Priceline Hotel: Help with Westin St. John

[gresmi]

Hello,

Would greatly appreciate any help in getting Westin St. John for dates of Oct. 2 - 9, 2004 through Priceline, Hotwire, or any other means.

Would also appreciate any insight on flights from Ft. Lauderdale or Miami. Have plenty of Continental and American Airlines miles.

Thanks in advance,

Greg

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

Are you willing to accept any Resort level property on St. John? I know the Westin is the only one in our lists, but there could always be others that we don't yet know about or that have bee recently added)

[gresmi]

Yes. We would accept any resort level property. We prefer the Westin, only because we have heard good things about it.

Thanks for your help!

Greg

[thereuare]

Do you have any sort of back-up plan or a current reservation?

I ask because from the Westin's website it appears that the hotel is sold-out for these dates. We have seen Priceline acceptances when a hotel is sold-out but it is very rare and certainly the exception and not the rule.

We can still try and hope for some other Resort hotel in the area (and if you'd like to try we'll be happy to suggest a strategy), but this is the only one that has been reported thus far so i would think that the chances of success are less than favorable.

You may have success bidding for a sub-set of your dates above (ie- dates in which the hotel shows availability). You may have success for a few of the dates in question and then you can move to another hotel for the other nites... but obviously this involves changing hotels mid-stay. Some people are willing to do this to save money and experience the Westin for part of the stay... others don't want the inconvenience of changing hotels (me, i change hotels if the savings are worth it or there is a specific property i want to try.... but i won't change hotels if it's only a few dollars total savings)

[gresmi]

I don't have a backup plan or a current reservation. I would still like to bid, if you have a suggestion on pricing strategies.

We would prefer not to change hotels, but are willing to change hotels if it would mean we can stay on St. John the entire week. BTW, our dates are a little flexible.

Thanks again for your help!

[thereuare]

How flexible?

Are you talking about adding an extra day or two at the beginning or end of your stay... or an entirely different week altogther?

[gresmi]

I was talking about adding an extra day or two. But, I found what I believe to be a better solution. I ran up and down the possibilities of pricing and dates with PL for about an hour yesterday. Nothing. So, I decided to take a completely different approach that worked for me on Oahu one time. I started searching for Mom & Pop's and B&B type places. I found a complete 1br suite called Gift Hill Villa 400 ft. up a mountainside with full kitchen, and a private pool and deck overlooking Great Cruz Bay and nice views of St. Thomas and St. Croix. The owner even worked with me a little on price. You can see it here: http://www.artisticvillas.com. I'll be glad to review it for the board after returning home.

Thanks again,

Greg

[thereuare]

Glad you found something that works for you.

Could you let us know what bid amounts were rejected... even rejected bids can help others in the future with determining bidding amounts, although in this instance it could have just been the sold-out condition for parts of your stay.

When we were in St. John we went to Trunk Bay and the snorkeling was good there... if you're interested in that sort of thing.

Thanks.

[gresmi]

For Priceline bidding, I was rejected at $110, $135, $140, and $150 for several different date ranges, all between 10/1/04 and 10/9/04.

Also, I had seen that Hotwire was showing availability at $237/night on their initial page offering. But, when I dug deeper they really didn't have much underneath. They had several days in a 3br suite for, I believe, $475-$495/night. They had a sprinkling of single nights in a gardenview room for $190, but you couldn't put any string of them together.

Thanks for the info on Trunk Bay. We plan to stop there, too.

[Governator]

It seems the availability can fluctuate at any time. I just looked on Hotwire for the dates Oct 1-9, it came back with a $187 price for a St John Resort. With PL, you may have been able to get it for even less.

Good luck with the Villas - can you tell us what price you got from them? Enjoy St John, I'll be there myself in November. :)