Priceline Hotel: Failed Bid - La Crosse, WI 7/1/2005

[Blackmagic]

I've been trying for a 3* in La Crosse for some time. By starting in Sparta, WI, I get up to 8 bids. Over the last couple of weeks, I tried bid ranges from $35 to $55 with no wins. Today I increased the bid range to $55 - $80 and had no success. I quit at $80 since I have a backup at $89.

La Crosse seems to be tough to find bargain rooms - I need a room on 8 Friday nites this fall and haven't been able to get any wins yet (I've only bid the $35 - $55 range so far). The occupancy rate seems to be pretty high - in fact the Holiday Inn Suites - LAX is already full many of those Fridays. Maybe I'll have to drop to 2* and see what I can get - I wonder what the 2* hotels would be there - any ideas?

Anyone have unreported wins in La Crosse?

[thereuare]

Two star could be Days Inn? (or similar)

[Blackmagic]

Thanks for the suggestion thereuare, but I think the Days Inn is a 1* in La Crosse. I'm basing this on the ratings in the Priceline direct booking option. I just discovered the new Priceline direct booking option and when I tried using it for September 16th, it gave me a lot of hotel choices in La Crosse, including six that had star ratings.

The six are: 1* - Super 8, 1* - Days Inn, 1* - Scottish Inn(Sparta), and

2* - Hampton Inn(La Crosse), 2* - Hampton Inn(Onalaska), and

3* - Radisson Hotel La Crosse.

Now I don't know if the * ratings are the same for the opaque service, but it was the same for the 3* hotel I just won - yippee - we finally have a winning Priceline bid in La Crosse, WI. I'll post that win for all to see, but to complete this discussion, the win is at the Radisson - the same 3* as above... now that's interesting. I was thinking the 3* was the Holiday Inn Suites, and that was messing me up in my bidding strategy.

Thus it appears that the star ratings in the direct booking service may give us a clue as to which hotels might be participating in the opaque service by star level. I'm going to try for a 2* as well, but I don't get all the free rebids at 2*, so that may take me a while... but I will get one... so we'll have at least one 2* in LaX identified as well.

What do you think about the direct booking star ratings giving clues to which hotels are in the opaque service? Was this the exception or is it pretty normal?

Thanks again!

[thereuare]

The star ratings are likely the same, but the universe of hotels that each works with are different, as has been proven in a variety of posts.