Priceline Hotel: 2.5* West Des Moines - Rejected!

[Nautica3]

Tried $29/night for 2.5* in West Des Moines. Have seen postings that this has been successful in the past. Didn't work. Added the Des Moines Airport area, and resubmitted at $32/night (I've successfully bid this in the past). No dice! Ugh!

Am debating on whether to:

a) Add Merle Hay area (this is about 5 miles further away, and has 2.5* hotels in it, so there's a risk there),

:) Up my price after 72 hours, or

c) Go w/ Hotwire--they're listing a 2.5* w/ fitness center, laundry, and kitchenette for $36/night.

Decisions, decisions....

Nautica3

[thereuare]

The Courtyard's rates seem steady for your entire stay, but something interesting happened when i checked rates at Country Inn & Suites:

Checking each nite individually showed the same rates throughout, except there was no availability for the nite of the 23rd! However, when checking for multiple nites which included the 23rd (23rd-25th) it showed availability at the same rates shown for the other nites.

Is splitting this bid an option (the risk that you'll have to change hotels)? If so, i would retry your bids above for the dates July 20-July 23rd. If successful, i would then retry a slightly higher bidding strategy for July 23rd-July 25th, and if rejected, go with Hotwire for those dates.

My guess is that the nite of the 23rd is what's hanging you up, but i wouldn't bid the second half (23rd-25th) individually (as 2 bids, one for the 23rd and one for the 24th) as the $5.95 fee will eat into some of your savings, and is a significant percentage when the room rate is in the $30's.

You can re-bid the above strategy right away since you'd be changing the dates, and if agreeable to you, i would do so now so that if you try your original bid again in 72 hours and are once again rejected, you'll immediately have this added strategy as an option.

Please consider using the links at SavingsBarn.com for your Priceline and/or Hotwire purchase.

Let us know how it goes and what you decided to do.

[Nautica3]

Added the downtown Des Moines area, and tried again for 2.5* at $33/night. Still no dice. Got frustrated, and figured I'd just go w/ the easiest option--$36/night on Hotwire. I'll post the results of that in the appropriate message board.

Wish I'd read your post prior to doing all that. Oh well, live & learn!

How did you check the rates of the Courtyard and Country Inn/Suites? Do you mean you went out to their websites and looked at their posted rates for each specific night? How do you figure out what that means in terms of availability of P/L rooms, based on their posted rack rates? Please clarify--it sounds like I'm missing something here, and since I'll be doing this for several more weeks, I need all the help I can get! :)

Nautica3

[thereuare]

I went to the respecitve websites themselves to check rates.

Hotels have a few rates that they offer, based upon their anticipated occupancy levels (the best example of this is how rates increase, even months or years in advance, of a large convention or special event... it's all based upon their anticipated demand).

It makes sense that if the hotel offers the same rate throughout your stay, then the demand for rooms is pretty much constant thoughout your stay. If there is no availability for a given nite, or if the room rate suddenly jumps on a given nite, demand is likely much stronger for that particular nite.

Priceline and Hotwire basically get distressed inventory that the hotels don't think they will sell on their own. So if the demand is stonger on a given nite of your stay, the hotel is likely experiencing strong demand for that nite, and therefore will only make inventory available to Priceline at a higher rate than usual (or not at all). And with Priceline, your bid must be high enough for every nite of your stay, not the average of your nites, as discussed in this post: Should I Split My Longer Stay Bid?

Hope this explains things a bit more but if i've left anything out or this has raised any additional questions, feel free to ask.