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Goal was to stay in Burlington (3*). Two rebid zones to leverage: Colchester 2.5* and Montpelier - Barre 2*. Selected just Burlington, 3* only, and bid $91; rejected Added Colchester rebid zone and bid 96; rejected Added Montpelier - Barre rebid zone and bid 101. Accepted! Holiday Inn Burlington's website shows the lowest rate at 138.19/night, so I got a 27% discount.

I guess they do have to make money, but I would rather have them be up-front about it. Perhaps they've done their homework and realized that people would be less likely to use their service if they explicitly indicated "Priceline fee." Now that I think about it, this seems to be the model that most other online travel systems use too, so I shouldn't be all that surprised. I consistently save 35-60% on the best-available room rates using Priceline and Better Bidding, so I probably shouldn't complain. :) Thanks. -Jeff

Sorry, tired, don't have time to write this up neatly, but here's my bidding strategy. 1) SR zone, $62 bid. Rejected. 2) SR + Sonoma, $68. Rejected. 3) SR + Sonoma + Fairfield. $74. Rejected. ** TRY AGAIN 24 hrs later ** 4) SR zone, $80 bid. Rejected. 5) SR + Sonoma, $86 bid. Accepted! Came out to be $86 + $18.33 "taxes and services" = $104.33 Best rate on Hyatt's WWW: $144 + $16.09 = $160.09. I got a 35% savings! Curious why Priceline's "taxes and services" was $18.33, whereas booking on Hyatt.com the tax was $16.09. Sounds to me like Priceline is nefariously getting a cut.

I saw a few others had won 4* San Francisco rooms on peak rates (Fri, Sat) this weekend for $90, $95, and $96. For a 4* San Francisco hotel, there are 5 rebid zones (USE, then add USW, then add Cathedral, then add Civic, then add South City). I decided $96 was my max price, $5 was my bid increment, and my bids would be $76, then $81, then $86, up to $96. Logged on to priceline through savingsbarn.com. Selected 4* USE zone; bid $76; rejected USE and USW zones; bid $81; accepted!!! Wow! Actual price paid ended up being $81 + $19.36 "taxes and service fees" for a total of $100.36. Checking on the hotel website, the cheapest room was $209, or 238.20 after taxes. This means I am paying 42% less than the cheapest possible room. Stoked! I often wonder if bidding <24hrs to check-in time increases your chances of having a lower bid accepted, than if you were bidding >24hrs to check-in time. -Jeff

4* bidding strategy: ----------------------- Select Santa Rosa 4* for $x. If no win, Add Fairfield and bix x + $K. If no win, Add Sonoma and bid x + $2K. If no win, Add Napa and bix x + 3K. Let K = $5 Started with x = $59 based on other posts indicating acceptance of $70 bids for like hotel (4* Santa Rosa), and rejection of a $58 bid. Because I'm bidding the day-of, I figured I had better chances lowballing. I would have started with x = $64 if it was not day-of. (Has anybody proven or disproven whether bidding day-of accepts lower bids, generally speaking?) Bidding results: ----------------- Bid 4* Santa Rosa $59. Rejected. Added Fairfield rebid zone, and bid for $64. Accepted, ad 4* Hyatt Vinyard Creek (Santa Rosa). Savings: ---------- Checking on hotel webpage, a single room for tonight is $105 + 11.55 taxes; $116.55 total. Final Priceline cost was $64 winning bid + $15.39 taxes & fees; $79.39 total. Savings = $37.16, or 31% off website price. I've got better savings (55-60%) in San Francisco. Can't wait to hit the Peet's in downtown Santa Rosa, reminds me of the one here in Santa Cruz. -Jeff

Bidding strategy -- wanted to stay in 4* USE. First bid: 4* USE $86 Second bid: Add Chapel Hill zone; rebid for $91 Third bid: Add Civic Center zone; rebid for $96 4th bid: Add South City; rebid for $101 However, my first bid of $86 was accepted by The Omni. But, WTF?!?! $20.14 "taxes & service fees"? I haven't used priceline in a long time, but now that I know they gouge for 15-20% of the price of the rooms, my bidding will now incorporate this. Also, I did my bidding the day of my stay, and was hoping to leverage this to get a lower accepted bid (is this generally a good strategy?) Seems to work, though because my first bid was accepted, I would have shifted my bidding strategy down by $15. Thanks as always for this awesome site. -Jeff

Thanks as always to this site for helping me save a few bucks! I saw others winning 4* SFO bids this month that included one or two weekend days for between $60 and $75, so I decided upon a starting bid of $65, (hoping for $80), targeting a 4* in USE ... rejected Added Rebid zone $70 ... rejected Added Rebid zone $76 ... rejected Added Rebid zone $81 ... rejected Added Rebid zone $86 ... won I've never stayed at The Omni, hope it's fun. -Jeff

I used up all my rebid zones without winning a bid, guess I was being too cheap. Will start fresh in 36 hours, probably from $95. -Jeff Bid Action ---------------- 1) 86 -> $89; Added 'Bellevue' rebid zone 2) 89 -> $92; Added 'Bothell' rebid zone 3) 92 -> $95; Added 'Lake Union' rebid zone 4) 95 -> $98; Added 'Lynnwood' rebid zone 5) 98 -> $101; Added 'Redmond' rebid zone 6) 101 -> $104; Added 'Renton' 7) 104 -> $107; Added 'Seattle Airport' rebid zone 8) 107 -> $110; Added last rebid zone -- NO WINNING BID.

Given my druthers, I wanted to stay at TI because that's where my friend is getting married (on the pirate ships!), but I wasn't sure if I could target it. I sure as heck wasn't going to pay normal-joe price for a room there! So when you bbbb told me I couldn't target that particular hotel through hotwire/priceline, I decided instead to try for the Golden Nugget in Downtown. I've been to Vegas countless times so I know that this is really the place to stay for the best value and gaming. Sorry for the confusion! Here's the info on my bidding process. First I went to Hotwire, and saw a 4* hotel in downtown with: Resort, Casino, Restaurant, Pool, Fitness, Business Center, Spa listed for $87. I figured this had to be Golden Nugget based on the Nevada Hotwire hotel list, so then I hopped onto Priceline: 6/19 - 6/21 Downtown Vegas (Freemont Street) 4*, targeting Golden Nugget Initial bid $55. Failed, but I could take a 4* in Downtown for $78 if I wanted (I'm sure this was Golden Nugget) Next bid: $60, $65, $70. $70 was the winning bid. My rooms were indeed at Golden Nugget! -Jeff

Ok, that's good to know, thanks. Probably I'll just stay downtown then. -Jeff

Hi, I've used this board once in the past and successfully got a great rate at a Seattle hotel, and posted my results. I'm interested in staying at the Treasure Island over a weekend for a wedding, and I'd appreciate some bidding help. I understand that I can use Hotwire to zero in on Treasure Island (but there's a risk of getting NYNY), but I'm not sure about priceline. Treasure Island's website, as of 6/4/2004, report the following room rates: (Deluxe / Tower / Petite King / Tower) June 18/19: 149 / 174 / 219 / 285 June 19/20: 159 / 184 / 229 / 285 June 20/21: 258 / 308 / 458 / 570 If I search for the whole stay in one block, the rates are less: June 18-21: 407 (-159) / 482 (-184) / 677 (-229) / 855 (-258) What's the best way to bid this hotel, and would I need to stick with Hotwire (and risk getting NYNY)? Thanks! -Jeff