Priceline Hotel: 3.5* Los Angeles - San Gabriel Valley (Pasadena) Hilton Pasadena

[kershawrulz]

I was interested in something adjacent to Old Town, meaning the Westin, Hilton, or Sheraton, which are easy to bid on as they are the only 3.5*+ hotels in this zone and there are five rebid zones (with nothing above 3*). I was fairly certain I'd get a rate below 90 based on previous experience, but it seems the long stay adversely affected me...

I initially checked Hotwire two nights ago and saw a 4* available for 111. This had to be the Westin. I checked individual nights and saw the nights of the 12th and 13th were 167, while the other nights were all at around 100. I hoped to get a better rate on Priceline, and I considered breaking up my stay into three parts due to these two more expensive nights.

Two nights ago, using your PRICELINE link, I first tried bidding from 65 to 90 in $4 ish increments on 3.5*+ for all ten nights and did not get accepted. I then tried bidding from 65 to 75 in $2 increments on 3/14-3/19 on 4* (to target just the Westin, as I didn't want to move during my stay) and did not get accepted, but got a counter-offer of 91. I then tried bidding from 75 to 85 in $2 increments on 3/9-3/12 on 4* and did not get accepted, but got a counter-offer of 103. At this point I gave up for the night and waited 24 hours.

Last night I checked Hotwire and, much to my dismay, saw that the Westin had gone up considerably. Checking individual nights, it seemed that three of them were now 60-70/night more expensive. I panicked somewhat and decided to try to get something booked quickly. I started out by bidding on 3.5*+ for all ten nights in $4 increments from 94. I got a counter-offer of 125. 110 got rejected, 114 got accepted by the Hilton, to my surprise. I was actually going to give up at 114 and start trying to split up my stay again, bidding only on 4*, but I didn't wind up having to go that route.

I'm not happy with the price, but it wound up basically being the same as the initial Hotwire Westin price I saw. I was surprised that Hotwire didn't have the Hilton for any price, since I noticed it's on your Hotwire hotel list. With taxes and fees it came out to $131.48 per night.

Now, I have a question... I'm checking Hotwire now, I'm seeing that 4* Westin showing up. For 3/9-3/19 it's 173. For 3/9 it's 173, for 3/10-3/12 and 3/14-3/19 it's 100 ish, for 3/12-3/14 it's 224. Also for 3/9-3/12 it's only 113 (173 and 100 and 100 averages out to 124). Why is it so much for the entire ten-day interval 3/9-3/19? Breaking it up into three intervals gets a rate of around 130.

[thereuare]

Congratulations on your success!

In regards to the pricing for the complete stay vs. the subset of dates, it's not uncommon for a rate change during the stay to effect the rate for the entire length of stay. There are many reason for this and there are likely more factors that go into hotel pricing then you may think. To just give one example of 'thinking outside the box' that may be involved... let's say this hotel has done a study of their data and guests staying 3 nites or less spend an average of $50/day on 'incidentals' such as movies, eating in the restaurant, drinks at the bar, etc... and guests staying 3-7 nites spend an average of $35/day in incidentals... and guests staying 10+ nites spend $2/day on incidentals; the hotel may raise their room rate prices for a longer stay accordingly since they figure they'll get less revenue from the guest spending money while on-site, and they may discount the room more on a shorter stay figuring they will make up that revenue with revenue spent in-house. Not saying that this is necessarily the reason here, but there likely is some metric that the hotel is using that has caused them to set room rates in this fashion for these dates and sub-set of these dates. At a different hotel they may have different data/experiences for shorter/longer stays and you could see the exact opposite effect.

Thank you for sharing your win and using the PRICELINE links on the board to begin your bidding.

Enjoy your stay.