Priceline Hotel: 5* London (Mayfair-Soho) Help Bidding

[Guinn3sS]

I've checked previous posts on this forum and noticed that a lot of people were able to book the Grosvenor Hotel in Mayfair for about $135 a night. I will be staying in London Sept 16 - Sept 20 and I would love to get this hotel for this price.

Last night I began bidding and I started at $100 and the bid was flat out rejected. I noticed some people have stated they were given a counter offer, however, I was not. Does this mean I need to bid higher tonight? Any advice would be great.

Thanks!

[Romelle]

Counter-offers don't seem to have a lot of rhyme or reason. A common one in Europe is $22. That number appears far more often than a calculation or some random factor would suggest.

Sometimes a bidder will get a counter offer, ignore it and bid again, only to be faced with a higher counter offer. Scare tactics, that one.

The ONE thing I think a counter offer does indicate is that there is something out there to be had, somewhere between your bid and the counter offer. Period.

On the other hand, I've bid merrily along with nary a counter offer, and all of a sudden gotten success. One just never knows.

The actual information you can take from the fact that your bid was "flat out rejected" is that at that particular moment, there was nothing in the PL inventory at or below your bid. So - yes, you probably need to bid higher. You've got a lot of time left, but I'd guess you won't get a London 5* for $100. However, I wouldn't bid much higher than the $135 for now, since the Grosvenor might not yet have released rooms to PL.

Two caveats:

Rates are VERY date specific, so maybe you could take a look at the rack rates for your dates as compared to the rack rates on the dates the other bidders were successful. That would give you an idea as to whether the $135 might work for you.

The $135 might need adjusted for the shifting relationship between our dollar and the British Pound (since the hotel will set a BP based rate for PL).

Romelle

[Guinn3sS]

Wow thank you so much for all the info. Last night I bumped the offer up to $110 and it still got rejected. Maybe tonight I'll go to $120 and see what happens. I'll use the PRICELINE link of course and let you all know how it turns out.

Thanks!!!

[Winterpeg]

Hi Guinn3:

I got 5 nights thru priceline, the week before, for $149 a night. The rate should go down with the number of nights you are requesting.

The other person who got $135 was staying for 9 nights.

Hope this helps:

[thereuare]

The rate should go down with the number of nights you are requesting.

Not sure what you're basing this on but i doubt this to be the case. It's possible that the rate goes down if the nites you're adding are less expensive than the shorter stay nites, but there is generaly not a rule that the price goes down with the more nites you book.

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

[Guinn3sS]

Last night I tried again at $120 and I got a counter offer of $220 :)

Needless today.... I passed. Will try again tonight.

[What Now]

With your dates you're butting up against London Fashion Week (September 18-22) and a lot of people stay in the Mayfair area. That could skew your results here.