Priceline Hotel: 3* Sheraton South Portland 6/27-6/29 $52

[Analise]

I love this property as it's conveniently located outside of Portland and it's a nice Sheraton. Summer weekends are challenging in Maine so I'm pleased with this. I first bid $48 but was rejected in a weird way. I'm new to Priceline so please forgive me for sounding simplistic. I got a response saying that if I bid $14 more for a 3* or higher, I would be allowed a free bid. I decided not to do this but instead entered a new bid for a different zone of Portland. My first zone was PWM so I chose So Portland which is pretty much the exact same area but considered a separate zone. I bid $4 more and got an acceptance. So ignore their advice for rebidding at their specified level. The Sheraton is the highest star hotel in South Portland so I knew that with the acceptance it was the Sheraton which I got.

I made the bid on Monday May 5.

[thereuare]

I got a response saying that if I bid $14 more for a 3* or higher, I would be allowed a free bid.

We call this a "counter-offer" and you did good to turn it down. I only recommend accepting them when there's little time left and you have no re-bids available. The counter-offers can almost always be undercut.

If you'd like to read more about this, you can do so here: Priceline Suggests Price to Pay

You can also find out how much Priceline paid for the room by using the taxes shown on your winning bid screen (this helps you know the "right" amount if you bid this zone in the future). If you want to do the calcuation, it's all explained here: Using the Tax Info to Determine Priceline's cost

Thanks again for posting, and if you have any questions regarding the above info, feel free to ask.

[Scorp]

Smart move to reject the counteroffer, Analise! Your instincts served you right on this one!

We are planning some travel through New England in a few months so are definitely trying to figure out where to stay and how much to bid. Thank you for posting! Do you mind letting us know what the taxes were on this one, by any chance?

It would be nice to see a review of the hotel after your stay, if you have time. :)

PS, for thereuare, have you ever seen any valid explanation for how Priceline decides to offer counteroffers or not???

[Analise]

You can also find out how much Priceline paid for the room by using the taxes shown on your winning bid screen (this helps you know the "right" amount if you bid this zone in the future).

I never knew that.....thank you! Do people here provide what the taxes are on their bid so we can see what Priceline actually paid? I ask this because it would be a great way to gauge what to bid.

I had bid $52 for this property. Using the formula you gave above, I see that Priceline paid $50/per night. They paid $7.00 taxes and the tax rate is 7%.

I'm brand new here and learned already about how Priceline works. Thank you.

[Analise]

We are planning some travel through New England in a few months so are definitely trying to figure out where to stay and how much to bid.

I spent my summers in Maine while growing up and I have bid three times successfully in Portland so if I can help in that area, please let me know. If you have any questions about hotels in Freeport, I think I can help with that as well. I'm really an unofficial Maineiac. :)

[thereuare]

If the actual nitely taxes are $7 and the tax rate is 7%, then Priceline's cost is $49 (i'll assume you just rounded it off to $50, but if your math still indicated $50 i'll go over it with ya :) )

This is a great example of how things on this board come "full circle". You posted the hotel info and indicated the taxes, now Scorp knows that $50 is at least one price point that he may have success at!

We request that users post the tax info, but not everybody does (some just don't think of it or forget) :)

[Scorp]

I'm really an unofficial Maineiac.

That's cute, I have never heard that before! (But then I'm kind of a West Coast person....)

[Scorp]

thereuare, I am not sure about your math on this one. I think Analise is saying the total tax for two nights was $7.00 and the tax rate was 7%.

Therefore, $7.00/.07 = 100 divided by 2 nights = $50 per night actual cost.

Am I missing something?

[thereuare]

Just ignore me today!!

Maybe somebody can give me a math lesson after hours?

Sorry for the mistake and thank you for correcting the error of my ways.

[Scorp]

Hey, you're right 99.99% of the time, so that is still a pretty good record!

I was going to mention that I also try to post some information on the hotel's rates when I post a bid. I always check to see what the hotel's conventional rates are when I am bidding via Priceline, and if I pass that information on to others, they have an even better idea of whether a previous bid amount will still work for their dates. By comparing the hotel rates for their dates with mine, they can get an idea about availability, demand and seasonal rate fluctuations. And that informs the decision about whether the 'best bid' amount will likely work or not.

Does that make any sense? Please feel free to reword it!

:)

Also, did you see my question about Priceline counteroffers?

[thereuare]

Have you ever seen any valid explanation for how Priceline decides to offer counteroffers or not???

Also, did you see my question about Priceline counteroffers?

Yeah, but i already told you to ignore me today so i figured i'd answer tomorrow :)

The only explanation that i've seen or heard is that it's random. As so much of their "black box" is proprietary, i don't know if we'll ever figure that one out. I would suspect that there could be a slight over weighting towards Priceline counter offering when the winning hotel will be one of their prefered partners, but i have no evidence of this.

[WillTravel]

I like Scorp's suggestion of checking the hotel web site to get an idea of dates on which the price is likely to be higher.

I sort of get the impression that a fair number of hotels there are quite happy to have just a few Priceline rates - maybe something like a weekday and weekend rate for each season, and a major holiday rate. They aren't nearly as complicated as airlines, for example, and don't change their rates every hour or two :) (Maybe some hotels do, it just seems a lot do not.)

So if you can see a few winning bids for a given area over a period of time (like this forum provides and will provide even more of in the future), or even more specifically for a single hotel, and then calculate the Priceline rates for those bids based on taxes, you can get a fair idea of what the magic numbers are over the course of a year. No guarantees of course. But that's why boards like this one are so valuable :)

[Analise]

I'm not sure how to edit but I made a mistake with the dates. They should be 6/27/03-6/29/03. Sorry about the confusion!

[thereuare]

I'm not sure how to edit but I made a mistake with the dates. They should be 6/27/03-6/29/03. Sorry about the confusion!

FIXED!