Priceline Hotel: 3* Rochester Courtyard By Marriott Rochester Mayo Clinic Area Saint Marys

[missparker]

I won a bid for one night at the 3 star Courtyard by Marriott in downtown Rochester - Jan. 2, 2012 for $60.00. I need to extend my stay now but could only add one night. I went back in with the same bid and tried to get a week, but was rejected. I went up to $70.00 but that was rejected too. Any tips on getting a long booking or should I just book 3 nights at a time and just add the same number of nights? I have a tight budget and am trying to get a good rate for the entire stay.

[Romelle]

You really scored a deal on your bid - on Priceline retail it is $129!

You can only extend your bid up to the number of nights of the original bid. You can extend on either side - before or after, but not on both sides.

It might just be that no single hotel had your full span available, but you may be successful bidding in two separate blocks of nights and scoring two different hotels. Assuming you need 7 more nights, you can bid first 6 and last 6, then first 5 and last 5, then first 4 and last 4. The idea is to nail down as many nights as possible first, then see if you can fill in the rest with an extension.

If the extension doesn't work, then you go back to bidding the remaining nights, pretty much expecting to get a different hotel at a little higher rate, but keeping your overall average as low as possible.

I looked at Hotwire for individual days, and you aren't running into the usual bugaboo - some event or holiday that is making rates peak someplace in your time span. Sometimes the weekend can be problematic, but it was actually slightly better. For 2 1/2* Hotwires, starting with Jan 2 (the night you already have, but for comparison purposes), the rates were 88,88,87,87*,86*,87,86,87. The asterisks are for Friday and Saturday. Oddly enough, Hotwire only had 3* availability on the Friday and Saturday, and it was $73 both nights.

When you are bidding 3* for Rochester Downtown, you do have one free rebid. There is an explanation in the FAQs if you need help determining this.

The two Priceline 2 1/2* places people have reported for Downtown Rochester are Holiday Inn Express and Springhill Suites. Possibly this would work for you. I don't know the Rochester ones, but have stayed at others in the US, and they've been very nice. You could check the reviews both on this site and something like www.tripadvisor.com first.

Romelle

[thereuare]

Congratulations on your success!

So others will be aware of your Courtyard purchase for this nite when searching the topic titles on the board and in the Priceline and Hotwire Calendar of Wins, i've edited your topic title to reflect your win. For help with the balance of your trip please start a NEW TOPIC and include the dates of the additional nites you need.

Thank you for sharing your win with the board.

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

Enjoy this leg of your stay.