Online Travel Booking and Bidding Agencies - Priceline Hotel Bidding Strategy Questions?

I want to bid on a hotel in Baltimore. I'm ok with one of two zones.

One zone (Carlyle-Cross Keys) has two 3 star hotels one of which gets terrible reviews. Is there any way to bid so as not to get the bad hotel?

The other zone (Inner Harbor) has 4 star hotels that I have been bidding on without success. There are also two acceptable 2.5 star hotels in this zone but there is a 3 star that gets terrible reviews. I'm concerned that if I bid on the 2.5 star Priceline might "upgrade" me to the terrible 3 star.

Does Priceline do upgrades in star categories when awarding bids without notifying you first? If so is there a way to control the bid so this does not happen?

Thanks for any help here.

For Inner Harbor you are probably pretty likely to get "upgraded" to the 3-star. It is most common at the 2.5-star bidding level. A lot of those hotels are newer and sometimes charge higher non-Priceline rates than the 3-stars in question. In Inner Harbor, I assume the 3-star is the Wyndham? The 2.5s are the Courtyard and, hm, I dunno which other but those would be better than the Wyndham, yes, which I've stayed in and had a really terrible room. Best bet is keep trying for 4-star if you want Inner Harbor.

Dunno about the suburban zone you mention, never bid that one. I've bid BWI a few times and Columbia once. These are fairly straightforward.

Really, I think if your trip is centered around the Inner Harbor anyway, I'd try to bid for 4-star there. I've stayed at the Hyatt and the Marriott Waterfront, and both are fine. How high have you bid for 4-star on your dates? Every other zone in Baltimore can be added one at a time to get a "free rebid" because there are no other zones in Baltimore that have 4-star bidding. Last time I stayed there I got the Marriott (sometime in July, I think), and that one I think the bid may have been up around 80-90 bucks. Best was in Feb when I repeatedly got the Hyatt for around 60.

To be straight about the answer on bid "upgrades", yes, it happens without your input. You technically bid on "2.5 star or better", not 2.5 star and nothing else. So every time you bid there is the possibility of getting a higher star level if one is available in the zone(s) you are bidding. There is no way to prevent this. That is the nature of Priceline's opaque system and one of the drawbacks you must accept in order to save $$.

Crazy,

I have bid up to $105 for Inner Harbor 4 star 11/5-11/8 without success.

I believe the 2.5 stars there are Holiday Inn and Courtyard, either of which would be fine.

I am concerned that if I bid for 2.5 stars I will get upgraded to the 3 star dreadful Wyndham there. So I have avoided this bid, such a shame.

Thank you.

Hm. You're coming up quickly on this too. I assume you have made some arrangement by now. $105 seems high for Priceline 4* Inner Harbor, but the football game this weekend ups the occupancy considerably I'm sure.

Choices are to take a risk getting the bad places, choose another area and/or book a conventional booking. There are some independent places in the Inner Harbor area. Brookshire Suites is just a block off the harbor, but you're looking at $180 range. http://www.brookshiresuites.com/ The Tremont hotels are several blocks away (and then a few more blocks than that for the farther one) but have rooms at $150-160. http://www.tremontsuitehotels.com/ Have not stayed at any of these, though. Brookshire is convenient, and I've walked through that area at night. The others are less convenient, and I don't know what sort of issues they may present at night.

Given the rates on the hotel sites, you could keep bidding higher for 4* down there. The Hyatt and Marriott will still sell you a room at 300-odd bucks. But that may be unlikely to get a hit. The Residence Inn is going for $200. Radisson will give you $149/night on a prepaid rate. That wouldn't be a bad bet. I haven't stayed there, but that might not be bad.

Crazy,

I have a backup rez at the Holiday Inn on Lombard St. which is not really where I want to be, I can cancel up to 6 pm on 11/5. Do you know anything about this Holiday Inn? Trip Advisor reviews in 2004 were bad, but there are some good ones for 2005.

I used up all my 4 star free rebids on Priceline yesterday for the Innner Harbor, went to $105 again, I can give it one more shot on 11/4. Disappointing because BFT and BB sites have frequent successful $80 bids there.

I may roll the dice on the Carlyle at Cross Keys zone and hope I get the Radisson instead of the Doubletree there. I have read that the Doubletree treats Priceline guests badly.

I've learned a lot about the Priceline process with this exercise.

I'm from Baltimore, live in Florida now. Going to Balt. to visit my brother for his birthday and pig out on Crab Cakes.

Thanks.

I was in Baltimore for Labor Day weekend, and my group got the Marriott Waterfront. I wanted to save a few dollars so I bid 2.5 * and got "upgraded" to the Wyndam. Here is the low down on those hotels:

Marriott Waterside, beautiful property, great location to get to fells point or the inner-harbor area, but too long of a walk for the football stadium.

Wyndam - ugh, first the good - room was ok, elevator problems that plagued the reviews were not a factor, inside the hotel I was fine with everything. The hotel is a horrible location for a tourist, don't walk at night, there is no safe direction to head from that hotel, lots of homeless sleep on the street near that hotel. If you do get it, don't use their parking, there is a cheaper independent lot in the middle of the road right by it.

Now the hoiday inn on Lombard, I stayed there a couple of years ago. When I bid 2.5 *'s that is what I wanted. Decent quality, but great location for the stadiums, and not a horrible walk to the inner harbor area, too far to gets to Fells point.

My advice, bid for the 4*, then settle for your backup reservation at the Holiday Inn, don't risk the Wyndam unless you are just looking for a place to sleep.

Mike,

You experienced exactly what I was afraid of with a 2.5* bid (getiing upgraded to the Wyndham 3*).

Apparently the H.I. was rennovated in 2004?

Crazy,

I'm from Baltimore, live in Florida now. Going to Balt. to visit my brother for his birthday and pig out on Crab Cakes.

Thanks.

Yumma.....not to be missed. Hope you have a great time while you're in our 'fine city' :cool:

I have been to and stayed at the Holiday Inn, but not in years. It's still the same one as far as I know, though may have been renovated. I think you'd be better off there than the Wyndham at this point, until something changes about the latter.

It's really too bad. I like Wyndhams in general and have a favorite one in DC near our office there, but that Baltimore location is just ready for a full refit I think. When I stayed there, it was winter and I couldn't get the heat to balance right. Someone had made extra markings on the controls making it look like they were reversed. After it stayed deathly hot in there, I assumed it wasn't reversed. I couldn't get it not to be hot. I had to open the window. (It did open, at least.) Hey, I remember the elevator problems too now that you mention it! I did walk through there at night (just from my car in that lot underground in the middle of the street there), and I didn't feel really unsafe or anything, but I did get hit up by at least one guy with a sob story looking for cash. Annoying, but I just didn't give him anything, kept heading for the hotel, and wasn't a problem.

Granted, I think this bid was under $50, but what I learned later is that particularly in the winter it doesn't take much more to get a 4-star room. $80 should be more than enough for the vast majority of dates, but you've got one of those problem times. Most Saturday nights should be dead, but you may have a lot of folks in there for the football game Sunday, and some of them might stay over the Sunday night as well. When I looked at some other room prices that showed different rates for each day, it was the Monday night that was the cheapest.