Priceline Hotel: 4* Austin (Downtown) Omni

[homerlou]

First bid $70.00 / 4* Downtown - rejected

Second bid $84 / 4* Downtown - rejected

Third bid $70.00/ 3.5* Downtown - rejected

Going to wait and retry later. Still plenty of time.

[yellowdog]

Welcome to BetterBidding :)

Thanx for the post.

If you post you max budget/night, preferred star rating for the hotel can we help you with a bidding strategy if you want.

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

Yellowdog.

[homerlou]

Looking for 3.5 or 4 Star - Downtown Austin. 3 nights 9/3/2010 - 9/6/2010 (Labor Day Weekend) Really don't want to pay more than $90.00 /night - typically we use Priceline and pay around $75.00 - $80.00 /night. Seems like we always end up at the Omni - which we enjoy. First time to use this forum. I usually wait until last minute - - don't know if that is the problem. Decided to try it earlier this time. any advice is welcome!

[thereuare]

Rates are not that high for these dates, so it could just be a little early, atlhough we have seen it take as much as $90 to be successful for at this property.

The hotel website does have a $132/nite special for Labor Day weekend which appears to be fully refundable if cancelled by the day before arrival (double check the terms yourself) and you may want to reserve that as a back-up if you choose to wait it out in hopes of rates going down over the course of the next week. In the meantime, i'd also consider increasing your bid to $90 if you're looking to increase your chances of getting this done sooner vs. later.

Lastly, at the 4* level you have have LOTS of re-bid zones (eight of them) which it doesn't appear that you are using... are you familiar with re-bidding?

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

[homerlou]

:) Successful bid.

Started adding zones that didn't have 4* hotel - but kept my request a 4* -- - started bidding at $80.00 - went up to $95 and no bites.

Changed to 3.5* started back at $75.00 and went thru all zones without 3.5* - - finally after about 8 - 9 tries ended up at the Omni (4*) for $94.00

A little more than we normally pay - - but not too much.

Last night Sheraton (3.5*) had a deal going with Expedia for $111/night including free breakfast free internet - and would have r'cd a $50.00 Visa Card. I'm kicking myself for not jumping on it -- it wasn't available this morning. (Sold out)

THis is good tho' - we enjoy the Omni and it's still a decent deal.

Thanks for the advice on adding zones! Never have considered doing that before!!!

[yellowdog]

homerlou

Thank you for sharing your result with the board!

Enjoy your stay.

Please use the site's HOTWIRE and PRICELINE links to start future purchases.

Yellowdog.

[homerlou]

homerlou

Thank you for sharing your result with the board!

Enjoy your stay.

Please use the site's HOTWIRE and PRICELINE links to start future purchases.

Yellowdog.

[homerlou]

Hey Yellow Dog -

I thought I did go thru the web site. I used the link in the top right hand corner where you put in dates and it took me to the priceline page. The only thing I can think of is that perhaps because I have a Priceline acct. set up that "automatically" signs me in when I go from my home IP address....????

Guess I need to go in and undo the something so it doesn't default to my account.

[yellowdog]

No, you don't have to change anything. You did this correct.

Thanx for using boards PRICELINE link :)

Yellowdog.

[homerlou]

:)

Thought I would share that we were upgraded to a suite at the Omni DT when we checked in. We requested a king - -and she said they didn't have any but she would check to see if a suite was available. We were on the executive floors. Had a living room, separate bedroom, study area, full kitchen with oven, microwave, dishwasher, full-size refer and washer dryer. Bath had jacuzzi tub and separate shower. Huge walk in closet. Was absolutely awesome. Could not believe our good fortune - -especially since we paid below rack rate. Didn't want to come home.

[yellowdog]

Great to see that you enjoyed the stay :)

Yellowdog.