Priceline Hotel: 3* Redding Red Lion

[BestUserNameEver]

Started bidding for 3* in Redding at $56: rejected.

Tried again 24 hours later, raising the price to $66, which priceline countered an additional $17. I declined.

At this point, since I knew I was close to the price, and based on the hotel list from this site and retail prices from other sites, I was reasonably certain that the hotel I was bidding on was the Red Lion. I did a little research and found that neither PRICELINE, HOTWIRE, Tripadvisor, or Hotels.com list any 2.5* hotels in Redding, so I was reasonably certain that lowering my star rating to 2.5* would not change the candidate pool, so I would still be bidding on what I believed to be the Red Lion. This just gave me a little added confidence.

I lowered the star rating to 2.5* and raised the price $5 to $71 and won the Red Lion.

I used Better Bidding's PRICELINE links; you guys definitely earned it this time.

[thereuare]

Congratulations on your success!

Glad to hear the board was helpful wit your purchase and that you're happy with the results. The conservative approach is to always assume that PRICELINE has hotels at a given star rating if that rating is offered in that zone, but i guess you were short on time and decided to take the risk. All is well that ends well :)

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

Enjoy your stay.

[BestUserNameEver]

The star rating wasn't so much of an issue, I would have been satisfied with a 2.5* as well. It was just how I reached a comfortable degree of certainty that I knew what I was bidding on. I've been wrong before and I've been right before, you're always taking a chance with Priceline. In this case, while I didn't know anything about 2.5* hotels (since I hadn't bid on any in the area), I DID know that I was very close to the price of a 3*, so I figured by raising the price a certain amount, my odds were at least about even. And I wouldn't have had a clue without the board :)