Priceline Hotel: Priceline only gave me one free-rebidding despite tons of available fr

[Ray]

Haven't used Priceline for about half a year, just now I was trying the bid on a 3.5 star and plus property for the incoming weekend at Myrtle beach, strange things happened. There were 6 bidding zones, my main target zone4 has level 3.5 star all the way to 1 star, zone 1 has only 2 star and below.

After the system rejected the 1st price, I added the zone 2 as free rebidding zone and increased my price my $10, leaving the star level still at 3.5 star. After a while, it rejected the price again, not only this the site directed me to a result page from conventional search at my desired time and location, the title reads "we are sorry, cannot accept your offer, but we find out these hotels you might be interested etc". I tried to check everywhere on that page to see if I can get back to the bidding page as there are still a whole couple of free-rebidding zones to try. However I did not find anything to lead me back to my original page.

This basically means I only got one free-rebidding chance, no matter how many free-rebidding zones remain. And this is certainly a deal breaker for me.

Someone also pointed out that I could locate the rejected bid through "my trips", but that place did not allow me to re-access the bidding page where i could add another zone or change the price.

Certainly I could close the browser and restart everything, which means I have to re-enter a whole lot of info such as credit card number, address etc. I like the old style, in the case of a failed bid, they direct you back to the bidding page, you then add the free-rebidding zones, change some price, just initial your name and resubmit. Don't know if there's a way to do the same thing now.

[dahammer]

Don't know if there's a way to do the same thing now.

yes, just use the PRICELINE links on this board and when you re-open a new browser, the zone that you previously bid and dates should appear. If you created a profile on PRICELINE, your credit card information will be stored. Just keep a notepad and list the zones that you've bid.

[Max_D]

I just started running in to the same issue : only one free re-bid. After trying a few different things I found that the problem was limited to Firefox as my browser. When I logged back in with Internet Explorer I was able to rebid as often and I like. Which browser are you using?

[thereuare]

As recently posted in another thread:

Sometimes PRICELINE will direct you to their "retail" screen... since you just placed a bid, they know you need a hotel room, and since you were unsuccessful with your bid, they're cross marketing their retail service in hopes that you'll buy a hotel from them thru that side of their service.

Although not the intention when created, many have found the PRICELINE search box on the top right of the page convenient to use in these situations. If you're re-directed to the 'retail' section of the PRICELINE website, or you need to close the browser and re-access PRICELINE in order to 'clear' previously added zones, our search box keeps all your city and date information, so you just need to click the GO button again to resume your bidding, rather than needing to re-enter all your destination information.

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

[Colfax]

My theory (just a theory) is that when Priceline flips you to their retail listings in the middle of a bidding session, before you've used up your free rebids, they're doing so because they don't have any "Name Your Own Price" inventory for your parameters.

It's Priceline's way of saying "You're wasting your time bidding. You won't get anything no matter how many zones you add or how high you bid. So please look at these retail listings instead."

Several people have reported this phenomenon lately. If you're kicked over to retail you can get back to NYOP bidding by starting over and adding a new rebid zone that you didn't use before. But if Priceline doesn't have anything bidding higher and higher won't help.

So far I haven't seen anyone report getting kicked over to retail, then accepted via NYOP for the same date and zone.

[dahammer]

an interesting theory....this has happened to me several times in the past, I would just open up a new browser and continue to bid....I know that I've had winning bids but these wins may have been in adjacent zones and not for the zone that I was initially bidding for. My theory: this is PRICELINE's way of keeping a bidder from "leaving the farm" after a few unsuccessful bids.

[Colfax]

My theory (just a theory) is that when Priceline flips you to their retail listings in the middle of a bidding session, before you've used up your free rebids, they're doing so because they don't have any "Name Your Own Price" inventory for your parameters.

It's Priceline's way of saying "You're wasting your time bidding. You won't get anything no matter how many zones you add or how high you bid. So please look at these retail listings instead."

I need to revise or withdraw my theory in light of a thread I just saw on the Minnesota board.

The bidder was trying for a 4* in the Downtown Minneapolis zone. There are 13 rebid zones for 4* in Minneapolis. The bidder's opening bid was rejected. He'd only used 2 of his 13 rebid zones to bid higher when he was kicked over to Priceline's retail side with no option for bidding further.

He returned to Priceline, continued bidding higher using rebid zones, and was accepted for just $10 more than the last bid he'd placed when he was "kicked out". Same zone, same parameters. He wasn't kicked out because Priceline had no "Name Your Own Price" inventory in his zone then, or because his bids were ridiculously low.

Minnesota Priceline thread

[Ray]

Trip was cancelled due to plan changes.

[thereuare]

Thanks for closing this thread.

Please remember to follow-up your threads with whatever you end up doing for the stay, even if you choose to book direct, cancel your trip, etc.