Priceline Hotel: 3* Fort Lauderdale (Beach) Holiday Inn

[crisp1]

Date of arrival 1/14/06 (mistake made in topic)

First bid $80 rejected. Added Airport zone ( no 4* hotels in this zone) and rebid $100. rejected. Waited 72 hours and rebid $100 again and rejected with note that if I added $22 it would be accepted

3*

1 night

rate $122.00 taxes and service fees $22.67 Total $144.67

I have been checking the prices on this hotel through hotwire for the past several weeks and it remained at $140 until this am, when it dropped to $134. The Hyatt pier came up a low $178 on 12/12, jumped to $280 and is now down in the $220 range. Oceanfront, Doubletree suites have no rooms available for this date. I believe that the King Tut exhibit is in town this month. Another reason the rates remain high.

[LoneStar]

That strikes me as a lot to pay for that hotel on priceline. It's been going for less than $50 on all but the most peak of days lately. Of course, as you say, that day you need looks very busy (and expensive) in Ft. Lauderdale. In the future, I might consider driving a little (you could do Miami or Palm Beach easily from Ft. Lauderdale) in such a situation and seeing if you could get more value for your money.

[thereuare]

The fact that $100 was rejected, as well as the bids the previous days, indicates that this date has somewhat higher demand (for whatever reason) than is 'typical'. However, i wouldn't have accepted their counter-offer.

Thanks for the post and enjoy your stay.

[crisp1]

I've been checking periodically on hotwire to see if the price dropped. With only one week until checkin, the rate remains high at $132. I guess it's a matter of supply and demand. Most other properties are full for that night.

Don't forget to support this site and book through Savingsbarn :)

[runNgun]

peak season in South Florida is January thru Easter. LOTS of Snowbirds from the Northeast and Quebec. A $50 winning bid in December should in no way be expected during "season".

[LoneStar]

It is a bad situation value-wise for So.Florida for mid January. Hard to believe that the MLK Jr. weekend prices are higher than X-mas week!

I remember visiting early last February ("off-peak", before the traditional President's Day rush) on a ridiculously low airfare, and then being confronted by sky-high hotel rates. Eventually, I found the renovating Boneventure "resort" for less than $50, but I currently don't see a similar deal here.

That said, once you get much above $100 for a 3-star in SoFla, I think non-opaque options become significantly more attractive. You CAN find something decent conventionally at that price, although it will require significant digging.