Priceline Hotel: NMA re- bidding help

[Achelleray]

I'm new to your site and to bidding on Priceline, but your tips were very helpful and I tried bidding on a 4* last night for NMA, and I requested 2 rooms. I started at $60 and increased by $10 and added a zone each time (the "loophole") till all my efforts were exhausted at $100 and still no offer accepted. Any suggestions on what I should do next? If I wait the 72 hrs where should I start? There's a group of us going, so I can also bid sooner with someone else's credit card and address, right? Should I do that and any advice there?

I appreciate your help.

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

The last nite of your stay is what's holding you up (and making this more expensive than it needs to be). There are two suggestions i can offer, but i would need to know if you are willing to split the bid, which is expliained in PRICELINE TIPS - SPLITTING YOUR BID.

Keep in mind that splitting the bid will result in the likely scenario that you'll need to change hotels once during the stay. I think that have the 'luxury' of not having to change hotels is going to ultimately cost about an extra $100 per room over the course of the 4 nites (since this is going to cause you to over-bid for the other 3 nites).

Let me know your thoughts about splitting the bid and i'll provide an appropriate strategy. Also, there's an alternative strategy that i can offer that will most likely not result in your changing hotels, but if the cards don't fall right it's still a <slight> possibility. This strategy will probably cost you more than the above method of splitting the bid with Priceilne, but i'm guessing it will get you a 4* hotel at about $108/nite or so (and likely not have you change hotels).

[Achelleray]

I think I understand what you're saying, but you kind of threw me off when you said that I'd be overbidding for 3 nights. We're only going for 2 nights - April 30th and May 1st, but we do need 2 rooms. With that said, since our trip is just a weekend excursion, we don't want to switch hotels in the middle. Your $108/night mention would not be that bad since I was thinking we were going to spend more than that before I thought of Priceline (even though it's not the $60-$80 I saw as other winning bids). There's going to be 8 of us going, so I'll have to call the confirmed hotel to get 2 beds in each room too. Do you see any problem with that? Is May 1st the start of the peak season or is there an event going on to drive up the price?

Thanks again for your help. You're providing a great service!

[thereuare]

Somewhere i saw 4/28-5/1 but that's my error... too much time in front of the monitor i suppose :)

In my opinion, you're taking a risk with only 2 rooms for 8 people in a city such as Chicago. Priceline and Hotwire only guarantee accomodations for two people, after that it's at the discretion of the hotel. Some hotels have a 50/50 mix of 2 beds vs. 1 bed in the room, others have predominently more of one than the other. Even if they put in your request, there's no guarantees that 2 bed rooms will be available when you check-in... it's just a request. Rooms are booked "Run of House' which essentially means you get what is available when you check-in.

I'd be less concerned if you were in a family oriented area like Orlando, and it was two families of four with children, but if you're 8 adults could get 'iffy' in a large city where space is at a premium and hotel rooms are notorious for being a bit smaller than usual. It's a decision you and the other parties involved will have to make. You may decide to just go ahead with 2 rooms and have no problems what-so-ever, but i can't assure you of that.

If you decide to move forward go to Hotwire and search for your dates in the NMA/Water Tower zone (it's slightly different than Priceline's map, so confirm that the zone is satisfactory for you). Doing searches for the following nites should all reveal a 4* Customer Favorite hotel with amenities of: Shuttle, Restaurant, Fitness, Business, Laundry.(prices shown on your search may fluctuate from those below by a few dollars):

4/30-5/2

$135

4/30-5/1

$97

5/1-5/2

$130

Since this is a Customer Favorite you can read the comments and they are all the same which is a pretty good indication that it is the same hotel each nite :) , so booking the last 2 nites separately will cost about $115/nite plus Hotwire fee and taxes.(different than the $108 i mentioned above because the more expensive nite is only split between one other nite, not 3 nites as i had originally thought)

What could go wrong? (remember, i said that you most likely wouldn't have to change hotels given the 2nd scenario)

Well, you could purchase one nite and then when you search again for the second nite it may not be shown! Before making your first purchase, do a search for each nite individually to make sure the same hotel is presented each nite. I believe the chances of you seeing it for each nite individually and then having it disappear after purchasing one of the nites are very slim, but it could happen so i make you aware of it.

I suppose you may want to know what hotel it might be? My guess is that it's the Westin. It is missing one icon from when it was reported previously (the icons do occaisionally change) but that's my guess based upon some Customer Comments i saw previously about the comfortable bed and the double-head shower.

Feel free to ask any questions regarding the above (i suspect you may have one or two). Thanks for supporting this site by using our links whenever your travel plans permit.

[gleemonex]

if you're willing to do some planning, you can get up to 15 free rebids (including your original bid) in the 4* NMA zone.

here's an example strategy:

(notes: you must follow this EXACT order for this to work -- a new bid is defined here as closing out of the current failed bid browser and going back to the main priceline page and re-entering the dates and info. always check your rebid zones before making any bid. things can change at any time and you don't want any nasty surprises...)

bid 01) NMA (your desired target zone)

bid 02) NMA + Evanston (as a re-bid)

bid 03) NMA + Lincoln Park (new bid)

bid 04) NMA + Midway (new bid)

bid 05) NMA + Skokie (new bid)

bid 06) NMA + Evanston + Lincoln Park (new bid)

bid 07) NMA + Evanston + Midway (new bid)

bid 08) NMA + Evanston + Skokie (new bid)

bid 09) NMA + Lincoln Park + Midway (new bid)

bid 10) NMA + Lincoln Park + Skokie (new bid)

bid 11) NMA + Midway + Skokie (new bid)

bid 12) NMA + Evanston + Lincoln Park + Midway (new bid)

bid 13) NMA + Evanston + Lincoln Park + Skokie (new bid)

bid 14) NMA + Lincoln Park + Midway + Skokie (new bid)

bid 15) NMA + Evanston + Midway + Skokie (new bid)

bid 16) NMA + Evanston + Lincoln Park + Midway + Skokie (new bid)