Priceline Hotel: 3* Philadelphia (Downtown) Courtyard

[BeachBum]

I need a downtown Philadelphia hotel, preferably walking distance from 12th and Market, the night of October 22, 2009. I will be in the area until the 25th, and would split the trip, but all things being equal I don't want the extra service charges of multiple stays.

The Sheraton and Marriott, nearby 3.5*, have rack rates of $157 and 251 for 10/22 - 25, while the Hilton Garden Inn, a nice 3* in a good location, has a AAA rate of $116. Based on other results here I bid $55 up to $66 for 3.5* yesterday, with all available rebids, and $45-49 for 3*. I was surprised to have these bids rejected, in light of the low rack rates everywhere but the Marriott. Am I simply bidding too soon, or is there another strategy I should try? Thanks for all your help.

[thereuare]

You can't use the AAA rate for price comparisons (you can use it to determine a maximum bid amount since you don't want to overbid more than your AAA rate if eligible, but i wouldn't use that to determine an expected bid price).

Even with the $116/nite rate, the maximum bid you placed is still less than half the best rate you can find elsewhere. Whilere are a few sub-$60 bids reported to the board, most of these are for the marriott, which given their $251/nite rack rates for your dates doesn't seem like they would be offering for these nites.

Do the hotel direct rates change at all if you search for just the weekend nites?

Please use these PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links to begin your travel purchases.

[BeachBum]

All prices except the Marriott ($279 rack) are higher for Thursday than for Fri-Sat. EasyClickTravel.com has the Hampton Inn for $91, which is going to be the gauge for maximum bid. I ordinarily don't like going above 40% of rack rate before the week of travel unless there's a convention or other event which will reduce availability. I better check.

[BeachBum]

I wound up splitting the trip. 3* Courtyard Philadelphia Downtown $60...10/21/09 - 10/24/09, first bid for these 3 dates after losing bids from 50-60 on various date combinations. Through HOTWIRE I received 3* Doubletree Philadelphia $69 ... 10/24/09-10/25/09, which I will post on the Hotwire side. I used the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links to start my bids.

Ordinarily I don't mind holding my bids to the last minute in hopes of the lowest rate, but I have seen rack rates for these dates slowly rising over the 3 weeks I've been following this trip. The rack rate at the Courtyard these nights is $199, so I paid 30%. Can't complain about that!

[thereuare]

Congratulations on your success!

Looks like you did a great job and monitoring rates, and did well by SPLITTING YOUR PRICELINE BID.

While you will have to change hotels for the last nite, these are some great deals and even greater savings, so hopefully it will be worth the effort.

Thanks for using our PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links to begin your purchases.

Enjoy your stay(s).