Priceline Hotel: 4* Pittsburgh (Downtown) Renaissance Pittsburgh

[Nords]

Hello,

My family is looking to book a hotel for one night on Sunday, June 24th in Pittsburgh. This is a one night stop to check the sites and go to the children's museum after check-out on the Monday (part of a family trip from Canada through Pennsilvania over to Philadelphia and home through the finger lakes). Probably because it is still 2 months out, hotwire and other travel sites hotel rooms for downtown Pittsburgh for that date are pretty expensive for quality properties. I've been playing with that date using the tips from better bidding (of course using the PRICELINE link from this site) for 4* properties. Luckily, only downtown has 4* properties so there are lots of rebidding options. I've started around $65-$70 and gone up to about $110 everyday for about a week with no luck. While we're not fussy and would be happy with a decent 3* or 3 1/2* downtown (or noth-shore/stadium) property, there are fewer rebidding options and we want to be in one of those 2 districts. My guess is that I am just too far out to book. Is it pointless for me to keep looking this early at those prices? I'm fine taking some risk and waiting but don't want to be completely stuck if I wait until the week before and then no property is available. Is there a chance even this early for a decent price at a 4*, 3 1/2* or 3* property? Any other bidding tips I haven't done? I've seen on the forum some cheap prices in April for 4* properties downtown Pittsburgh but these bookings have been pretty last minute (and April is probably cheaper then June too).

Thanks!!!

[aa85]

You might want to consider bidding 3.5* Downtown rather than 4* if you are ok with the 3.5* locations, particularly the Sheraton Station Square, which is across the Monongahela River from downtown. There are a number of zones that can be used for 3.5* rebidding. As there are only 3 reported 4* hotels Downtown, they can fill quickly if there is a major convention going on - I bid up to $115 for a recent trip before giving up and booking the special group rate for my meeting, which was going on opposite a large convention and the hockey playoffs.

North Shore would be a good option as well - parking is probably cheaper there than at the downtown hotels.

[Nords]

Thanks for the quick reply. Yeah, it looks like 3 1/2* properties still have a lot of rebidding options as there are only a couple districts that have them. So I'll try that too. The north shore residence inn looks great too as an option. I looked back in the forum for April-June in 2011 and there were successful bids on 4* properties in June last year at a number of the properties but not enough posts to tell which days of the week you are more likely to be successful. Many of the bids were about a month out so I bet 2 months is just too soon. Why would a 4* hotel give away $75 rooms that far in advance when they have lots of time still to fill up the hotel at much much higher prices. We're still 2 months out from the trip so I have lots of time as well. I'll let the board know what I get either way.

[AaronJB]

Please provide a follow-up for your prior New York City Hotwire thread (post what you decided for that stay within that thread, then reply to this thread and we would be happy to offer thoughts on the question above.)

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

[Nords]

No problem. I just posted a reply to my old NYC thread. I was actually just successful this morning with a Priceline bid for this pittsburgh trip. Should I reply in this thread with the details or in a new thread? Thanks!

[thereuare]

Please reply here by clicking the EDIT TO REPORT WIN button on the lower right of the board... this will allow you to use the form to edit the topic title as well as add a reply to your post with the details.

Thanks!

[Nords]

Thanks for everyone's help with this one. It was funny, after 1 1/2 weeks of daily bidding for a 4* hotel in Pittsburgh (Downtown), starting at around $60 and moving up $5/bid to around $110 and being unsuccessful, yesterday (April 24th) I was successful for the Renaissance at $65 (for June 24th, 2012). I'm wondering if what happened is that since the date I was successful was exactly 2 months out from the reservation if that kicked in the hotel to start accepting lower bids based on a bit better level of vacancy rate certainty for that day. Regardless, I'm pretty happy with the $65 price for that hotel.

[thereuare]

Congratulations on your success!

Nice to see you were accepted at a rate even lower than you had previously bid.

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 your stay.