BEAV

Glad to help. Hope you're having an enjoyable stay. Certainly a beautiful day in the City today......

Welcome to BetterBidding. As Aaron already stated, hotels determine their nightly Priceline rate based on available inventory, hence the theory of supply & demand. Since you had 6 free rebid opportunities, you could have worked your way up from $100 and possibly "hit" a price point less than $120. If you're unfamiliar with how the free rebid system works, check out this link and feel free to ask any questions you may have. Priceline Re-Bidding Explained

To get some sort of ballpark price necessary for success on your travel dates, I did a Priceline vacation package search (air+hotel). The least expensive 4-star property in the zones you've indicated was for the Westin San Francisco Market Street (SOMA zone). I entered 1 person traveling in my search with an air ticket from LA to SF. The complete package price for air and 7 nights hotel was $1617. When you back out the $159 air portion it takes the price down to $1458, including taxes/fees. This boils down to a per-night hotel price of $208, including taxes/fees. This would translate to an approximate bid price of $175-$185 when you back out SF's 14% hotel tax and Priceline fees. These are ballpark figures, but may help to establish some sort of range necessary vs taking stabs in the dark. As info, none of the zones you indicated offered packages at the 3.5 grade that were a lower price than the 4 star listed above. The only exception to this was the 3.5 star Club Quarters in the Embarcadero zone which you didn't list in your acceptable areas to bid. Using the same calculations above, the Club Quarters price target would be roughly $160-$170.

As info, the Japantown-Civic Center North zone does not offer 3.5 or 4 star bidding. 3 stars is the highest grade you can go in this zone, so please clarify whether or not this zone is acceptable to you.

Note to Moderators: This is the 3rd recent post I've seen of Oakland/East Bay Priceline wins/Hotwire purchases being posted in the San Francisco forum. Do all Bay Area postings now belong within the San Francisco forum, or do we still post them in the general California forum? (I may have missed earlier instruction of a possible policy change, thus my asking!) :)

Bids of $43 $45 $47 $49 rejected each with counteroffer to add $15. Bid of $50 accepted, $7 over initial bid. Marriott Fullerton 2701 East Nutwood Avenue Fullerton, California 92831 Check-in: February 25, 2011 Check-out: February 27, 2011 Your Offer Price Per Room, Per Night: $50.00 Subtotal: $200.00 Taxes & Fees: $36.72 Total Charges: $236.72 Bid placed through the BetterBidding link to PRICELINE.

As I posted earlier in this thread I've found LMT rates to be "all over the map". In some searches the prices have been just a little less than those you could purchase conventionally, while in other cases they closely resemble Priceline/Hotwire type rates. I simply include LMT in all my hotel searches since the outcome can (and does) vary.

What city and dates were you researching? I just completed a search for Miami for February 27 and it worked.

Today I stumbled on yet another way to identify hotels at LMT, possibly quicker & easier than going to another window using the Tourico Holiday's website. When you locate a hotel from the display and select and click "book it" to advance to the next page where the hotel ID is displayed in the URL address, there is generally the option to add a rental car or other "activity". In my case I was looking at Anaheim, CA and was offered both rental cars and/or Disneyland tickets. I added a rental car to my selection (making it a "package"). When I went to the next page (click "continue booking") to display the total price including taxes/fees, I noticed that the name of the hotel was displayed. I went back and unselected the rental car (making it a hotel-only option at this point), went to the next page where the taxes/fees were displayed and the hotel identity did not display. I went back again, this time selecting Disneyland tickets, and once again the name of the hotel was revealed with the taxes/fees. So it appears adding an additional option to your hotel-only booking reveals the hotel's identity before purchasing. Note: This option only works with hotels listed as "available" and not those listed as "on request".

The 3* Holiday Inn Concord (Oakland East Bay Concord/Lafayette zone) is now the Red Lion and is rated 2.5 stars per Priceline Vacations.

If you happen to be flying to San Francisco, you can always look at Priceline Vacations that bundle air & hotel together and select the Omni as your choice of hotels. In many cases, the hotel portion of the package breaks down to be close (or the same) as the "name your own price" rate as opposed to a more expensive rack rate. So in that case you get the benefit of the "bid" pricing while at the same time having the luxury of selecting the hotel you want.

Attn: Moderators I discovered this thread off the Priceline calendar of wins. I believe the title of the thread needs to be changed from $60 to $85. Thanks! :)

Priceline has now separated downtown Oakland/Alameda, CA and the airport area back into two separate zones. Oakland/Alameda 3* Courtyard Downtown 3* Marriott City Center 2.5* Executive Inn and Suites 2* Coral Reef Inn And Condosuites Oakland Airport 3* Courtyard Airport 3* Hilton Oakland Airport 3* Holiday Inn and Suites 3* Park Plaza

The problem here is that the OP didn't elaborate on his/her bid history. Did he/she take a stab in the dark at $150 (and possibly overbid) or work their way up to $150, getting rejected along the way (ie: possibly no overbid). ??????????????

I look to LMT for discount pricing more on the higher end properties. For example I saw the 5* Intercontinental Miami going for $87 when standard rack rates everywhere else were $169. I've also seen some Ritz-Carltons and Four Seasons which typically come in around $100-$150 a night below rack prices. In general, though, I've found prices on LMT to be "all over the map" with very decent prices some places while others are near rack as you've discovered.

Priceline has upgraded to 4 stars the Portola Hotel in Monterey, CA per vacation package search 6/28/11-6/30/11.

Note to moderators: It appears from this post, as well as Priceline Vacations that the Monterey Hyatt has been upgraded to 4 stars from its previous 3.5 rating.

So far today I've been able to ID any hotel on LMT by using the link below and replacing the hotel ID number. When replacing the hotel ID number in the link, it appears to no longer default to the Tourico home page like it was a week or so ago when this "problem" was reported. As I said, I've been able to ID every LMT hotel I've looked at so far today, so I'll be curious if others have the same results. Good luck.... http://www.touricoholidays.com/en/PageHote...ocalTgsProvider

I was just doing some random hotel shopping on LMT and ran up against this snag, so hurried over to this thread to see if anyone has experienced the same thing! While it's going to take more research, I've at least found the following for now.... 1. In most cases I've been able to see the Hotel ID number after clicking "book it". With the ID number next I've gone over to EasyClickTravel and, fortunately, been able to compare ID numbers between the two sites and identify the LMT hotel. 2. In a few cases I Googled "Tourico Holidays Hotel ID 917" (for example). In the first Google response I clicked on "cached" and it brought up the Tourico Holidays page for the Intercontinental Miami (who's ID is 917). Note this works in some cases, but not all. 3. While not a complete listing of hotels sold by Tourico, here's a link with many properties and their ID numbers staring you clearly in the face! Clik the tabs at the bottom of the page for the area (country) you're looking for. http://www.touricoholidays.com/exclusivede..._focus_list.xls Again, not a complete easy way to identify all their properties, but it's a start.

Thanks for the update and feedback on your recent De Anza stay. I'm glad the second visit was better than the first, but I agree the hotel rating game can provide downsides such as those you've experienced. I think part of the "problem" is that Priceline assigns ratings based on amenities offered rather than cleanliness, decor, etc. So that's why you wind up with properties like De Anza that are rated 4* (because of the amenities offered) but certainly don't "feel" like 4 star hotels. Good luck with your Manhattan bids. I just posted a winning Priceline Manhattan bid in the New York forum yesterday. I hope some of the strategies I put into practice in that bid may be of help to you.

On second glance at the hotel list, this must be the former 3* Wyndham Fashion 26 hotel. It is no longer listed on the Wyndham website, so I assume it's now independant and was upgraded to 4* after the transition.

Finally scored a Priceline booking at the 4* Fashion 26 in Chelsea zone for $162. It was nice to know we had the Marriott as a back up at $201 per night in case we struck out with Priceline completely.

New property for the BetterBidding hotel list. Since we will be attending different events all over the city, we aren't picky as to which zone we stay in. I've been researching this trip since June and had a cancellable back-up reservation at the Marriott Financial Center downtown at a rate of $201 per night utilizing Marriot's Look No Further rate guarantee program. Although we booked our air fare separately, Priceline's vacation package (air + hotel) was a very essential tool in scoring this hotel. I would periodically research the vacation package for our travel dates to gain insight into hotel prices. By deducting the air fare portion from the totel package rate, it's easy to come up with a ballpark figure for the hotel portion. Yesterday, nearly every 4 star hotel in NYC had a package rate between $1000-$1400 for 3 nights with air fare for 1 person from Boston to New York. The air fare portion of the package was worth $109, which meant the hotels were all running $300 and up per night. But then I noticed the package at the 4* Fashion 26 hotel in the Chelsea zone was $771, all taxes included. Backing out the air fare, this meant the per night hotel price (pre-tax) was under $200. Since I had several rebids, I lowballed and started the bidding at $160 which produced a counteroffer to add $35 ($195). My second bid of $162 was accepted. So yet another example how Priceline will often accept less (in this case a lot less) than their counteroffers. Fashion 26 152 West 26th Street New York 10001 Check in: Oct 30, 2010 Check out: Nov 2, 2010 Bid Price per night: $162.00 Taxes/fees: $103.95 Total: $589.95 (3 night total) Hotel has a 4 1/2 star rating on Tripadvisor. As it's a new hotel to BetterBidding, I will write a review after our stay. Bid placed through the BetterBidding link to PRICELINE. :)

Keep in mind that if you bid a lower star level within the same zone as the De Anza, there'a always the possibilty you could be upgraded to 4 stars and still be assigned this hotel. For this to happen, the De Anza would have to have a lower Priceline rate than other hotels of a lower star category, which can very well happen. Priceline's computer always searches for lowest possible price match within the category you bid or higher. Looking at the vacation package can again be helpful in this area. If you see the De Anza has a lower package price than any of the lower category hotels within the zone, a 3 or 3.5 star bid could lead you to be upgraded to the 4* De Anza. Continued good luck with you future bidding!

We learn from each other! There are times when the vacation package is nothing more than a simple combination of retail air fare (which many people are buying anyway) and the "name your own price" rate on the hotel side. Since the retail air fare portion of the package is accessible to anyone to price out, the remaining amount goes for the hotel and is easy to break down on a per-night basis. I've wished for a long time this site would promote the vacation package as a good research tool, or better yet, a viable option whenever people are flying to their destination. To be able to combine retail air fare with "name your own price" hotel rates with the added advantage of being able to select your hotel can be like having your cake and eating it, too!