This is Part 3 in a 3-Part Series on Priceline:
To the best of my knowledge, there is no such thing as a Professional Priceline Bidder; I just liked the way it sounded. Anywhoo….
Priceline allows you to bid once every 24 hours unless you change your dates, your zones or lower your star level. Bummer. The real secret to getting rock bottom hotel prices on Priceline is the magic of the free rebid. However, if you want to snag that hotel room NOW, let’s get into this thing!
This is going to sound complicated, but it’s really not. Follow me:
STEP 1: Enter your city and date. Priceline will then show you all the available zones in your area. In my example of Seattle, there are 13 zones. That’s pretty high, but other cities have multiple zones, too. For example, LA has 10, Atlantic City has 6, and Honolulu has 9.
Step 2: One at a time, click on a zone and determine if that zone lacks hotels at a star level equal to or greater than the star zone you are interested in. If I want a 3 ½ star room, I’m looking for zones with no hotels in the 4 star or 3 ½ star categories. Each time you find a zone without hotels in your star level, write it down.
For example, in the Seattle area, the Kent-Renton zone has no hotels in the 3 ½ star level or the 4 star level. Write that down. Good for me! I just found two free re-bids zones! At this point, I can make 3 bids one right after the other. But that’s not enough for me!
I’m going to click off the zone I just researched and click on another one. I clicked on Bellevue and they have hotels in every single level, so no luck there.
Next, I click off Bellevue and click on Bothel. They have no hotels in the 4 or 3 ½ star level. Continue checking each and every zone and write down any rebid zones you find…remember, those are zones of your selected city that do not have hotels in categories at or higher than the actual star level you are aiming for. If my calculations are correct, I have a total of 19 rebid zones so far.
Now I consider my highest acceptable bid (don’t forget all your research) and backtrack 19 bids. If my max is $100, maybe I want my bid increments to be $5 each. If that’s the case, my initial bid would be $10. Now, I know that’s way too low, so I think I’ll make my bid increments at $3 each. Then my initial bid would be $46. I would make a spreadsheet with the number of rebids, like this.
I have 19 rebids here. I can create 19 MORE rebids if I add 3.5 stars for each of these rebids. Now, that means I will likely end up with 3.5 in Downtown Seattle. If I want to guarantee a 4 star hotel, I can add permutations. That means one bid will be Downtown Seattle and Renton. On my next bid I would remove Renton and add UW, so I would have UW and Downtown Seattle. Then I would remove UW and add North Everett. If you exhaust all of those choices, you would then have Downtown Seattle, UW and Renton. Then remove Renton and add North Everett, so your bid is for Downtown Seattle, UW and North Everett. You can see this could go on and on and on. So you need to determine how much time you are willing to spend creating the spreadsheet and bidding. To me, 19 bids is enough. If I was bidding on a $300 hotel then maybe it would be worth my time.
Remember, you are adding star levels in cities that do not have hotels that match that criteria. It is impossible to get a winning bid in those areas if you’ve correctly done your research.
Step 3: Let the bidding begin! In my spreadsheet above, I would start at the bottom and work my way up. You will know if your bid is accepted within a minute. You might need to go back to the original sign in page to set up your next bid.
Priceline Disclaimer-Once your bid is accepted, you are locked in. Refunds are nearly impossible.
Also-zones can change frequently, so try complete step 1, 2, and 3 on the same day.
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