Pricline London - Completely Perplexed
 

I tried to book a room in London after reviewing biddingfor travel. I first struck out even though I bid moere than anyone on biddingfortravel for the same star level and location.

Next, I bid on a lower star level. Priceline came back with a counter offer. I accepted, but then Priceline replied that they could not find anyplace.

Huh? Does Priceline really work or is it only for a lucky few who bid at exactly the right time?

Sounds strange! We got our hotels in London through Priceline. We bid for two hotels at two different times and had no trouble, other than one price not being accepted. I know that if you just want to change the price and not the star level or location they make you wait 3 days before you bid again (that is what we did). BTW, we are staying at 2 places b/c we decided to stay in London the entire time we are in England and it was too late to add nights to our first hotel (the Mil. Baileys in Kensington). We are spending 5 nights there and three nights at the Holiday Inn Mayfair. Apparently you have 30 days to add nights to your originial reservation; after that you have to pay the regular hotel rate, unless the hotel is willing to accomodate the Priceline rate, which I doubt most would.

If you email customer service they will get back to you. They also will make arrangements for you to speak to someone live based on your reservation number.

Good luck!

I'd suggest you post at betterbidding.com with more details.

But in general, I'd be very careful about bidding at a lower-star level in London. I have no objection to cheap budget accommodation, but you have to be very alert for pitfalls in respect to Priceline and Europe.

Try again in 72 hours. Prepare your plan of attack beforehand, so that you can try for exactly what you want.

Agree with Willtravel that waiting, posting your question on biddingfortravel, then trying again is your best bet. Priceline works on a combination of unsold inventory, lead time for reservations, high and low seasons (and various shades in between), luck, and ---apparently--some randomness. People frequently make the mistake of believing that a higher bid for a certain star level will garner them a better hotel in that category. Not so! There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the rotation of hotels given within certain levels, and that is according to the people at BFT who track such things.

At the lower star levels (below 3***) you can find a comparable rate on some of the European travel sites. Before I made Priceline reservations for London we had backup reservations at a nice budget hotel in the Victoria area, which was our first choice of location. We got a wonderful room at (***)Holiday Inn Kensington Forum for $75 per night, and a week later paid only $110 for a 4-star room at St. James Crowne Plaza. Priceline star ratings, as you probably already know, are subjective---as they all are. I would have rated the Hol. Inn a 2+, and the St. James a 3. But for the price they were perfect, and that is the Priceline value proposition. Good luck, and try bidding again. We have had good luck with Priceline everywhere except Rome.

Priceline will accept a price lower than the counter offer. That is explained on the BFT website Hotel FAQ.

If you dropped the * level while simultaneously accepting the counter offer it probably caused a bidding glitch. Understanding the use of free rebidding is the most important thing you can do when using Priceline, again free rebidding is explained in the hotel FAQ. Otherwise you may overbid in which Priceline just pockets the extra $$.

It's generally not a good idea to lower your star level while keeping your bidding price the same or raising it. You could win the lower star room, but be over-bidding. It's best to either add an acceptable (or free rebid) zone or wait the 3 days and start a new bid.

We leave Sunday for our stay at the Copthorne Tara (Kensington) for $82/night.