Priceline Hotel: Bryce Canyon UT

[john_philly]

Priceline provides "median retail price" during the bidding. For a specific bidding, I found the median price is already very low. (Actually, I can not find any hotel rate lower than that through hotwire/Orbitz or google.) I tried 10% lower than the median retail price, but fails. Is it guaranteed that i can definitely win the bid by using this "median retail price"?

[yellowdog]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

Is it guaranteed that i can definitely win the bid by using this "median retail price"?

You shouldn't use this to determineyour bid price, it's a big no. Many times is the rates way off with the reality. It's hard to advice you when the board have no information about your stay or what you have been bidding. Please look in boards Priceline and Hotwire Calendar of Wins for your stay.

HOTWIRE is another source to determ a price, but usually is PRICELINE is cheaper.

Feel free to post for help regarding your upcoming stay.

Yellowdog.

[powerplantop]

In some areas / times the "median retail price" can be high or low. As such it has no impact on an aceptable price. Do not even look at it.

Find the going rate for the area for the nights you will be spending. After you have that decide what you would be willing to pay but not know which hotel you would get. That is your max bid.

Then look at HOTWIRE same zones / dates. Is this less or more than your max bid?

Then look on this site to see past PRICELINE wins. This will help your determin a starting bid. It is best if you see other recent wins for your dates.

[john_philly]

Thanks for the quick reply. I tried to use the "median retail price", which does not succeed either.

[powerplantop]

Thanks for the quick reply. I tried to use the "median retail price", which does not succeed either.

If you post the area you looking for, bidding history and dates then perhpas we can help.

[thereuare]

What is it that you're exactly trying to figure out with the 'average price' provided by PRICELINE?

As everyone in this thread has advised to ignore this information, rather than try to re-invent the wheel and find some newly undiscovered trick, why not provide the details of what you need for an upcoming stay and we'll try to help you get a good deal... there are many of us here with years of PRICELINE and HOTWIRE expereience as well as countless posts/threads advising others with their own stays.

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

[john_philly]

Here is the detailed information of the hotel I am trying to bid.

Bryce Canyon

Check-in: 06/14/2009

Check-out: 06/15/2009

In priceline, it once showed the median price of a one-star hotel is 66, try 60 and 69, both failed.

According to this forum, I only find ruby's inn might be a candidate. The price for that data is 121.

Thanks a lot for help!

[Romelle]

Did you look at HOTWIRE offerings? I see they have rooms in three different small towns roughly in the area. There were none specifically in Bryce Canyon though, but these showed up when I just used Bryce. These might not work for your plans, but thought I'd just mention them in case.

The median Pric.eline 2* price for your date is showing this morning as $139, and $89 for the 1*. Hotel pricing can change so much one always has to just use most current information.

I'd guess PRICELINE doesn't have a lot of historical pricing information for a smaller city like Bryce Canyon, so putting in or taking out just a single number could really change things. And there could be some event occurring that would also change things.

Romelle

[thereuare]

As mentioned above, don't use any of the average prices to determine your bidding strategy, and as you're discovering, even a wining bid at the average 'retail' price provided is not guarnateed.

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

[john_philly]

According to my plan, I would like to have a hotel really close to the park, which is the case shown in PRICELINE. I realize it might be hard to win a good price in this kind of small town. Already booked ruby's inn as a backup. Will continue try my luck in PRICELINE.

[Romelle]

Good work on booking the back-up. Now you can continue to bid more comfortably. I am assuming you know exactly how long you can try, before you can't cancel the back-up? Hotel rules regarding that can vary a lot. Do read the fine print.

For the record, if Priceline lets you bid at both the one and two star levels, that means they have rooms at both those levels currently. Just because no one has reported wins here doesn't rule anything out.

Maybe you will get to report a new hotel here!

Good luck!!

Romelle

PS - Check the "My Rewards" area on PRICELINE. Some people are reporting a bonus there. You have to register for the program, and the current bonuses are expiring April 30, but still worth checking. $5 a night for up to five nights. It is in "My Profile" on PRICELINE.

[john_philly]

Thanks for your information! I checked my reward area. For me the 25 dollars are good for 2+ night stay. Might not be useful for me. I will continue to bid anyway. Hope I can find some useful information for this forum.