Priceline Hotel: 4* Charlotte (Downtown) Charlotte Marriott City Center

[emctwo]

Hotel Level: 4* hotel

Location: North Carolina

Zone: 5 (Downtown)

Dates: Nov 12 - Nov 14, 2011

$75 initial bid

$80 after adding zone 1

$85 after adding zone 2

$90 after adding zone 4

$92 after adding zone 6

$94 after adding zone 7

$96 after adding zone 8

$98 after adding zone 9

$100 after adding zone 10

$102 after adding zone 11

$104 after adding zone 12

$106 after adding zone 13

All rejected! According to this forum most people got this zone for $80 or less!

Any advice? Thanks in advance!

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

Please start by reading your messages.

What city is this... Charlotte?

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

[emctwo]

Sorry about that, yes it is Charlotte, NC.

I did used the PRICELINE link you provide at the top of the page (the one that allows to include the dates and city). I don't know why it did not got registered (perhaps a bug or Priceline trying to cheat you) and I am worry about this.

I must add that you do a great job replying to, I believe, all postings. And answering all questions. Keep up with the good job. If you have any ideas why even a bid in Charlotte, NC as high as 102 was not accepted for a 4* hotel, even though I've seen most winning bids are considerable lower, please let me know. In particular, is it worth to try to repeat this bidding strategy (I really don't want to pay more than what I have already offered) every now and then, for example, every week? (As I still have enough time.) Or, will I be wasting my time?

Thanks again!!

[emctwo]

UPDATE

Today, using the PRICELINE link at the top of this website (but without including any dates/city), I went to the Priceline website. There I did a normal search (not a bid). By mistake I placed the dates 11/12/11 to 11/14/11 and was surprised to see that the "Charlotte Marriott City Center" was offered for $129 per night. However if I repeated my search for 11/12/11 to 11/16/11, then I got a price of $259 for ALL nights. This is certainly disturbing!!! Now I have to book my weekend and non-weekend nights separately??!?!? Moreover, this strategy of booking separately the weekend and non-weekend nights can't be used in the bidding system because you risk getting different hotels for the weekend and the non-weekend nights!!! WTF!

Any comments on this issue will be highly appreciated.

[Romelle]

You at least now know why your top bid of $106 didn't work, with those really high weekend rates in your date range. Priceline sometimes does some averaging when bidding, but not always. And the Marriott may not have placed rooms in the PL bidding inventory on your weekend dates.

What you are hitting is a fairly common thing when bidding longer date spans - holidays/sporting events/cruise ship departures/conventions/???.

Looking at just 11/14/11-11/16/11, the Marriott rate stayed at that $259, which at least suggests they have some availability, although not necessarily available to PL bidders. Still, a positive sign, since it could have either not shown up or had even higher rates.

However, if you look at the nights individually - $169, $207, $259, and No Availability. So the problem is sort of gradually developing.

Basically, you have to decide just how much you are willing to pay for the privilege of staying all at the same hotel, and bid on up to that level. You already know the worst case is retail $259 for two nights and $129 for two nights. If you aren't successful, then bid the less expensive nights first, followed by the expensive ones. You might even have some success with a 3 nights/1 night pattern. And that last night might get quite difficult. Sometimes people end up having to drop star levels and or bid more zones to find something within their budget. Or - gasp - go retail.

Priceline sometimes offers one the right to extend their bid. Typically, in a situation like this with higher retail rates for the unbid dates, the extension won't be at the same rate, but rather at a higher one. Still - that might save you from having to move. With a good enough deal on the first two or three nights, the more expensive extension could still make sense.

Romelle

[emctwo]

First, thanks very much to therueare and Romelle for their replies to my previous post (just below this one) and their helpful information and suggestions. This success is due to this great forum (specially the superb tip for fast re-bidding by playing with the zones) and therueare and Romelle's help.

Using the PRICELINE link provided at the top of the page (the one that allows to input the city and dates), today I preformed the following bids (recall yesterday's last unsuccessful bid was $104):

$105 initial bid

$106 after adding zone 1

$107 after adding zone 2

$108 after adding zone 4

$109 after adding zone 6

$110 after adding zone 7

$111 after adding zone 8; ACCEPTED!!!

Here is the pricing information:

Offer Price: avg. per room, per night $111.00

Rooms: 1

Nights: 4

Room Subtotal: $444.00

Taxes: $70.80

Fees: $20.04

Total Charged to Card: $534.84

Other Pertinent Info (this info was on my previous post, but I also place it here for completeness):

Doing a normal (non-bidding) search in Priceline here is the pricing info for Charlotte Marriott City Center:

Search for 11/12/11 to 11/16/11: Price of $259 for ALL nights.

Search for 11/12/11 to 11/14/11: Price of $129 (thus weekends were cheaper, but wouldn't know form the above search)

Search for 11/14/11 to 11/16/11: Price of $259 (consistent with the above price)

Then Romelle performed this other very interesting single-day searches:

11/12/11: $169

11/13/11: $207

11/14/11: $259

11/15/11: No availability

So booking 12th and 13th together you get the best deal. Moreover, if to be able to stay on the 15th then you needed to book also for at least the 14th!

Other piece of information, confirming Romelle's dead-on educated guess: There is indeed a conference in Charlotte on those dates (that is the reason for my trip).

Finally, I wanted the Hilton or the Westin, which are significantly closer to the Conference Center; however these hotels are the designated "Conference Hotels" (while the Marriott is not). So I suspect that is why, even though that particular Hilton is cheaper than that particular Marriott, I did not get the Hilton of the Westin: Both "know" of the conference and "know" they will be almost full in those dates (5000 people conference).

Thanks again!

[thereuare]

Congratulations on your success!

Glad to see it didn't take too much more than your previous failed bids and you were successful landing the same hotel for the entire length of your trip. (if you haven't seen it, for future bidding, you can see this thread: SPLITTING YOUR PRICELINE BID which discussed in more detail dividing your trip into separate stays)

You are correct, the hotels 'know' about all the conference taking place in the area, as well as other events which may effect hotel demand, and price rooms, minimum nite requirements, etc. accordingly.

Thank you for sharing your win and using the PRICELINE links on the board to begin your bidding. (and for the compliments on the site :) )

Enjoy your stay and the conference.