Priceline Hotel: Downtown Vegas 1/7-1/11

[CrankiestOne]

I'm new to your site and I absolutely love it. This is my first attempt at Priceline, and I am looking for suggestions.

Three fabulous women are planning a trip to Vegas 1/7-1/11 to celebrate one fabulous 40th birthday. We have a "backup reservation" at Excalibur, booked through the CES convention that's scheduled that weekend. (We aren't convention attendees, but the convention website has links to hotels with the convention rates.) Unfortunately, this convention is expecting 115,000 attendees, and it looks like hotel rates are soaring accordingly.

We would prefer a good rate at Golden Nugget (or a nicer hotel on the strip). Best online price I found for GN is $113/night. Rates are about $160/night for Fri/Sat, and $80/night for Sun/Mon. I'd appreciate any bidding advice you can provide. Given the price difference, should I split my bid? Many, many thanks!

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

I looked at the rates of the Exacalibur <ouch!>, just so i can get a feel for where you're at and what's important to you... would you sooner take the Excalibur (on strip, higher price, not as nice as GN) or the Golden Nugget (less expensive, nicer than Exacalibur, well off-strip)?

Also, in order to compare apples-to-apples... for the above rates are you searching for double or triple occupancy? Most Las Vegas hotels are now charging extra for more than double occupancy... upwards of $30/pp extra (so for quad occupancy users need to add $60!! to their room rate :) ).

For instance i found either NYNY or Treasure Island for the last 2 nites of your stay... but that was for double occupancy. Change that to 3 people in the room and the price jumps to $140. Many would just book double occupancy, get two beds in the room, and have all 3 stay... others don't feel comfortable doing this and would be nervous about not getting the two beds they requested. Not sure of your position.

You could also do the Imperial Palace for the last two nites; while not as nice as the Excalibur, the reviews have been improving and it can be had for a great value of $36/nite! Aladdin can be had for $89/nite (i think this is the best value of the three)

As you can see from my reply thus far i do believe it's likely you will need to split this stay (perhaps stay downtown during the CES and then the weekend on the strip?)

Let us know your thoughts to the above and we'll take it from there.

[CrankiestOne]

Yes, even the convention rate at Excalibur has gone up since we booked two weeks ago. We have a rate of $420 for four nights. We searched and booked a double-occupancy room. No issues with that whatsoever.

We started with insisting on staying on the strip, but learned that Golden Nugget is really nice, which prompted us to investigate it as an alternative. We figure we'll probably gamble downtown more than on the strip, and we aren't all that interested in sightseeing as we've each been to LV at least once and have all stayed on the strip. In other words, as long as the hotel is nice, it doesn't matter if we're on the strip or downtown.

As far as quality, I'd stay at the Venetian if I could afford it, and one friend would stay at a $25/night hotel downtown. So we're definitely looking for a compromise, hence Excalibur. By the way, on the compromise end of things, Excalibur is about as "roughing it" as I wish to go.

What about splitting the bid but bidding "only for" Golden Nugget so that we wouldn't have to change hotels after two days? (You know, the party-all-night,-sleep-all-day plan doesn't work well with pack & move!)

[thereuare]

While the only 4* hotel reported in the Fremont St. zone is the Golden Nugget, you always stand the chance of being surprised... but if you want to try that approach we'll be happy to suggest a strategy to do so. I'm just not certain just how much your savings would amount to for those two nites... how much would you have to save in order to book thru Priceline (ie- how much would your maximum bid be?)

You know the group better than i, but i would have a tough time staying at the Golden Nugget for $80/nite when i know that i could staying at the nicer, newer, and better located Aladdin for $89/nite.

[CrankiestOne]

I see your point. I guess I was thinking that if I bid for the 7th/8th and then for the 9th/10th, aiming for Golden Nugget, the total would be a good deal. The problem is that I really don't know what to expect from Priceline as far as savings go, because I've never used it before.

Splitting the bid on Hotwire gives $169/night for the first two nights, $69/night for the second two nights. Should I expect to beat that rate on PL?

I haven't seen anything listing Aladdin at $89/night, but you may be right...two nights downtown and two nights on the strip may be the perfect solution.

[thereuare]

Actually it's $99/nite <sorry, my bad, but i still hae the same thoughts>

If you check ECT and do a search for 12/9-12/11 (up to 2 people) you'll see an "Off the Record" offering at $99/nite. If you read the description it mentions 21 restaurants, 130 shops, the London Club, 6th floor pool deck, etc, etc... that's the Aladdin :)

If you book this let us know (and please use the link above) and we'll continue to see if we can do better than the GN for the first two nites.

While not bad, i think that if you're not going for a 5* property Las Vegas is one of the least favorable Priceline/Hotwire cities. I have discussed this previously in this thread: LAS VEGAS and PRICELINE.

[CrankiestOne]

I see the problem . . . we're going Jan. 7-11, not December. :) Does that change your strategy, as I see Aladdin at $129 for the 9th/10th.

[thereuare]

I typed it wrong above... for 1/9-1/11, 1 room, 2 adults... the Aladdin is $89/nite.

Do you see it now? (it's not availble for 1/7-1/9... you have to search for the subset of your dates... i figured you would take the Excalibur or Golden Nugget for the first 2 nites).

[CrankiestOne]

thereuare, thereimnot. I must be an idiot at this point of the evening. What site are you on? :)

[thereuare]

It's thru ECT

If you don't find it and have AOL or Yahoo Messenger send me an IM thru the button under my post.

[CrankiestOne]

Okay; for some reason the link just did not appear on the screen. I clicked "quote," and the url appeared in that text. I got it, I got it. :)

[thereuare]

Let me guess: Norton Internet Security running on your system?

Change you settings to 'allow' all links on BetterBidding... i will give you or any other user instructions on how to do this.

[CrankiestOne]

You rock. :) I'll speak to the ladies and post the results.

[CrankiestOne]

Okay, here's our plan. We'd like to try to split the stay (2 nights downtown at the Golden Nugget, 2 nights on the strip at Aladdin). We'll book the Aladdin room through the link you provided. Golden Nugget is showing up on its website at $179/$189 for 1/7 & 1/8. Hotwire has it at $169 each night. What do you think we can expect if we Priceline it? Where should we begin?

[thereuare]

Not sure how much success you will have, but this is what i would do if you want to try 4* Freemont St:

You have five re-bid zones available at the 4* level. If you're not familiar with re-bidding please read PRICELINE BIDDING AGAIN BEFORE 72 HOURS and ask any questions you may have. You should also feel free to confirm which 5 zones are your re-bid zones if you're unsure.

Select 4* Fremont St and...

Bid $100, if rejected add re-bid zone and...

Bid $120, if rejected add re-bid zone and...

Bid $130, if rejected add re-bid zone and...

Bid $140, if rejected add re-bid zone and...

Bid $150, if rejected add re-bid zone and...

Bid $160.

Given the price difference, and the fact that this hotel disappears entirely from Hotwire if you search the dates individually, leads me to believe that the above will likely be difficult. If it fails you can then take the offering on HOTWIRE.

Any questions feel free to ask... and good luck.

PS- here's another link to ECT which you should be able to see after this colon: EASYCLICKTRAVEL

[CrankiestOne]

Well, I got up to $150 and it consistently gave me lowerfare.com rates for other hotels. I will try again tomorrow.

As an aside, I see it on hotwire for the two nights at $201/night. But I can get it for $169 online (I have the site on my other computer) or $179 through www.aaa.com, so I'm willing to be patient.

Finally, what do you think of a choice between TI and Aladdin at $89/night. I found a TI special for the second two nights on the TI website (upgraded room, etc.) for $89. You'd previously recommended Aladdin and we were ready to book. Now we're just wondering if one is significantly better than the other.

Looking forward to your thoughts on that, and will advise how the Golden Nugget dealings go. :)

[thereuare]

I think the Aladdin and the TI are pretty equal, with an edge being given to the Aladdin.

Given the choice, i would choose Aladdin: it's more centrally located on the strip, it's newer, more modern, across from the Bellagio Fountains (one of the things i like best in Vegas).

If you can still get the $201/nite rate and you are failry confident it's the Golden Nugget, you can purchase it. Then apply for Hotwire's Double the Difference Guarantee.

This should bring your cost down to $167/nite (plus taxes and fees) as follows:

Hotwire Average Rate: $201/nite

Less Golden Nugget average rate: $184/nite

Difference: $17/nite

Double the Difference: $34/nite

Net cost: $201 - $34 = $167

(whether this is worth it would be up to each individual)

In this instance the higher you can get the $201 rate the better.

This hotel may not be easily winnable on Priceline due to the price difference... Priceline requires your bid to be high enough to win each nite on its own while Hotwire take the average rate. Using an extreme example (oversimplified):

A hotel loads Nite#1 at $100 and Nite#2 at $200.

Hotwire show a rate of $150/nite per nite.

A Priceline bid if $150 will be rejected... it's enough for the first nite (an overbid actually) but not enough for the second nite... and the bid would be rejected. This bid would continue to be rejected until a value of $200 or more was bid.

[CrankiestOne]

We ended up staying the first two nights at Excalibur for $149/night (via the mailing we received from the hotel), then the second two nights at Aladdin for $89/night.

Aside from changing hotels after only a few hours sleep :) (we seriously considered just changing hotels in our p.j.'s, since we were planning to go directly back to bed, but considered that the room might not have been ready for our early check in), we were thrilled with the change. Aladdin was a great hotel, and everyone there treated us well.

Thanks again for all your help.