Priceline Hotel: 3* Cocoa Beach-Merritt Island (Cape Canaveral) Radisson at the Port

[klam]

I'm trying to get 2.5* Comfort Suites (no guarantees, I know). From past successful bids posted on this site, I was hoping to get it in the $50-$53 range. This week I've been bidding everyday and getting rejected at $50 to $57.

PL says the average price for this type of hotel is $97. At $57 bid (total cost $71.16), PL made a counter offer of "If you are willing to raise your price by $15 to $72 per room, per night, you can try the same request again right now."

The CS website has a non-refundable advance purchase price of $76.46 ($84.87 incl taxes).

Any ideas on why there is very little gap btwn PL and hotel offering, and how I should proceed? I used the PRICELINE link from this site for my bids. Any suggestions?

thx,

[thereuare]

The counter-offer can often be under-cut as discussed in this Priceline Suggests Price to Pay thread. How much you can under-cut is not know... it may take $58... it might take the full $72 (although usually it takes less than the suggested amount)

How much of a discount would you want for a 2.5* hotel in this area vs. purchasing the Comfort Suites direct and knowing exactly what you'll be getting?

Please use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases. (or our Comfort Suites link as found in the support page if you decide to book direct)

[klam]

Thx for the link; I'm familiar with the counter-offer but have no free rebids so have to wait a day so thought I'd ask. Trip is in Dec so I have some time so might bid a few more times before I buy direct.

cheers,

[thereuare]

Keep us updated and let us know how it goes or if we can be of further help in the process.

Thanks for using the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your purchases.

Good luck.

[klam]

Still bidding so wanted to provide an update and a correction...I had my hotels confused somehow and I should have said Country Inn instead. Their rates are $116 (total $129) so that makes a lot more sense now.

The PL line 'of rooms in this area go for an average' has gone from $114 to $96 to $116 so interesting to see that fluctuation during the duration of my bidding. Today it's at $103 and with a of $65 it made a counter offer for an additional $20 (i.e., bid price of $85 excluding taxes and fees wouldl be accepted). Going to continue to bid daily and see what happens. I want to see if the 'average price drops back down sub-$100 and I bid $65, if it will be accepted.

Have been using the PRICELINE links from this site. Thx!

cheers,

[thereuare]

The 'average price' shown by PRICELINE is not typically very accurate and i wouldn't necessarily include this information when comprising a bidding strategy.

Thanks for the update and for using the links on the board to begin your bidding and purchases.

Good luck and let us know how it goes or if we can be of further help.

[klam]

An unwanted upgrade! :)

Since my last update, I've been using the PRICELINE links from this site and have continued bidding almost daily. Interesting finding is that when I bid $57 it would counter offer with "add $15" to increase my bid to $72 and it would be accepted. However, when I bid $65 (to try to find the sweet spot btwn my offer and the coutner offer that would be accepted), it would counter offer with "add $20" to increase my bid to $85. This happened multiple times.

As thereuare noted it seemed to have no correlation with the "average price" listed for the hotel; i.e., the "average price" fluctuated from $96 to $116 and a bid of $65 would get the same counter offer.

I checked the Country Inn website daily and rooms were always available for $116, including a suite which was discounted $20. This made me think there was inventory available for this hotel.

My DH felt I was wasting my time with this daily bidding and just wanted me to book the hotel at whatever price so I could get onto taking care of the other details of this trip. So after a week of hounding I agreed I'd get it done by the end of this wk (the tracking and bidding is fun for me...heehee!)

So I went back to my $57 bid anticipating the $72 counter offer, which came and I put in for the full amt and got the Congratulations screen! Yippeee?? Noooo....I was given an upgrade to a 3* and got a room at the Radisson at the Port. Ugh!! I really wanted to stay at CS as others were staying there (not a good PRICELINE scenario I know...LOL!)

Room Subtotal:$72.00 (USD)

Taxes and Fees:$16.12 (USD)

Total Room Cost:$88.12 (USD)

For Dec 11, checkout on the 12th.

Well of course I went to the R@tP website and found I could have booked a room for $98 all-in. So I feel this was a far cry from the usual fab deal I score thru PRICELINE.

This hotel does include a free shuttle but the first one leaves at 11am. CS includes a $4pp shuttle but the first one leaves at a much preferred 10am. Likely we will call a cab from Radisson to the Port so we can beat the crush of people arriving at 11:30 for the usual 12pm boarding.

Breakfast is not included at the Radisson which isn't a big deal to us since we'll be a cruise ship soon and will just grab some pastries somewhere; however, it is included at CS so I'm just including this info to show the value of CS.

I know there are no guarantees and I was aware of the possibility of an upgrade to a higher star quality - I'd read about it but have never experienced it yet. I am aware of the 'rules' of using PL and know that everything was 'fair'. I have to say I've been thrilled with PRICELINE with all my past bids and this is the first time I've been disappointed.

In the end I know it won't really matter as we won't be arriving to the hotel until after dinner in Orlando, and leaving of course the next morning. This site is a wonderful resource; my post is just to help set expectations of future bidders looking into this locale.

cheers,

[AaronJB]

Sorry to hear that this result was a disappointment. :)

Hope the property will still work out okay for your travel plans.

Thank you for sharing your win and using the site's PRICELINE link.

Enjoy your stay.