SRUAlmn Posted February 20, 2005 Report Share Posted February 20, 2005 I am looking to bid on Priceline for the first time. I'm looking at the Mount Pleasant/Isle of Palms area of Charleston, SC. I don't see anything listed on here for this area. Has anyone bid on or stayed in this area using Priceline? I hope this is where I'm supposed to post this. Thanks so much!Karen Link to comment
SRUAlmn Posted February 20, 2005 Author Report Share Posted February 20, 2005 Anyone? I'm really nervous to go into it totally blind :) Link to comment
Scorp Posted February 20, 2005 Report Share Posted February 20, 2005 I haven't stayed there on a Priceline bid, but I can give you some suggestions. The Isle of Palms/Mt. Pleasant area looks quite large on the Priceline map. Priceline includes 1*, 2*, 2.5* and 3* bidding in this zone. If you look in the Packages area of Priceline with Charleston as your destination, you will see some of the hotels that participate with Priceline (at least for Packages). Use several different dates to see if additional properties will be displayed. I found the following on my first search:2 * Holiday Inn Express And Suites Isle Of Palms - Isle Of Palms, South Carolina 2.5 * Residence Inn Charleston Mount Pleasant - Mount Pleasant, South Carolina 2.5* Mount Pleasant Holiday Inn - Mount Pleasant, South Carolina You might have to check some maps to see which properties are clearly in the zone you are interested in. I listed the ones that seem most likely to be located there. You can also check Hotwire and Expedia. There could always be others that don't show up on the Packages results and you can't know for sure which ones would participate with Priceline and which won't. If you need more help, give us an idea of what quality level you are interested in and what your dates are.... Link to comment
SRUAlmn Posted February 20, 2005 Author Report Share Posted February 20, 2005 I was going to try for 3*. How do I see the priceline packages? Are they inclusive of air and stuff? We will only need the hotel. Thanks so much for the help. We may just give it a try and see what happens. We aren't real particular about where in that specific area the hotel is. We just want to be sure that it is in Mount Pleasant or Isle of Palms, and that is a 2.5 or 3 *. Link to comment
Scorp Posted February 21, 2005 Report Share Posted February 21, 2005 The Priceline Packages are inclusive of airfare and hotel, but I'm not suggesting you buy anything more than a hotel - I'm just showing you a way to get an idea of what hotels you might win when you bid. If Priceline has a hotel in the Packages area, it very well might also have it in the regular bidding area, BUT in the Packages area you can see the hotel names!!! To see them, just click on Packages and fill in a departure city and dates and use Charleston as the destination. On Expedia, I see there is a Hilton in that area, also. It may be the 3* property, as Hilton hotels seem to participate quite a bit in Priceline. I am sure thereuare can give you a bidding strategy, if you like. You should check the rates at some of the hotels that seem likely to see if they are higher than normal for your dates, etc. Link to comment
SRUAlmn Posted February 21, 2005 Author Report Share Posted February 21, 2005 Thank you, I took a look at the packages section, and the only hotel listed for Mount Pleasant/Isle of Palms was the Holiday Inn and Suites on Isle of Palms. It is listed as a 2*, and it is really expensive! So I guess a 2* is a lot nicer than I anticipated it to be. We are looking at the beginning of April. Either the 1-8, the 2-9, or 1-7 depending on the price we can get. Link to comment
Scorp Posted February 21, 2005 Report Share Posted February 21, 2005 Well, that is the only hotel in your desired zone that shows for your dates in the Packages area, but that doesn't absolutely mean you can't get one of the others. You should check the hotel rates at each of the properties to see if they are high/low. I would read the reviews at TripAdvisor for that property (as well as the other two that showed up for me above) and also for the Hilton (which I think might be the 3* in that zone) and see if there are any that you really do or don't want to get. You might decide to bid only at a certain quality level so you can have a bit more control. As for the price you saw, did you check the hotel rates directly? Else, if that was in the Packages section, it would have included some kind of airfare or something as well as the hotel stay itself, so it looked expensive. But the price there doesn't mean too much (although by checking different dates and comparing properties, you can get a bit of information about relative pricing between properties) - you are only going to be bidding on a hotel room. Thereuare, is there anything you wanted to add to this? Link to comment
Scorp Posted February 21, 2005 Report Share Posted February 21, 2005 I see there is the 28th Annual Cooper River Bridge Run/Walk on April 2 - I looked quickly and some of the hotel rates seem a bit high for that weekend - maybe because of that event???? Link to comment
SRUAlmn Posted February 21, 2005 Author Report Share Posted February 21, 2005 Oh! It is that weekend. Uh oh! We wanted to go and catch the Stingrays game on 4/2, but maybe we should wait and go the next weekend... Thanks for all the help, I really appreciate it! Link to comment
SRUAlmn Posted February 21, 2005 Author Report Share Posted February 21, 2005 I found reviews for the Residence Inn, The Holiday Inn Express & Suites, the Holiday Inn, and the Hilton. Residence Inn- 2.5*- 1 review- goodHoliday Inn E&S (Isle of Palms)- 2*- 9 reviews- 5 good, 4 badHoliday Inn (Patriot's Point)- 2.5*- 6 reviews- 5 good, 1 averageHilton- 3*?- 21 reviews- 16 good, 5 bad Link to comment
Scorp Posted February 21, 2005 Report Share Posted February 21, 2005 So, there you go! You are well on your way to figuring out how to make this work for you! If you have flexibility for your dates, you now know some of the things to check, you know how to narrow down the list of likely Priceline hotel wins, and you know how to determine if rates are higher than normal (which will impact on your chance of getting a hotel at a lower/higher bid or not at all). You also know a bit about how to avoid/obtain the hotel you would like and which hotels are best or worst-liked. There are no guarantees but you can narrow things down!We can help you work through a strategy for that weekend or the following one, but let us know what things you want most. By the way, I love Charleston - I have only been there a couple of times, but I would love to go back again. I used to stay at the Francis Marion (sp?) when it was a Starwood property. Link to comment
SRUAlmn Posted February 21, 2005 Author Report Share Posted February 21, 2005 Thank you so much for all your help. We tried, but our offer got rejected. Oh well :) It was neat to do it for the first time. Link to comment
Scorp Posted February 25, 2005 Report Share Posted February 25, 2005 So what did you bid and for what quality level? Link to comment
SRUAlmn Posted February 25, 2005 Author Report Share Posted February 25, 2005 We bid $30 for a 3*. I figured why not take the risk and if they don't accept it, no biggie. We have time to try again :) Link to comment
SRUAlmn Posted February 25, 2005 Author Report Share Posted February 25, 2005 Just tried to re-bid. Did $40 this time for a 2.5* and it got rejected as well. I booked a 2* at $45 without Priceline, so I don't know how $40 for a 2.5* would have been way out of line. Oh well. BTW- we are trying for March 14-18. Link to comment
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