Priceline Hotel: Question re breaking up a stay

[ClairdeLune]

I was doing research on a 14 night stay in London and zeroed in on the Kensington area being within budget and good walking distance from everything (I'm a New Yorker and used to walking 8 miles a day). I had indentified the 4* on Hotwire as probably being Millenium Baileys Kensington which I had been looking at. But was also interested in the Millenium Gloucester Kensington iwhich was priced a tad higher. Went to Priceline and found the Millenium Gloucester for less than the Hotwire secret price. And get this, got the cancellation insurance (which is important to have for the natural disastors like the ash and other scenarios I won't go into) and that was an additional $96 and then found the non stop round trip from LAX of $926 on Virgin or British Airways (on their sites or Priceline at different times) and the whole package I got came to only $8 more than Hotwire is listing it's secret hotel (without the plane fare and insurance). Go figure on that one! Hotwire is not such a great deal. Also at different times, Priceline will have increased plane fares and then going to the actual airline sites one will find the lower rates. I haven't finalized it yet, but I won't be using Hotwire after seeing this. Hope I could help others notice the difference.

[ClairdeLune]

I meant to add something: When I went into Priceline to get the deal with the hotel I wanted and the airlines I wanted (they didn't have it). So got just the hotel quote and then went to the airlines. But then I tried the airlines alone on Priceline and they had the choices. So sometimes one can't do the package deal with them but it all comes out.

[ClairdeLune]

My friend is going to London for business and extending his stay to 14 days for touring. He wants to stay in Mayfair Soho and we have both been looking at your strategy for the 5 stars. He would does not want to go higher than $165 and is looking at the stretch of check in 10/19 and check out 11/2. Here is our question to you: Obviously this is going to have to be broken down into 4 nights to get the successful bidding? Perhaps we can do the add ons if they allow but we expect this to be broken down into 3 to 4 different hotels/or stays. He does not mind that but the other question is: are there more fees charged to him per stay/successful bid or does it all average out to the same amount as if he would have purchased a 14 night stay with the fees added on? If there is extra fees added on because there might be as many as 4 separate stays, then it would be almost the same amount if he had just purchased a known quantity 4 star hotel with the one time fee charge. I hope I'm communicating this clear for you to understand. Complicated!

[thereuare]

Please follow-up your Priceline Denver thread with whatever you ended up doing for that stay... then click this PRICELINE link and reply to this thread, we'll then have a look at and comment on your post above.

Are you or your friend doing the bidding for this stay?

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

[Colfax]

Here is our question to you: Obviously this is going to have to be broken down into 4 nights to get the successful bidding?

Not necessarily. Longer stays are generally harder to win than short ones but you shouldn't assume you can't get 14 nights, as long as your bid levels are in line with prevailing rates for that season.

It doesn't cost anything to bid. If your friend prefers staying in one hotel for 14 nights there's no harm in trying for 14 nights first. I'm not familiar with London to comment if $165 is realistic, but maybe someone else will give an opinion on that.

are there more fees charged to him per stay/successful bid or does it all average out to the same amount as if he would have purchased a 14 night stay with the fees added on?

The longer the stay the lower the fee per day. You might pay $10 Priceline fee for a one-night stay and $16 Priceline fee for a two-night stay; so $8 per night there. With every additional night the total fee goes up, but the fee per night goes down.

So yes, you'll pay more in fees for four separate bids of 3 or 4 nights than you would on a single 14-night bid. But the difference in fees isn't as significant as the lower room room rate you might get by splitting. Splitting you might pay $2 more per night in fees but save $50 per night on the room.

Have you checked HOTWIRE? If Hotwire has hotels for 14 nights Priceline might too.

[ClairdeLune]

We are not splitting anything, I'm just doing the legwork here for him as I might go to stay a bit in the midst of his trip. So he is paying the full price for the fees/etc and much to consider. We missed the window for Baileys in Kensington on Hotwire, but it will come again I'm sure. From what we had seen on your bid history with others, it looked like $165 was a successful bid on the 5 stars. Also when looking at the Hotwire 14 day stay it was very good for that one at $143 a night, and might return at that rate. BA and Virgin Atlantic are also better to get direct when doing that as their fare is good right now. The only issue we had with the Hotwire vs Priceline is that there was no trip insurance on Hotwire and one can get that on Priceline.

[thereuare]

... then click this PRICELINE link and reply to this thread...