Bid: $85 - resort - Ft Lauderdale Beach: REJECTED 2nd Bid: $90 - resort - re-bid adding Coral Springs: REJECTED 3rd Bid: $95 - resort - re-bid adding FLL Airport: :) ACCEPTED $95 for two rooms for three nights = $570 $80.66 for tax and service fees $650.66 was the total (and I believe that Marriott has now scrapped their separate resort charges). This board is such a good resource! Thanks again Steve Ascot (UK)

thereuare - thanks for bidding advice and price guidance. I can also introduce some flexibility in the dates to make Ft Lauderdale towards the end rather than the beginning of the vacation. Will let you know what happens when I bid. I will also include Hollywood Beach as it would be interesting to see if the Westin resort comes up. Fully understand that another resort hotel could suddenly appear (be upgraded) in Fort Lauderdale Beach or Hollywood Beach (subject to the usual caveats that anything could happen). The Hyatt looks good, however my family are beach lovers and have become used to the beach resort experience from Africa, Middle East and Far East resorts. The USA has so much more to offer than just beaches, but those are the family requirements :) Saw interesting reference to a new resort/spa hotel in Fort Lauderdale - The Atlantic - apparently about to open its doors any day now. I think Expedia was showing two levels of luxury - nothing plain here. The price was (I think) $375/night at the entry level, so I'm not expecting the new Atlantic to be a scoop on Priceline.... at least not just yet! notfes53

I'm planning to bid for three nights (two rooms) on Priceline with a target of $80 to $85/night for the Marriott Harbor Beach Resort. Please could I have a suggested strategy? 1) Resort is listed for Ft Lauderdale Beach - is the Marriott the only resort in this zone? 2) What price would be realistic for my dates (three nights) 7/22 to 7/25? 3) Anyone with comments about this resort and its location - positive or negative? Thanks in advance. notfes53

Thanks thereuare, Gaylord Palms is listed as a 'Resort' in the Priceline confirmation: Congratulations, you got your price of $85 for a resort hotel room. However, when I looked in the 'My Trips' tab on priceline.com, there was something inconsistent, as my hotel rooms were shown as follows: [check] 05/17/2004 Orlando 4* Booking number xxxxxxxxxxx Maybe the 'My Trips' tab shows what I had been bidding for, as opposed to what I won? But that doesn't seem very likely, as I'd have expected to see the official priceline *rating for the hotel that I'd booked. Whatever! Thanks for your advice - I'm excited about Gaylord Palms @ $85! Thanks also for the offer to help - I'm still learning. Here's how I approached the bid without having to wait the 72 hours (as gleaned from this forum), in detailed steps. Please offer a more detailed critique: 1) Downtown Orlando - 4* - Bid $40 - not accepted 2) Downtown Orlando + Florida Mall - 4* - Bid $45 - not accepted 3) Downtown Orlando + Florida Mall + Kissimmee - 4* - Bid $50 - not accepted 4) Downtown Orlando + Florida Mall + Kissimmee + Maitland/Altamonte - 4* - Bid $55 - not accepted 5) Downtown Orlando + Florida Mall + Kissimmee + Maitland/Altamonte + Orlando Airport - 4* - Bid $60 - not accepted 6) Downtown Orlando + Florida Mall + Kissimmee + Maitland/Altamonte + Orlando Airport - 4* - Bid $65 - not accepted 7) Downtown Orlando + Florida Mall + Kissimmee + Maitland/Altamonte + Orlando Airport + Orlando East - 4* - Bid $70 - not accepted 8) Downtown Orlando + Florida Mall + Kissimmee + Maitland/Altamonte + Orlando Airport + Orlando East + W. Disney - 4* - Bid $75 - not accepted 9) Downtown Orlando + Florida Mall + Kissimmee + Maitland/Altamonte + Orlando Airport + Orlando East + W. Disney + Winter Park - 4* - Bid $80 - not accepted 10) Downtown Orlando + Florida Mall + Kissimmee + Maitland/Altamonte + Orlando Airport + Orlando East + W. Disney + Winter Park + Disney World Vicinity - 4* - Bid $85 - bid accepted at Gaylord Palms Resort From reading your reply and some general tips elsewhere within the BetterBidding Priceline pages, I think that I could have adopted a different approach. Instead of simply adding areas, I could have started a new bid, at a higer price, but using different permutations/combinations of the areas that do not have a 4* or higher. I haven't done the math, but I reckon that the 7 areas that qualify could have been tagged in different combinations to Downtown Disney, I could have had many more $5 (or smaller) increments in trying to find the lowest price for the Westin Grand Bohemian (my original target). Can you confirm that the strategy outlined below is your recommended method of getting multiple bids within 72 hours? Who knows? Maybe the Westin GB would have gone for $90, but my mistake was to have brought in an area with a potential 'upgrade' candidate willing to accept a lower bid, when I could have been increasing my bid numbers using all the completely sub-4* areas. So I think my strategy could have been as follows: 1) Downtown $40 2) Downtown + a $45 3) Downtown + b $50 4) Downtown + c $55 5) Downtown + d $60 6) Downtown + e $65 7) Downtown + f $70 8) Downtown + g $75 9) Downtown + a +b $80 10) Downtown + a +c $85 11) Downtown + a +d $90 12) Downtown +a +e $95 13) Downtown +a +f $100 14) Downtown +a +g $105 etc. etc. ..... as I said, if this is a possible strategy then it allows many more multible bids (depnding on the number of areas not containing the desired *rating or higher), or it allows a bidder to increase the bids in smaller steps. :) Of course, the possible outcome is that I might have eventually won the Westin Grand Bohemian using this strategy, but it could have cost me a lot more than the $85/room that won the Gaylord Palms. In the final analysis I am very pleased to have a genuine 4* or resort, anywhere in Orlando at $85 for my dates of 20th July and 21st July. So much to learn, and so little money to learn it with - but it's fun anyway! notfes53 (Ascot, UK)

Hi all, I've just hopped over the fence from the Hotwire-Florida section to share my experience of last night experimenting with BetterBidding's Priceline multiple bid advice. Two nights ago I secured the Rosen Plaza in Orlando (Universal-SW) on 2 nights (1st/2nd August) for the last two nights of our forthcoming vacation (see An Orlando Rosen mystery? on Hotwire-Florida); fresh from this partial success(?) I thought that I'd sort out the first two nights of the vacation (20th/21st July) using Priceline. I took a liking to descriptions of the 4* Westin Bohemian, and set about using Priceline to hook it with a traget maximum price of about $80 to $85. I started very low, at $40, and went up by $5 dollar increments each time my bid was unsuccessful, by adding in other Orlando areas, as none has a 4* property. However, I did decide to leave adding in [Disney World Vicinity] and [universal-SW] until last, as I did not really understand what might happen when I introduced areas with resorts. My last unsuccessful bid was at $80 when I had to introduce the [Disney World Vicinity] area. I increased the bid as well (not sure if I really had to increase by another $5 at this stage, but I was into the routine, and the next bid was to be my cut-off point anyway). To my delight (tinged with some disappointment) my $85 bid was accepted - not by the 4* Westin Boheminan, but by the Gaylord Palms resort! My subsequent research shows that this sort of price has been achieved by others for the Gaylord Palms, so I'm kinda OK with the price, but I do know that I'll have to pay resort fees of $10/room, and self-parking will cost $7/night. My issue is that I would have rather failed with the Westin Bohemian and not been successful with the Gaylord. The Westin was a calculated 'splurge' target beacuse it's a Downtown location and a genuine 4*/non-resort property. I wouldn't have made the Gaylord a target because of its hidden extra costs, its greater distance from Orlando Sanford airport after a long flight from the UK, and also beacuse I'd not actually read up about it (or heard of it) until I landed it for $85/ per room! In the Priceline jargon - was I 'upgraded' to a resort when the Gaylord 'accepted my bid of $85 for a 4*??? OK, so back to my question in the topic description of this post - is this a newbie mistake, or a risk that is difficult to avoid when using Priceline? Thanks, Steve

Thanks for the replies received so far. Yes BillJ (wcj1), There is definitely scope for confusion as there are two Rosen hotels in the Universal-Sea World zone of Orlando, and I am thoroughly confused as both hotels seem to look alike, superficially, from their exterior photos: - Rosen Plaza, 9700 International Drive Orlando, Florida 32819-8114 (407) 996-9700 - 800 newly decorated guest rooms - Shopping across the street at Pointe Orlando - Two restaurants, pizza shop, 24-hour deli and room service; Heated swimming pool with cascading waterfall & whirlpool - Rosen Centre, 9840 International Drive Orlando, Florida 32819 (407) 996-9840 - 1,134 rooms - adjacent to the Orange County Convention Centre - Large 3-meal restaurant, 24-hour deli, fine dining restaurant, two lounges, room service; Beautiful swimming grotto & tennis courts Even tripadvisor adds to the confusion. See their separate pages for the Rosen Centre and Rosen Plaza, and they both refer to an article from Go2orlando.com entitled "Rosen Plaza Hotel". So, there are two separate Rosen hotels at separate addresses. I now realise that I made a mistake thinking that the hotel where I'd stayed in 1999 - then called the Omni Rosen - was the Rosen Plaza, but I've got that wrong, it's the Rosen Centre that was previously the Omni Rosen, as we all remember 'Red's Deli' from that earlier trip. (Unless, of course, they've moved the deli from one Rosen to the other Rosen to cause more confusion). I have to agree with thereuare's comment with regard to Hotwire - How can a hotel go from 3.5* to 4*, and at the same time post fewer amenities, especially the resort icon? Is this a Hotwire decision or can the hotel simply pick its own rating and amenities. The Rosen Plaza is still rated as 3 Diamond on every other site that I've seen, and I'm beginning to feel slightly hard done by, as I think that they are exagerating if they are now claiming it as a 4* I do know from reading around this forum that there's no point trying to compare *ratings exactly between Hotwire and Priceline, but let me illustrate what I expect from a 4*: I was targetting the Westin Bohemian in Downtown Orlando, for some earlire nights in my trip - using multiple bidding on Priceline - and I hooked the Gaylord Palms instead at $85 (20th/21st July), but at least the Bohemian and the Gaylord are 4* or resort level respectively, whereas the Hotwire 4* rating of the Rosen Plaza seems a little generous ($69 - 1st/2nd August)). (My Priceline slip of getting Gaylord instead of Bohemian will no doubt amuse the more experienced amongst you, and will be the subject of a separate posting on the Forida-Priceline part of the forum) Do I have some kind of claim that I can put to Hotwire, as I think that they've been misleading in two ways: (a) 'upgrading' the Rosen Plaza from a 3.5* to a 4* - OK it may have been 4* before, but what's the reason behind it yo-yo'ing? (:) at the same time 'disguising' it by changing the amenity level (unless we're the ones who are confused and the 'original amenities' belong to the larger Rosen Centre Hotel). If this is worth following up with Hotwire, then who should I contact, and where, and what strategy should I adopt? Thanks, Steve

Hello - this is my first post! Last night I used Hotwire for the last two nights of an upcoming trip to Florida in July/August. I