Priceline Hotel: 4* St Louis (Downtown) Marriott Union Station

[Tommymac]

This looks to be a popular weekend in the University area in Saint Louis. We are going out to see my nephews graduation from Saint Louis University Law school and needed a room for 3 nights. Prices in the Forest Park area seemed extra high across all web sites for these dates, our guess is due to graduation. The standard rate for those dates on the hotel's site is $169.00. We feel very good to get a 4* property in the West side of the Downtown zone - not too far from the University area - at a good rate for the dates. :)

Bid History:

Plan A Wanted Forest Hills 3* - on a long shot looked to try for the Hotel Indigo (other family already booked there - standard rate for dates was over $200.). Had 3 bid chances at that * level in Forest Park zone - bid $55, $60 and $65 - all failed. But we honestly did not expect a win at these low rates due to the generally high prices this weekend in that zone. And I knew I could get a 3* downtown property for ~$65 guaranteed on Hotwire.

Plan B Closed all browser windows then re-opened the browser. Re-opened bidding in downtown zone for 4*. Knew I could accept a property in either the Forest Park or Downtown Saint Louis area so I had 11 bid chances. (Plan C was to bid down to 3.5 - 8 chances to bid at that price.) Started bidding at $60 due to a recent good bid reported on the forum for 4* in early May at $56. Set $85 in my mind as my maximum bid for a 4* room (about $20 more than that guaranteed 3* rate on Hotwire). Here is my Bid History, adding a new zone for each bid:

1) Started in Downtown @ 4* => $60 rejected.

2) Added second 4* zone Forest Park => $63 rejected.

3) added zone => $66 rejected

4) added zone => $69 rejected

5) added zone => $72 rejected

6) added zone => $75 rejected

7) added zone => $76 rejected

8) added zone => $77 rejected

9) added zone => $78 rejected (At this point I was feeling I was going to have to close up the browser again and try for a 3.5* property. But I had 2 bids left - so i bumped the ante up by $2)

10) added zone => $80 rejected (Knew I had one more bid chance left - with no confidence went all in to my maximum for the last bid.)

11) added zone => $85 bid ACCEPTED!! YAY! Was I ever surprised!!! Did not really expect to get a 4* property for under $100/night in this area for this weekend.

Here are the details:

Room Cost (avg. per room, per night): $85.00 (USD)

Number of Rooms: 1

Number of Nights: 3

Room Subtotal: $255.00 (USD)

Taxes and Fees: $51.72 (USD)

Total Room Cost: $306.72 (USD)

As always - started my journey by clicking on the PRICELINE Banner here on Better Bidding.

Thanks once again for the great information here!

[AaronJB]

Congrats on your success. :)

Terrific deal for this very historic and unique Marriott property. Thank you for sharing your bid history, as well.

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

Enjoy your stay.