Priceline Hotel: 3* London (Bloomsbury) Holiday Inn Bloomsbury

[WillTravel]

Official site: http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/hi/1/en/h...vanity=redirect

Bid through savingsbarn.com .

Bear with me - European hotel bids are always an epic saga for me :).

I had a hard time knocking down the counteroffers I got.

I've been lowballing this for a couple weeks, so started with unrealistically low numbers around $60.

• I got a counteroffer for both 3* and 4* (separate tries) for Kensington of $90. According to the Vacation packages, the 3* hotels in Kensington are actually a little more expensive than some 4*.
  
• I got a counteroffer of $77 for 3* Bloomsbury (and $101 for 4*).
  
• I got a counteroffer of $88 for 2* South Bank - Vauxhall, and for 3* South Bank - Vauxhall.
  
• I got a counteroffer of $109 for 3* in Westminster.
  
• I got a counteroffer of $152 for 4* in Mayfair.
  

I had initially planned to go for Kensington and had gradually been working upwards. But then I looked online at various booking sites for the Millennium Gloucester, which was quite likely to come up for me (perhaps 50% odds). I saw that they have a relatively low rate for their queen-bed rooms, but a rate almost twice as high for their twin-bed rooms. I noticed in the reviews that quite a few reviewers were "upsold" to a higher class of rooms whenever they complained about something. I really want a twin-bed room when traveling with my daughter, so even if the risk is small, I didn't want to worry about having to pay for a possible upgrade.

Then I considered South Bank - Vauxhall. The Novotel Waterloo seemed the likely 3* candidate, and was well-situated for what we wanted. I checked the Novotel site, and noticed that over the 5-day period, the rates varied significantly each day. When I bid for the whole stay at once, I got a counteroffer of $88. When I broke up the bid, I got a counteroffer of $99 for the first two nights, and $81 for the last three nights. I worked up very slowly, and was still getting counteroffers even when I bid $84 for the 5-night stay. Maybe Priceline would have given it to me for some amount between $85 and $88, but given the next experience I'm doubtful. This would have been a nice hotel to get - the standard room seems to have a double bed, single bed, and sofa. (I also bid 2* in this zone, because the Comfort Inn Vauxhall was fine on a previous stay, but it did not come up for bids up to $70, and as posted above I had the $88 counteroffer.)

So I considered Bloomsbury. Holiday Inn Bloomsbury was most likely to come up according to the Vacation Packages, and it is perfectly situated for what we plan to do on this trip. It's very close to the tube and a grocery store and some attractions. When I looked at various booking sites, and the hotel site, they offer their "smoking twin-bed rooms" for a relatively low rate, as well as the usual double-bed rooms. I don't know why they don't offer a reduced rate non-smoking twin-bed room, but we'd rather take the risk of a smoking room vs. a room without twin beds. I know there are still no guarantees of a twin-bed room, but this works out well for us. I've had good luck with other London Holiday Inns. The 3* vs. 4* issue is not terribly significant for us if the location is right.

I determined that Mayfair, Westminster, London Bridge, and South Bank - Vauxhall could be used as de facto rebid zones, even though there was some "risk" I could get a hotel in those zones. I methodically made sure to bid Bloomsbury + zone, Bloomsbury + other zone, etc. so I had quite a few chances to work up.

I had worked up to $76 with a bid of Bloomsbury, South Bank, and Westminster. I got yet another counteroffer for $77. I think a $1 counteroffer must be some sort of record. (With each new bid I got some sort of counteroffer - either to add $22, which would have really resulted in an overbid, or a repeat of the $77 offer.)

Given this experience, would I have been able to knock down the Kensington counteroffer, like everyone else seems to have been able to do? I'll never know :).

Holiday Inn Bloomsbury advance purchase rates: 80 pounds inclusive of VAT for Aug. 24-26, 72 pounds inclusive of VAT for Aug. 26-29. VAT is 17.5%. That means the equivalent pretax rates in US dollars are about $128 and $115.

(Should also add that I also tried breaking up this Bloombsbury bid and got a counteroffer of $84 for Aug. 24-26, and $73 for August 26-29.)

Conclusion: Priceline is applying some sort of price-averaging when there is a rate shift during the stay.

Possible conclusion: Priceline counteroffers cannot be beaten 100% of the time.

Possible conclusion: Priceline recognizes that I am a customer who will go to great effort to undercut a counteroffer, and thwarts me :o.

[thereuare]

Thanks for the details.

We'll have to keep an eye on the averaging factor (as it's one of great interest to me). I assume your conclusion is based upon the counter-offers received for the different dates? While this would lean towards the assumption that priceline is now averaging rates, i always try to analyze every possible scenario (a fault of mine to the degree i take it), so it might not be completely conclusive. If 'suggested retail' rates factor into the amount of priceline's counter offers then it's possible the lower counter-offer could have been accepted for the complete stay.

As an example, if $88 was the lowest accepted bid for the 'expensive nites', there may have been no averaging of the bids and while your $84 may have been enough to win the less expensive nites, you didn't find success on the complete stay due to your bid not being high enough for the expensive nites (regardless of how much cheaper the lower nites were). Then again, perhaps i'm missing something that you said above that doesn't make the above situation plausible?

As usual your posts provide insight/provoke discussion into the inner workings of priceline. Hopefully the above will further spur an open dialogue to other thoughts.

Thanks for using the priveline links at SavingsBarn.com :)

[WillTravel]

I guess what gets me is that it is usually possible to undercut a counteroffer by at least a few dollars.

Other people here have been getting $90 counteroffers and winning with $81 or $82 or $83.

I got an $88 counteroffer and failed with $84, but still getting another counteroffer.

I got a $77 counteroffer and failed with $76, and got the counteroffer that effectively worked out to $1.

For South Bank - Vauxhall, I got the $88 counteroffer for the full stay, and then got separate counteroffers of $99 for the first two nights, and $81 for the last three nights. 88 x 5 = 440, and (99 x 2 + 81 x 3) = 441, so it certainly looks like averaging. (Particularly since to the best of my knowledge and by analyzing all possible hotels in this zone, it seems there is only one 3* possibility.)

For Bloomsbury, I got the $84 counteroffer for the first two nights, and $73 for the last two, and $77 for the full stay.

77 x 5 = 375, and (84 x 2 + 73 x 3) = 387. In that case, perhaps the broken up bid would have led to two separate hotels.

The other thing I'm wondering is if those counteroffers which actually display a yellow table with the new rate (that's what my counteroffers that named a specific price looked like) are somehow different from counteroffers where you are told to add $17 or $22 or whatever.