Priceline Hotel: Question about Priceline rates

[pickles1107]

Hello. Sorry if this is in the wrong section. I did some research in the general Priceline forum and didn't find the answer.

I'll use hotels in Boston for this example.

Let's suppose both the Hyatt regency and the Omni Parker House have Priceline inventory for the dates I am interested in...

According to this board the Priceline rate for the Hyatt is approximately $60. The lowest I've seen the Omni go for is $80.

So ASSUMING both do have inventory, then if I put in a bid for $80, which hotel will I get?

Also, if Omni is showing availability on Hotwire, does it necessarily have Priceline availability?

Thanks in advance.

[dahammer]

You should never bid higher for a specific hotel, you could overpay. PRICELINE encourages hotels to load multiple price points so as to maximize the revenue (of the hotel).

You may want to consider HOTWIRE if you are targeting a specific hotel as you can sometimes Identify the property by its amenities.

Availability on HOTWIRE does not guarantee a hotel's participation in PRICELINE.

[pickles1107]

Thanks for the info.

So which hotel takes the precedent?

[dahammer]

that's a good question which is far above my pay grade, but suffice it to say that if you bid higher in an attempt to target a specific hotel, be prepared for an outcome that you may not like. The only way to answer this is to call the revenue manager for each hotel and ask what is the minimum price he will accept for a PRICELINE bid, which we both know won't happen.

Priceline works sort of like the stock market back in the day when you had "market makers" that matched up bids and offers, only this time, the bids are coming from guests wanting to pay as little as possible for a hotel room and the offers are from the hotels wanting to maximize revenue.

I think PRICELINE works something like this:

for example, the Omni may "load" several price points into PRICELINE's inventory, lets say $65, $75, $85. The Hyatt loads its room inventory at $68, $78, and $88. If you bid $79, you should get the Hyatt in this example, but by bidding lower, you might have received the Omni.

bottom line: if you want the Omni, book it direct (and pay rack rates) or try and use the boards here to ID the hotel before you buy on HOTWIRE. Or, start making lowball bids on PRICELINE and have the serenity to accept that which you have no control over, save big bucks, and use the savings to splurge on a nice bottle of wine with dinner.

[thereuare]

So which hotel takes the precedent?

Read thru this thread which answers your question: Don't Bid Higher For a Specific Hotel

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

[pickles1107]

Read thru this thread which answers your question: Don't Bid Higher For a Specific Hotel

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

My apologies for not follwing up. Thanks for the links...some interesting discussion on this subject. I ultimately decided against the HOTWIRE / PRICELINE route because I found a good deal at the Nine Zero. However, I did decide that if I were to go that route and target the Omni Parker House, I would not have tried to undercut the almost sure HOTWIRE rate for an uncertain Priceline rate at the risk of getting the Hyatt Regency which didn't interest me.