Tumpster Posted November 20, 2009 Report Share Posted November 20, 2009 Just was looking into hotels on PRICELINE for the upcoming Spring Training in Phoneix 2010. Looking to go the last two weeks of March for a full week but dates are open for us pending what we could nail down at a decent rate. Wanted to see if anyone had any tips or tricks like bidding early or waiting till a few weeks before or any help. We did this last year and got a great hotel but it was a trip we through together at the last minute around early March of last year. Link to comment
Romelle Posted November 20, 2009 Report Share Posted November 20, 2009 Hotels can often be available from PRICELINE bidding four months early. I've even seen winning bids as much as 7 months early. The only trick for now is to just explore the lower levels, since there will undoubtedly be more rooms added to the PRICELINE inventory later. And you can always bid higher. The more PL areas you find acceptable, the better your chances. A little research will let you know which of the PL areas are less expensive. When bidding, start with the less expensive areas and add the others in in order of their cost. When there are several months to go, I like to bid about once a week. And use sort of a sweep, where I start low and work up as I add the areas. I'm using low numbers here on purpose so you don't think this is specific bidding advice, but something like $13, 16, 19, 22, 25.Since you are open on the dates, you can have lots of bids, just shifting your week through the two week range. Changing dates counts as making something different on PL, thereby letting you put in another bid in the same 24-hour period. I looked a little at the PL retail side, and it doesn't appear any block of days is significantly more expensive than any other in the last 2 weeks of March.If you want to post your desired star level and acceptable PL areas, plus at least a probably pair of dates, people here can give you more specific bidding advice.And of course, you need to know that PRICELINE hits your credit card right when you bid, so you get to pay for the trip 4 months out if you bid and win 4 months out.Romelle Link to comment
Tumpster Posted November 21, 2009 Author Report Share Posted November 21, 2009 Excellent info which I'll have to look into. The dates we're settling on is 3/24-3/31 and we're open to 2 1/2 stars and up. Link to comment
Romelle Posted November 21, 2009 Report Share Posted November 21, 2009 HOTWIRE has 2 1/2*s in Chandler - South Tempe for $45, and downtown for $69. You should be able to do better than that with PRICELINE. On the Priceline and Hotwire Calendar of Wins there was a 4* for $80 for one day in the last 1/2 of March. Another clue. You might also want to keep an eye on the Calendar to see if other winning PRICELINE bids or HOTWIRE successes appear there. Romelle Link to comment
Tumpster Posted November 23, 2009 Author Report Share Posted November 23, 2009 Well thank you for all the help. Turns out through networking a coworker of mine's mother works for Choice Hotels and now I have access to the friends and family discount so this hotel is available to us for $39 a night:http://www.comfortinn.com/hotel-phoenix-ar...9?promo=gglocalSo I'm going to be booking that shortly. Thank you again for all the help! Link to comment
AaronJB Posted November 23, 2009 Report Share Posted November 23, 2009 If you do decide to book that property, it would be greatly appreciated if you could go through the site's Comfort Inn link, located on the site's support page. Thanks. :) Link to comment
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