Priceline Hotel: 4* Vancouver (Downtown) Pan Pacific

[worldtraveller]

Found the following on hotwire for Sept 7/09 - Sept 11/09 - one room, 2 people:

3* Downtown Vancouver South - $81/night

Fitness Center & Restaurant

3.5* Downtown Vancouver Entertainment District - $86/night

Fitness Center, Restaurant, Business Center, Hi-Speed Internet & Tennis

4* Downtown Vancouver West - $99/night

Boutique Hotel, Non-Smoking Rooms, Fitness Center, Restaurant, Business Center, Hi-Speed Internet

3.5* Downtown Vancouver West - $108/night

Non-Smoking Rooms, Fitness Center, Pool, Restaurant, Business Center, Laundry, Hi-Speed Internet, Tennis

Any help on identifying these would be most appreciated - many thanks in advance!

[thereuare]

Best guess for each would be as follows:

1. ??? (but see note below)

2. Executive Hotel Vintage Park

3. Listel Vancouver

4. Coast Plaza

If you change your search to 2adults/2children a different 3* hotel appears in this zone for just about the same price with:

Restaurant, Pool, Fitness which is a match for the Holiday Inn so that would be our best guess. This may be the property you're seeing above on your 2adults/0children search but that search 'hiding' an amenity, but can't be certain, so if you're interested in trying to target this property it would be 'safer' purchasing as 2adults/2children.

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

Let us know what you decide and how it goes or if we can be of further help.

[worldtraveller]

Hello,

I'm hoping someone can help answer this question for me as I'm new to priceline bidding.

I understand the re-bidding strategy of adding areas that do not have the star rating or above that you are bidding for. What happens when you run out of areas - can you abandon your bid and start over (i.e. choose one area at a higher price)?

For example, say I start bidding for a 4* property at $60 for area A. Areas B, C, D & E do not offer 4* properties or above. So I keep raising my price and adding an additional area to allow me to re-bid immediately. However, say that I've come to a point where I've added all the areas I can, and my bid is still rejected. Can I just abandon the bid altogether and retry my luck a few days later starting fresh?

The reason for this question is that I know I can add a 3.5* rating to my preferences - but now the 5 areas I've included will have 3.5* hotels. Also, now that my bid price has gone higher, I don't want to pay that much for say a 3* or 3.5*. So I'd rather start lower, looking for a 3.5*, adding one area in at a time.

Also, is it possible to "delete" areas - for example, use the same bid, lower my star rating, and delete areas? Or can you only "add" to an existing bid?

Hope this makes sense...any advice would be appreciated! Thanks in advance!

[worldtraveller]

Thank you for your help!

I am considering trying priceline to bid for a lower rate. Any suggestions on a bidding strategy? I definitely want to be in Downtown Vancouver. I would be willing to pay up to $85/night for a 4* property & $75/night for a 3.5* property. I'm not sure if these are realistic for the times that I'm looking to travel: Sept 7 (Labour Day) to Sept 11.

Thanks again!

[thereuare]

You can make the same bid that you had previously made after waiting 24 hours (NOTE: if you've added re-bid zones to your original bid, it's 24 hours from your last bid which included that zone)

You can't "uncheck" zones, but you can close the browser, use our link to re-access PRICELINE, then resume by checking only the zones you want to include on your next round of bidding.

At the 4* level you have FIVE re-bid zones. If you're not familiar with re-bidding please read Priceline Re-Bidding Explained and feel free to ask questions and/or confirm your re-bid zones with the board before proceeding.

Select 4* Downtown...

Bid $60, if rejected add re-bid zone...

Bid $65, if rejected add re-bid zone...

Bid $70, if rejected add re-bid zone...

Bid $75, if rejected add re-bid zone...

Bid $80, if rejected add re-bid zone...

Bid $85

Any questions feel free to ask.

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

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

[worldtraveller]

Okay, let me see if I understand this:

I want a 4* in ZoneA. My re-bid zones are Zones B, C, D, E, F.

I bid as follows:

Bid 1: $60 with A

Bid 2: $65 with AB

Bid 3: $70 with ABC

Bid 4: $75 with ABCD

Bid 5: $80 with ABCDE

Bid 6: $85 with ABCDEF

Let's say after Bid 6, my offer is still rejected. At this point I have run out of re-bid zones. I would now have to wait 24hours (unless I wanted to change star rating or dates) before rebidding. Aferr 24 hours - Can I start my bidding again with just Zone A, allowing myself another 5 free re-bids? Or am I stuck at Bid 6 - which has all 6 zones, allowing me to only bid once more by increasing the offer?

I ask because I am thinking to wait a few days or a week to rebid using this exact same strategy, hoping that maybe priceline's rates will have changed or that new hotels get added. Or I might want to re-bid starting at a slightly higher initial price.

I guess what I'm trying to ask is once you've "built-up" your bid to give yourself free rebids, and you are still unsucessful, can you start with a clean slate after 24hours. Or are those areas now tied to your bid for every subsequent bid?

Thank you for your help!

[thereuare]

Yes, after 24 hours you get a "clean slate" and can start over.

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

[worldtraveller]

Ended up bidding for a 4*Downtown Vancouver property on PRICELINE for this trip (using your link of course!) and won the Pan Pacific Hotel for $95.

Started bidding at $70 and used various combinations of areas to get free re-bids. Bidding strategy was as follows - all bids were for 4* properties:

1) Downtown - bid $70

2) Downtown + City Hall - bid $77

3) Downtown + Coquitlam - bid $82

4) Downtown + Langley - bid $85

5) Downtown + North Vancouver - bid $88

6) Downtown + Surrey - bid $90

7) Downtown + Surrey + North Vancouver - bid $92

7) Downtown + City Hall + Coquitlam - bid $95 and won the Pan Pacific! For 4 nights for 2 people plus taxes, total = $453.02

Ended up bidding higher than my original budget of $85, but was okay with that in the end. The Pan Pacific looks like a good hotel - right by Canada Place and the water & a convenient spot downtown since we plan to do a lot of walking downtown.

Thanks again for your help on clarifying the bidding and re-bidding rules of PRICELINE!

[thereuare]

Congratualtions on your success!

Glad to hear the board was helpful with your bidding and that, even thought $10 more per nite than you originally wanted to spend, you're happy with the results and the deal you received.

Thank you for sharing your win with the board and using our PRICELINE link to begin your bidding.

Enjoy your stay.