Priceline Hotel: tricks to the timing of bids?

[tamer]

Hi,

Great board. Very helpful in planning my October trip to NYC.

I've been using the accelerated bidding strategy, which is easy to follow once you get the hang of it. I've bid in $10 increments for a 4* in all the mid-town zones up to $300 for an Oct 19-21 stay with no success though. I was hoping to pay under $300.

So, is there a trick to the timing? X number of weeks out they post a bunch of rooms, Y weeks out they post another set? Do I need to bid every day? Do I just give up and book the $316/nt room over on Hotwire because nothing is going to come available until October 18 when they release the rest of the rooms?

Any suggestions at this point?

Thanks in advance,

Tamer

[blindman]

Welcome to Betterbidding.

1st trick Book a cancellable backup-that you would be content with if all else fails

2nd trick Set a realistic maximum bid Look at the hotel web-sites for conventional booking costs.

3rd trick Look for conventions\ big events in town. Rooms may be held back until about 3-4 weeks before.

4th trick Look at HOTWIRE daily to see if the price drop\rises. Any big drops or more rooms then you could be in.

5th trick Look at this board daily to see if there's a win relevant to you

6th trick Look at alternative locations-New Jersey\Secaucus.

Good luck.

[KatiesMom]

One thing I've found in bidding New York City hotels is that when it is a busy or high demand time of the year, the prices on priceline/hotwire stay very high until the week of the trip.

For example... take this past weekend. Sept. 20 - 24 was an expensive stay (Around $400 - $500 for a 4* hotel through hotels' own Web sites). One person I knew was bidding priceline for three weeks before this week up to $250 with no success. This past week, she bid $230 and got the Sofitel. A nice deal for one of NYC's top ranked hotels (#3 on Trip Advisor).

Another person on this board, GoTech, had a reservation for a 3* hotel (Warwick) at around $379 a night. Couldn't find any other deals...then this week up popped the 4* Westin on hotwire for $202 and she scooped it up.

From my experience, if you don't get a good deal bidding in advance then you need to stop. Things may turn up but it will likely be last minute. That's why, as stated above, it is imperative to have a fully cancellable back up hotel reservation in place. It is better to do that than jump at something expensive right away.

Two other things to check out.....

Hotwire has a feature called Ticker and Priceline has a tab called Pricebreakers. Both offer specials. A few days ago Pricebreakers offered a special for $195 and directed people to bid that amount of a 4* hotel in midtown west, NYC. The time period was good from 9/21-9/24. A great deal that popped up at the last minute.

Patience.... 'tis a virtue.

[doulos]

This is all very helpful information from blindman and katiesmom. I am actually looking to book the same weekend Oct 19-22. I have been keeping track of rates on Hotwire since 12Sep2007. On 13Sep2007, there was a 4* hotel in Times Square that was available for $259/night. That was down from the $300s and $400s. I didn't want to just jump on it because it was just too early. So what I did was look at the list of Hotwire hotels to match up which one it was and found that it was The Muse Hotel. I went to their website and booked a room for $279 as a cancellable back up. After I did that, their room rates went up to the $400s. I don't really want to pay $279 for a room so I think I will wait until the very last minute to Priceline. I have been Pricelining here and there around $200 to $215 in MTW, MTE, UM-CPS, and MTS but they've all been rejected. I read that October is a busy month in NYC. But as far as finding out what conventions are in town, does anyone know how to do that?

[thereuare]

doulos,

Welcome to BetterBidding!

Please start a NEW TOPIC for your own stay.

Thanks.