Priceline Hotel: question about nassau/paradise island bahamas

[shoreparty]

I am looking to go to the bahamas on 1/17/10-1/21/10 for honeymoon. I have just recently (last hour or so) learned about priceline and a rough idea about how their bidding service works. Having just read the hotels FAQ, I have a question. As their retail product shows, their are not many hotels on this small island. I am specifically wanting to stay at the comfort suites on paradise island, for the reason that this hotel is the only other hotel on the island that has full access to atlantis, for free. I know that the faq states that the priceline bidding system is not designed to guarantee you a specific hotel, and I am wondering since their are only two 2 1/2 star hotels in this entire zone, and one of them is what I want, does that mean I have a 50/50 chance of getting the hotel I want if I bid? Also, the price differences in the two are vastly different, which should be beneficial for me in coming up with a bid that I think would be closer to where I want to stay. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[AaronJB]

Welcome to Betterbidding and Congrats on your Honeymoon! :)

The retail and bidding sides of PRICELINE are two different entities/products and it is best not to base decisions for bidding on what's showing on the retail side. For example, a hotel that's showing on the retail side may not be a hotel that participates on the bidding side.

It would also be worth looking to see if HOTWIRE.com had any listings in the area in your desired budget range for these dates, as well.

Please let us know desired budget per night for hotel and then we can make suggestions from there.

Please use the site's HOTWIRE or PRICELINE links to start your purchase.

[shoreparty]

Thank you for the response. Is there a list somewhere that shows what hotels priceline uses for their bidding services?

[shoreparty]

I can afford anything under $200 per night. I strongly prefer to stay at the comfort suites because of their price, and their free access to atlantis.

The retail and bidding sides of PRICELINE are two different entities/products and it is best not to base decisions for bidding on what's showing on the retail side. For example, a hotel that's showing on the retail side may not be a hotel that participates on the bidding side.

I went back and loaded the retail version of pricelines website showing hotels on paradise island, and I loaded up the bid page where i choose what star hotel I want to bid on. When I clicked on what star hotel I wanted, it showed me the median price of the hotels i would be bidding on. I went back and looked up the hotels with that star rating on the retail side, calculated the median rating for each star category, and they all matched up with what the bidding site was saying their median price was. This leads me to believe that I will probably be bidding on the same hotels as I am seeing on the retail website. Is this not correct?

[thereuare]

As noted above, the "retail" and "opaque' versions of PRICELINE use a different universe of hotels, so it's not safe to assume that the hotels you see in the retail section of the site are the same hotels you'll be bidding on. PRICELINE may use their retail hotels to determine the median price, but again, that doesn't mean that thease are the hotels you'd be bidding on. For additional info see the related link in our PRICELINE FAQ.

IMO, since you need the Comfort Suites for access to the Atlantis, i think using the opaque providers is a fairly decent risk in this situation. if you'd like to try it we'll suggest a strategy for you to follow, but would your vacation be ruined if you received a different hotel and didn't have access to the Atlantis?

Please use these PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links to begin your travel purchases. (or our Confort Inn link in our support page if you decide to book direct)

Let us know what you decide and how you'd like to proceed and we'll advise accordingly.