Priceline Hotel: 4* St Louis (Downtown) Hyatt Regency at the Arch

[mcgrad09]

Had excellent success using PRICELINE on previous bid (see previous priceline win), so decided to try the same bid for a friend's bachelor party the following (Labor Day) weekend in STL. Surprisingly, I got my $46 bid on the first try for three rooms on a Sunday night, one night. I thought my chances would be slimmer with this bid, being a holiday weekend, but I guess it pays to try.*

Extremely pleased with this price for a centrally-located STL hotel, 10 minutes' walk from Laclede's Landing and right in front of the Arch. FYI: Hotel front desk says that economy parking is available a couple blocks away at Mansion House garage for $8 (no in/out privileges; pay each time you exit). Otherwise hotel self-park is $20/night and valet is $26/night, both with in/out privileges.

Room Cost (avg. per room, per night): $46.00 (USD)

Number of Rooms: 3

Number of Nights: 1

Room Subtotal: $138.00 (USD)

Taxes and Fees: $31.35 (USD)

Total Room Cost: $169.35 (USD)

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Since some visitors to this site are undoubtedly addicted to PRICELINE, as I am, and you appreciate minutia, I will provide it:

The Holiday Weekend Paradox or

*why I thought my chances were pretty good in making this bid

HOTWIRE's price for STL hotels on the Sunday of Labor Day Weekend (9/4/11) was LOWER than their price on an "ordinary" non-holiday Friday night (8/26/11) by a few dollars, something like $60 vs. $63. Weird, right? But a solid indicator for me that I should bid the same or even lower for that LDW! (But I decided not to tempt fate with a bid under $46.)

Hyatt's price (cheapest room, their corporate website) on Sunday of LDW (9/4) was HIGHER than for an ordinary Friday (8/26), $149 vs. $129. This makes sense.

Yet two identical PRICELINE bid amounts, submitted within hours of each other, for these different days yielded successes at the same property.

Has the world gone mad?

[thereuare]

Congratulations on your success!

Sunday nites are typically the slowest for hotels... tourists have already gone home and business travelers haven't yet arrived (the latter even more true for this nite given Monday is a holiday).

A few other tidbits (since you're as addicted as i/we are :) )... HOTWIRE will often fluctuate their rates from search to search so that the $52 hotel in the area is not always HotelA while the $55 hotel is not always HotelB, so a difference of $3 from one search to the next is not that significant and probably doesn't indicate a weaker/stronger demand, but more likely just due to HOTWIRE fluctuation. Also, with the $129/$149 and the same PRICELINE win, a hotel may have a minimum threshold for a given room, so using your example (assuming i read your post correctly), although demand (hotel occupancy) is a little stronger when the hotel is priced at $149 vs. $129, they may use the same PRICELINE rate for anytime the hotel is below (for example) 60% occupancy, a different threshold for when occupancy is between 60%-80%, and a different threshold for when occupancy is over 80%.... even though for their own pricing they may have different thresholds for 50%-60%, 60%-70%, 70%-80%, etc, etc.

Thank you for sharing your win and using the PRICELINE links on the board to begin your bidding.

Enjoy your stay.

[mcgrad09]

Thanks for the tips, Thereuare! It's great learning more about how PRICELINE works. Thanks for this board and for your active administration of it.