Priceline Hotel: to go where no man has gone before...

[lizzie]

When I go into priceline, put in my dates and location, it gives me a list of 5 hotels and quotes me prices on only two of them, a one star and a three star. NO ratings or prices are quoted for the other 3. When I then go to "Name my own price", Sydney (Cape Breton) Nova Scotia, only comes up with the one star option.

Does this mean I am only bidding on the one 1-star hotel?

Anyway I can tell how many hotels I am bidding on?

Expanding the location isnt really an option for Sydney,

(as you would probably have to include Halifax, over 3 hours away!)

[dahammer]

Can you please post your dates of travel? Also, what is the price for the 1* that was quoted? Would you be pleased with hotel?

[dahammer]

Can you please post your dates of travel? Also, what is the price for the 1* that was quoted? Would you be pleased with hotel if you bid and won?

[lizzie]

That would be for travel May 12, 13 to Sydney, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada.

The price quoted for the one-star Days Inn, Sydney was $82.

(the 3* Delta Sydney was $128)

I would like to bid on one of the better hotels, but it doesn't seem

to give me that option, only one star hotels appear to be available.

It doesnt rate any of the other four hotels...I can get prices by clicking on the check availability button...they are 82, 90, 92 and 121. But I have no idea if they are included on priceline.com's "list". Seems like only the dodgy Days Inn. Am I reading into this correctly?

[GM Mike]

I almost agree with your assessment. You'd be bidding on 1* hotels. That would almost certainly include that Days Inn, but could also include other 1* hotels not listed in the non-opaque section of Priceline.

What's your target price for this stay? Maybe we can think of something better.

[lizzie]

Hmmmm...."other hotels not listed in the non-opaque section of priceline."....now I am confused.

If I can only do a 1*, I would want to pay, at the very most, $50 per night. But would go 60 for a better hotel, which doesnt seem to be offered.

I believe the hotels I listed above are all the hotels in Sydney.

I am not sure if any of the others are 1*'s or not...

So short of bidding on only the Days Inn, what other options do I have? Short of kipping on someone's couch, which at this point I would like to avoid...

[GM Mike]

I wanted to suggest a few other alternatives. There are a few highly rated bed-and-breakfast places there:

1) Paradise Found B&B - $85 CDN/night, Queen, private bathroom

2) Ann's B&B - $95 CDN/night, Double bed, private bathroom

Both are highly rated by Canada Select.

What do you think about those options?

[lizzie]

Most excellent. I will check those out.

[lizzie]

Sydney NS bid 1* (only available!) May 12, 13, $35...bid rejected

-bid 1*, May 12, $40...bid rejected

-bid 1*, May 13, $45...bid rejected

No more rebids allowed, as all date combinations were used.

Will try again in 72 hours.

(This is graduation weekend, so the hotels will probably be busy and not inclined to sell off rooms cheap!)

[GM Mike]

To clarify this point I made:

I almost agree with your assessment. You'd be bidding on 1* hotels. That would almost certainly include that Days Inn, but could also include other 1* hotels not listed in the non-opaque section of Priceline.

The hotel selection on the regularly priced hotels section you first see at Priceline is not necessarily the same selection as in the bidding section.

Most likely, what you're finding is that no hotels are offering discounted rooms for bidding, since that is a peak travel weekend, so in effect you're not bidding on anything.

However, it is also possible that you're bidding on any or all of the following hotels:

1) Days Inn

2) Quality Inn

3) Comfort Inn

There's really no way to tell if Priceline considers them 1 or 2 stars.

It's also somewhat possible you're bidding on the Best Western in North Sydney (because you can't be sure of the boundaries the bidding site has on what is actually in Sydney proper) and a place like the Meridian Hotel, which is not listed as having an online booking capability, but might participate in the bidding engine.

Since this is a peak travel weekend, I'd strongly advise you book a fully refundable backup reservation right now. The Days Inn website has a $76 CDN/night (roughly $66 USD) reservation with a 15 day cancellation period. Use this link to support betterbidding when you make the reservation. Then you can keep bidding without the worry of all the hotels being sold out.