Priceline Hotel: Bidding help sought...

[Bozza]

Hello there,

I'm hoping you can help.

Yesterday Expedia.co.uk was showing the Hilton @ WDW for

[Bozza]

...just to say I tried WDW vicinity and Kissimmee Resorts for $66 and still no joy.

...and added Maitland area and $71 and still no joy!

Maybe there's something funny going on with those dates for this hotel as, going back to Expedia.co.uk if I put in a check-in date of 20 Aug it returns a good rate all the way through to 31 Aug. It won't, however, do this for any check-in from 21 Aug to 27 Aug inclusive saying "This hotel does not allow check in on your requested check-in date: 21/8/2006."

I assume this is also affecting my Priceline bidding...

[ufjoe21]

in general:

your free rebid zones are zones that you have no interest in staying in but only contain star ratings strictly lower then the one you're requesting

i.e., you want the Hilton which is a Resort in the DWV zone, and bid $60 in the DWV zone

so currently a free rebid zone for you is Kissimmee because even though you don't want a hotel in Kissimmee, Kissimmee currently only has 2* or lower hotels avaiable through bidding on priceline, (2* is less than Resort)

thus the point is you can safely increase your bid to $65 and add the Kissimmee zone

if that doesn't work you can increase your bid and add free rebid zones

as for safely getting the Hilton..............although people tend to get the Hilton around $60, that doesn't mean you're guaranteed to get the Hilton.........you have to be prepared to accept a different Resort, so don't hedge your bets on the Hilton

[Bozza]

Hiya - appreciate that there is no guarantee on the Hilton but the other resorts in the area seem decent enough so would not be a hardship.

Just gone up to $81 a night by adding other areas without resorts and still no joy. :)

[thereuare]

What is your best rate outside of the opaque providers?

What is your maximum bid?

Is SPLITTING YOUR PRICELINE BID an option?

[Bozza]

You see this is where it gets really strange.

If I go to Hilton.com the rate for 8/24-8/31 is now a massive $229.00 per night.

If I change the dates to 8/20-8/31, the rate plummets to $109.00 per night. It would cost about $500 less to stay there for 11 nights instead of 7!

There is something very strange going on with this hotel if your first night wanting to stay is 8/21-8/27 inclusive.

Splitting my stay is an option - I reckon I'd get $60 for the 3 nights 8/28-8/30 but because it's a short-ish trip and I'm coming from the UK, I really do not want the hassle of changing hotels midway through the trip, which could be likely from the way things look right now.

[seningen]

I'm assuming you have played with combinations of dates beween 8/20 and 8/24 starts

on the hilton.com site.

From experience - if the rate on the website gets to $109 -- $60 seems to hit.

Can you play around and see what date combinations on hilton.com are lowest.

As far as splitting hotel rooms -- I have yet to see any other resort (since the Wyndham

got booted from resort level) hit anywhere near $60 other than the Hilton.

So I would guess you would be safe breaking up you days.

However do keep in mind -- I think PL charges something like $6.95 per successful bid.

You might want to book something cancelable -- and still work on PL -- you're running

low on time - but you still have a few days left.

I've even used hotel computers to connect to PL and extend my stays in the past :-)

So as long as you are before 6pm of the day you are bidding for -- you can use PL.

m

[ufjoe21]

actually, now you can bid up until 11PM the day of check-in

I've seen the Hyatt come up for less than $60 actually, but it doesn't come up often

[Bozza]

Apologies for not completing my story on this at the time.

In he end I got offered a good deal at the on-site Port Orleans Riverside resort at $99 per night. This seemed too good to miss, so I took this rather than continuing with the opaque providers.