Hotwire Hotel: 3.5* Singapore (Novena) Days Hotel Singapore at Zhongshan Park

[chobo2]

Hey

 

Since I really don't know which hotels are good or not in Singapore(most look good in their photos then when you get there they could be crap). So I am thinking of using hotwire or priceline to bid. 

 

I just have no clue how should I proceed. I hear pretty much anywhere in Singapore is good location as transit is good so right now I don't even have an area where I want to be at.  I am looking for nothing too fancy maybe 3 star to 4 star hotel that is no more than like $75 USD.

 

Can someone help me out on how I should setup a bidding strategy.

 

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

To get started, what are the dates of your stay?

 

Please remember to return to BetterBidding and use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases... or thru our sister site MAPSandHOTELS.com for your regular rate purchases.

[chobo2]

May 4th to May 7th, 2018

 

I been trying to do some research to get an idea what each star rating costs on hotwire. Like for instance  on hotwire a 3star hotel is $63 CDN and sometimes they show a winning hotel which I then look up against other and the cost was like $104 CDN.

 

I am trying to use this information to make a bidding strategy but one thing that confuses me is when hotwire told me which hotel was won at that star level I did a search of all hotels in that area with the same star rating but sometimes priceline will only have 3 and 4 stars but the hotel that was won on hotwire was 3.5 stars so now sure how priceline would rate it as 3 or 4.

[thereuare]

If you're looking to bid on PRICELINE i'm not sure why you're researching on HOTWIRE, as that is just going to make things more complicated than they need to be, since each company uses their own star rating system and a 4* on HOTWIRE may or may not be a 4* on PRICELINE (and vice-versa)... not to mention that each uses their own zone names and boundaries so you're not making an apples-to-apples comparison.

 

If you're trying to get a feel for what each service counts as a 3* vs. 4* hotel i would suggest searching with our BiddingHelper.com tool and in the EASY VIEW (for HOTWIRE) and the PRICELINE EXPRESS tabs click the GREEN 'Is This A Good Price' button next to any listing... this will show you some hotels in the zone that are the same star rating of the current offer (so while these may not be the actually underlying hotel that is currently being offered, it will give you an idea of some possibilities as well as what type of hotels are offered at that star rating)

 

I'm not really following the logic of your research... what exactly are your goals for this stay?  If looking to bid on PRICELINE, which zone(s) are you willing to stay in?

 

Please remember to return to BetterBidding and use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases... or thru our sister site MAPSandHOTELS.com for your regular rate purchases.

 

PS- and please post to the board in USD as it makes it easier for us to research on our end as well as makes all prices on the board consistent and not subject to interpretation based upon future currency fluctuations.

[chobo2]

I done some research(not sure if it is good), what I did was I went to HOTWIRE and looked at the "hot deals" that fit in my budget (No more than $100 CDN).

1. I went into each one to see what was won last
2. tried to visually match up if hotwire and priceline zones matched up
3. recorded the hotwire rating and the google rating for that won hotel
4. recorded the cheapest price that google was telling me for that won hotel
5. recorded the cheapest hotel with the same or similar rating as the hotwire hotel that was won. 

 

In some cases though hotwire would rate it like 3 stars and google rating was 1 star

 

 

[AaronJB]

The HOTWIRE "last person won" message isn't necessarily the underlying hotel, it's the last hotel someone won at that star rating in that zone. The Google rating is entirely different and shouldn't be considered and I'm guessing you may be looking at the Google user rating. Additionally, the cheapest price is not an indicator of what hotel you may get.

 

You have two options:

 

1. You can bid on PRICELINE and be willing to accept any hotel at the star rating picked in the zone/s chosen.

 

2. Go with PRICELINE EXPRESS or HOTWIRE. In those instances, you can make an educated guess as to which hotels are showing based on the information given.

 

Let us know which route is more appealing, which zone/s would be acceptable, desired star rating and budget. 

 

Please remember to return to BetterBidding and use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases... or thru our sister site MAPSandHOTELS.com for your regular rate purchases.

[chobo2]

Ok, well I thought that might give me sense on what hotels are being won and can give me a starting point for the bidding. I think I will do PRICELINE first and if I can't win with a decent bid then I might switch to HOTWIRE.

 

the zones I am looking at are 
Chinatown Financial

Novena

Little India

 

I am looking at 3 to 4 star hotels and I would say my cap would be like $75USD / night

[thereuare]

54 minutes ago, chobo2 said:

(No more than $100 CDN).

1 hour ago, thereuare said:

please post to the board in USD as it makes it easier for us to research on our end as well as makes all prices on the board consistent and not subject to interpretation based upon future currency fluctuations.

 

Did you want to first try bidding at the 4* level up to your limit, then if rejected start over at the 3.5*, and then at 3*... OR is the goal the least expensive 3* hotel for your dates?

 

Please remember to return to BetterBidding and use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases... or thru our sister site MAPSandHOTELS.com for your regular rate purchases.

[chobo2]

hmm, I am not sure yet. What would be the best site to use to see what a 3*, 3.5* and 4* hotel look in each area that I could possibly get with using price line. This way if I can see if I am getting good value for the extra money.

[thereuare]

See my previous comments above:

21 hours ago, thereuare said:

If you're trying to get a feel for what each service counts as a 3* vs. 4* hotel i would suggest searching with our BiddingHelper.com tool and in the EASY VIEW (for HOTWIRE) and the PRICELINE EXPRESS tabs click the GREEN 'Is This A Good Price' button next to any listing... this will show you some hotels in the zone that are the same star rating of the current offer (so while these may not be the actually underlying hotel that is currently being offered, it will give you an idea of some possibilities as well as what type of hotels are offered at that star rating)

 

... as well as our Priceline Hotel List (and our Hotwire Hotel List for when using that service)

 

You'll never be able to reach 100% coverage of all the potential possibilities at a given star rating in a zone, but the above will at least give you a very good idea of likely possibilities and pricing at each star rating in the zone.

 

[chobo2]

Where is easy view? I checked out the priceline hotel list but, sadly it is not very complete for singapore. 

 

I checked out the 3* hotels in "little india" and "Novena" and if I got those hotels I would be happy with them. Of course like you said there is no way to be 100% certain, so maybe cut it down the middle and try for 3.5 star hotels in little india, chinatown and novena and maybe top budget 65USD.

 

Does that sound double? 

 

 

[thereuare]

2 minutes ago, chobo2 said:

Where is easy view?

Go to BiddingHelper.com and do a search for your location and dates... there will be FOUR tabs that appear with hotel offers/information; one of them (the 2nd from the left) is labeled EASY VIEW and next to each offer there you will see a GREEN button 'IS THIS A GOOD PRICE'

 

Another source would be MAPS and HOTELS.com... but there are no zones listed there so you will have to match it up with the PRICELINE / HOTWIRE boundaries of the zones you are considering.

 

Please remember to return to BetterBidding and use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases... or thru our sister site MAPSandHOTELS.com for your regular rate purchases.

[chobo2]

Ok, I found the easy view and found Novena area that has 3.5* for 64USD during my dates, the hotels it had listed look good. So I guess I could just do HOTWIRE and hope I get one of those hotels, but of course I would like to try to bid on PRICELINE see if I can get something like those hotels a bit cheaper.

 

So how do I go about doing my bidding strategy, now that I would like to try to do Novena area and pay no more than 64USD.

[thereuare]

I assume this is the HOTWIRE hotel you're seeing:

 

3.5* HOTWIRE Novena for $64.00
Free Parking
Free Internet
Smoke Free
Fitness
Restaurant
Laundry
Hi-Speed Internet
Childrens Activities
==> best guess for this property would be the Days Hotel Singapore at Zhongshan Park.  As well, this 'opaque' offer shows a 100% recommendation by previous HOTWIRE guests as well as a 4.0/5.0 TA rating.  So how much would you need to save by bidding to make the chance of receiving a different hotel worth the savings?  This would seem to be a good hotel, so if you bid on PRICELINE and saved $3/nite but received a hotel that was not as well rated or reviewed, would that be worth the savings? (especially given that you seem to care a lot about knowing in advance what hotel it is that you may likely receive).  So if you do decide to bid for this property, i think you should choose a number less than $64/nite since at some point the few dollars of savings is negligible and not worth the chance of receiving something less desirable.

 

Lastly, i will point out that the Days Hotel Singapore at Zhongshan Park is currently 3 star rated by PRICELINE, so you would need to bid the 3 star level if you were trying to receive this property... which then also increases the chance of receiving some 'other' 3* property (that is not as well reviewed).

 

I'm all for saving money, but even if you save 10% by bidding on PRICELINE, you're looking at a savings of about $6/nite, which for me, i'd rather pay an extra $6 and have a guess as to the hotel i may receive (and at the very least, as in this situation, know that the hotel has good reviews and ratings).

 

We will advise as to however you'd like to proceed, but i think you could potentially spoil a vacation over $5/nite which is not a good risk/reward, imo.

 

Please remember to return to BetterBidding and use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases... or thru our sister site MAPSandHOTELS.com for your regular rate purchases.

 

Let us know how you'd like to proceed (or how it goes if you take the HOTWIRE offer above, please use the board's link) and we'll take it from there.

[chobo2]

I thought about it and your right, not worth the risk. I pulled the trigger(of course using your HOTWIRE links) and did get the "Days Hotel Singapore at Zhongshan" .

 

Thanks 

 

Till the next one.

[thereuare]

Congratulations on your success!

I think you made the smart decision... and glad to see it was the well reviewed hotel you were hoping for.

Thank you for sharing your win with the board and helping us confirm this new amenity set for this property in the Hotwire Hotel List.

Please use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases.

Enjoy your stay.