Priceline Hotel: 3* Trumbull-Milford (Stratford-Milford) Residence Inn Milford

[relaxing41]

Bid 28.00 shelton; rejected increased 30 added milford; rejected

tried again 24 hours later bid $38 rejected addedd milford increased $39; rejected at 3 star level

after 24 hours bid on milford 3 star only with $40 and recieved offer to increase $12 dollars to be accepted; closed browser and

rebid adding Shelton (after calling priceline and they told me they had NOTHING in shelton area at 3 * level (completely sold out) so i knew this would be a free rebid at the 3 star level; Bid $46 accepted. (back up plan i had an offer of $50 dollars that was accepted a few days earlier that i could have accepted as an extended stay and kept this in mind. THis last bid was on the date of check in for Jan 19 2009. THis was the hotel i expected to get at three star level in milford.

Check-In Date: Monday, January 19, 2009

Check-Out Date: Friday, January 23, 2009

Number of Rooms: 1

Number of Nights: 4

Offer Price Per Room, Per Night: $46.00 Rates are $169/ night; rack rates are $250

Subtotal: $184.00

Taxes and Service Fees: $32.81

Total Charges for Original Reservation*: $216.81

relaxing41

[relaxing41]

Residence Inn Milford;

extended stay hotel with a full kitchen and living room and a king size bed. Free breakfast and evening snak (could be dinner for most peoople) free coffe and drinks available 24/7

Hotel room looks like an apartment. Has pull out couch and desk.

1 and 2 bedroom units available at this hotel but not at these priceline rates. If needed must ask priceline in advance and request with hotel in advance.

hot tub; swimming pool and Large work out room available next door at springhill Marriot suites.

This is great for our needs right now. The extra room is great. staff friendly free parking and maid services is excellent.

Highly recommend for one night or one month.

relaxing 41

[thereuare]

Congratulations on your success!

Glad to hear you were happy with your stay and the results of your purchase.

Thanks for sharing your results and experience at this property with the board.

[GM Mike]

Two things you noted are interesting to me...

You called PRICELINE and they actually told you there were no hotels available in a certain zone at a certain *-level? I've never heard that before.

Also, using the extend-a-stay option as a backup is probably not a good idea. There's no guarantee you'll be accepted. It simply allows you to try the same $-amount as a bid for a future day.

[thereuare]

You called PRICELINE and they actually told you there were no hotels available in a certain zone at a certain *-level? I've never heard that before.

I'm guessing this is refering to the "retail" version of PRICELINE, which if correct, is a risky way to determine a re-bid zone since the "retail" and "opaque" versions of PRICELINE each use different inventory, as discussed in the related link in our PRICELINE FAQ.

[relaxing41]

Yes, i did call priceline as I was bidding for shelton area first for a few days and wanted to know why my bids were not being accepted. They responded by telling me that for the dates I was looking for they had no available hotel rooms for shelton at the 3 star level. I was bidding on three star level milford so this information came in handy. Unless you have confirmation that there is no hotel available though I would just then bid the 2.5 star level (milford) as this gives you the same result (until other hotels are added); which i did not know at that time,

Let me make this clear: I was not referring to the retail version of priceline.

about the extended stay option. Yes you are right not the best back up plan which i also didn't know until i got better at this. It is only good if you go ahead and press that you want the hotel to see if it is available and then save it during your stay or up to the days you can take before your stay. I realized afterward that this would not work in my case since the extended stay I was talking about was for a stay for a different week. I did though use the information that the hotel was willing to go as low as $50 to adjust my bid downward to $46 which so far has been the lowest accepted bid for this hotel.

Thanks for asking.

relaxing41