Priceline Now Discloses Winning Bids
 

Just got an email from Priceline.com. They are now posting recent winning bids for many cities all over the world. From the email:

"For the first time ever, you can now see winning Name Your Own Price® hotel bids in over 250 top cities around the world. Just choose a city and we'll show you recent winning bids, by real customers, in popular neighborhoods and star levels. The Winners Board is a private service reserved exclusively for priceline rewards members!"

I checked it out, they do show star level, neighborhood, and winning bid. Not the name of the hotel tho, so it won't be eliminating my checking biddingfortravel and betterbidding, but it definitely gives you a head start.

There was some more detailed discussion about this on biddingfortavel. One thing to note is that while Priceline now posts some winning bids, for all we know, they could be the highest bids they got for a specific zone/star level.
So, if someone got a $200 room for $120, they'll tell you that. What they won't say is that someone also won the same hotel for $75

Just like they prompt you when placing a bid by saying "the average price for a room in this area is $___", you should take such information as just the tip of the iceberg

i also doubt they post the lowest winning bid.

Aha! I knew there had to be a catch.

However, the same could be said for the bids posted on biddingfortravel.
So this still provides a good end point. Now you at least know the ballpark for the star level you're looking at.

Except that winning bids for one date in many cities have NOTHING to do with winning bids for other dates. Yes, they can provide a guideline, but I constantly see comments to people like "I was able to get that hotel for $70, but there must be a convention going on while you are there -- which is why you couldn't get anything four star below $149".

I usually start by trying to book a regular room through pticeline, not the bidding. Often, they will show a "deal" on a property. I take that deal price as a guide, then try biddingfortravel. The last time I did this, I got the Hilton Chicago last week for $90 a night. 2 bathrooms and a lake view. I LOVE Priceline!

I'd definitely look at their posted winning bids with skepticism.

On bidding for travel, the winning bids listed are from those who choose to come back and post what they got - sort of a random sampling of users, probably skewed toward the lower end of the winning bid spectrum as the people most likely to post are probably also the most likely to know how to really work the system and get the best prices.

When Priceline posts the winning bids, they have a vested interest in skewing the results toward the high end of the spectrum so that future bidders will go higher. They obviously aren't going to post every winning bid, so when they pick and choose what to post, they are likely to choose the higher bids. I am sure there will be plenty of people who will not look any further than the Priceline posted winning bids and take them at face value.

I agree with j correa. I would ignore what they post for winning bids. It is similar to what they post as average price and when they have counter-offers. Experienced bidders know not to take that at face value, and in time will know the posted winning bids are irrelevant.

Ignore it?
I will use it as a top end, taking dates into consideration.

I agree that their tricky effort to get you to bid higher is annoying, and I never fall for that either, but I just checked Orlando, four star Universal at $105. I think that's valuable info - I would not bid higher - just as I use the biddingfortravel info as a guideline. I don't find it irrelevant, but I won't be tricked into bidding that price at the outset either.