I'm posting this here and now I will be raked over the coals for my "stupidity", but here goes anyway.

I decided we might want to spend the night in Fort Lauderdale before flying out on Sunday, June 1 to NYC, instead of getting up early to drive over from Naples. I read Bidding for Travel. I studied. I comparison checked.

It seemed that the best I could do with anything I liked (including the 3 stars Priceline) near the aiport was a little over $80 with AAA rates.

So I bid Airport for 3 stars at $52. Refused. Added Downtown. Refused. Next (2 days later) I added Coral Springs (a little far, but OK for a nice hotel) and added 2.5 star because it only showed one hotel (Marriott) above a 2.5 star, bidding $52. Meanwhile I carefully checked all the listed 2.5 stars within my zones and they'd all be fine. Refused. Increased to $55. Won Coral Springs LaQuinta, despite it showing as a 2 star. A call tells me it is newly renovated -- maybe that's why? With taxes, a total of $68.95. Well, that's fine, still sounds pretty good. Now I check LaQuinta's AAA rate and it is $67.50. So I saved $12.50? No. LaQuinta adds taxes of $7.43 on the $67.50 for a total of $74.93. Priceline adds $13.95 to the $55 for taxes, for a total of $68.95. So I saved $5.98. (By the way, why DOES Priceline add $6.50 more taxes than the hotel would -- even on a lesser amount than the hotel charges since it is supposedly a percentage?)

So go ahead. Tell me all I did wrong. I'm not exactly complaining here as it will work out, just saying that it takes one big amount of study, cross referencing, planning, etc. and still there can be some surprises with Priceline. Consider my $5.98 savings payment for my continued training.

It wasn't wrong at all, it's the nature of Priceline.

As, "continued training", it's a bargain. As a rate per/hour, well it's just interesting research to do while taking a break.

I will start by saying you did much more research than I do when using Priceline, but go on to comment that I may use it with different intentions even if with less attention to detail.

I first used Priceline shortly after 9/11, when very few people were yet traveling. I routinely got the Hyatt Regency Coral Gables for about $45, which felt positively like STEALING.

The cost savings have in my opinion become less noticeable now that the travel industry is more robust, but there are certain markets for which Priceline still remains a good option. Returning to that "different intention" comment, though, what I mean is that I use Priceline to get a BETTER hotel than I am willing to pay for through more traditional booking services. Given that, I never bid less than 4-star, and usually only try it in destinations that I perceive as still offering "deals," which for me would be Mexico City and London.

Well at least you didn't end up in some fleabag cursing Priceline because the rack rate was lower than your Priceline bid.

NeoPatrick,
I think Priceline adds an additional fee for each hotel win in addition to the taxes. It used to be $5.00 per win, now it must be $6.50.

I guess the most "frustrating part" was that I thought I was so clever adding in Coral Springs,"knowing" I wouldn't get it as there was only a three star that wouldn't win my bid. That's a trick I thought I had successfully learned, but then found that they re-rated a 2 star to a 2.5 star so I win that area anyway.

I should probably also point out that many people would probably be thrilled with winning what might be "listed" as a $110 hotel for $55, but the fact is that I suspect people often haven't checked directly with other sources to find that $110 hotel was available for a lot less than that. I am somewhat chagrined by posters who proclaim they just won a $300 hotel for $90 on Priceline and I look to see that NOBODY would have been paying anywhere near that $300 price to begin with. And I also suspect savings are often much greater with higher end hotels than the "budget" ones.

mollmatt, I guess that explains it. So one should always deduct $6.50 from their supposed savings on a winning bid?

From what I understand, Priceline's fee is no longer a set amount or even a set percentage, but $6 or so is fairly typical.

apparently when it was set percentage, someone figured out an algorithm to determine how much the hotel really cost Priceline,and then people use that to place lower bids. So Priceline now uses a more secret formula to come up with the numbers.

NeoPatrick, the problem you and I and others face when using Priceline is that there is no way to determine all the possible hotels in a zone/category. Though you think you saw "all the listed 2.5 stars within my zones and they'd all be fine", as you found out, you didn't really. Priceline's own "regular"(non-bidding) section is not necessarily the list they take their "name your own price" hotels from.

Sounds like you did as much as you could, and at least you have a good attitude about the results!

Part of the problem is that BFT has been dormant for quite some time and may not have the newest info (such as adding the LQ to the 2.5* list). But I heard that Sheryl is back and hopefully BFT will get the traffic back and Sheryl will update all the hotel lists.

BTW, I'm a bit confused about your statement about Coral Springs zone. Do you know there is 2.5* in Coral Springs? Or do you think there's only 3* in Coral Springs?

These days before I bid, I check BFT + BetterBidding, and also check hotwire, before making a decision whether I want to use PL or not.

The $5.98 savings will get you 2 Starbucks in NYC.

BTW, are you still going to Hawaii?

Isn't Priceline the concern which was moving rooms in Canada and keeping the refundable tax for themselves?

yk, I'm confused, I guess. On BFT there were only two listings for Coral Springs, a 3 and a 2. Where else was I to look to find that they have 2.5 hotels?

And no, Hawaii is out for now. I sometimes question my sanity in taking Lee with his Alzheimer's to NYC for a month. Tooling around Hawaii seems even more insane. Besides, I was finding it more expensive than going to Europe instead -- which we're also not going to do this year!

I see you have posted at BFT and Sheryl has been quick to answer you. I agree with what she said: the lists can change as Priceline re-rates hotels, and it is possible you inadvertently dropped the quality level down to 2-star without meaning to.

I guess I misread your original post. But what I'm seeing is that you bidded for 2.5/3* and you ended up getting LQ. Is the LQ listed as a 2.5* or 3* on your PL win? You said,
<< Won Coral Springs LaQuinta, despite it showing as a 2 star. >>

From this, my understanding is PL gave you a 2* LQ despite you bidding for a 2.5/3*???

What is even more confusing is that if you just isolate the Coral Springs Zone....they only show a 3*, 2*, and 1* option....they don't even show a 2.5* option.

On your reciept does it say the La Quinta is a 2.5*?

Just saw your message on BFT too.

That is indeed strange.

I would think you could look into it if you really wanted to, assuming you could get through to Priceline for a bidding history.

Just knowing you from your posts, I would think that you are very thorough...and didn't choose a 2* based on your concerns.

Yes, I've been posting back and forth with Sheryl, and I'm more confused that ever. Since I'm very nervous about bidding there and check everything clearly before the final bid, I find it hard to believe that I somehow added 2 star to my choices. I was NOT going to bid if I had to drop to that rating in even just the airport zone as there were some hotels I didn't want there. Before I clicked the final bid, I checked dates, zones, and stars very carefully. She asked what my winning bid said -- it says nothing about rating, nor does my actual receipt. But when I go to the bidding history for my account it shows that it was a 2 star I won. Now that makes no sense to me, as I can't believe I "inadvertently" added the rating that I specifically was adding zones to avoid dropping to. And it is very surprising that if somehow I did click a 2, that I got the LaQuinta in Coral Springs instead of a couple of the 2 star "fleabags" in downtown and airport zones which normally go for less than it. Something is very weird here.

When I called this LaQuinta to check my reservation, and mentioned that I was surprised I had won it since Priceline (actually BFT) rated it as a 2 star and I had bid a 2.5 star, she said that their ratings have probably recently changed due to their complete renovations -- so I thought that made sense. Actually it makes a lot more sense to me than the thought that I somehow both checked a number I was specifically avoiding, AND missed seeing it on the screen before bidding.

In fact one thing I learned from this bidding process is that after you've lowered from a 3 star to a 2.5 star in one zone, and add another zone, you apparently can't raise the star level to 3 again. I was trying to do that to add in Plantation, and it wouldn't let me "uncheck" the 2.5 rating, so I ended up logging off -- and then it was two days later before I went back to the site to start over again, this time back at 3 star and then lowering to 2.5 star and then adding in Coral Gables, because I thought they had no 2.5 star hotels, only 2 and 3 and I would be safe as I was bidding 2.5.

Milemarker, again on both my receipt which I printed and on the email I got that I click and see that I won the $55 bid -- neither list ANY rating at all! Is that something new? Did they used to list the rate you "won" at?

Anyone can make a mistake. I know people who have. It's one of the pitfalls of online bidding. Priceline actually is known to offer a one-time "redo" in cases where you really screw up - you know, bid $500 instead of $50 for a 2-star hotel. In this case, it's not a horrendous error as the original poster admits.

Is it possible Priceline themselves made a mistake? I suppose. I'm sure lots of people claim Priceline made a mistake in cases like these. Priceline must have some sort of canned explanation as to why that's supposedly impossible. Of course, I have no idea how their service is setup internally to know for sure.

Patrick - You're right. The PL receipt no longer lists the star rating of the hotel. I checked my receipts for Jan. IIRC, they used to list the star ratings.

Anyway, at least you got a newly renovated LQ instead of some fleabag motels.

Oops. We've been overlapping with our posts.

And make that Coral Springs in my last long post -- not Coral Gables!

Hi patash2 -

On the PL regular site, LQ Coral Springs is a 2*, although that doesn't matter.

And on the bid site, there is no 2.5* offered for CS. If you bid 2.5, and were told that it was a 2.5, then I think you have a good case to complain.

It doesn't matter whether it was renovated. That's not what you bid for.