Priceline Hotel: Please help-Tampa hotel

[mlmihlfried]

I found a couple of hotels listed somewhere and now I can't find them on the search. I was interested in the Marriott Waterside, I thought I saw it listed here for $50 but now I can't find it. I also saw the Wyndham downtown for $61. It seems like the "pinned" hotel list has fewer properties listed. Have these been edited in the last couple of weeks or am I just going crazy as I have suspected? :) If anyone can offer advice on this, I'd appreciate it. I'm looking for a really nice hotel near the ports in February 2004. Thanks

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

Is it possible you were looking at Hotwire and looking at the last post in THIS THREAD?

Also, when you last used the SEARCH function did you select (on the bottom right) search from: ANY DATE (the default is to search from the last 7 days)

Let me know if either of the above solve your problem. We'd also likely be able to be of more help if you supplied the exact date(s) of your stay in February.

[mlmihlfried]

Thereuare, thanks for the nice "welcome" and reply; I did check the Hotwire thread and it wasn't there. I also checked using a wider range of dates like you suggested, to no avail. I'd appreciate your help tremendously! We will be staying just one night, pre-cruise on Feb. 20th. Thank you for your help!

[thereuare]

I think most cruisers stay in the Downtown area, but some also stay near the airport.

Well a search for your dates on Hotwire shows a hotel in the airport area that appears to be the Hilton. Don't know if this is 'nice' enough for you or not, but the Travelocity.com/Vacations/Reviews/Hotel/Read/0,,TRAVELOCITY_9071_0,00.html"]Travelocity REVIEWS seem to be favorable (there is also a review on TripAdvisor which is not as favorable). If htis is the correct guess on this property, the Hilton's website indicates free shuttle to/from the aiport as well as a shuttle to the pier.

The highest rating available thru Priceline in the Downtown zone is 3*, but the Airport zone offers 4*.... don't know which you'd rather go with. I think Priceline will cost you less than Hotwire, but you'll be less likely pinpoint the exact property and amenities offered.

Let me know which approach you would like to go with and i'll folow up.

[mlmihlfried]

Thereuare, I think I'll probably go with the 3* Downtown which, I'm thinking, will probably put me in the Hyatt Regency. I can't say for sure, but I think the most current winning bid was $37 but I read one of your posts and learned about the rebids so if that doesn't work, I'll go up to $42 and so on. Is that what you'd suggest? I have to take my son to an appt. now so I won't be able to check back for a couple of hours. Thanks alot for your help, I definitely will recommend this site to all!

[thereuare]

Just to make sure you understand re-bidding, not all zones are re-bid zones... only the ones that only offer a quality levels lower than the zone you're bidding. For your 3* bid in the Downtown Tampa area, there are 3 re-bid zones available (feel free to confirm them with me via PM if you want to make sure you got it right).

I wouldn't jump $5/bid this early before check-in. As i said above, you have 3 re-bids available, so this is how i would proceed:

Select 3* Downtown and...

Bid $37, if rejected add re-bid zone and...

Bid $41, if rejected add re-bid zone and...

Bid $43, if rejected add re-bid zone and

Bid $45.

Feel free to ask any questions you may have regarding this bid or re-bidding in general.

Good Luck and let us know how it goes!