Priceline Hotel: Priceline Newbie, looking for bidding advice

[initech]

Hi everybody,

Thanks for the board ThereUAre. You are doing sterling work.

I am going to be in Vegas 09/Sep/08 to 15/Sep/08 and I would like to stay in a 5* on either North Strip or South Strip, double occupancy

I would be prepared to bid $165 for the room. Am I being realistic?

I am prepared to change 5* hotels during the vacation (3nights+3nights or 2+4 or 4+2) but would really prefer not to. Can you give me some bidding advice? I will probably only be able to bid at weekends (work commitments not condusive to net access).

Can you suggest a reasonable 4* which offers cancellable reservations in either North or South Strip as I have not booked one yet?

Thanks in advance,

initech

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding! (and thanks for the compliments on the site :) )

Before bidding, note that the Trump International has just been reported as a 5* hotel in the North Strip zone... although it is located a little off the strip; would this be an acceptable outcome? (i'm guessing $165 may fall a little short for your dates above for a 5 star property, but we can give it a shot with the various date combinations, should you decide you could accept the Trump as a possibility)

For a cancellable back-up, you could book NYNY for $150/nite, but for just another $20 more you could book The Mirage and i think it's $20 well spent (the pool at the Mirage is great, and the Mirage is also going thru room renovations, due to be completed Aug 2008)

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

[initech]

Thanks for the hotel suggestion. I am going to book on of those as backup.

In answer to your question The Trump would be slightly less acceptable than the rest because of the location.

My firm favourites would be the other 5* accomodations listed in Strip North.

In order of preference

1. Strip North (the other two 5*)

2. Strip North + Strip South (Any 5*, including Trump)

3. Strip North +Strip South (4*)

I can up my bid to $190 near the top end but I was hoping to save a few $s. If this is still to low, can you guide me a little. If I am looking at too high a price I will probably start looking to save money on a 4*.

A quick question. With dates what is the preferred convention for me to use for you

MM/DD/YY (check in date) - MM/DD/YY (check out date OR date of last night in accomodation)?

Thanks,

initech

[thereuare]

The 'problem' is that you can't choose which of the 5* hotels in the North Strip zone you will get... with PRICELINE there is no way to target a specific property. You could get any 5* hotel in the zone (even one not yet reported to the board)

If you're trying to target a specific hotel, or avoid a particular hotel, HOTWIRE is often a better option as you can usually take an educated guess based upon the amenities shown before your purchase. However, currently there are no 5* hotels showing for your dates above (i only checked the complete stay, you may want to check sub-set of your dates on your own and report back if HOTWIRE does showing anything... once a search is completed you can click the "Star Ratings" link near the top of the offerings to rank the offerings by star rating and quickly see if anything is offered)

Let us know your thoughts on the above and how you'd like to proceed (or with your back-ups in place you can choose to wait a little while to see if anything comes up on HOTWIRE in the coming weeks) and we'll take it from there.

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

[initech]

I have had a go at bidding on the North Strip for a 5* hotel and have reached $181 for my offers, 9/9/08-9/15/08

The interesting thing is that Priceline makes counter offers of 5* hotels. These have dropped from $256 pn (7 days ago), $254 (4 days ago) to $229 (today). I am guessing this is the Trump, given the number of people who have booked it through here so I am prepared to continue to wait a bit longer and see how it works out. The Venetian is on offer for $243 as an advertised Priceline hotel so if I feel compelled I could always just book that and be done with it.

I took your recommendation and booked the Mirage as a back-up hotel and it worked out at about $143 (or so) per night (includes a discount offer). Thanks for that suggestion. It does look rather nice.

I'll keep watching and seeing how the 5* price falls and if I do get a 5* for about the $170-$180 I will let you know.