I buy through priceline and something happened that I found interesting. I was bidding for 4 star hotel in Miami Feb 1-3. I bid 35 according to biddingfortravel advice and it came back as reject but said if I offer 13 dollars more I would win. I bid 48 and got my hotel. Thought that was strange.
Ralph

It does that frequently. Thing is, you got cranked on the $48 because that was much higher than what they really would accept. You should have followed the BFT rebid strategy.

I ignored that message and my bid was accepted. Another time, the message was "we really want you to be successful but your bid has a very low chance of acceptance." Again, I ignored them and my bid was accepted. It's just a way to increase their profits, like telling you the average price of the hotels in your area, which is many times higher than winning bids.

sluggo, you are confusing the Priceline "your bid's too low" message with their tricky new counteroffer, which is what happened to Ralph. xxx is right, keep using BFT strategy. However, $48 ain't bad - don't sweat it!

Somewhere on BFT I noted that PL basically bumps any 4* bids below $40 anyway, so $35 was probably too lowball anyway. The BFT strategy on the counteroffers is to cut the difference in half when rebidding, so in Ralph's case the recommended rebid would have been at $41 or $42, not $48. I've used that approach and it's never failed to win the room.

It's true $5 or $6 isn't a lot on a $200 hotel room, but think of it as a couple of cans of pop from the minibar.

This message from Priceline is different from the, "Your bid of $40 is too low because we show that most three star hotels in Oshkosh, Wisconsin start at $999 per night" message you always get after you type in your first bid. I had the new message recently when bidding for Key West. I bid $66 and it said I could have the hotel for $17 more. I checked Hotwire and got the same three star hotel I expected thru Priceline for $83. Priceline would have been $83 plus the $5.95 handling fee.

You don't have to take the counter-offer and pay the extra. Similar to what one prior poster has done, when I bid $90 for a 5* in Paris and was counter-offered a guaranteed reservation for $110 if I rebid immediately, I waited 10 minutes and rebid $97. Whaddaya know - my bid was accepted and I saved $13 per night. The counter-offer just means you are getting close to getting your deal, so ignore it and keep trying.

BFT is a narrowly-focused forum for Priceline bidding and reviews. If you stray off topic or ask questions, you will be directed to read the FAQ or your posts will be deleted. This forum is of course much more loose. While BFT is much more useful because of the narrow focus, it's nice to have another place to discuss Hotwire and Priceline bidding. You aren't allowed to discuss Hotwire on BFT except on one specific board (not the Miami board).

Counter offers: I usually ignore them. Took one once near the last minute (on the road bidding from a public library that was about to close).

Sometimes the counteroffers aren't that much higher than what they'll accept; sometimes they are much higher. I paid $57 on the counteroffer for a room (Marriott in Norfolk) I could have gotten for $52. $5/night isn't a huge overbid. Other times Priceline has counteroffered as much as $27 higher than my original bid, and I rebid just $5 higher and got accepted, so I saved $22/night! At the last minute, you don't have tons of options so sometimes you should consider taking their offer, especially if it is much lower than avaialble rates.

But I would *never* accept a counteroffer bidding well in advance. Use the counteroffer as a guide for a rebid. If you have a free rebid, just bid again a few dollars higher. Or wait 72 hours and try again.

Andrew

I too am sick of the PL posts and we aren't alone. Others have noticed as well, what has sprung up here recently is more than innocent questions. They are here to advertise their product, strictly forbidden in Fodors rules.

Tell the admin to lighten up or get a new one!

There is no advertising going on wrt Priceline here. With that attitude, you could say that every post that mentions a city is advertising for that chamber of commerce. Most of the Priceline posts either are somewhat negative or turn somewhat negative. Like this post where the consensus is that this person got bamboozled into overbidding.

Yeah, there is a lot of biased (but completely unsubstantiated) paranoia about "advertising" here. Gee, how do you know the anti-Priceline posters aren't "advertising" for Hotwire? Why don't you jump to *that* conclusion?

People are curious about Priceline and Hotwire because they hear about how much money people are saving using these services. Wouldn't you expect such curiosity to generate a lot of posts from thrifty travelers?

Andrew

Ralph, what hotel did you get in Miami? I am heading to Miami Beach in April and the price that are being quoted are outrageous.

Robin, I got the Sheraton Bal Harbor pre cruise for $115 Feb. 7th. Others have got it for a little less (around 80) but this is a busy convention weekend. I'm very happy with my deal, can't wait!

Natalie, How did you go about getting that price for the Sheraton. My travel agent is quoting the bal harbour at 151.00.We may stay there in April but still unsure.

I appreciate the info from fellow travelers re: PL My ? is: I was bidding for a 5-star Chicago Mag Mile hotel around Xmas. The weekend "specials" for the 5-stars were $245 a nite. I really only wanted one of 3 hotels due to location, so I kept bidding higher and higher over a period of several days. Finally quit bidding at $175!!!!!! That was turned down too. So what's up with that?

Kristin, there are next to zero hits at 5* on PL. Presumably those hotels aren't worried about selling out, so they don't give inventory to PL. No mystery.

Robin, I got the price by bidding on Priceline going for 5* in So Beach or Bal Harbor. As I said, I thought it was going to take a lot more because there is a big convention in town that weekend and direct hotel rates were almost $300. Others have gotten this hotel for between 80-100, if you are going to bid I'd start lower and use the rebids until you got the Sheraton (you must rebid other areas w/o 5* so you don't end up at an undesired location).

Kristin, the rate of 245/nt is pretty high for a weekend in the dead of winter. There must have been a convention going on at that time. Others have had successful bids for 5* in Chicago during the winter for around $100. I research a lot about PL hotels as my husband travels a lot on business and do not like to pay the inflated hotel rates charged by the convention meeting committees unless I have to = )

Gee, Ralph, if it is indeed true that you snared a 4* hotel in Miami in Feb for $48 (which I highly doubt, given the winning bids posted on BFT or lack thereof for your dates), YOU are "strange".