Priceline Hotel: Bidding Help London

[sarahlynae]

I have attempted bidding for the past month with no such luck. I am willing to spend up to $135 for a 4* and up to $175 for a 5*. My travel dates are from 10/19-10/23. Desired areas include:

1. Bloomsbury-Marble Arch

5. Kensington- Earls Court

8. Mayfair-Soho

9. Notting Hill- Bayswater

13. Westminister

I am also aware that I have two free rebid zones (Hammersmith and Wembley).

Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated!! Thank you!!

[AaronJB]

Welcome to Betterbidding. :)

What bids have you made (in terms of star rating/zone/price) up until this point?

Thank you for using the site's HOTWIRE or PRICELINE links to start your purchases and searches.

[Romelle]

I took a look at your individual days on Hotwire. For the Kensington-Earls Court 4* I followed, each day was within $1, and the whole date range was $143.

This suggests that bidding the whole range should not be a problem. Splitting your bid probably won't be necessary.

It also suggests that your $135 max should do the job for a 4*, since Priceline tends to be a little less expensive than Hotwire.

For a 5*, nothing came up when I put in the full date range. For individual days, sometimes there was a Mayfair-Soho offering, and sometimes there wasn't. When there was, it was over $240. That $175 max is iffy.

Romelle

[sarahlynae]

Thank you! I will keep my sights on the 4*/ $135 range. Hopefully I will have a winning bid soon!

[thereuare]

What bids have you made (in terms of star rating/zone/price) up until this point?

???

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

[sarahlynae]

So here is what I have done so far:

5*Mayfair-Soho,Westminister, Marble Arch, Notting Hill, Kennisington: Starting at $150 and adding each zone and increasing my bid by five dollars each time until I reached $170

4*: Same areas as above starting at $95 adding $5 with each area including my two free rebid zones up to $125

I will try again today and report my results.

[sarahlynae]

Two days and still no luck! Any thoughts?

[Romelle]

Though it probably doesn't seem like it, you've still got quite a bit of time.

Maybe just bid every other day to save dealing with all that rejection.

If you get closer and still no luck, your options are:

Raise that budget a little

Consider other zones

Consider 3* places (take a look at the 3* hotels listed in the Hotel List at the top of this area and see if you would find them acceptable)

If you are coming into London via air very late and/or leaving very early, consider airport hotels. They tend to be quite a bit less expensive. Coming off a long plane ride, there is something really nice about knowing you aren't that far from your hotel. And with an early departure, it is also comforting to know you haven't that far to go to make the flight. Plus the better $$ might give you a little more toward the other nights.

And finally, if you make some sort of cancelable back-up reservations, this bidding process will be a lot more comfortable.

Romelle

[thereuare]

Have you bid up to your $185(5*) and $135(4*) limits yet or have you only continued to bid up to $170 and $125 respectively?

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

[sarahlynae]

Yes, each day I have bid up to $185 and $135, I even tried $140.

[thereuare]

Any thoughts?

If you've bid up to your limit your options come down to:

• raise your bid
  
• lower your star rating
  
• add other zones
  
• wait it out and hope for lower prices
  
• SPLITTING YOUR PRICELINE BID
  

As well, HOTWIRE does have a 4* hotel in the Kensington-Earls Court zone for $144/nite... not much more than you have already bid on PRICELINE in this zone, but do note that PRICELINE and HOTWIRE don't always rate hotels the same way (so this HOTWIRE property could be rates less than 4* on PRICELINE, or could also be a property that doesn't participate with PRICELINE) OR their boundaries for this area could be slightly different as well.

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

Keep us updated on your progress and let us know if/how we can be of further help along the way.