Priceline Hotel: Sunday Night in April

[stevee]

I bid on 2 rooms for the night of April 13 in the North Michigan Ave area. I asked for a 4* hotel and put in several bids ranging from $70 - $80. All were rejected and each time Priceline came back with a counter offer of $139.

My original thought was that this is a Sunday and would be a relatively "low occupancy" night......maybe not!

Any suggestions? Should I raise my bid or just wait a couple weeks?

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

My first suggeation would be to see if the Loop zone would also work for your needs, and if so, i would consider bidding that area as well.

As far as "when to bid" see the related link in our PRICELINE FAQ.

My guess is that you're using previous posted wins from Jan/Feb to determine your bid amount, but April in Chicago is a very different time of year than April, as rates begin to go up in the Spring.

What is the best rate you're able found outside of the opaque suppliers?

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

[stevee]

Please translate the last line of your response! I have no idea what you are saying.

Also, compared to last year.....just how much do the rates go up in April? 10% 25% 50% ?????

[thereuare]

Please translate the last line of your response! I have no idea what you are saying.

This line??

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

We're asking you to click the above PRICELINE or HOTWIRE link to access priceline/hotwire when you're ready to begin your purchase... does this not make sense to your or were you refering to a different "last line" of my previous response?

[mrxow]

Opaque means difficult to see through or perceive. Hotwire and Priceline are called "opaque" suppliers because it is difficult or impossible to tell exactly what you are going to get.

What he meant was that he wanted to know what non-opaque (basically all the normal Orbitz, Travelocity, etc. booking options) are asking for per night for the type of hotel and location you are trying to bid in.

He also meant Spring is different than Winter as rates go - the double April thing was an error...

In my experience with counter offers and "rebid if you raise by x dollars" situations is that you might be able to get a bid to go through around halfway between what you bid and what they are asking. No guarantees, but you probably have to bid a bit higher to get what you want.

[Angelnot]

Mrxow, thanks for the interpretation. I was wondering about the opaque reference myself. I like you assumed that's what Stevee was questioning. Most of us understand that clicking on the links help generate income so this site can remain open and up. I get the feeling sometimes Thereuare forgets we do not do this every day and really are not trying to mess things up. Other than that I attribute it to being cranky from lack of sleep cause he's on the internet all hours of the day and night trying to answer what to him must seem like silly questions.

[thereuare]

I hope i don't appear cranky... as that's certainly not the impression i wish to convey.

And no such thing as a silly question. :)

In reference to the above, i really didn't know which part of my reply the user was asking for clarification of. They posted, "Please translate the last line of your response", so i looked and the last line of my post was regarding using our links, so that is what i went into further detail and explained. You'd be surprised how many people don't understand how using our links benefits the site, and in keeping with my "no such things as a silly question" mantra, i answered what i thought was asked (with the add-on "or were you refering to a different "last line" of my previous response?" in case that wasn't what they were asking about)

Thanks to mrxow for figuring it out and replying with the appropriate answer to help the OP.

So where are we in reference to helping with this stay?

[stevee]

Cranky....No, Condescending....YES

[mrxow]

Stevee - the last line of his response was in reference to the links, not opaque suppliers, so you can't assume his response was intentionally condescending. I figured that is not what you were asking, but I only look at a few threads a day, and not even every day. He looks at dozens, hundreds even, almost every day. You can't expect him to perfectly understand everyone every single time. He is also trying to help everyone as best he can and must compose his posts efficiently and quickly. When you said "the last line" he probably just looked as the last line and not the second to last line.

[thereuare]

When you said "the last line" he probably just looked as the last line and not the second to last line.

Exactly... as i previously explained above.

[stevee]

Postponed trip....Will rebid at a later time.