Priceline Hotel: Graves 601 bid direct

[mathprincess]

I was shopping around for a hotel in Minneapolis Dec 30-Jan 1st and Graves 601 has a "place bid" button with their reservation system. Has anyone tried this. The location of the hotel is ideal for me so I was looking at their regular rates.

[AaronJB]

Wow, that's certainly the first I've seen of something like that.

[mathprincess]

I know crazy right, the terms are kind of funny 72 hours prior takes two days to accept.

[AaronJB]

Ah, I didn't see the two day part - I wonder why it takes two days. :)

[thereuare]

I believe this launched around May of this year, and at the time the hotel mentioend "discounts of up to 25%". Not sure if the discounting has gotten better/worse or has remained the same, but i haven't heard anything more about it since then.

[mathprincess]

well I just just booked a hotel through your link with PRICELINE, I put my dates wrong in this thread

[Colfax]

A regional chain in the Pacific Northwest called Phoenix Inns and Suites used to run a similar inhouse bidding program. You submitted a bid to the hotel manager via a form on the hotel's website. The manager would respond yes/no within 24 hours, iirc. I sumbitted a bid once and never heard anything back. I just checked the Phoenix Inn website and don't see inhouse bidding offered anymore.

I can understand why Graves might try a program like this. 4* in Downtown Minneapolis are usually cheap on Priceline---$40's or $50's. Graves is a more upscale 4* and they probably don't want to discount that deep. The one time Graves has been reported on Priceline the winning bid amount was $81. With inhouse bidding Graves gets some discounted business without having to match the very low Priceline rates offered by their competition.