Priceline Hotel: Los Angeles (Redondo-Manhattan Beach)

[jekyl]

Would love to get a Residence Inn, Embassy Suites, Homewood or similar in the Manhattan Beach area or anywhere in the vicinity.

Started with 2.5 stars Manhattan Beach at $50, added Santa Monica $55, added Beverly Hills $58

Went out and came back with 2.5 stars MB with Lawndale at $60 added Santa Monica 62 and Bev Hills $64

All were rejected, so I waited 24 hours and ran the same thing starting at 58 going to 68 still all rejected.

I will try again tomorrow. Dont know if its just time of year, that getting a cheap place near the beach is not going to happen, or if its too far off (almost two weeks from now). I will be travelling the week before this stay and would like to square it away before I leave Thursday, so I get two more tries, but I wont go past $75 as Marriott has some $125 rates with $50 "bonus" $ going that I can do if need be, though I'd rather just save the $ up front. We will see.

Am up for any suggestions you may have.

[TheEconomist]

Some weeks, Priceline just doesn't have any inventory to sell you at any price for certain locations at certain star levels.

Those 2.5* hotels in MB are not that large and they can fill up to a level where they may not release anything to priceline. Usually, the amount of the bid isn't the issue. If priceline has anything to sell, you can usually get it for under $46. So, based on your bids, I would suspect there isn't anything available at any price. Keep trying at $46. If you don't get it, increasing the bid won't help.

You can try a 3* at the airport, which goes for about $10-15 more, plus an extra $12 or so for parking, and at $68, that's about what you are bidding. They aren't at all the same (no fridge in the 3*), but if you bring some zip lock bags to store ice, you can buy a large insulated bag at TJs (about the size of a large shopping bag, highly rated by consumer reports) for $4 and make a "fridge" out of it. Replace the ice each day and it has worked for me and kept everything cold. The rooms are far nicer than any 2.5*. The drive is an extra 5 minutes to the beach up Sepulveda. The free breakfast at the 2.5* hotels can be replaced with far better food for $5 at Noah's bagels or starbucks. I realize it's not the same, and it's a bit more expensive, but you do get better quality for the increase in $ and I wanted to expose you to some options I've used. As you noted, another option is that you can use the Marriott web site to book a room at the hotel you want for not much more than your bid.

Good luck.