jkloni

I want to bid on a hotel in Houston, Texas for Aug 22, 23, 24 checking out Monday 8/25. Would prefer to stay in the Astrodome/Medical Center area because we are going to baseball games, but Galleria area ok too. Checked this site and only hotel listed for Houston is the Omni in the Galleria area for $45 and $48. Would probably bid no lower than 3* and would probably try 4* first. Any thoughts on bidding stategy? How low should I start? Increments help? Thanks for any help.

Just an update..... Unsuccessful. Did exactly as you recommended: Bid Peachtree City 3* $34 rejected, $36 rejected, $37 rejected Got out, went back in (using Savingsbarn.com) Bid Newnan, GA 2* $31 rejected, $34 (added Peachtree which has 2* hotels) rejected $37 rejected. At this point it will probably be better to buy a room and have the option of picking which hotel. I checked Expedia, Hotel.com, etc and there are hotels for $46, $48, $53. Thanks for helping me. I guess it's just not going to work out in this little town. Big cities have more competition I guess.....

Newnan is where she has stayed before, but Peachtree City zone is less than 10 miles away. She was willing to go outside of the Newnan zone to save money, and possibly get a nicer room since there is/are 3 star hotel(s) in that zone. I did not see a Sheraton listed anywhere for Peachtree or Newnan. The closest one I was given by Orbitz was in Atlanta - about 20 miles away. Did I miss something? And I agree that $37 is about as high as I'd go. I'll try again in 72 hours. Any bidding strategy would be aprreciated. Again, thanks for all of your help! oh, and some of the hotels are sold out for the dates I need. Maybe there is something going on that weekend besides a family reunion?

Yes. 2 is the highest in Newnan. My mother in law agreed to stay in PeachTree City if I bid there and won because I needed it to keep bidding. Plus she liked the fact of the 3 star possibility. (She's never used Priceline before, but when she heard about my $40 Miami room and my $25 Orlando room :) she wanted me to try and get her a room in Newnan.) Peachtree City has 3,2, and 1 star hotel options. I just went back and bid: 3* in Peachtree City zone - $30 - rejected added, free zone Union City, bid - $31 - rejected added Union city and 2 star for $33 - rejected Priceline is showing that a 2* star in the area retails for $47 and a 3* retails for $53. I would think a $33 bid should have won. I have used up all of my bids, so I'll have to wait the 72 hours. What are your thoughts?

No Luck Yet.... Bid 2* hotel $22 in Newnan zone - rejected $25 with free rebid zone (Union City) rejected $28 added PeachTree City (that has 3*, 2* and 1*) -- rejected. I think I'll try to go up to $31 and 3* if it will let me and try that. If rejected. I'll wait 72 hours and try again. What do you think?

Thanks, Thereuare. I'll keep you and the board posted on my progress.

Need help bidding for a hotel for 2 nights 7/26 - 7/27, checking out 7/28 in Newnan, GA. Priceline has a zone for it with 2* and 1* hotels. The zones grouped with it are Peachtree with 3,2, & 1 star hotels and Union City with only 1 star hotels. I put in (just for fun) $20 and it didn't give me the '.... your bid has little chance of winning.....' on the next screen (I wasn't going to actually bid yet) so I backed out and re-entered $16, and it still didn't give me the ' you should rethink your bid'. I thought Priceline always gave that 'rethink your bid and bid higher' speil. I checked for any info on hotels won in any of these areas and there is no info for these zones. Also, Hotwire doesn't have any hotels in this zone. Only Peachtree. Want to stay in the Newnan area (family reunion). I know I'll only have 1 rebid zone unless someone can come up with a strategy. Suggestions on what to start bidding and increments? Thanks for the help.

I will post a report on this hotel from our trip to Orlando in July and also the Sheraton Biscayne Bay in Miami in October. And I saw the complimentary breakfast too. I think this hotel will do nicely for us. Although while reading the hotel's website I saw that children 12 and under stayed free in the room. Our son is 13. So I guess he and his dad will be busy doing something else when I check in....

Initially bid earlier today 3* Universal-Sea World at $25, $29, $33 & $35 adding rebid zones each time and was rejected each time. Thereuare gave me the following advice and my bid was successful! 2.5* and selected zones for Universal-Seaworld and Florida Mall. Bid $22 - Rejected, But Priceline came back with ....if you bid $6 higher.... I went all the way out and back in (using SavingsBarn.com) and added a rebid zone and bid $25 ( half of what Priceline asked for) and it was accepted! 1 night 7/7 Room - $25.00 Fees - 8.50 Total $33.50 The hotel is only 4 miles or so from Universal. I am very happy. I also checked tripadvisor.com and there were a couple of excellent reviews from people who stayed there. Thanks again, thereuare. :) I think I understand the bidding, I just don't know what bid amount to start with and the increments for rebidding. I never would have dreamed you could get a hotel for $25! Priceline is addicting! It will be very hard to pay actual prices ever again! Couldn't have done it without you!

Sorry, I only told you the Priceline zones. On Hotwire, Universal, Airport West, Airport and Downtown are OK. Hotwire has a 2 star hotel for $29 right now in the Universal zone with pool and continental breakfast icons that I almost bought today, but decided to wait until I heard from you. The taxes and fees would have been $10.95 for a total of $39.95. That's 30%. Is Hotwire normally that much in fees and taxes? Do you think I could get one cheaper with Priceline? Talk to you soon! Thanks.

Downtown, Florida Mall and Airport zones are options in addition to the Universal zone. We just want to stay somewhere in the area. I used the Universal zone because it had International Drive in it and was closest to where we will be staying. Let me know what you think. Thanks for your help!

We are driving to Orlando Monday 7/7 because we have a Universal Orlando package for 7/8 - 7/12 staying at the Royal Pacific Resort. We need a room for 1 night so that we can get to Universal the morning of the 8th all rested and ready to hit the parks- and not using one of our package days driving. The room doesn't have to be anything special. I have already done my Priceline prep - checking each zone and writing down which zones have which star hotels so that I will know any free bid zones if needed. I think we would probably want to stay in the Universal/Wet Wild zone. Just not sure where to start my bidding. Need help with that. I looked at Hotwire, but not familiar enough with it to know what hotels are listed. I want very inexpensive. Cheap. Any suggestions? Priceline or Hotwire? Used Priceline a couple of weeks ago for Miami and was very pleased. What is the cheapest price anyone got a Priceline hotel for in Orlando? Of course, like all of us, I want the best hotel for the cheapest price. Thanks for any and all help.

We are considering a trip to Aruba (well actually we know we are going because we were there November 2001 and loved it). When I checked Priceline - just to scope out the zones - the entire island is shaded as the Aruba bid zone. Does anyone know what hotels Priceline has used in Aruba? We would like to stay on or very near Palm Beach. Any information would be helpful. Thanks. Note: I will be out of town for a few days, so I won't be able to check back unless I get access to a computer. So I'll check for a reply next week sometimes. Thanks again for any help.

First bid for Downtown Miami $ 27 rejected 2nd bid Dwntwn and added rebid zone $34 rejected 3rd bid added rebid zone $40 accepted $189.24 total for 4 rooms $160.00 room total 29.24 taxes and fees $47.31 total per room I'm very happy. Hotel.com had this hotel for $159.95 for the night of 10/17. We wanted a decent hotel less than $50. Realized yesterday the ony way to do it was Priceline. Thanks so much to this board and especially to thereuare. I actually could have probably gotten the rooms for $38, but was not experienced enough to figure that out while bidding. A learning lesson.... Thanks again. I'm loving this board!!! :)

I'm going to do exactly what you have recommended. I am in no real hurry. So I am willing to wait to get the price I want. Do you think because I will be bidding on several rooms together I may have to pay more? Having made the decision to use Priceline to get our rooms has been the biggest relief. It was just too difficult to sort out all the hotel options listed on the discount hotel websites. Priceline uses respected hotel chains, so no one will be disappointed with the hotel and we'll get a price lower than the not-so-good hotels. I have emailed our friends to find out whose doing what so I'll know how many rooms to bid on. It may take a day or two. But I most certainly will keep you informed and post results. Without your help I would have probably bid way too high. Who would have ever thought the Sheraton would go for $27 when the rates are listed as $159 on hotel-discounts.com? Thanks again.

Thank you for responding so quickly! I have used Priceline only once - for a 1 night pre-cruise in Honolulu October 2002. I got the Sheraton Princess Kualiani for $65 instead of $170. It was scary but at the same time quite exciting. And the hotel was lovely. Especially for the price. So if you can give me advice on how to go about bidding for a downtown Miami hotel I'd really appreciate it. And I don't really have to be in walking distance. It would be nice to be close to the water and the shops and restaurants. But I'd rather have a great hotel at a great price. And I think I understand the rebidding. I will have to re-read it to be sure though. Thanks again.

I have been reading this forum for some time trying to figure out the best way to book 4 hotel rooms in Miami 10/17 for 1 night pre-cruise. Hotel Room - First we wanted to stay in South Beach, but the more I read about it, the less I want to stay there. Now it seems the Bayside Marketplace is a nice area to spend a late afternoon and evening the night before a cruise so I'd like for us to stay in that area within walking distance. I just went on Hotwire and from what I've read (in terms of how to figure out what hotel they are offering) it seems that the Sheraton Biscayne Bay is being offered for $54. I went on the Sheraton website and it says this hotel is 1 mile away from the Bayside Marketplace. Can anyone help me sort all of this out? We want a nice hotel as inexpensively as we can get it. We don't have to have the Ritz, just something clean and comfortable for the one night walking distance to the Marketplace. I am probably going to have to bid all 4 rooms at the same time so that we can be assured of staying at the same hotel. Any help is very much appreciated!