Priceline Hotel: Aston Whaler on Kanaapali Beach on Maui?

[downtown_resident]

The six hotels priceline lists in the "Resorts" category in the Kanaapali - Lahaina zone are all above $259 in the non-auction section of priceline, with the exception of the Whaler on Kanaapali Beach, which is $180. It stands to reason that a bid in the Kanaapali zone will land you at the Whaler, but I've yet to see anyone here or on the other site say they won a stay at the Whaler. Has anyone ended up at the Whaler, and do you agree with my reasoning?

On the other hand, I hadn't seen anyone end up at the Westin Princeville Villas on Kauai until I won that one on Sunday.

Thanks in advance.

[thereuare]

Your assumption seems logical but is not the way PRICELINE works... you don't necessarily win the hotel with the lowest retail price for the dates of your stay. If you enter "Whaler" (without the quotes) into the QUICK SEARCH box in the blue banner at the top of the page you will see wins for this property, it has been some times since this property was received thru 'name your own price' (nearly 3 years ago), but it has been won thru bidding. The "retail" and the "bidding" side of PRICELINE each use a different universe of hotels, and no announcement is made if/when a hotel stops participating with the name your own price section of their website, so nobody can say for certain if the Whaler is still an option when bidding on PRICELINE.

If you'd like to bid on this stay let us know your maximum bid and we'll suggest a strategy for you to follow. If you're concerned with the Whaler re-appearing, HOTWIRE may be an alternate option for this stay.

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

[andrusyna]

Thereuare, this is exactly my predicament. I have avoided bidding on Maui resorts and instead used Hotwire in the past because I do not want to stay at the Whaler. A question I have: if the Whaler is available for bidding, and that is the resort with the lowest price, am I pretty much going to get that resort ahead of any other higher priced resort (i.e Westin, Hyatt, Sheraton), even if I overbid a bit? Do we know the mechanics of Priceline's bidding engine to answer this question? Thanks much.

[AaronJB]

If a hotel is the lowest priced property at that star rating in that zone for those dates, that is not necessarily the hotel you will get - you very well may get a different hotel.

Please use the site's HOTWIRE or PRICELINE links to start your purchases and searches.