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Priceline Hotel: Newbie advice needed for Ottawa Booking


chrisyak
By chrisyak,
in

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Hello all am new to PRICELINE bidding even though i have used the site and some of the strategies before to obtain a hotel at a discounted rate but was in a rush to book and was not successful in my bids as i see some patience is required in order to get the price you are willing to pay.

I am looking to stay in Ottawa for 5 nights May 22-27 in any of the zones,i would like to stay at any hotel in town except one zone as outlined but would like to pay a max of $44 and am prepaired to stay in lowest star hotel to get that price or cheaper (zone 1 Gloucester,zone 3 Ottawa, zone 4 Ottawa west but not zone 2 Hull).

One problem i have come across is after looking at successful bids in that area i see some people were able to achieve those prices in the $35- $40 range for what i am looking for but it has been about 2 years since the last successful bid,i have not seen any winning bids for those star of hotels or prices recently.

I have seen and tried using the bidding strategies outlined in the most recent post regarding Ottawa but did not help me much,i wonder if i am not able to achieve this seeing their may not be any winnings bids in that region for such a long time,i am not in rush but don't want to waste my time if it is not possible to obtain these prices.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you in Advance.

p.s. i see that via HOTWIRE i can get one for $49 a night but would like to see if i can get lower then that.

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I'll throw my 2 cents in. If HOTWIRE has an offering for $49 you should be successful at $44 with PRICELINE, at least in my experience. I'd say 90+% of the time Priceline has what Hotwire is offering. That being said, there are still some times to use Hotwire such as when you can identify a hotel you want and when you have more than two people and you don't want the uncertainty.

In your case, here is how I would go about it. Bid 2* in your chosen zone at $30. Add second zone choice, bid $37. Add your third choice bid $44. If you don't have a hotel at this point start a brand new bid. Close the window and reaccess PRICELINE, hopefully through a link on Betterbidding. Choose 1* and repeat. If you don't get a hotel, don't worry you have the Hotwire offer to fall back on.

If you wanted to increase your chances at saving money, bid $25, $30, and $34 on day one through both the one and two star cycles, and come back 24 hours later start a brand new bid with $37, $40, and $44 in both the 2* and then 1* cycles. This is a better bidding stategy, but takes more patience.

The flaw in this stategy is that zone number 3 when you are bidding $44 for the first time, may have a hotel at $30 and you would get it for $44. If you want to secure every savings possible you would have to bid two star $30 zone 1, close, new bid 2* $30 zone 3, close new bid 2* $30 zone 4. Bid $37 zone 1&3, close, bid $37 zone 1&4. then bid $44 zones 1,3, and 4. It is more effective, it just takes longer.

Good luck. Remember on the page that you hit submit, review your dates and amounts and make sure you haven't included the zone you don't want to stay in each time. Please ask if you have questions, there are lots of people here willing to help.

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If you're really looking for the lowest price and the lowest star level doesn't bother you, i would proceed as follows (assuming as per your post above that you've already been rejected in all zones for a 1* hotel for $40):

Select Zone1...

Bid $42, if rejected close browser and re-access pirceline however you did previously.

Select Zone3...

Bid $42, if rejected close browser and re-access pirceline however you did previously.

Select Zone4...

Bid $42, if rejected close browser and re-access pirceline however you did previously.

Select Zone1 and Zone 3...

Bid $44, if rejected close browser and re-access pirceline however you did previously.

Select Zone1 and Zone 4...

Bid $44, if rejected close browser and re-access pirceline however you did previously.

Select Zone1 and Zone 3 and Zone4...

Bid $46, if rejected close browser and re-access pirceline however you did previously.

Any quesitons feel free to ask.

Please use these PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links to begin your travel purchases.

Good Luck and let us know how it goes.

Please use this HOTWIRE and these PRICELINE LINKS: HOTELS, CAR RENTALS, and AIRFARE to begin your travel purchases

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changed dates from May 24 to May 31, 7 nights

i backed tracked with the strategies provided here and started at $30 and worked my way up to $38 just to make sure i did not miss out on a deal ,was not accepted and ran out of options so will try again tomorrow.

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"thereuare" i did exactly as you said but backtracked at $38 to $42 and was a no go ....... they asked me to increase my bid by $12 ....lol.....ha,ha....... anyways don't look like their is going to be much savings over hotwire's $49 hotel but hopefully i can still some how save a few dollars i really don't want to go above $45 considering the effort but am starting to wonder about the supply of 1* hotels in my area on priceline and considering it has been a while since i seen a successful bid on a 1* in my area has me wondering about availability.

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The star rating you select is the minimum you are willing to accept... so if there are no 1* properties able to accept your bid, but there is a 2* (or higher) available at that price, you'll be upgraded to the higher star rated hotel.

The counter-offer by PRICELINE can often be undercut, so even though they suggest $54, there is a good chance that it can be had for less than that.

Thank you for using these PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links to begin your purchases.

Let us know what you ultmately decide to do.

Please use this HOTWIRE and these PRICELINE LINKS: HOTELS, CAR RENTALS, and AIRFARE to begin your travel purchases

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