Online Travel Booking and Bidding Agencies - ABQ Wyndham (at airport) for $60. Did I do good?

Or do you think I could have won a better bid?

It's for this Sunday night.

And it's also my first time bidding on Priceline for a hotel.
Rita

Rita - I think you did ok but not great - checkout www.betterbidding.com and www.biddingfortravel.com before bidding in the future - they show that hotel for around $45 but since you're pretty close I don't think what you paid is that bad - hope you saved at least $40 or so.

Rita,

As long as you are happy, then you did good.... :)

I have learned to not fret if my bid was higher by a few dollars than what others got... I know I usually save at least $30 per night on a room... that is good enough for me.

William

Thanks to both of you for your remarks. I do feel pretty good about the bid. My sister tells me it's the best hotel at the airport, so that's the major criteria. Also $60 is a good rate for any hotel, I think.

But I WILL be using the betterbidding and biddingfortravel links next time. I looked at those sites and they are a huge help. I think I have looked at betterbidding in the past, but a long long time ago.

See, I'm somewhat of a control freak when it comes to travel. I like to find my "favorite" hotel, so the idea of bidding without knowing what I'll get is against my nature. However, since I knew that there weren't a lot of high-end hotels at the ABQ airport (like, only one!!!) I felt relaxed enough to make a bid.

Oh the woes of a traveler who is always looking for a perfect experience. Well, no, that doesn't describe me either. One of the best trips I took was when I was with my husband on Santorini and we got bored... hitched a hydrofoil and went to Crete without reservations, information or anything.

But back to your comments. I will sure be bidding lower in the future. I do go visit my sister there regularly, so having a hotel with the potential of a $41 fee is pretty darned incredible. Thanks again.
Rita

OH... you think $41 is cheap?

4 years ago... Priceline had a promotion with American Express where American Express would add $20 or $25 to your bid (cannot remember which) just for using the Amex Card for your bid.

I ended out getting a Homewood Suites in West Des Moines, IA for $1 cost to me per night plus Priceline's fee. I got a Holiday Inn in Dallas, Texas for $5.

AHHHHHH... the good old days... :)

William

Did you check hotel websites first? Or third-party websites, such as Travelocity, etc.? In addition to checking www.betterbidding.com and www.biddingfortravel.com, it's important to do your homework and know how much you would have to pay for a room if you WEREN'T going through Priceline.

I only use Priceline if I feel I can save a huge amount over the hotel chain websites --usually, 50% or more savings. Maybe less savings is acceptable to me if comparing to a hotel website rate that is prepaid, nonrefundable, non-cancellable; or sometimes under other circumstances. Several times I have gotten rates through Priceline that were only about 30-35% of the cheapest web rate -- e.g., $35 a night for a hotel selling for $100-120 a night. That made me very happy!

Or do you think I could have won a better bid?.........
Rita

Glad you are pleased, but as noted you gotta do your homework. $60 is good but $32 is nicer and many airport Wyndhams went for about $32 on the weekends andslightly before and after if you could snag a 72 Hour Sale. I did it at least 6+ times.

MisterNice

Or do you think I could have won a better bid?

It's for this Sunday night.

And it's also my first time bidding on Priceline for a hotel.
Rita

Rita:
You could have done a little better. Found this in BiddingForTravel.com:

3* Wyndham Albuquerque Airport, Saturday 8/21 $45
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This was my first bid, and it was accepted immediately. I have to stay at the airport twice, so I tried bidding the same amount for my second visit. The $45 bid was denied, and so was $50. I few times Wyndham countered with $64, which I did not want to pay. Afer numerous tries I gave up. From what I have seen on the BiddingforTravel board, this hotel seems willing to accept low bids for weekend stays, but expects to be paid much more on weekdays.

There is one "problem" in Albuquerque. There are 3* hotels in almost every area ... so you don't have only limited "free bits". Knowing this, your approach was O.K. .... as you wanted a 3* at the airport, right?

I don't know whether this was available on the particular Sunday in question (last weekend), but the Wyndham website often has a prepaid, non-refundable, non-cancellable weekend special rate. For tomorrow night they were showing a rate of $71+tax for this. The $60 Priceline rate + PL fee would be almost this much.

That is why it is so important to check the hotel chains' own websites BEFORE bidding on PL. If you book on the hotel's own website, you 1) know upfront which hotel you are getting and 2) are more assured of getting the hotel frequent-stay points and perks. (Most hotel chains these days won't give you points and other benefits on PL stays. Of course, YMMV.)

I don't know whether this was available on the particular Sunday in question (last weekend), but the Wyndham website often has a prepaid, non-refundable, non-cancellable weekend special rate. For tomorrow night they were showing a rate of $71+tax for this. The $60 Priceline rate + PL fee would be almost this much.

That is why it is so important to check the hotel chains' own websites BEFORE bidding on PL. If you book on the hotel's own website, you 1) know upfront which hotel you are getting and 2) are more assured of getting the hotel frequent-stay points and perks. (Most hotel chains these days won't give you points and other benefits on PL stays. Of course, YMMV.)


Yea, I made my reservations on the Thursday night before the Sunday night stay. The cheapest I could find on their site was $109, so I thought my $60 was okay.

Of course, maybe the closer I would have gotten to last Sunday the cheaper the rate might have been directly. But there was a point when I had to be sure where I was staying, in case there was some unknown (by me) reason why they could fill up.

On this trip I was travelling with my 5 1/2 year old grandson (on his first plane trip ever) so I wanted the Sunday night thing secure.

I think I'm satisfied although as I said before, a $35 rate would have been nicer too.
Rita

Thanks to the info on this thread, I bid $45 for a 3* hotel at the ABQ airport and got the Windham.

For the night after Thanksgiving.

Congrats on beginning your journey in the land of Priceline hotels, Rita!

I haven't paid full price for a hotel on a leisure stay in years. In fact, for most of the past few years I've qualified for an employee rate at either Marriott or Hilton and the Priceline rate has been better!

For reference, my last two accepted bids were 2.5 stars Cleveland airport at $40 (upgraded for free to 3 star Marriott - great stay) and 2 stars in Oshkosh for $30 (excellent Baymont Inn).

In general, I bid at 2.5 star level. Below that can get somewhat shady, but I've never (knock on wood) gotten a bad property bidding 2.5 star or above and, unless occupancy in general is high in an area, I've never had to pay more than $40 for a room.

Best bid ever was last summer, got the 3 star Hyatt Regency Arcade in downtown Cleveland on a Thursday night for $27. :D

I can live with not getting miles or points for a stay when I'm saving 60%+ each night.

As wharvey said, tho, as long as you're happy with it, it was a successful bid. :) ^