sky auction ?

[dennise]

I am not sure about Sky Auction, Does it cost anything to register? From what I read, there is a $32. a night service and tax charge per room and a $15. per bid charge. Is this right? Do you still have to pay the the $15 if you don't win your bid? Does anyone know what this bid charge is if you live in Canada? Never used SA before, but it looks interesting. Any help would be appreciated. I wasn't able to locate any FAQ for the site.

 

[disneysteve]

Registration is free.

The $15 charge is only if you win the auction. The other tax and service charge varies depending on the auction.

For example, I recently won a 1 week stay at a 2-bed, 2-bath condo in Kissimmee. The final bid was $51. There is a $195 tax/service charge and the $15 fee, so my total is $261. That works out to $37.29/nite. Tough to beat that.

From the homepage (skyauction.com), click on Customer Care and you will access all the help screens, bidding info, tutorial, etc. They explain everything pretty well. Also, I've found them very repsonsive in answering e-mail questions. You can also call them and ask questions that way.

 

[dennise]

Thank you DisneySteve for the info. I have only ever used PL for bidding and have been pleased with the results. We never stay a week in one place(we're just like gypsy's) when we go to Florida, but I see that you can bid for as few nights as you wish. At least I think so. Maybe I will give this a try. Not going until April, so I have loss of time to check it out.

 

[disneysteve]

The best deals on SkyAuction seem to be for the week stays. I don't know that the by-the-nite auctions are as good so be sure to compare with other places.

 

[Local_Girl]

Dennise,

You could still get a good deal per night by bidding on a week long stay...even if you don't plan to stay for the full 7 nights. If you win a Ready Set Go auction for about $50, your total with fees and taxes would be $260, or roughly $37+ per night. But if you were to stay only 5 nights, divide that $260 by 5 and you come up with $52...still a good deal for a nice 1 or 2 bdrm condo. I would definitely let the resort know if you are planning to check in late or check out early though...

I agree that the bid per night auctions don't give you the same value as the week long stays...you have to start with that $32 per night and add your bid...if you watch the auctions carefully you can determine what a good per night rate would be and bid accordingly. From what I've seen though, the bidding on these auctions often goes too high to make them a good deal, IMHO.

 

[barbnbrian]

So if I win an auction for a 7 night stay, I'm not required to stay the whole 7 nights? I wanted to stay at the Westgate Villas but the 2 bedroom villas are sold out for my dates. I only need nights total. I looked on Hotel Kingdom and it shows sold out, so I was looking on Skyauctions. Any suggestions?

 

[disneysteve]

Originally posted by barbnbrian
So if I win an auction for a 7 night stay, I'm not required to stay the whole 7 nights?

That's correct, but you will pay for all 7 nites. If the price paid is low enough, though, it's still a good deal even if you check in late or leave early as Local_Girl illustrated above.

We've got a 2-bed condo booked for $37.28/nite. Even if we only use 4 of the nites, that's still only $65.25/nite for 2 bedrooms, 2 baths and a full kitchen.