Priceline Hotel: 5* Bidding Advice Requested

[chasman]

Hi. Could you please advise on a betting strategy:

I realize this is absurdly early planning, but here is what I am trying to do

[thereuare]

I think there will have to be extremely low occupancy for you to have success with the Venetian on a Saturday nite in Vegas. As well, the cheapest i have ever seen the Venetian come up is at $79/nite, and that is for mid-week and within a few days of check-in. So best case scenario is $79/nite for the last 2 nites of your stay (and that will only be possible a few days before check-in) and my guess is that $120 is <much> too low for Saturday nite.

These dates aren't available at their website yet, and the consolidators/online agenecies appear to be showing rack rates at the moment. I wouldn't bid this until you see Feb 2004 availabe directly thru the Venetian's website as that will indicate that they have updated rates in their system for that time period.

Lots of 'talk' over the 60 day thing, but personally i'm not concerned. I usually try to pay with American Express and they're usually customer friendly and i'd hope they'd 'cover me' if i had paid for reservations that weren't honored.

[chasman]

Thanks much!

Based on your comments, I think I will wait until late Jan/early Feb to start bidding at $79/night for the Sun and Mon dates and realize that I will have to go way up above $125 for the Sat stay. Any idea how high I will have to go for the Sat stay? Thanks for setting expectations.

I stayed at the Venetian once and, if I recall correctly, the rooms were huge. Perhaps 3 guys can stay in one room rather comfortably - we probably won't even be sleeping much.

I am also hoping that the weekend after the SuperBowl many hotels will have good deals to be had.

Thanks a lot for your help!

[thereuare]

My guess is that if anything is available for a Saturday nite, it would take a bid of $175 or more. If i were bidding, and rates thru conventional means were 'typical' for a Saturday nite, i'd start my bidding at $150 or so and increase from there, maybe by $10/bid for the first few and then start raising by $5 (of course, if rates are cheaper than 'usual' for this Saturday nite, i'd start lower than $150, but we can analyze that as your date draws closer). Good thing about 5* Las Vegas is that you have lots of re-bid opportunities.

Another option, depending upon when you will be getting into town, is to just stay some place nice but less expensive (Mirage, Flamingo, MGM) for Saturday nite and then move to the Venetian for Sun and Mon nites. Some hotels in Las Vegas don't even allow Saturday check-in, and a Sat nite at the Venetian will likely be difficult (you can also keep an eye on Hotwire to determne availability and pricing).