Priceline Hotel: Need Help Bidding Key West

[ATTY]

I'll be in Key West for four nights, five days, arriving April 1st and departing April 5th. I've read through the hotel lists for Key West and also some older posts and it seems like it is a difficult area to bid.

That being said, I'm really only interested in that areas and the resort hotels. The Casa Marina Resort, Hyatt Resort, and Reach Resort are the ones listed on this site as well as others (I know the list is not all-inclusive). According to the websites, the Reach Resort is closed until May 2007 for renovations and parts of the Casa Marina are closed as well.

Rates at the Hyatt and Casa Marina for my dates range from high $300 to high $400. I am willing to bid up to $210 for a resort in Key West.

I am looking for any tips on bidding this area, particularly a good starting bid. It has been a while since anyone has posted a winning bid in this area so I'm not sure where to start.

I always use the savingsbarn link and appreciate any advice. Thanks in advance.

[thereuare]

It's a tough zone to bid, not just because of a low acceptance rate, but also because there are no re-bid zones available.

I'd star at $100, in 24 hours try again at $125, in 24 hours try again at $150, $165, $175, $185, $195, $205, $210.

The above should take you just over a week to bid, and should be done every 24 hours.

Any quesstions feel free to ask.

Good Luck and let us know how it goes.

[ATTY]

Thanks. I'll give that a try and I'll keep you posted.

Also, do you have any idea about which resorts I might get? I know that is tough to gauge, but thought I'd ask anyway.

[thereuare]

The Hyatt and/or Casa Marina would seem like logical possibilities... not sure of any others.

[ATTY]

Thanks.

Last night I started the bidding. I was going to start at $100 like you suggested, but priceline has a new thing (new since the last time I was there) where a red box pops up under your bid price and says something like "Your bid has a very low chance of success..." Also, the median price for a resort during my stay is $436 (ouch).

So, I bid $119 (that was the amount that made the message in the red box go away) and I got rejected. I'll try again tonight.

[tenerifesharon]

That pop-up isn't new and I think it's often meant to frighten people into bidding more than they'd like. It may be accurate, but there have been several reports of bidders having won in spite of their bidding under the "slight chance of winning" amount.

[ATTY]

Bid Friday and over the weekend--$125, $150, $160--and got nothing for a resort in Key West. I'm thinking I may give up on the whole thing (priceline for Key West). It seems like a winning bid (who knows how high)will most likely get me the Hyatt or the Casa Marina. Both have construction going on until at least May (I'm traveling in early April) and I've bee reading about resort fees, parking fees, etc.

I'm going to take a break from priceline and see what the smaller hotels offer.

If I decide to start bidding again I keep you posted. Thanks for the help.

[Rosepointe]

We stayed in the Key West over Christmas and realized one of the problems going on now is that there are limited hotel rooms. We paid for a BnB but had gotten great rooms on Priceline in the past. Several hotels are closed due to renovations and they are in the process of building others (which does not make many of the locals happy).

This may clarify why we are having difficulty securing rooms in the Keys.

Sue