mclan Posted March 23, 2005 Report Share Posted March 23, 2005 Hi, I'm a newbie, just placed our first bid on Priceline last nigh. I've been perusing this very helpful forum for the past week and want to say thanks to all for a great place to learn about Priceline and Hotwire!Fairly certain this situation/question has been covered before, however, couldn't find with any search terms I entered. So here's our experience:When bidding on Priceline for a Seattle 4* (downtown) hotel last night for dates in September 05, we entered a bid of $90. Priceline searched, then came back with the answer that they could not find any hotels willing to accept our bid. However, if we'd up our bid by $22, they'd allow us to search again and waive the 72 hour waiting period. Well, after our research on this forum, we figured we probably needed to go up to at least $100. Since we were only staying 2 nights, we decided to go for the additional $22 and see what happened. Almost immediately, Priceline came back with the Westin Seattle.What about this option, folks? Was it wise to go for it? If we had entered anything other than a $112 bid, would our bid have been rejected? Don't know if it makes any difference, but we are located in Southern California.Thanks! Link to comment
gleemonex Posted March 23, 2005 Report Share Posted March 23, 2005 this is what we call a counteroffer. if you'd entered anything other than what they specified, you'd have been rejected.a counteroffer can almost always be undercut by understanding and using the rebid system.counteroffers can be useful though, when bidding in a city with little to no re-bid zones, or when you're sick and tired and just want to get your hotel :) Link to comment
WillTravel Posted March 23, 2005 Report Share Posted March 23, 2005 Seattle has a bunch of rebid zones for 4* hotels - thereuare has explained the concept elsewhere (maybe in the Tips section).I would guess you could have gotten this hotel for somewhere between $100 and $111 - but $112 is not bad at all.It would be great if you posted your dates so that the bid post is complete to provide helpful info to other bidders. Link to comment
thereuare Posted March 24, 2005 Report Share Posted March 24, 2005 Welcome to BetterBidding!As mentioned above, this is known as a counteroffer and then can almost always be undercut, as mentioned in this thread: PRICELINE SUGGESTS PRICE TO PAY.Also mentioned is that you can use PRICEILNE RE-BID ZONES in order to undercut the counter-offers.Please add the dates of your stay so that this thread and topic title will be complete. Please use this HOTWIRE and these PRICELINE LINKS: HOTELS, CAR RENTALS, and AIRFARE to begin your travel purchases Link to comment
mclan Posted March 24, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 24, 2005 Thanks for the info, will know next time to just wait out the 72 hours and bid in between initial bid and the suggested re-bid from Priceline. Actually, it's a really good hint, isn't it?!Westin Hotel and Towers, Seattle (downtown) September 8, 9 2005Initial bid, $90; Priceline suggested $112, bid $112We had selected only the downtown zone, by the way Link to comment
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