Priceline Hotel: 4* San Francisco 8/13-8/16

[skitch23]

Hi! I'm new to the site & I've been reading thru the posts on the free rebid strategy. What would you guys recommend for wanting to stay at a 4* hotel? Our preference would be either USE or USW, but the Financial District and SOMA would also be acceptable. From my understanding there are 5 free rebid zones for 4*'s, but I cant figure out all of them :)

Would I want to first bid USW, then USE and then

Add South San Francisco

Add Civic Center

Add Marina-Lombard

Add SFO North-San Bruno

Add whatever the 5th one is

increasing by $5-10 at a time?

My max target price is around $110-120/nt, but would obviously like to start lower.

THANKS!!

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

Are you using the techniques in Priceline Re-Bidding Explained to determine your re-bid zones and NOT the hotel list on the board? If you read the previousl link and are confused just post back and we'll break it down further for you.

Did you want to include Financial District and/or SOMA in your bidding at first, or did you want to leave them off and only include them if you're first rejected up to $120?

Let us know the above and we'll advise accordingly.

Please use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases.

[skitch23]

I would want to include USE, USW, Financial District & SOMA in my original request (adding one at a time)....then add the (5?) free rebid zones.

I have searched my dates on Priceline and mapped out the available hotels with respect to their areas on the name your price section. Out of the 11 bidding zones, the areas I know i cannot bid in for sure are the airport & san mateo. Since I will be bidding in 4 zones previously mentioned first, that leaves me with 5 potential areas left....civic center, fisherman's wharf, marina-lombard, sfo north-san bruno, and south sf.

In my search on the dates, in the main drop down of areas I have determined that fisherman's wharf, south sf & pacifica (which I'm not sure where that is) have no 4* hotels available on my dates. So that leaves me with civic center, marina-lombard and sfo north-san bruno. Based on the locations of the available hotels, there are no 4*'s in any of these areas either.

So my thinking is that civic center, fisherman's wharf, marina-lombard, sfo north-san bruno, and south sf are all my free rebid zones... does that sound correct?

THANKS

[BEAV]

You have correctly named the 5 free rebid zones when bidding 4 star in San Francisco. Regardless of their location within the SF area, they are free rebid zones solely because they don't offer 4 star bidding.

If you're okay with winning a hotel in USE, USW, SOMA or Embarcadero, then I would select your order of preference first.

For example, let's say your first choice would be to stay in USE, followed by SOMA, USW and then Embarcadero. In that scenario I would bid as follows:

Bid 1 - USE

Bid 2 - USE, free rebid zone #1

Bid 3 - USE, free rebid zone #2

Bid 4 - USE, free rebid zone #3

Bid 5 - USE, free rebid zone #4

Bid 6 - USE, free rebid zone #5

If you don't get an accepted bid to any of the above, then to back to the Priceline home page and do this next:

Bid 1 - SOMA

Bid 2 - SOMA, free rebid zone #1

Bid 3 - SOMA, free rebid zone #2

Bid 4 - SOMA, free rebid zone #3

Bid 5 - SOMA, free rebid zone #4

Bid 6 - SOMA, free rebid zone #5

So on and so forth....

Get the picture?

I would want to include USE, USW, Financial District & SOMA in my original request (adding one at a time)

Don't do that!

You never want to add a zone with the same star level while increasing your bid amount simultaneously as that can cause an overbid. For example, if you start out with USE zone at $70, then add SOMA and bid $75, you never gave the SOMA zone a "chance" to score a room for $70. Give each 4 star zone the chance to score a room at your entry level bid price because you have no way to determine which zone has the lowest price.

Good luck and keep us posted on your progress!

[skitch23]

Ohhhh so you are saying its better to bid in my favorite area, add the 5 free rebid zones increasing the price incrementally, then if no luck try my 2nd favorite area at my low orig starting price and so on..... as opposed to starting out at say $80 in USW, and adding USE, SOMA, fin district (still at $80 level), then adding the 5 free rebid zones incrementally?

I think I understand..... I'll let you guys know how it goes!!

Thanks :)

[BEAV]

Ohhhh so you are saying its better to bid in my favorite area, add the 5 free rebid zones increasing the price incrementally, then if no luck try my 2nd favorite area at my low orig starting price and so on..... as opposed to starting out at say $80 in USW, and adding USE, SOMA, fin district (still at $80 level), then adding the 5 free rebid zones incrementally????

As long as you don't bid higher for 4 star in SOMA than you did USE, then you're not risking an overbid. However, you might as well bid each 4 star zone separately, in your order of preference, so as to give yourself the best chance in your preferred zone. If by chance two zones had hotels available for the same price, you may be assigned your least preferred zone when you could have scored in your preferred zone had you bid it separately.

Continued good luck!

[thereuare]

skitch23,

Which bidding strategy you follow depends upon the answer to this question...

Are you willing to pay more to be in your 1st zone preferece vs. your 2nd zone preference, then if rejected are you willing to pay more to be in your 2nd zone preference vs. your 3rd zone preference, etc, etc.... OR is your goal the least expensive 4* hotel in any of your acceptable zones?

Please use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases.

[skitch23]

Well, I've tried Beav's strategy for the last 3 days and I'm up to $140, with no luck thus far. Maybe some places will have a few last minute cancellations and need to unload a room at a good price :)

[BEAV]

Well, I've tried Beav's strategy for the last 3 days and I'm up to $140, with no luck thus far. Maybe some places will have a few last minute cancellations and need to unload a room at a good price :)

Sorry you're not having any joy .. yet!

I did a quick overview (on Expedia) of SF hotel prices for your dates and rack rates are fairly high at many hotels. Usually, prices are cheaper on weekends, but the rates I'm seeing are just the opposite, which indicates it's a fairly busy weekend in SF.

Having said that, have you checked alternatives, such as 4* HOTWIRE prices as a basis of comparison?

Also, LastMinuteTravel.com is showing a 4.5 star "on request" for $125 or a 4 star "available" for $139.

Continued good luck and keep us posted!