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Priceline Hotel: 10/29 - 11/7


pinkpanther
By pinkpanther,
in

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Hello all, first of all, great board with tons of info and tips!!

After reading all the useful tips, today marked my first attempt at priceline. Unfortunately, I have had no success.

I was trying to bid a 4-star dupont circle area and even $120/nt didnt get accepted.

My question for those of you who are familiar with dc seasons, does my duration fall right into dc's peak season?

Another question is for those of you who are familiar with priceline. I recall reading from one post on this board that if i close the browser and reload priceline, I will be able to rebid with the same star rating, area, and dates. I tried that but priceline recognized my bids as duplicates. I have already exhausted all my options, like adding zones and stuff. So I guess the only way I can bid again is to wait until tomorrow?

Thanks for reading, look forward to any advices.

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Welcome to BetterBidding!

I recall reading from one post on this board that if i close the browser and reload priceline, I will be able to rebid with the same star rating, area, and dates.
This isn't the case, not sure where you read it, but if you PM me the link and it does say that i'll fix it.

This is a long stay (by Priceline standards) in a busy city... if just one nite of your stay has a higher price or is sold-out, it eliminates that hotel from the mix. With only two 'known' hotels at this star rating the chances for an extended stay such as this are not a high probability bet.

Is Dupont Circle the only zone you are willing to consider? Are you willing to SPLIT YOUR BID?

Please use this HOTWIRE and these PRICELINE LINKS: HOTELS, CAR RENTALS, and AIRFARE to begin your travel purchases

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Hello thereuare,

Thank you so much for the reply.

It was this link I was referring to:

http://www.betterbidding.com/index.php?act...&f=153&t=15377&

But after reading it again, I guess I misread it.. :) In one of your replies it mentioned to close the browser and I just somehow thought closing the browser will clear the history or something... No biggie, I can always try again another day.

Anyways, back to your question. No Dupont Circle is not the only one i would consider, I did have Omni Shore in mind but I guess I am happy as long as it is a 4-star hotel. I started bidding at 85 and at 120, I still got nothing. Have rebidded by adding these areas where I would also consider: Convention Center, Georgetown, and Downtown.

Splitting the bid... ummm, I am not sure. I am travelling with my parents and mom has trouble walking. So I would really hate to move from one hotel to another...

I have checked PL's vacation packages. Omni is available for my duration, the package price was 1308/person, after a little calculation, my estimate for "Hotel Portion Only" is about $149/nt, which is a big difference compare to what I have read on this board, on average $90/nt :)

Thanks again for the reply, would appreciate any advice!!

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So which areas, besides Dupont, did you include in yoru 4* bids?

Have you used any re-bid zone which only contain star ratings lower than the one you are bidding, as discussed in PRICELINE RE-BIDDING? (if not i would recommend asking questions and/or confirming your re-bid zones with the board before bidding again... there are five such re-bid zones in the Washington DC area when bidding at the 4 star level)

Please use this HOTWIRE and these PRICELINE LINKS: HOTELS, CAR RENTALS, and AIRFARE to begin your travel purchases

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These are the zones I have added for the rebids: Convention Center, Georgetown, Downtown, Arlington.

Yes I have read that article to add zones where there are no hotel with the star rating I want, in my case, Arlington. When my bid got to $120 I stopped thinking maybe I should get some advices here before going above $120 :)

Thanks!!

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Are these the 5 non 4* zones?

1. Alexandria Mt. Vernon

2. Alexandria - Pentagon

3. Arlington

4. Crystal City

5. Springfield

I have only added Arlington yesterday. I know I could add more zones so then I could rebid, but at the time I was unsure if I should go above $120, u know, after seeing all the 90/nt rate on this board.

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Yes, you got the re-bids correct! :)

One of the problems you are facing is that his is such an extended stay... even if rates are low enough for a low bid to be accepted for 8 out of 9 nites of your stay, your bid will be rejected unless you bid high enough to win the expensive nite "on it's own".

In other words, imagine a two nite stay where the first nite could be accepted at $50 and the second nite is higher so would require a $100 bid to be accepted. Although a budget of $75/nite would be high enough to win these two nites individually... if bid together it would take a bid of $100 since that is what is required for the highest nite of the stay. This explained in more detail in this thread: SHOULD I SPLIT MY (longer stay) PRICEILNE BID

The other issues that it is still early before your stay, but the length of stay concerns me to just "wait it out". For example, if you search the HYATT HOTELS for your above dates you'll see that many are sold-out. It's not that they're sold-out for your entire stay, but more likely just one or two nites of your stay... but since you're bidding for a continuous stay none of these hotels are likely to accept your bid. Now imagine that many hotels will likely not accept your bid if demand (ie- rates) are high for any nite during your stay, and you can easily see the problem.

So, do you have any kind of back-up reservation or plan? I think that should likely be used to create your upper bidding limit (or a point where you become willing to split your stay, if possible).

Let us know and we'll suggest how to proceed.

Please use this HOTWIRE and these PRICELINE LINKS: HOTELS, CAR RENTALS, and AIRFARE to begin your travel purchases

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thereuare, thank you so much for your explanations, i feel much informed now of how PL works.

Heres what I have done, at PL, I splitted up the nites and tried to get Omni Shoreham's nitely rate.

This is what I got:

10/30-31: $254

10/31 - 11/3: $309

11/4 - 11/5: Not available but if I enter..

11/4 - 11/6: $359

11/6 - 11/7: $319

Donno, even if I decide to split, not sure how to, how would you split it?

At the moment I have 2 plans:

1. Bid again until I reach my max bid(most likely $149)

2. If I just cant get the rooms with bidding, and if hopefully the package is still available, will go with PL's vacation package which cost roughly $149/nt. The only thing about their packages is I wont know the exact flight time until I pay.... you know of any trick to find out the flight time?

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