Priceline Hotel: Bidding Help For LAS Strip

[Tiger Toe Knee]

I will be staying in Las Vegas starting Wed 9/24 and checking out Sun 9/28. I have been checking Priceline like a hawk for the past 2 weeks (using the links from this site) and have been unsuccessful in what I believe is already high bidding. I was wondering if I could get the opinions of the gang here. Thanks in advance for your help!

Note: I know this topic is very similar to Diamond Dog's "September 18th - 1 week. Is it that expensive? " topic, but there was no biddig history on his topic. Also, I figured the moderator would like a new thread for each topic, as usual...but please feel free to mix my topic with his if you think it's best.

Another note: I know there is a convention coming and another one going during the beginning of my stay, but they're not large and their "preferred hotels" are not typical Priceline hotels (at least no one here has won a room to them).

Requirements: 4 or 5 star hotel on the north or south strip

Bidding history (all got rejected):

1) Bid for 4-night, 5-star hotel stay until $150

2) Bid for 4-night, 4-star hotel stay until $120

Then I tried to split my itinerary, at the risk of having to switch hotels during our stay but hoping Wed and Thur offered lower prices:

3) Bid for Wed and Thur only, 5-star hotel stay until $100

4) Bid for Wed and Thur only, 4-star hotel stay until $80

One last question: this is definitely the conspiracy theorist in me, but do you think Priceline bases their bidding acceptance on your bidding trends/history? For example, they know that I'm going to add the sections Summerlin, Nellis, and LAS Airport and re-bid each time, and they also know I've been bidding on the same dates on 5 different occassions now, so why not reject my offer?

I guess one exposes oneself and agrees to such potential debauchery when bidding on Priceline.

[thereuare]

I know there is a convention coming and another one going during the beginning of my stay, but they're not large

Here are your likely culprits:

09/22/2008 09/24/2008 36,000 (not everyone leaves the last day of convention)

09/24/2008 09/26/2008 23,000

09/26/2008 09/27/2008 30,000

These latter two conventions acount for 50K hotel rooms, which Las Vegas can certainly handle, but it's a large number of hotel rooms which would certainly affect demand.

September is still a long time away, so i'd book a cancellable back-up and continue to try PRICELINE and HOTWIRE. Use our Las Vegas Checker as there are some 4* hotels on the strip with rates starting at ~$175 which are fully refundable.

PS- i don't think there's any validity to your conspiracy theory :) it's not that sophisticated

[Tiger Toe Knee]

These latter two conventions acount for 50K hotel rooms, which Las Vegas can certainly handle, but it's a large number of hotel rooms which would certainly affect demand.

Yep, I'll try to see which hotels those conventions are using and see if I can target some of the others...those 50K hotel rooms have likely not been booked yet, so the hotel market is liable to get even tighter.

PS- i don't think there's any validity to your conspiracy theory :) it's not that sophisticated

Fun to think about, though...and if you were in their shoes, wouldn't YOU do that?!

Thanks for your comments and help!

[thereuare]

...if you were in their shoes, wouldn't YOU do that?!

I wouldn't... nobody makes any money until a bid is accepted, so the goal wouldn't be to discourage winning bids. :) It's only once a bid is accepted that everyone in the supply channel benefits.

Yep, I'll try to see which hotels those conventions are using and see if I can target some of the others...those 50K hotel rooms have likely not been booked yet, so the hotel market is liable to get even tighter.

You're not going to be able to 'pick' your hotel anyway so i'm not sure if researching where the conventions are being held will offer any advantage. As well, the host hotel won't be able to accomodate all the attendees, so conventions of this size tend to spread out throughout the city.

Although many of the rooms may not be booked yet, the hotels are aware of these 'potential' guests and have a pretty good feel for what percent have already booked and what percent remains to book... this is factored in to current hotel rates.

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