Hotwire Hotel: 3.5* Atlanta (Buckhead) Sheraton Buckhead

[roykirk1]

July 3 - 7, 3.5 star, Buckhead

pool, business center, restaurant, gym

got the Sheraton Buckhead

An interesting thing occurred... when I searched for just Buckhead, I got one price (like 77) and when I searched for default areas, it was a couple bucks diff (79). Is there a way to use this diff to determine what you will actually get?

My logic was... by going to Crowne and Sheraton sites, I saw that Crowne was asking for higher price for the same dates. Figured they would want the higher price on hotwire too? So I took the 79 instead of the 76. And was disappointed anyway... Crowne Plaza had slightly better reviews...

Oh well.

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

Thank you for sharing your results wtih the board. Can you please add the amenties shown before your purchase... you can still view these by going to HOTWIRE and clicking the MY ACCOUNT link near the top right of their home page.

We'll then answer your other questions above.

Thanks!

[roykirk1]

Hello

The amenities listed were

Pool, Business Center, Restaurant, Gym

As mentioned above.

[roykirk1]

Actually, if it helps, the exact order and Hotwire categories were:

Fitness Center

Pool(s)

Restaurant(s)

Business Center

Sorry, I was just interpreting the symbols, and didn't check the "official" category names.

[thereuare]

Thanks for teh follow-up... sorry i missed the amenities the first go round (maybe i'll stop posting after midnite :) )

The hotel you were seeing at $79 and $76 was likely the same hotel. HOTWIRE fluctuates its prices in order to increase opacity (so that a hotel in the zone always offered at, let's say, $50 is not always 'Hotel XYZ' while the $58 hotel in the same zones i always 'Hotel ABC')

As well, if two hotels coming up for back-to-back searches had different amenites (implying that they are indeed different hotels), and one is $100/nite and the other $120/nite, there would be no correlation with the $120 hotel being the one which is more expensive thru direct-purchase channels. Each hotel has their own theory(s) on how price their rooms and how much to discount... one hotel may offer lower direct rates and only discount 10%; while the more expensive hotel may have very high direct rates but be willing to discount 50%.

Using the example above:

$100 hotel willing to discount 10% = $90

$150 hotel willing to discoutn 50% = $75

Hope that clarifies things a bit.

As we always mention, if you have a question (or a theory), always feel free to ask before your purchase.

Enjoy your stay.

[roykirk1]

Thanks. Love this site, btw. While there's not way to guarantee the hotel we want, it helps to at least know what the possibilities are.

I did try to post and ask before I purchased, but I was having a problem. Had to re-verify first, not sure why (I was logged in but unable to post).

OK, so the price fluctuation does not mean much if the hotel amenities are the same. Next time, I'll just take the cheaper price. (Note that I was able to "always" (3 times) get the lower price by searching one way and "always" (also 3 times) get the higher price by searching the other way. For me, this is new an potentially useful info. Even if it doesnt help choose a hotel, I will now perform different searches to see what the lowest price is.

I think I saw a post from a hotel mgr on this site, but I cant find it anymore. He mentioned that on a certain day (or was it a certain time of the day) they recalculate the price they would offer via services like Hotwire/Priceline. Can anyone point me to it, or comment? It would be nice to know when prices get updated. (So if we see $75, we know we have at least until 10pm to book it, etc.)

Thanks again!