Priceline Hotel: 4* Maui (Wailea-Makena) Diamond Hawaii Resort

[vacationer]

Try bidding from $125 to $135 but no deal!

Does anyone know the status of the resorts at that time of the year?

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

What do you mean by the "status" of hotels? If you look at the Priceline Wins Calendar you'll see that others have been successful for these dates at prices less than you have already bid.

Which zone(s) are you bidding? What is your maximum bid for this stay? Is SPLITTING YOUR PRICELINE BID an option?

[vacationer]

By status I meant if they ran out of rooms for PL.

I saw the winning $125 bids in the calendar and was using that as a guideline.

I tried Ka'anapali - Lahaina first,

then Ka'anapali - Lahaina and Wailea - Makena,

then Kihei and Ka'anapali - Lahaina, ... all combinations of these 3 locations and always with resort(only).

I also try going into Expedia and see if the max no of rooms(8) is available and they are, so I know the Westin's still

got rooms left.

I went to hotwire and all the 4 stars(and above) hotels start at over $200, is there a correlation between the

prices in hotwire and what I can get in priceline? is the high price in hotwire an indication that these bidding sites are running

out of stock?

What is a good time to try again? do these hotels release new rooms to PL oin a regular basis once in awhile?

I read somewhere that the prices for flights and hotels go up after Thurs and then down again after the weekend.

Thanks for your help.

[thereuare]

What is your maximum bid for this stay? Is SPLITTING YOUR PRICELINE BID an option?

[vacationer]

I will try splitting the bids.

I would like to support your site, what is the link I should go thru to priceline from here.

[thereuare]

Send you a PM regarding the links.

I would try the following date combinations (in case you had some other plan):

12/3-12/7 (already tried, but try again if 24 hours since your last bid, otherwise just start with next date)

12/4-12/7

12/3-12/6

12/5-12/7

12/3-12/5

Good Luck.

[vacationer]

Been trying for the last few days to bid for a resort or 4 star.

Went as high up as $175 but still no deal.

I also try splitting the bids but still nothing.

is it a good strategy if I try bidding for individual days instead of by chunks of days? this way I will at least know if I am being rejected because of availability whether than by price. If I get a winning bid, then I can try the day before or after so I can stay at a resort for consecutive days. Does PL charge by transaction or by percentage of total sales?

I am willing to go up to $200pn for a resort, but I don't want to go that high just yet because I have only been trying for 3 days and it may just been bad timing.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[thereuare]

is it a good strategy if I try bidding for individual days instead of by chunks of days? this way I will at least know if I am being rejected because of availability whether than by price. If I get a winning bid, then I can try the day before or after so I can stay at a resort for consecutive days.

Probably not a good strategy at this point in time since you could get a different property each day and have to change hotels each time. Also, even if you win one day, the hotel could be sold-out or priced too high for subsequent days... therefore it's 'risky' (imo) to purchase one solo day. (the strategy above went as low as two day blocks, leaving the same number fo days remaining to fill-in... i wouldn't bid a solo day)

Does PL charge by transaction or by percentage of total sales?

The fee would be slightly higher having multiple wins vs. one complete stay, but the difference is negligile (maybe $0.50-$2 per day depending upon the length of stay)

Inventory chages all the time... i would book a cancellable back-up (use our BetterChecker tool to research) and continue to try bidding, increasing your bids towards your maximum bid as you get closer to your check-in date. Also check HOTWIRE for any deals as well (but don't use a HOTWIRE hotel that you 'see' as a back-up since that offer can disappear at any time, and may not still be offered when you want it).

[vacationer]

Bid 12/3/07 to 12/7/07

resort $125 to 180 - no deal

4 stars $160 to 190 - got the 4 star Diamond Hawaii Resort at $190

Their normal rate is about $218 per night so saved $28pn but waived the cancellation rights because its priceline.

Not as much savings as I'd hope but I know the Maui resorts and hotels are filling up fast.

Thanks for all your help and advice. :)

[thereuare]

Congratulations on your win... glad to hear you have this stay resolved and the board was helpful.

Thank you for sharing the outcome with the board.

Enjoy your stay.