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Priceline Car Bidding


jazzman1974
By jazzman1974,
in

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Just a quick question.

I received an email from Priceline on Monday, letting me know about recent successful bids for car rental in Nashville, as I am looking for a car next month.

I have tried the amounts that were listed for the different class cars, but always get too low a bid. I have even tried a couple $$ more than those in the

email.

My question is, is the email Priceline legit winning bids, or what?

Having bid at those prices, and being knocked back, just wondering if I might be doing something wrong.

Thanks in advance

J

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Rates for any travel service (hotel, car, airfare, etc) are date specific, and the 'problem' with the alerts you're receiving is that they're not for your specific dates. So the prices you're seeing are actual wins, but not for your specific dates, so they're not very meaningful to your specific situation.

If you'd like help with this rental please include the details of your travel (dates, car class, bids already made, location, etc)

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

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

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Hi

Thanks for your reply

The dates I am looking at are: 23rd Oct - 3rd Nov, flying into Nashville - BNA.

I am looking at either economy or compact.

The email that was sent had wins for $10 & $11 for these classes. It also had a win for $10 for a mid-size car.

I tried those prices without luck, then a couple of dollars higher, again without luck.

Cheers

J

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The issue remains that rates are date specific and the $10-$11 wins may have little or nothing to do with what would be needed to win for your dates. The length of your rental only further supports this theory as even just one date within the date range with very high demand (and therefore very high prices) could negative effect the amount needed to win a bid.

With the above noted i'm guessing you're likely looking at $14-$17 needed for these dates... how high have you bid already? How much are 'retail' rates for these dates?

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

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

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HOTWIRE is currently offering a mid-size car for $18/day... does this work for your needs/budget?

Will you traveling far from or staying nearby the airport? This is a long-ish rental and you may benefit from splitting the rental into two purchases, but it would involve returning to the airport on 'switch' day in order to return the first rental and start a new contract for the second rental (which may be with a different company)

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

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

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  • 2 weeks later...

I just bid $9 and won a compact car at BNA the other day, last minute on a Saturday morning. I am going to post it to the forum of priceline wins. (After taxes and fees, it was more like $19.)

I suspect, from my limited experience renting cars, that the rental car owners put inventory on sale only later in the game when they know they won't be able to sell it otherwise. Unlike hotels where they would love to make plenty of set room reservations in advance and they have an almost exact figure of rooms available, the car guys might not know what inventory they will have that far out, or demand, but only an estimate.

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Both hotels and car rental companies have a pretty good idea of what expected demand, and inventory, will be on any given set of dates within the next year. They may not know exact numbers, but they have a lot of history, and computer software, that helps them know demand based upon previous history. Car rental companies may have it a little tougher as they don't know how many cars will be in an accident and taken out of inventory, returned to a different location, etc, etc... but they even have a pretty good estimate of this information as well; it's just one more variable that they need to consider when setting prices.

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

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

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