Priceline Hotel: 3* Long Beach (San Pedro) The Marina

[plwilliams]

I had read in a cruising newsgroup that someone had gotten the 3* San Pedro Hilton with a $45 bid for a pre-cruise stay. I've been able to find little to no information regarding the outcome of bidding for San Pedro hotels. The only mention of San Pedro I can find does mention the San Pedro Hilton as a 3*, so I put in a bid for $50 for 12/3/04 for 2 nights and 2 rooms and it was rejected. I waited the 3 days and tried $60 and it was again rejected.

Does anyone have any recent experience with 3* hotels in San Pedro? After my last unsuccesful attempt, priceline sent me an email saying that I could rebid immediately, if I raised my bid by $15 :) . I think that if I were sure of the hotel I would have been very tempted to do so.

Please give me some advice regarding what to try next.

FYI, I'm interested in the Hilton because they are supposed to offer free parking during a cruise, and shuttle service to the port of Los Angeles.

[thereuare]

There is no way of knowing if the Hilton is the only 3* hotel in the area. Even if it was the only 3* hotel reported thus far, there could always be others that we don't know about and hotels can be added, removed, upgraded, downgraded at any time.

The offer by Priceline to increase you bid by $15 is a COUNTER-OFFER and these can almost always be under-cut. Since you have plenty of time before your stay, you could also just wait out the 72 hours and increase your bid by a smaller amount.

Another option is that you do have a RE-BID available at the 3* level, so you could add that re-bid zone and bid agan immediatly.

If you want to get this Priceline hotel, I would suggest using both strategies above and increase your bid by $3 or $5 each time... you'll likely be able to get this hotel for under $65, hopefully closer to the low $50's.

Let us know if you have any questions regarding the above and what you decide to do.

[plwilliams]

thereuare,

Thank you for your response. I understand that there is no guarantee as to what 3* hotel I will get, but I was hoping that I might get a little current feedback as to what has been coming up. Oh well, you've got to take your chances.

I checked and it looks like I could rebid 3* by adding the Long Beach Airport area, which, from what I can tell, has nothing higher then a 2.5*.

I'm inclined to do what you suggest regarding the counter-offer. Since my last bid was $60 and their counter was for +$15, using your stratagy I should probably bid $65. Is that correct? As you suggest, there might be the possibility to get this hotel for the low $50. Would that mean starting over with a $50 bid again?

Thanks for your help

[thereuare]

My mistake as i was focusing on the previous $50 bid... with your last bid at $60 and Priceline countering at $75... you next bids would be $65, $70, $73.

If you really want to get 'closer' to cost then you can try $63, $66, $69, $72, $74. (or some variation thereof). Since you're essensially bidding for 4 rooms (2 rooms x 2 nites) any amount you can shave off of the bid would be multiplied by 4.

All depends upon how much time you want to spend on bidding.

You are correct on your re-bid zone... just make sure to check it before each bidding cycle to make sure that no 3* hotels have been added to the zone (thus no longer making it a re-bid zone).

[plwilliams]

The 72 hours is up tomorrow morning so I'll give it try at $65. I'll let you know what happens.

[plwilliams]

I retried bidding $60 again, but this time my bid was accepted by the Marina Hotel. I was a little disappointed, wanting the Hilton, but after a little research I found out that the Hilton has now become the Marina.

My original reason for wanting the Hilton was there offer of free parking during a cruise, though I haven't contacted them about it, I'm doubting that they still offer it since they do have a special rate for a park and cruise stay. Hopefully they will allow us to park for a reasonable rate.

[thereuare]

Sounds like you did ok and got what you wanted.

Maybe they'll change their policy by the time December rolls around, but even if i don't you did better than half the $126 rate i saw for these dates so you can use that extra money for parking.

Thanks for following-up and enjoy your winter vacation!