Priceline Hotel: Help! Declined Bid 4*Universal Orlando $75

[williamsfam]

Hello, Can anyone offer any words of advice? I bid for the first time ever on Priceline after reading all the posts on this site and was declined. We are passing through Orlando for only 1 night on 3/18/05 and need a room near Universal (as we have a 12 month pass to the parks). I tried for a 4* or Resort and started bidding at $75 and was quickly declined. I thought I would be able to rebid at a higher price, but found myslef locked out. Any words of wisdom on how to get a nice room at a good price? Thanks in advance!

[ufjoe21]

I recently responded to someone's post who had a similar question, in the sense they didn't know the rules of priceline and how it works etc...........it's not exactly your situation they were looking for a resort in the WDW area of Orlando, FL and really had no clue how to use priceline.........you've used it once so some of this should make sense to you..........and explain how rebids work.....here's his original question and the answer I posted:

sorry if this isn't a direct answer to your question, but a lot of it applies in the sense that you don't have much experience using priceline

QUESTION:

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I need a resort hotel in the WDW area for 4/21-4/29 my top bid is 85 a night, never bid on priceline before so I really need help! Also is it really possible to get the swan or dolphin? If so any suggestions? Thanks for the help!!!!!!

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ANSWER:

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at priceline select check-in: 4/21 and check out 4/29 and Orlando, FL then you'll be able to pick the zone you want in Orlando, you want the WDW 'zone'

you will then select the 'Resort' level and you will name your own price and you'll be recommended a price to bid by priceline (just ignore it), you then enter your credit card info. and priceline will see if your bid is accepted (NOTE: if a hotel is found that accepts your bid, your credit card is charged, no questions asked and no refunds allowed, it will then reveal the name of your hotel, if you are in any way uncomfortable with not knowing the name of your hotel and "gambling" on it then DON'T BID)

the Swan and Dolphin have come up before on priceline, so yes it's possible, resorts are typically quite expensvie and vary from as low as $70 or $80 to well over $100

if your bid isn't accepted you must increase your bid amount and vary your bid (either vary your check in/out dates or add another 'zone' in Orlando or change what star level of hotel you're willing to accept)

the trick about priceline is, you will get free rebids if you add zones that do not contain resort level hotels, to figure out which zones don't have resort level hotels, just select each zone one at a time and priceline will show you the hotel star levels available in this zone as if you were going to bid on that zone, and just one by one check each zone to see what star levels are available

once your out of free rebids, you're locked out for a 72 hr. period from bidding again for the same selection

I suggest start bidding at $70 and increase $5 each rebid (most people seem to increase every 5 or 10 bucks and typically small increments can make a difference in getting or not getting a bid)

you have quite a bit of time to try and rebid, the idea of priceline is to be careful not to overbid and pay what you would normally pay directly from the hotel or from another website like Hotels.com, it's really luck the prices and inventory available to priceline fluctuate constantly, also just because another person finds a resort in the WDW area for $100 doesn't mean you will too, you may pay siginficantly more or less but there's a chance your winning bid will be identical

also, make sure you will only accept the resort level before you bid, because the 3* level in WDW typically comes up CHEAP (sometimes below $50) and there is no 4* in this zone

also, if you were willing to stay somewhere else like the Universal Zone or another zone in Orlando you coudl end up paying significantly less, but then you'd have to drive or take a bus or shuttle to the Disney area, that's up to you

in my experience with priceline I have found a great savings sometimes less than 50% of paying directly through the hotel's website, using other sites typically save only a few dollars like Travelocity.com or Hotels.com

by the way, if you are uncomfortable with this way of getting a hotel room, hotwire is a good alternative, they have typically the 2nd highest savings on the web because it is also in a sense a form of gambling, the only difference is you don't get to pick the price, you pick your hotel from a list of prices and all the other details are like priceline, and once you pick your hotel and pay for it, the name of the hotel is revealed, only problem is the savings isn't too great using hotwire, but typically higher than using the other travel websites

so anyways, I've been rambling, so go ahead and start bidding, by the way you can bid whatever price you like, but if you bid something ridculous like $20 for a resort it will never be accepted

let me warn you, some people think they know how to "beat priceline" and can tell you exactly how much to bid and guarantee you will win, these are just peple who follow the fluctuation in prices and tend to be lucky, there's no exact formula to winning, all you can do is increase your chance of winning by adding free rebid zones or be flexible in what zone you're willing to stay in or change the dates of your stay

it's a game, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, the only catch is that you're picking the price so if you bid too much you're stuck with the charge and there's not much you can do about it, if you're so conservative with your bids that you hardly increase your bid then you'll never get a hotel, you have to find a happy medium between what you can afford and what's a realistic bid

your 8 day trip, could cost up to $500 a night if you stay at a resort in the WDW area and pay the rack rate, take my advice and bid on priceline and hopefully end up paying less than $100 a night, some people complain "they called it a 3* but i think it's a 2*" or "they gave me a substandard room because I paid so little through priceline", most people have GOOD experiences with priceline, the majority of people who dind't like their experiences tend to not be comfortable with the idea of letting pricline choose their hotel, but it's all part of the game

let us know what you do and how it turns out, you have nothing to lose by bidding now and seeing if you get something

happy bidding!

[thereuare]

willimmsfam,

Welcome to BetterBidding!

You need to understand re-bidding, which is explained in this thread: PRICELINE REBIDDING EXPLAINED. Please read that thread and ask any questions you may have and/or confirm your re-bid zones with the board (to avoid an potential mistakes).

You have 8 re-bid zones when bidding Resorts... 7 re-bid zones when bidding at the 4* level.

Let us know if you need help with re-bidding, and once you understand that let us know your maximum bid and we'll supply a strategy for you to follow.

[williamsfam]

By George, I get it! THanks for the chart idea, REALLY helful in the rebid.

Ok, once I understood the in's and out's, I went at it again.

Wanting to stay in the Universal zone, I charted it out so I knew what zones had which levels.

I started with Resort level at $80 and went up to $115 using rebids in $5 increments hoping to get a deal, declined.

I added 4* and started bidding at $80 and went back up to $115 using rebids in $5 increments, declined.

I went to the 3*, started at $40, and went up to $65 using rebids in $5 increments, declined.

I don't want to go to 2* and will therefore be locked out for 72 hrs.

Hmmmm, maybe because March is Spring break month? Any thoughts?

[thereuare]

Rates are very high for this date.

Is there anything available thru EasyClick for this date?

[williamsfam]

Good news! I went through EasyClick, submitted a request, and received notice that the 3* Doubletree Universal accepted my reservation. $86.01, including tax. The hotel is listed as sold out, but rooms are going for at least $160 that week. Thanks for all your help!

[thereuare]

Congratulations... that's great news!

A good example of why it's important to keep all of your options open and check all available resources.

Enjoy your stay!