5forDiz
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2001
- Messages
- 3,366
Ok so I've always been so scared of priceline. How do I know if I am getting anything close to 95? DH does not like to drive too far off of 95. Is there a way to know how many stars a certain hotel is before you bid so you can get an idea of what you are going to get?
I'm just going to jump in until Dean gets back

We often bid priceline for HHI at Resort level & a winning bid will get either Westin,Hilton,Marriott or Crowne Plaza resorts, all oceanfront; maybe we've just been luck but we've always had our bids accepted at under $80 or less even during summer months. HHI on island itself is just one zone, but there are zones in surrounding area like Bluffton.
jmho, it is worth the time & patience to research how to bid priceline successfully. Start off by gathering prices for your dates from the hotel's own website and also from sites such as expedia, travelhero, etc. & when you know the lowest available published rate you can typically bid at least 50% less (we've occasionally bid as low as 60-65% off & had bid accepted). Peak travel times &/or a special event happening nearby, ie a pro golf tournament on HHI may require a bid at less than 50% to be successful and sometimes bids will not be accepted even if a particular hotel is showing availability, so it's good idea to have a plan for a back-up reservation.
A good resource with an excellent faq on how to bid priceline & understand the zones within a town/city,etc. is biddingfortravel dot com ; when you click on a state you can click on the first thread tacked on that board for hotels that have been known to come up in a particular priceline zone fairly consistently (but also note that these lists may not be all inclusive) With the info on known hotels in a zone you can then better research travel reviews for these hotels & most importantly, find out their lowest published rates, and also, you can review winning bids posted for hotels on each state's board so you can get a better idea of what your bidding strategy should be and what hotels are most currently accepting bids.
Best wishes
