Priceline Hotel: Bidding assistance in Crystal City please

[DrJ]

Hi,

I had used your website once a long time ago and now I'm back!

Would like bidding assistance in Crystal City for a 5-night stay from 9/7-9/12. I have been bidding on my own unsuccessfully for over a week on Priceline. I am willing to stay in a 2-star hotel so I have no free re-bidding zones (I checked and double checked). I started bidding at $50 and have raised my bids incrementally by $5 every day (only in Crystal City, choosing the 2-star hotel option, 1 bid per day). My last unsuccessful bid was yesterday at 8:30 pm and it was for $85. Hotwire has a 3-star hotel for $140/night for same dates so I guess that's my limit, but I think I should be able to get a winning bid at a much lower price since I saw recent winning bids on this forum for Crystal City hotels go for for a much lower price ($60 for a 3-star, $68 for a 3.5 star).

So why am I up to $85 and have not gotten a winning bid even for a 2-star hotel in Crystal City? Am I doing anything wrong? Do I need a different bidding strategy? Your help is much appreciated!

[AaronJB]

If you have bid $85 and it has not been accepted, you have not done anything wrong - unfortunately, a higher bid is required. 9/7-9 is much cheaper than 9/9-12. Would splitting your stay be acceptable? Recent bids are not an indicator of what is required for your dates if they are different dates than for your trip.

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

[DrJ]

Yes, I would be willing to split my stay to get a cheaper price. So you suggest I bid for 9/7-9 first and then 9/9-12 later? Or should I/can I bid for both at the same time? And what bid do you suggest I start at for the 9/7-9 as well as the 9/9-12 portions of my stay? The other question I had forgotten to ask initially is: do you think I started to bid too early? Should I wait closer to my dates of travel or is it always a good idea to bid with time in advance?

Thanks in advance for your recommendations; I will use Better Bidding's PRICELINE link to bid again.

[thereuare]

Since you have no re-bid zones, i would bid as follows:

Bid $50 for your complete stay of 9/7-9/12. If/when that is rejected repeat with the following dates:

9/7-9/11

9/8-9/12

9/7-9/10

9/9-9/12

9/7-9/9

9/10-9/12

If the above is rejected, wait 24 hours and repeat, but increase your bid by $5 and repeat every 24 hours.

HOWEVER, before bidding... is Crystal City the only zone you're willing to accept, or did you choose this because you feel it would be the least expensive? If the latter, you could still include zones that would work for your needs, even if you feel they would be much more expensive, as they can then work as 'pseudo' re-bid zones. As long as these others zones are acceptable, then the best thing that could happen is you get accepted in one of these zones at a price much lower than you ever thought was possible... worst case scenario is that you get extra bids so that you can bid more frequently inside of a 24 hours period (and use a bit more of a strategic strategy when bidding)

If other zones are acceptable post back before bidding and we'll revise accordingly... otherwise keep us updated on your bidding and let us know if any questions along the way.

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

Good luck!

[DrJ]

Sorry, but before I read your latest post, I had actually already posted a bid with a different strategy as I explain below:

I can only accept Crystal City bc I'm going for a conference at Crystal Gateway Marriott from 9/8-12 and I need to be within walking distance (not renting a vehicle) or at the very least a cheap cab ride away. I was not willing to pay their nightly rate of $269 from 9/7-12. But when AaronJB suggested I split my bids, I started doing some research (with your PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links, of course) and I noticed the prices are much cheaper this way. So Hotwire showed me (not thru their hot rates but rather thru their Named Hotels rates) that from 9/7-10 (3 nights), the nightly rate at Crystal Gateway Marriott was $99 (non-refundable) so I went ahead and booked the hotel at that rate because at that low price, it was very convenient for me to be in the same hotel of my conference. But for the last 2 nights (9/10-12), their rate for Crystal Gateway Marriott is $269/night which I am not willing to pay. Therefore, I will continue to bid on Priceline for a hotel in Crystal City for those last 2 nights of my trip (9/10-12), knowing that I will have to move to a different nearby hotel since I am bidding for 2-star hotels and above.

I therefore started my bid earlier today (using your PRICELINE link) at $55 for a 2-star hotel in Crystal City 9/10-12 and I was rejected. My plan is to continue to bid every 24 hours, going up by $5 unless you have any other suggestions.

[thereuare]

I can only accept Crystal City bc I'm going for a conference at Crystal Gateway Marriott from 9/8-12 and I need to be within walking distance (not renting a vehicle) or at the very least a cheap cab ride away.

Is the Marriott near a metro stop? (it appears to be very near the Crystal City Metro stop) If so, you could stay anywhere within 'downtown proper' that is close to a metro and take the metro to the conference each day. While it may not be realistic to win a hotel in the downtown, white house, etc zones at your budget, you could at least use this as pseudo re-bid zones in order to bid more than once a day:

Cyrstal City

Crystal City and White House

Cyrstal City and Convention Center

Crystal City and White House and Convention Center

... just as one example. However, you never know and you could be surprised and win something for way less than expected in the 'downtown' area, so to employ this strategy, you would need to be willing to stay in the 'downtown' zones that you include in your bidding (which if you have any free time in the evenings would likely be a lot more interesting than staying in Crystal City ;) )

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

[DrJ]

Sorry but not willing to take a chance with staying "downtown", as taking the Metro to and from the conference would really lengthen my days. Conference is all day long so no time for sightseeing anyways. I did place a bid again tonight through your PRICELINE link for $60/night and got rejected. Then I found this low cost/good value hotel (Americana Hotel -- not on Priceline nor Hotwire's hotel lists on this website) which is just 2 blocks away from the Marriott at 60 bucks/night so I went ahead and booked the 2 nights I was missing at this low cost hotel due to the convenience of being so close to the Marriott.

I apologize for not having any winning bids to post, but this was really my best scenario and things worked out well for me with your suggestions. I will come back to this website when I need to bid again on a hotel in the future.

Thanks a lot for your help!

[AaronJB]

Thank you for closing the thread, and glad to hear that you were able to find something that works well for your travel plans. We look forward to helping with your next stay.

Enjoy your stay.