Priceline Hotel: 3* Boca Raton-Deerfield Beach (Boca Raton-North Drfld Beach) Marriott

[LoneStar]

This is a truly spectacular deal for Boca. I happened to reserve my X-mas airfare and car rental this weekend (it sounds nuts, but if you want a bargain in So. Florida at Christmastime, you have to start looking early for pricing "errors" where they fail to blackout the holidays). Out of pure curiosity, I then typed these days into hotwire to see what might come up. To my amazement, they listed a 3.5 star Boca hotel for $65 (restaurant, pool, fitness center, golf nearby, business center). They didn't offer it as a package, but using the betterbidding hotwire guide, I was able to identify the hotel as the Marriott. A quick check of the non-opaque rates (above $325/night that week) and trip advisor rating (4.5, complete renovation now finished, "best hotel in Boca") convinced me that it might be worth "committing" at this early date. :)

But, of course, I had to try to get it cheaper on priceline. Alas, Boca is in a weird zone on priceline where it is only linked to Deerfield Beach and therefore has only 1 free rebid. I didn't want to bid too low because I suspected this could be a data entry mistake (who gives away $325 rooms for $50 at X-mas this far in advance?) and did not want to have to wait 3 days to rebid. My previous experience told me that priceline is rarely, if ever, more than $20 cheaper on the same hotel than hotwire, so I knew $45 was probably the lowest plausible bid. But my gut told me this wouldn't go for $45 (too high a percentage off $65). So my first bid was $50. Voila!

Looking further at hotwire, I believe this rate is currently loaded for everyday in November and December, but not necessarily beforehand (it doesn't pop up for October). So if you're sure you want to go to Boca late this year, go for it. And you could even "waste" the free rebid by trying $45 -- you never know!

It's just too bad it's not a beachfront resort. I honestly don't know why people pay so much money to stay at Boca hotels, but I guess I'm going to find out. I've stayed in So. Florida countless times on priceline, but never in Boca, because it's always too darn expensive. Until now.

[LoneStar]

I have friends who wanted a room, too. Knowing that $50 would work, I tried $45 first and was rejected without comment. Then got another room for $50.

So if anyone particularly frugal wants rooms and feels like using the one free re-bid to probe, maybe you should try $48. :)

[LoneStar]

BTW, it appears that this hotel is mis-rated by priceline as a 3-star. In Marriott's own reward program, it takes more points to stay here than in the Boca Renaissance hotel (cat. 5 as opposed to cat. 4) that priceline rates as a 4-star. Might have something to do with the recent renovation. Room rates between the 2 hotels are generally comparable, with the Marriott sometimes a few dollars higher. Regardless, I haven't seen too many $300+ hotels as 3 stars on priceline!

[LoneStar]

An FYI -- I think this "mistake" has been caught and the deal is no longer available. I looked at my nights again on Hotwire and it shows the cheapest 3.5 star hotel costing $237.