Priceline Deal Preferences - worth a look

[dc3]

If you have a profile saved on Priceline, you can log into Deal Preferences. It tells you prices of recent wins by locations, zones and star levels. If there are multiple wins it gives you the most recent one. You need to try it to see. Also, you can set up a very specific alert for a zone or zones and star levels as well as an expiry date. There is a flight fare notification system. I tried it for hotels and it works for what it claims. What it does not do is tell you the hotel that was won or the specific dates, which means that Better Bidding has more information. The advantage of the Priceline Deal Preference system is that you will be sure that every win is being posted while Better Bidding depends on reports from volunteers like you.

[rc408]

Does it say that 'every' win is posted? When I've seen it, the winning bids have always been much higher than postings on recent wins here. It can be a tool to use in addition to Better Bidding but I would not use it exclusively for pricing.

[dc3]

Does it say that 'every' win is posted? When I've seen it, the winning bids have always been much higher than postings on recent wins here. It can be a tool to use in addition to Better Bidding but I would not use it exclusively for pricing.

I find it gives the most recent, based on my own bids. As a test, note that I posted a 3* in National Harbor in the Washington DC Priceline thread on this board. Then look at the list on Priceline's Deal Preferences and you will see that what I posted is all that there is in that zone - it's tough because things are sold out most of the time. I did another post on BB for a much more popular area (Monteal) and it is on PLDP as well. My suggestion is to go through the Deal Preferences section carefully and understand what it has and what it doesn't have. If I hadn't posted my National Harbor bid, then there would be no current information on that zone on BB but the result would be there on the Deal Preferences and if I had requested alerts for that zone I would have received one. My guess is that the information on Deal Preferences is most useful in less popular zones. You can usually count on major areas getting some posts here but if you want to go to a less popular place, then you have a new alternative. There's nothing to lose by looking and I believe that from what I see they post low bids if they are there.

[98t]

Without any doubt, this information acquired will be passed to the hotels and will be used for price determination purposes. Hotels will see all the maximum bids of the users and might use their pricing policy based on that information. I wouldn't doubt also if they send the failed bids of the zones to the hotels.

[jmeggs]

New feature on Priceline claims to send you an email alert when someone gets a winning bid in whatever city you've set up the alerts for. I assume this is for hotels, but details on PL's website are scant.

My question is, do you think they're giving you EVERY winning bid? Or (much more likely) they're giving you winning bids that are higher than what you could potentially win. I know this is what they do with the sidebar wins.*

*how do I know this?? Cause time and time again, I see someone has had a succesful bid for so much money in some city, and I then bid much lower and win.

[patela]

The other relevant question is - do the alert you only for bids for similar/same dates as you're looking for (if you've bid before), or ALL dates anyone has bid for.

If the latter, then the alerts seem to be of questionable utility, because rates can vary a lot depending on date.

I ask because I just got an alert for a hotel search that was accepted for a $95 bid, when 2 days ago, my bid for $175 for the same region/stars was rejected, and when I search the individual hotel websites, no one has availability.

Anyone know the answer?

[thereuare]

...do the alert you only for bids for similar/same dates as you're looking for...

...then the alerts seem to be of questionable utility, because rates can vary a lot depending on date.

The alerts are not necessarily for your dates. :)

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