Priceline Hotel: Venetian 4/24-4/28

[jkcarm]

1st time vegas visitor trying to get the $99 Veneitan deal for 4/24-4/28.

After reading your advice, I tried priceline:

Started at $80..got offer for $163

Added area, Rebid at $85...

Added another area, Redbid at $99...got offer for $173 from lowest fare

This seemed to work for everyone else, am I doing something wrong? Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated.

The Venetian website offers three of the nights at the promotional $149, the night (4/26) is offered at $169. Hotwire offers $163 for night.

Any hope for getting the $99 deal if I wait and rebid?

[thenewbie]

April 26th is $199 for the night, which is causing PL to require more than $99 for the 4 nights. Not sure what they want for the 4 nights, but if you split your stay, it should be a better deal than the $163 counteroffer for all 4 nights. Otherwise, PL will not accept a $99 bid because of 4/26.

Bid for 2 nights 4/24 - 4/26 at $99 then bid for 2 nights 4/26 - 4/28 for more than $99 (maybe start around $120 and use free rebids to increase the amount).

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

I won't have time to look at these dates until later tonite (so post back if you've already split the dates as recommended above) but i wanted to add that you could get a different hotel for each set of dates, so you should only do the above if you're willing to change hotels during your stay.

This is explained in more detal in: PRICELINE SPLITTING THE BID.

[jkcarm]

Thanks for the tips. We don't want to risk having to stay in two different hotels so I didn't split my bid.

I read in another post that that in the past the Venetian has been known to release more rooms to PL at the $99 price 7 days before, is this true? Do you think I have a chance if I bid again a week before? Should I give the $99 bid another shot today?

I currently have a reservation at the Mandalay Bay for the four nights. $109 for two nights and $139 and $149 for the other two. I can cancel up to 48 hours before.

[thenewbie]

As priceline was intended to sell excess inventory, your 7 day idea is true for

many hotels. They reduce rates to try to fill up the hotel, so they offer more

rooms to PL. However, since this is Vegas, I doubt that you will have much

success booking a multi-night stay a few days before your trip for $99. Many of

the successful 5* bids are for a month or two down the road.

For 5* PL properties on the strip, the only reported locations are the

Venetian and the Bellagio. This is only an estimate and I cannot guarantee

this:I'd estimate that probably around 95+% of all accepted 5* strip bids

are for the Venetian. I'd say it's safer splitting a bid for a 5* strip than many other

locations (except those with only one hotel in an area). But again, there is

always a possibility that you could end up at a non-reported 5* location.

If you only want to bid the 4 nights, try close to what you reserved at MB. You

currently average around $126.5 per night, so you could try $100 - $120 per

night for a 4 night bid and still be below the MB reservation. Keep in mind

that you won't get all 4 nights for $99 because 4/26 is still higher.

[thereuare]

I think the risk of getting a different hotel for the second part of your stay is slim... the greater risk is that you don't want to bid as high as it will take and therefore end up with a 4* hotel for the balance of your stay.

[jkcarm]

Thanks.

I thought about the "limited" risk and decided to try splitting. I bid $99 for 4/24-4/26 and was rejected. These nights are still $149 promo rate on the Venetian website. What do you think is happening? Should I try again?

Your are right, we would rather stay at the Venetian then the MB given the same cost.

[thereuare]

How did you split the dates?

What is the most you are willing to bid for a 5 star?

[jkcarm]

I tried bidding up to $105 for the first 2 days (4/24-4/26) and was rejected

I tried bidding for the 4 days (4/24-4/28) up to $118 and was rejected.

Hotwire dropped the Venetian down to $158 from $163 for these 4 days.

I suppose I'd be willing to pay up to $130 per night for the Venetian or 5 star hotel.

This is the first time I've ever bid on Priceline, and was exicted at the prospect of the great $99 deal. Also we are going to be celebrating our anniversay and my husband's birthday so I thought staying at the Venetian would be a nice extra.

I really appreciate the guidance.

Looks like I may have just stumbled upon better bidding a week too late.

[thereuare]

I'm somewhat confident you can have success for the first two nites if you work your way up to $135, but then you're faced with somewhat higher prospects for the last two nites (it's really that Tuesday that is the difficult nite)