Priceline Hotel: hoping to stay at Waikiki Marina Prince Hotel

[jyk2111]

I am a newbie and am so excited to share tips in this forum.

Ideal spot: Waikiki Marina Prince Hotel / 4 star

Maximum bid: $85

ideal bid: $72

Fixed Dates: 1/15 Sat-- 1/18/2011 Tue

I've done some research on this site and found that people have successfully bid at $72 for a night at the Prince Hotel.

I have a couple of questions if anyone may so graciously lend their wisdom:

1. I bid at 2 or 3 in the morning last night. I don't want to be up every 2 or 3 AM just to do bidding. I couldn't wait today and just went ahead and bid again at 7:30 PM but didn't go through. Does that also count as a bid and wait another 24 hrs from then or do I count from 2AM for my next opportunity to bid 24 hrs later?

2. How long shall I give myself to bid successfully for my ideal or maximum bid? A week or 10 days or even less? Maybe 4 straight days of bidding at 72$

3. Below is what I have to work with in doing the bidding.

1 Diamond Head Area

2 Executive Center

3 Honolulu Airport (HNL)

4 Ihilani resorts only

5 Oahu North Shore resorts only

6 Waianae (N/A)

7 Waikiki Beach Area

8 Waikiki City Central

*0 Waikiki Marina Area

Select All Zones

This is what I have been doing:

$70 0

$71 0+1

$72 0+1+2

$73 0+1+2+3

$74 0+1+2+3+7 (7 because I don't mind staying in this area at a 4* hotel at a low price; 4 and 5 are areas Iwouldn't like to stay at)

Is this the best i could do? Any other ideas? I feel i may have more opportunities.

I tried 0 + 2 but showed as "duplicate" request.

Thank you everyone!

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

The duplicate bid that you made at 7:30pm shouldn't count as a bid attempt, but sometimes the system messes up and it does... you could either try again after 24 hours from the original bidding time or wait a full 24 hours after the 7:30pm duplicate bid to know for certain you have a clean slate to work from.

Rates are dates specific, and while inventory can and does change frequently, i don't think at the moment you have much of a chance at $85/nite at this property. Hotel direct rates are over $200/nite making your maximum bid well under 50% of prevailing rates, which does not give you a high probability of success. You can certainly try, but i wouldn't be holding out for that rate. As well, HOTWIRE shown no 'opaque' availability for your dates at this property (or at the 4* level in this zone)

What will you do if unsuccessful at this price in the weeks to come at $85?

You can also improve upon your bidding strategy... are you willing to bid up to $85 at this point in time? Based upon the above, are you willing raise your maximum bid?

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

[jyk2111]

Thank you for your kind reply.

So does that mean I should go by the median retail price shown at the bottom before I decide on a dollar amount to start with?

For example, I keep seeing Waikiki Marina 4 star at a median retail price of 200 and over. Should I assume that the biggest discount amount is 50%, so I would be better off starting the bid with $100+ ?

I don't intend on spending more than 90/nite for the Prince Hotel in Waikiki Marina. Then that would mean I wouldn't even have to bid if I want to stick with my $75~$90 range by just clicking to see what the median retail price is for the 4 star waikiki region that day. It would save me a lot of time. Anyone have any testimonies? :)

[thereuare]

You should ignore the median prices shown by PRICELINE as they often don't accurately reflect current pricing. As well, discounts can vary greatly by date, and region, so there is no fixed percentage of prevailing rates that you should bid.

The issue with your dates above is that rates at the Waikiki Prince are a bit higher than usual and at the moment i don't think there is much opaque availability, and if there is inventory available, it may not be discounted too deeply.

I'd suggest finding the best deal you can for an acceptable hotel in the area... then determine a maximum bid by discounting that price to account for the 'unknown' of an opaque purchase.

What is the best price you're able to find for an acceptable hotel for this stay? How much of a discount would you need to make an opaque purchase worthwhile?

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