Priceline Hotel: Jensen Beach Info

[gsaem]

Hi:

We would like to book the "Courtyard By Marriott Hutchinson Island" 2.5* May 15-20/11

Currently, the Priceline list has this at 3* - but that likely changed.

General search gives $159/night

Other "Jensen Beach" hotels are:

Caribbean Shores Hotel And Cottages 1* at $79/night

Vistana's Beach Club 3* at $199/night

All other hotels are listed as Stuart, Port St. Lucie, Fort Pierce or Palm Beach Gardens

Name Your Own Price gives the option to narrow zones to Jensen Beach, Stuart, Port St. Lucie and Fort Pierce.

Jensen Beach only gives options for 2* and 2.5*

My questions:

1) Any guesses as to the 2* in Jensen Beach?

2) If I bid at 2.5* as the minimum, is there any hotel OTHER than the "Courtyard By Marriott Hutchinson Island" likely to show up?

I'm hoping $90/night would be a good starting bid as that isn't even 50% off - I'll start lower if someone thinks that is a good idea.

Thank you very much for any help!

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

Please start by reading your messages and clicking this PRICELINE link... then reply to this thread and we'll have a look at your stay above.

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

[gsaem]

Hi.

Thanks for the reply and welcome.

I've checked my PM, and it seems I still just have the standard welcome message - if you have sent something more specific to my questions, it hasn't shown up.

I'm sorry if it seems as though I simply registered for this board to ask a question, but I have never used either Priceline or Hotwire before. Before I posted the question, I did the following:

First, I was looking at both Hotwire and Priceline to see if I could get a reasonable rate at the Courtyard Hutchinson. It doesn't seem to be available on Hotwire, and the best "standard" search on Priceline gave a price of $159/night (for May 15-20, 2011). I am a Marriott member and have also tried EVERY avenue to deal with that company directly - searching the web for promo codes - I'm not willing to try using one I'm not eligible for - and going through all their deals for public and members - nada.

I then tried the Priceline "Name Your Own Price" function and limited the search to "Jensen Beach" only - the zone seems to only cover the area where the Courtyard and Vistana are located. I'll refer to my original post for the details - there is only the option for 2* and 2.5* in Jensen Beach, the Courtyard is 2.5* and the Vistana is 3*. I have NO clue about what the 2* might be, and checked through all the Priceline Hotels in the pinned thread to get an idea. I also - just after registering - searched both Florida forums (Hotwire and Priceline) for the word "Courtyard" to see if anyone made a successful bid. The only one that might be relevant was the "Stuart" Courtyard - a different property entirely - that is - NOT beachfront.

So - sorry this is long - once I got to that point, I was still wary of actually completing the bid process with Priceline. While I THINK that the 2.5* in Jensen Beach is the Courtyard that we want, I was hoping to find out if anyone here (due to far more experience with Priceline and/or familiarity with the Jensen Beach region) could tell me what the chance is that the 2.5* is the Courtyard Hutchinson. Based on what I've checked (all the forums, Hotwire, Priceline, Expedia, Travelocity, Google Maps, etc.), I can't guess what else could be a 2.5* property in the area. I am just hoping that somebody can offer (if possible) a little credible reassurance.

Thanks, and I hope this explanation meets the requirements for asking the type of questions I initially posted.

[thereuare]

The 3* Courtyard is the one HERE in Stuart... not the one in Jensen Beach (which is 2.5* rated and has not yet been reported to the board).

The 'retail' section of PRICELINE and the 'name your own price' section each use a different universe of hotels, and while there is a LOT of overlap, not all hotels which participate in one side of the service participate in the other side of the service, and vice versa... so you shouldn't expect the hotels showing in the retail section to be a finite list of what is possible when bidding on a hotel.

With the above noted, i think there is a good chance that the 2.5* is the Courtyard Jensen Beach, but there is no way to know if this is the only 2.5* hotel in the zone.

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

Let us know if/how you'd like to move forward and we'll try to advise accordingly.

[gsaem]

Thanks!

This is pretty much my thought too. Even simply using Google maps and hotel, there don't seem to be other options in that zone. There MAY be condo rentals or B&B options, but it doesn't seem as though things like that are included on "Name Your Own Price" searches - at least not from what I've seen in the reported hotels list.

I'll talk it over with my wife - the trip is for her 39/2.0 birthday and our budget it limited (we have to fly there too), but I'd like to be as certain as possible that we're getting the hotel we really want.

I don't want to ask you for another favour - you've helped a lot already - but if you (having WAY more experience at this) did the same Priceline search (May 15-20 - Jensen zone only) and compared that with a Google or Bing map hotel search - perhaps a second set of eyes could tell if I may have missed something. If you get a chance to do that, great - and THANK YOU! If not, no worries.

[thereuare]

Those are the only 3 hotels i see in the area... and the Marriott is so far south that it's in the Stuart zone, not the Jensen Beach zone. (i had checked earlier and had checked again)

One thing to keep in mind in an area such as this... there isn't likely too much hotel competition, and therefore hotels may not offer too deep of a discount, even when using the opaque (PRICELINE and HOTWIRE) providers.

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

[gsaem]

Hi.

Thanks again for all your help. If I ever know of someone thinking of using Hotwire or Priceline bidding in the future, I'll definitely suggest they visit your forum first.

I've double checked the maps again myself and agree with your post. Oddly, Bing maps still includes a Holiday Inn that has apparently been shut down for the past few years due to damage from the last big hurricane. Other than that, the only other possible accommodations in that area seem to be B&B, cottage rentals or trailerpark/camping, and (as I mentioned before) I didn't see any of those on the Priceline list of hotels pinned to this forum. If you've ever heard of those showing up on a bid, let me know.

My only other concern is the zone circles and the "blank space" between them. There might be a few smaller independent hotels/motels/inns located there. Would they be included if they fall outside of ALL zone circles?

Anyway, we still have to confirm childcare for this trip, but if that works out we're seriously thinking of making a bid at Jensen Beach 2.5*. Since you mentioned limited options may result in the accepted bid price being higher than average, do you have a suggested starting bid based on the Coutyard having a rack rate of $179/night (or $159/night for what seems to be available with most standard retail online bookings)? I was thinking a minimum of $85-$90/night, but could go as high as $110/night.

Sorry for making another long post. Thanks again for all your help. Your forum is an amazing resource. Also, if we do bid and successfully get a hotel - especially if it is the Courtyard - I'll be sure to post that in this forum so it can be added to the list.

[thereuare]

My only other concern is the zone circles and the "blank space" between them. There might be a few smaller independent hotels/motels/inns located there. Would they be included if they fall outside of ALL zone circles?

The hotel you receive will be within the shaded boundary of the zone(s) you select.

Anyway, we still have to confirm childcare for this trip... do you have a suggested starting bid based on the Coutyard having a rack rate of $179/night (or $159/night for what seems to be available with most standard retail online bookings)? I was thinking a minimum of $85-$90/night, but could go as high as $110/night.

We don't see much bidding in this area so hard to say how much they discount or what may be available, but rates can change between now and the time that your plans are firm (or you may ultimately not take this trip at all), so post back once your plans are firm and this trip is 'on' and we'll take a look at availability and current rates at that time.

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

[gsaem]

Thanks for the zone circle confirmation. It's really starting to seem as though the 2.5* at Jensen beach is the Courtyard. Nothing else seems to fit. I haven't tried my Navigon GPS POI search - but I doubt it would show anything more than what has come up on Google and Bing maps.

Anyway, I really appreciate all the help I've received here. I'll post again if/when we bid and follow up with any results.

[gsaem]

Just wanted to update.

Turns out that we won't need to bid. My wife received a gift of Travel Points useable with Air Canada Vacations that could be used towards hotel stays. The Courtyard was not one of the available hotels. There were enough points for a $500 rebate - so we put that towards the Palm Beach Marriott Singer Island. It left us with paying less than what we likely would have needed to bid to get the Courtyard - and the Singer Island is a higher category hotel.

As an FYI - there is a decent deal on this hotel. Our package is:

5 nights

One bedroom condo suite (800 sq. ft.)

Full kitchen

Terrace with ocean view

20% off ALL in- hotel purchases (except parking and alcohol).

Total: $950 CDN (all taxes incl.). ($450 after $500 points discount).

HOWEVER, I still appreciate all the help we received here. Being given travel points likely won't happen too often (if ever), so I think we'll bid using Priceline at some point in the future - and I'll definitely come here first and use the links.

[AaronJB]

Thank you for closing the thread. We look forward to helping with your next trip. :)

Enjoy your stay.