Priceline Hotel: 4* or 5* accommodations in Porto (Portugal)?

[Joel Rosenbaum]

I'm thinking about using Priceline in a nascent market (Porto). I'm looking at a stay for one or two nights (June 10th or 11th through the 12th).

PRICELINE has a four-star and five-star option for this city. According to Tripadvisor, there is one five star (The Sheraton) and six four star options. All of these hotels look reasonable, and understanding the caveats that PRICELINE doesn't abide by Tripadvisor's star rating system, I'm wondering what my options are shaping up as -- I'm also wondering what my bidding strategy should be.

I'm thinking of starting with the five-star, assuming that there's a high likelihood that this will be a bid for the (well-regarded) Sheraton in Porto.

[thereuare]

You can see thru this Sheraton Porto Hotel and Spa link that this property is indeed rated 5* by PRICELINE (at least thru their retail division)... there could be others at the 5* rating.

Please let us know once you've decided if this is a one nite or two nite stay so we can look at rates for each to determine a recommended bidding strategy. As well, what is your maximum bid for this stay?

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

[Joel Rosenbaum]

Let's start with a one night stay (so June 11th). I've seen that there are some very well-regarded accommodations (with heavily slashed room rates) in Porto available for $60-$120 including VAT so I'm thinking $70 might be my top Priceline bid.

[thereuare]

Just to confirm... is the $60 hotel a 5*, as it wouldn't seem to make sense to bid higher than that if it's assumed to be an equivalent hotel from PRICELINE??

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

[Joel Rosenbaum]

Just to confirm... is the $60 hotel a 5*, as it wouldn't seem to make sense to bid higher than that if it's assumed to be an equivalent hotel from PRICELINE??

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

The $60 is a 4* accommodation.

Priceline indicates a "small chance" at $70.

[thereuare]

You should ignore the "small" chance message given by PRICELINE.

Given the time before your stay i'd start with $60 and then increase by $5 every 24 hours over the next two days.

Please use these PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links to begin your travel purchases. (and please DON"T click the PRICELINE links in the email priceline may send 24 hours after a rejected bid reminding you to bid again... please return here and use the PRICELINE links on the board to begin your bidding)

Thanks, good luck and let us know how it goes.

[Joel Rosenbaum]

Started my bid on PRICELINE with $60 - rejected.

Raised my bid 24 hours later to $65 - rejected.

Raised my bid 24 hours later to $70 - rejected.

Can I continue escalating to $80? Or does rebidding over longer than 3 days affecting the chances of being accepted?

[thereuare]

Yes, you can continue to $80.

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

Good luck.

[Joel Rosenbaum]

At the end of the day, Priceline rejected me up to $90 a night.

I ended up using their affiliated site booking.com to find reliable accommodation at a similar rate.

Thanks!

[thereuare]

Thanks for closing this thread.

[citycrab]

So funny that you closed this thread on the day I came here to see if there had been any action with Porto on PRICELINE. Where'd you end up staying? I decided not to do PRICELINE as the zone looked too big.