Priceline Hotel: 4* Amsterdam (City Center and Museum Quarter) NH Amserdam Centre

[ErinCoff]

My friend and I have been bidding for the past couple of weeks. Our goal price is $65 for a 4* in Amsterdam City Center/Museum Quarter. Because there are two of us, we've been able to bid twice a day. Here is the history (pasted from a spreadsheet -- hopefully the formatting transfers):

Date -- Bid -- Counter

12/20/2009 $58.00 $75.00

12/21/2009 $59.00 $76.00

12/21/2009 $60.00 $75.00

12/22/2009 $61.00 $73.00

12/22/2009 $62.00 $73.00

12/23/2009 $63.00 $73.00

12/23/2009 $64.00 no counter

12/24/2009 $65.00 no counter

1/1/2010 $65.00 no counter

1/6/2010 $64.00 $74.00

1/6/2010 $65.00 $74.00

Any advice would be appreciated. We are planning to just keep bidding and hope prices drop as the time draws nearer.

[thereuare]

If you enter "Amsterdam Museum" (without the quotes) in the QUICK SEARCH box at the top of the board you'll find that most 4* hotels in this zone are going for more than $65/nite. With the $74 counter-offer, i suspet you may be successful between $66-$70, and while you wait for prices to go down, what if they go up? Do you have a cancellable back-up at at an acceptable hotel while you wait?

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

[WillTravel]

Amsterdam 4* hotel prices for bidding on Priceline are amazingly cheap, and I agree that you would do well to raise your bid a bit to get it accepted (probably in the $70 range or so). Amsterdam is a city where it is very easy to end up with a grungy hotel, but all of the Priceline 4* hotels seem pretty decent.

[rapazfreiburg]

You are hoping prices will drop even further?

$65 is only about

[BacSi]

During the summer we saw lots of $65 4 star winners. But as of the fall prices started to go up a little.

Right now $67-$69 is your sweet spot.

[ErinCoff]

Thanks all for the info.

We're aware of the risks, but seeing as how a few have been won recently in the high $60s, we're willing to keep trying, especially since we have about 2 months to go. I used a similar strategy for our Brussels hotel (I started with the lowest possible winning bid I saw on this site -- $45), and I won on the first bid. Like a lot of you all, it's not just about the final price but about getting the best deal possible.

Almost every bid we get a counter of $74, which of course we are willing to pay for a 4*. Looking at other similar situations, the winning bid is almost always between the given bid and the counter, so we're slowly moving up into the high $60s. I just bid $65 and was countered at $74 again. My friend is going to bid $66 tonight -- I'll keep you posted.

And, as with all my searches, I've used the PRICELINE links on this site.

Thanks!

[AaronJB]

Thank you for using the site's PRICELINE link and keeping us updated. Good luck on bidding. :)

[WillTravel]

Good luck with it, but keep in mind that the Amsterdam hotel rates are set in Euros in the database. Thus, if the USD exchange rate worsens, you will need a higher bid to match the unchanged Euro price (presuming it did not, in fact change, which it could). I`m not sure if the high-$60s bids you saw occurred at a high point or low point.

[ErinCoff]

Just won with a bid of $67! I'll put in a new (clean) post so it's on record.

[ErinCoff]

Bid history is in another post. I used the PRICELINE links on this page. Here are the details:

Room Cost (avg. per room, per night): $67.00 (USD)

Number of Rooms: 1

Number of Nights: 3

Room Subtotal: $201.00 (USD)

Taxes and Fees: $33.06 (USD)

Total Room Cost: $234.06 (USD)

Same room on Kayak was $170 a night!

[AaronJB]

Congratulations on your success!

Superb win for this property, and certainly an impressive discount off regular price. Glad you are pleased with the results.

Thank you for using the site's PRICELINE link to start your purchase.

Enjoy your stay.