Priceline Hotel: 2.5* State College (Lemont-Dale Summit) Hampton Inn State College

[CrazyOne]

So I made 2 bids last night, lowballing at $42 then $47 with only State College North at 2.5* then adding Clearfield (which is a free rebid at only 2* max). Seeing the recent hits on State College North, figured that made sense.

Tonight I bid $49 and got a counteroffer page. I guess they know this sort of feeds the fire right? :) I mean yeah, some people might have just slapped down the $64 it wanted, but I *know* the bid doesn't have to be $64. So I tell them to stuff it and add Clearfield. Almost just put $51 because of the reported bids for this weekend, but I put $52. No go.

Then under the influence of the hunt I did something stupid. Back in the days when I bid more often I would have known better, and indeed I did remember better...AFTER I pressed the Buy button but before the win came up. Should have started a new bid! Realized a few seconds too late. D'oh! At least I only put $54 in instead of $55. Saved a buck, LOL.

So I didn't actually learn what the lowest bid would have been for State College North on that Thursday night, NOR did I really learn how low you might go on Lemont-Dale Summit. What I learned is this:

Hampton Inn State College in that zone is now 2.5* Please update the list when you get a chance.

Priceline's "Best Deal" marker isn't. We probably already knew that (I even searched for an old general tip thread perhaps, but didn't find one), but in the fog I had forgotten. It's probably just a ploy to get you to bid that zone. Now once I select Lemont zone it does still say 2.5* is Best Deal. But clearly the best deal on this bid wasn't had in State College North. Or perhaps it was a tie. :) Or heck, perhaps even, it would have still given me State College North at the Springhill or whatever for $53, but $54 means they could pull from the Hampton inventory instead. Who knows.

If you are bidding for this area around this time and don't care which zones and want to try this one, I would suggest starting a little lower than this. It's not going to be much, but you might save 5 bucks or so. I mean, they're still trying to sell rooms here through the typical channels at cheapest I found was $120.

Will update with new review after I go. The fact that the level was upgraded may suggest a refresh at the hotel. Ah, finally did find a mention! It is there on the hotel homepage at Hilton.com. Says the rooms and public space newly renovated, everything has a flat TV, etc. So it might be pretty good. We'll see if they still put the Priceline bookings into the single rooms. TripAdivsor is positive, and another plus is this location is more convenient for what I'm doing (driving east to the middle of nowhere the next morning) vs the other zone.

Yep, I used the PRICELINE linky.

[thereuare]

Congratulations on your success!

While perhaps not what you were expecting given this property's recent upgrade, glad to here that it should ultimately work well for your plans and that you're pleased with the outcome.

Thank you for using the PRICELINE links on the board to begin your bidding and sharing your win, helping us update the [rul=http://www.betterbidding.com/show.php/showtopic/96]Priceline Hotel List with the new star rating for this property.

Enjoy your stay.