Priceline Hotel: Bidding Help 4* 3/6/2010-3/11/10 Downtown Austin

[talli2105]

My finance and I have been bidding on four star hotels in the Downtown Austin area for 3/6/10-3/11/10 for the past few weeks. We started our bidding at 65 dollars and have gone up to 75 with no luck. The prices listed for the hotels for these dates are as follows:

Intercontinental-247.00

Omni-152.00

Hilton-239.00

Hyatt-229.00

Driskill-267.00

AT&T Convention Center-229.00

We thought that since we saw a lot of people getting four star hotels for as low as 65 dollars that we would be able to get that kind of price. We are hoping not to have to go higher than 80.00. Any advice would be helpful!

[Prince_K]

I would try waiting until you are closer to the target march 6 date. Someone may correct me, but I think your chances might be better by waiting rather than bidding two months in advance.

[AaronJB]

Welcome to Betterbidding. :)

Rates are date-specific; what other users have gotten for different dates does not what reflect what may be required for a different user's dates of travel. Unfortunately, rates seem unusually high in Austin on these dates - maybe an event going on? HOTWIRE has a 4* in Downtown for $129 and a 3.5* in North Austin for $95, as well as a 3* in the Downtown area for $95. Based upon rates that I'm seeing, unfortunately I think the chances of a 4* accepting for $80 are only moderate. It's worth trying, but I think a bid for these dates is likely going to require a bit more than that.

You could wait, but if there is a big event going on on these dates, prices can also ramp higher. They certainly may go lower if expected traffic doesn't happen, but again, there's also the risk of prices going up. You could also try for lower star ratings in the zone. Let us know your thoughts and we would be happy to suggest ideas on how to proceed.

Thank you for using the site's HOTWIRE or PRICELINE links to start your purchase.

[thereuare]

Using this Hotwire Austin Hotel win, the user received their 3.5* hotel for $82/nite while hotel direct rates for their stay start at $172/nite. Checking the same hotel for your dates shows a hotel direct price of $247/nite.

So it looks as if rates for your dates above are higher than usual, which usually implies a higher than usual bid would be necessary to be successful.

You can choose to wait and hope that rates come down, but there is also a chance that they go while you wait as well. As it is, your $75 bid is still less than half of the best available hotel direct rate you're able to find for these dates... how high are you willing to go for a 4* hotel?

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