Priceline Hotel: 4* London (Kensington-Earls Court-Knightsbridge) Holiday Inn Kgn Forum

[ziggyal]

After reading recents posts here about winning bids in this zone, I was pretty confident I could get this Holiday Inn Kensington Forum hotel for less than $100, especially Hotwire has a 3.5* hotel in this zone (mostly likely the same hotel, based on recent posts in Hotwire forum) for about $100. Started a couple of days ago with a bid of $87. Got a counter offer of $107. Didn't accept. Kept increasing my bid, while adding additional zones - Mayfair-Soho, then Westminster, then The City, and using the "permutation" method to increase my number of bids. I used Hotwire to make sure the hotels in the other zones are much more expensive than Kensington's. But the counter offer kept increasing. I went back to Hotwire, and the 3.5* hotel in Kensington went up to $132 in a span of about an hour!!! I stopped bidding at $100. Tonight, the 3.5* hotel with the same amenities went down to $112. So I started bidding again. Started at $90. Got an counter offer of $112. Added Mayfair-Soho, and increased my bid to $100. WON!!!! Hmm... maybe I should've increased my bid by $2 increments... or maybe I should've waited a couple of days to see if the price goes down... :)

Final price with taxes and fees = $125.69. Used your PRICELINE link to bid.

[thereuare]

Congratulations on your win!

Glad to hear that you were successful and are happy with the results. We're always pleased to hear that the information on the board was helpful in your purchase.

Thank you for sharing your win with the board and for using our PRICELINE link to begin your bidding.

Enjoy your stay.

[ziggyal]

My worst fear came true. On Hotwire tonight, the price for the 3.5* hotel (see my post earlier) is now only $99. That means I probably could've gotten this hotel on priceline for about $90. :)

[thereuare]

Current hotel direct price is for this property is ~$200/nite, so given you're getting this hotel for less than half price, i certainly wouldn't worry about potentially leaving $10 on the table... your worst fear should be doing nothing, bypassing a 50% deal, and then seeing the price go up to an unfordable rate. :)