florida and priceline
 

going in April-when is the best time to bid now or later?

If your plans are DEFINATE (as there are no cancellations allowed once your bid is accepted) you should start bidding now.... but pick your price and DON&quot;T bid over it (you can even try low balling it for a few days/weeks since you have plenty of time). By starting now you have the ability to &quot;walk away&quot; without raising your bid, and trying again a few days later.<BR><BR>Inventory changes all the time, so what might not be avialable today may be available next week. As well, what is available today could get pulled next week (for instance, if a large group decides to book at a given hotel, the hotel will remove their inventory from Priceline)<BR><BR>Generally there is no true pattern (in my experiences) as to bidding early or late, but bidding early puts time on your side! BUT, make sure your plans are firm, otherwise you could potentially own an empty hotel room for the nite!<BR><BR>If successful, please post your hotel info on my new forum, www.thenassaus.com/forums

Robin, if you haven't already checked, go to www.biddingfortravel.com, a non-commercial site that will teach you how to use PL. The moderators will help you construct your bid if you make a request.<BR><BR>Scroll down to the hotels section and you'll see a section for FL hotels with a list of hotels that PL uses in certain FL cities.<BR>

Thanks for replys!

Robin, some prefer to bid early. From experience I prefer bidding late. I did about ten Priceline hotels in 2002 (including one for someone else in Fort Lauderdale). Most of them were at the last minute and I still got great deals. In one case, I bid in advance for a few nights in Amsterdam last fall but was able to get only the first two via Priceline. I had a more expensive reservation for the last night but once I got to Amsterdam I bid again (Internet cafe) for the last night and got it - for about 1/2 the price (Marriott) advertised. In my case something opened up at the last minute, but this doesn't always happen.<BR><BR>I recommend you get something ASAP you can cancel as a backup, then start bidding later. But if you are 99.9% sure your trip won't change, go ahead and start bidding now. Read about free rebids on BiddingForTravel.com - otherwise, you must wait 72 hours to re-bid on Priceline if your first bid fails.<BR><BR>Andrew<BR>