Priceline Hotel: Boston (Copley) Sheraton

[kstrom]

For those of you who read the Hotwire MA forum, I recently got a $29 a night room at the Boston Sheraton for $29 a night (that is NOT a typo) for 6/7/07-6/10/07. I still need a room for 6/6/07. I shamelessly followed joehotel's strategy (posted April 22) which resulted in an accepted bid of $150 for the Sheraton for 6/6/07-6/10/07. Unfortunately, I with a series of $10 and $15 increments, I was unsuccessful to $200. Here's a snip of what joehotel did. I have a back up reservation at the Sheraton for $279.

JOE HOTEL"s strategy substituting my bids

I used SAVINGSBARN.COM to help out BetterBidding.com. I wanted a 4* hotel in Copley.

I used the special bidding strategy which gives you a total of 2^n bids where n is the number of rebid zones.

Zones bid on:

X = Copley (target zone, hotels with 4 stars and lower)

A = Medford (free rebid zone, 2.5* and lower)

B = South Boston (free rebid zone, 2.5* and lower)

C = Brighton (free rebid zone, 2.5* and lower)

Bid History (CBR = Close Browser and Restart)

X $130

XA $140

-------- CBR

XB $150

XBA $160

-------- CBR

XC $170

XCA $180

-------- CBR

XBC $190

XBCA $200

[thereuare]

If you're willing to change hotels (or at least a less expenisve cancellable back-up than your current Sheraton), how about the Lenox for $190/nite. It's cancellable up until a day before and the reviews are very good.

[kstrom]

The Lenox is a great hotel and for $190 a real bargain. In addition, it would have been perfect for us because we were married at the Lenox almost exactly 15 years ago. Alas, when I checked online (and then called), the hotel was already completely booked up. So, it looks like we will swallow hard and pay $280 for the first night at the Sheraton. Even with this high one day rate, it averages out to less than $100 per night for the 4 nights ... not a bad rate at all

KStrom

[thereuare]

Thru this LENOX link there is a room available for $190/nite.

If you end up booking the Sheraton please use our Sheraton Link to begin your purchase.

Let us know what you ultimately decide and how it goes.

[Fendigal8]

I'm new to the board and was reading this post and decided to check out the link on "last minute travel."

Why are some of these hotels prices over inflated and some ridiculously low? Has anyone ever booked anything through them before?

BTW, I am currently looking to book Orlando hotel 6/15/07-06/17/07 4* Boston 07/31-08/02/07 4* still trying and will let you know how things work out.

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

You don't give any particulars for which stay and properties you're seeing 'inflated rates' and for which you're seeing 'ridiculiously low' rates, so i can only speak in generalities (if you do want to discuss the particulars of a given stay please start a NEW TOPIC and we'll get more specific), but the likely answer to your question:

LastMinuteTravel has a different business model than most booking agencies. They typically get rooms from three sources:

1) they contract to buy 'X number of rooms every nite for the next months/days/quarters'

2) the hotel allows them to sell rooms on the hotel's behalf

3) they receive rooms from other agencies

In scenario #1 the rate they get is deeply discounted due to the large number of rooms they are committing to buying. LastMinuteTravel is often able to mark-up these rooms and still sell them cheaper than you can typically find elsewhere. These are probably the 'ridiculiously low' rates you're seeing for some hotels.

In scenario #2 and #3 above LastMinuteTravel doesn't own any inventory and rooms are offered on an 'agency' basis, and therefore set by the hotel themselves (often at similar rates that they offer on their own website) or set by the agency they are receiving the inventory from.

[kstrom]

I was offline for a few days and just got the post. I tried the link you had for the Lenox and now the cheapest rate that is offered for the Lenox is 253.24. When I checked out the Lenox the day I originally posted my reply, the Lenox was sold out according to their on-line booking system and also when I contacted them by phone. Amazing how fast things change.

Anyways, I decided that the convenience of not having to switch hotels was worth paying $280 for one night for a mini suite. When I called to try to link the two reservations, I got the happy surprise that according to the Sheraton my Hotwire reservation is ALSO for a mini suite!

Somehow I didn't know about the Betterbidding Sheraton link, so I didn't use it when I made the booking. I just tried and the site was acting up. When I typed in:

Check in 06/06/2007

Check out 06/07/2007

I got the message: Arrival and departure date cannot be on the same day.

I just tried Sheraton's direct reservation link, I got the message that there were rooms available.

So all, in all, I am very happy I got the $280 reservation for the one night at the Sheraton. Combined with the $29 for the other 3 nights, it is only $92 a night -- a bargain for this time of year in Boston

I'll let you know whether they honor the hotwire reservation and whether we actually get a minisuite

- Kstrom

Thereuare wrote ...

Thru this LENOX link there is a room available for $190/nite.

If you end up booking the Sheraton please use our Sheraton Link to begin your purchase.

Let us know what you ultimately decide and how it goes.

[kstrom]

Post script -- I tried the LENOX through LastMinute travel again, this time eliminating my two kids from the reservation. When I do this I get the $189 rate.

KStrom

[thereuare]

Glad you're happy with the end result... have a great trip!