Priceline Hotel: Help with 3* DC hotel

[Marrow]

Bid $70 for a 3* DC (White House-Downtown) hotel was rejected. Was a little disappointed since others have recently obtained hotels in the same area on similar days for the same price, but I realize that's no guarantee that others will get the same deal.

I'm going to re-bid, with one of these two approaches:

A) add a 2nd 'acceptable' area to my existing $70 bid

:) add a 2nd area which has no 3* hotels, and up my bid by a few $$.

My questions:

Q1) I see that Mount Vernon has no hotels over 2*, but I don't want to stay in Mount Vernon. Would it be totally safe for me to add Mount Vernon as the 2nd area (approach B above), still bidding on 3-star? ie. there's no chance I'd get stuck in Mt Vernon as long as I bid 3*, right?

Q2) Are there guidelines for upping your bid? Since $70 has been successful for some people, maybe I only need to add a few dollars per night to have a decent chance of success?

Q3) Since I prefer the White House-Downtown area, I feel it may be better for me to use approach B first, falling back to approach A only as a last resort. Any comments or problems with that approach?

Thanks

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

What is the actual date(s) of your stay?

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

[Marrow]

Dates are 10/16 to 10/20.

I am using the link to PRICELINE from this site.

[thereuare]

Q1) I see that Mount Vernon has no hotels over 2*, but I don't want to stay in Mount Vernon. Would it be totally safe for me to add Mount Vernon as the 2nd area (approach B above), still bidding on 3-star? ie. there's no chance I'd get stuck in Mt Vernon as long as I bid 3*, right?

Correct, but you need to doubelcheck your re-bid zone(s) just before bidding to make sure that nothing has changed since you last checked/bid.

Q2) Are there guidelines for upping your bid? Since $70 has been successful for some people, maybe I only need to add a few dollars per night to have a decent chance of success?

Bidding strategies/approaches are rate specific and unfortunately for your dates above rates are high... i'm guessing your not really close at the moment. How high do you intend to bid when you add this zone?

Q3) Since I prefer the White House-Downtown area, I feel it may be better for me to use approach B first, falling back to approach A only as a last resort. Any comments or problems with that approach?

Yes, but as per above, i'm guessing it will take quite a bit more than you're currently bidding. What is your maximum bid for this stay?

Thanks for using our PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links to begin your bidding.

[Marrow]

Wanted to post a follow-up, maybe this info will help others:

1st bid was $70 for DC (White House-Downtown). That was unsuccessful, as mentioned before.

2nd bid I added the Convention Center-Capitol Hill area to the bid, and also upped the bid slightly to $72. That was also unsuccessful.

If there had been more time before my trip, I would have bid again. But I ended up finding a reasonable deal through other means (ie. not HOTWIRE or PRICELINE) on a hotel not too far from the city with good Metro access. That turned out to be a better option for me given the time constraint and budget. Next time I travel I will definitely give PRICELINE another try, but will start the bidding process much earlier.

[thereuare]

Glad you found something that works well for your plans.

Enjoy your stay.