Hi everyone,
Has anyone ever used Priceline.com to bid for a 5 or 4 star room in Las Vegas. How well did you do?
Can it be done last minute or about 1 or 2 weeks in advance.
Many thanks

You will get much more priceline info at www.biddingfortravel.com and www.betterbidding.com You should read their faqs (and learn that there's no one answer to the best time to bid), and also read the posted winning bids to see what hotels people are getting for what price for what dates. You can check their list of hotels in each star level and zone to see if there are any possibilities there that you are not happy with (for example, it's important to know that the Westin Casuarina is a 4* property in the strip zone, but it is not actually ON the strip - OK for some people, not for others).

We tried years ago, but without any luck. Weekends are tough with priceline for LV. If you are bidding for weekdays, you should have pretty good luck.

When I last tried Priceline for 5* hotels, the Venetian (I think the other is the Wynn, but not sure if they deal with Wynn) was twice as much as the hotel websites. I suggest the "cheapovegas" website for the "bargain bin" postings that tell how much someone recently paid for what room; in addition to the site (sometimes PL) they used to get the rate, sometimes they include the codes that got the rate. There car rental site was also the lowest rate, and did not involve any prepayment.

"their" car rental site, of course...

sylvia3 - I don't think you are referring to using the priceline "name your own price" feature, because with that, there is no way to know what bid they will accept unless you actually place it. And I'm pretty sure you're smart enough not to have placed a bid for 2x the rate on the hotel website.

I've never seen a good deal on priceline's "regular" hotel listings where they tell you the hotel and the price, but good deals can be had by bidding blind.

Vegas is one spot that Priceline rarely works out to your advantage, at least not for the upper end strip hotels. They used to get Venetian rooms for $75, sometimes in advance, sometimes last minute, but it's really spotty.

We always travel to Las Vegas midweek because of better rates and use Priceline when we can.

Last trip, summer of 2005, we had the Rio 4* for $79 a night (two nights) and the Venetian for $99 a night (two nights). The rate otherwise for the Rio was running about $139 and the Venetian around $145, so not great savings but not bad.

But I do think you will have your best chances if you bid a Sunday through Thursday trip to LV.

Weekends are always at a premium even in the dead of summer.

jlm, I first went to the regular Priceline (&hotels.com, orbitz, all the rest) site to see what hotels they were awarding what stars at what general prices, then I bid on "name your own price". I haven't been able to even get 20% lower on Priceline's cars and hotels the past year or so; however, the bargain bin I mentioned does have helpful codes and clues one in as to what prices the hotels are accepting (including Priceline winning bids, sometimes).

Sorry sylvia - I should have been more clear. I was referring specifically to this line from your post:

"When I last tried Priceline for 5* hotels, the Venetian (I think the other is the Wynn, but not sure if they deal with Wynn) was twice as much as the hotel websites."

There's no way to know that priceline is twice as much as the hotel website on their "name your own price" side unless you actually bid twice the hotel's price and it is accepted, but no one who had done any research in advance would do that.

We're leaving next Sunday for Las Vegas, where we have a room at the Venetian I got on Priceline. The going rate was $169 and I got it on Priceline for $124. With taxes and service charges it came out to $421 for three nights. Still better than $169 per night.

When I called to make sure I could reserve a non-smoking room, though, the reservations person was really snooty when she saw I'd gotten the room thru Priceline. Hope I'm not buried in the smallest, ugliest room at the hotel!

The priceline rooms that people have bid on don't seem any different than the regular rooms. The Venetian is all suites. We stayed in 6/05 for a night on a Priceline bid and the hotel more than lived up to its reputation.