Priceline Hotel: 3* Ft. Lauderdale (Beach) Bahia Mar Resort

[LoneStar]

OK, this is a strange one. I was getting a good "cash & points" deal through Starwood at the Yankee Clipper, so I wasn't planning on bidding for Ft. Lauderdale beach during X-mas week -- figuring that prices would be high. Indeed, So. Florida hotel prices ARE high that week, but of late I've seen a 3-star "resort" pop up on hotwire for $104 for certain days. It had the icons of the Bahia Mar, but was only rated 3 star (your hotel list has it at 3.5 stars). I thought it might also be the Yankee Clipper or Trader.

In the past, I've sometimes been able to get "$100 Hotwire resorts" for about $20 less on priceline, so I bid $80 for the days. Got a simple rejection. Bid $84, and voila.

OK, but here's the strange part: this hotel is SOLD OUT on the Bahia Mar's own homepage and on other travel sites like Travelocity for these nights! So where did these cheap rooms come from? Is Priceline somehow "moving" somebody's pre-sold inventory?

Regardless, it's a good deal if you need beachfront So. Fla. accomodations that week. FWIW, I believe this hotel is good, but not great. A typical "aging" Florida beachfront hotel that's been mostly kept up. Recently was a Radisson.

[thereuare]

Although more the exception than the rule, there are several instances of hotels showing sold-out on their website and still giving the opaque providers inventory.

Enjoy your stay.

[LoneStar]

Any clues from the past experiences where the "sold out" rooms came from?

There are a few travel industry companies that buy up rooms and then "take the risk" on them, but I don't think the practice is that widespread. You would think there would be a better solution (from a business perspective) to unloading rooms at a sold out hotel than dumping them on priceline -- like giving them back to the hotel to sell. In this case, the hotel is selling other nights that week at $229, so this sure doesn't seem like a profit-maximizing move.

But I'm grateful to be the beneficiary of it! :)

[bbbb]

Some times hotels sell only packages of a pre set number of nights. I have seen many times where a hotel comes up as sold out on their site unless you book 3-5 nights. These same hotels are available on PL and Hotwire for one night stays. This happens all the time.

[thereuare]

Sometimes it's a mistake and the person in charge of loading the Priceline/Hotwire rates just forgets to unload their rate once the hotel occupancy begins to increase.

I suspect that at other times it could be goodwill... if a hotel is looking to increase their relationship with a given supplier, they may hold back some inventory to give them, even during peak dates. Sometimes giving up a dollar today can bring in two dollars tomorrow.