Priceline Hotel: Bidding help please

[Buzzdee]

I try to find a room in October (10/18/09 - 10/20/09) but it seems that PL doesnt like me ... :)

I tried it over several days in multiple combinations.

Starting with separately zones (Convention Ctr., Dupont and White House) and adding free rebid zones. Then tried combinations of my preferred zones adding rebid zones. And after that I lowered my star rating from 4 to 3,5 and did it all over again ...

Started everytime at 60 and went up to 95 (that would be my maximum bid) with no luck ...

These are the prices for 4-stars in above zones per night:

CC

Grand Hyatt - 379

Monaco - 410

Renaissance - 409

Dupont

Fairfax - 438

Palomar - 360

Omni - 219

White House

JW - 429

Loews - 289

Ren. Mayflower - 369

Sofitel - 244

Interconti - 587

Any tips? What am I doing wrong? Is 95 still to low?

And I promise that I will use your PRICELINE links next time ...

Thanks

Basti

[thereuare]

It's still quite early before your stay, but at the moment rates appear to be very high for these dates, and if you take out the lowest rate above, your maximum bid is about 1/3 of the next best prevailing rate.

Try to take the perspective of the hotel... based upon current rates (which are high) the hotels are 'ahead' in the number of rooms that they currently have booked for these dates and therefore are not 'desperate' for business for these dates at this time. As well, they still have plenty of time to fill any remaining rooms. So given that demand for these dates is strong, why should they offer a room to the opaque suppliers (PRICELINE or HOTWIRE) at a third of their prevailing rate when they think they may be able to sell that room on their own at full price?

Again, it may just be early and there is little need for the hotels to offer a deep discount at this time, there could be an event driving up rates as the city expects high demand for these dates (there's always some political event or rally taking place in DC) and hotels will eventually sell-out, but at least at the moment, there is little need to offer such a deep discount... it's not personal :)

You may want to look into findng an acceptable, cancellable, back-up and continue your bidding once every week or two (not too much so that you begin to get frustrated) and/or determine a more realistic maximum bid.

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

Keep us updated.

[Buzzdee]

Thanks for your encouragement. I'm just a little frustrated because once in a while I see some winning bids from others right in this areas and price range.

As it's still some time to get a hotel I'll try it over the next days/weeks. I thought about to go 3*, but I'm afraid to get a not-so-good hotel (the 3*-reviews aren't that positive).