Depending upon your level of flexibility, you can greatly enhance your Priceline bidding opportunities in major cities by adopting a dual matrix bidding strategy.

Priceline allows you to continue bidding at the same star quality level as long as each new bid includes a new zone configuration that doesn’t duplicate a zone configuration included as part of a single earlier bid.

This feature permits permutations bidding in which you can maximize your bidding opportunities by using all zone combinations available when including Acceptable Zones (zones where you want to stay) and Free Rebid Zones (unwanted zones that are "safe" because they have only hotels rated lower than at the level at which you are bidding).

Determining Free Rebid Zones

Go to the Priceline hotel zone selection page for the city where you will be bidding.

Under "Step 1" -- place a check mark in the box of the first zone as though you were going to bid that zone.

Scroll down to "Step 2" and note the available quality levels, which will be highlighted in blue for the first zone.

Then scroll back up, uncheck the first zone under "Step 1" and then check the second zone and note the quality levels offered in that zone.

Repeat this procedure for each zone listed. Make sure that only one zone is checked each time.

You should always re-check zone definitions and quality levels offered immediately prior to each bid (even if you just bid the same city on the day before) as Priceline frequently changes quality levels offered and zone definitions. When performing this check, make sure the check-in date is not the current date, or you will not be able to check the zones that do not offer same day bidding.

How the Dual Matrix Bidding System Works

The dual system includes an Acceptable Zone Matrix, which determines the number of bids available within each bidding round, and a Free Re-bid Zone Matrix, which determines the number of bidding rounds available.

Matrices adaptable for both Acceptable Zones and Free Re-bid Zones are shown at the end of this post.

For the Acceptable Zone Matrix, select the appropriate matrix for your number of Acceptable Zones and assign a zone for each letter. For the first bidding round, you will be bidding the your Acceptable Zone Matrix alone.

For subsequent rounds, you will rebid your Acceptable Zone Matrix, adding to each bid in the new round the next available zone/zones from your Free Rebid Zones Matrix.

Wherever possible, the matrices have been structured so that the possibility of overbidding is minimized.

Example

As of 5/4/2010, there are eight zones with 4* hotels – Times Square/Theater District, Central Park South, Downtown/SoHo/Financial District, Empire State Building Area, Midtown West, Upper West Side, Midtown East and Hell’s Kitchen.

For this bidding example, the four Acceptable Zones used are:

“A” – Central Park South (CPS)
“B” – Midtown East (MTE)
“C”-- Midtown West (MTW)
“D” – Hell’s Kitchen (HK)

for the following Acceptable Zone Matrix:

CPS
MTE
MTW
HK
CPS + MTE
MTW + HK
CPS + MTW
MTE + HK
CPS + HK
MTE + MTW
CPS + MTE + MTW
MTE + MTW + HK
CPS + MTE + HK
CPS + MTW + HK
CPS + MTE + MTW + HK

For 4* bidding purposes, there are six Free Rebid Zones -- Madison Square Garden/Convention Area, Brooklyn, Long Island City, Chelsea Area, Upper East Side and Coney Island.

For this bidding example, the four Free Rebid Zones used are:

“A” – Chelsea Area (CA)
“B” – Coney Island (CI)
“C”—Long Island City (LIC)
“D” – Upper East Side (UES)

for following Free Rebid Zone Matrix:

CA
CI
LIC
UES
CA + CI
LIC + UES
CA + LIC
CI + UES
CA + UES
CI + LIC
CA + CI + LIC
CI + LIC + UES
CA + CI + UES
CA + LIC + UES
CA + CI + LIC + UES

How the Acceptable Zone Matrix and the Free Rebid Zone Matrix are combined for bidding purposes:
Bidding Round 1 (bids 1 though 15): Bid each of the zones in the Acceptable Zone Matrix alone.
Bidding Round 2 (bids 16 though 30): Bid each of the zones in the Acceptable Zone Matrix plus the first zone entry (CA) from the Free Rebid Zone Matrix.
Bidding Round 3 (bids 31 though 45): Bid each of the zones in the Acceptable Zone Matrix plus the second zone entry (CI) from the Free Rebid Zone Matrix.
Bidding Round 4 (bids 46 though 60): Bid each of the zones in the Acceptable Zone Matrix plus the third zone entry (LIC) from the Free Rebid Zone Matrix.
Bidding Round 5 (bids 61 though 75): Bid each of the zones in the Acceptable Zone Matrix plus the fourth zone entry (UES) from the Free Rebid Zone Matrix.
Bidding Round 6 (bids 76 though 90): Bid each of the zones in the Acceptable Zone Matrix plus the fifth zone entry (CA + CI) from the Free Rebid Zone Matrix.
Bidding Round 7 (bids 91 though 105): Bid each of the zones in the Acceptable Zone Matrix plus the sixth zone entry (LIC + UES) from the Free Rebid Zone Matrix.
Bidding Round 8 (bids 106 though 120): Bid each of the zones in the Acceptable Zone Matrix plus the seventh zone entry (CI + UES) from the Free Rebid Zone Matrix.
Bidding Round 9 (bids 121 though 135): Bid each of the zones in the Acceptable Zone Matrix plus the eighth zone entry (CA + UES) from the Free Rebid Zone Matrix.
Bidding Round 10 (bids 136 though 150): Bid each of the zones in the Acceptable Zone Matrix plus the ninth zone entry (CI + LIC) from the Free Rebid Zone Matrix.
Bidding Round 11 (bids 151 though 165): Bid each of the zones in the Acceptable Zone Matrix plus the 10th zone entry (CA + CI + LIC) from the Free Rebid Zone Matrix.
Bidding Round 12 (bids 166 though 180): Bid each of the zones in the Acceptable Zone Matrix plus the 11th zone entry (CI + LIC + UES) from the Free Rebid Zone Matrix.
Bidding Round 13 (bids 181 though 195): Bid each of the zones in the Acceptable Zone Matrix plus the 12th zone entry (CI + LIC + UES) from the Free Rebid Zone Matrix.
Bidding Round 14 (bids 196 though 210): Bid each of the zones in the Acceptable Zone Matrix plus the 13th zone entry (CA + CI + UES) from the Free Rebid Zone Matrix.
Bidding Round 15 (bids 211 though 225): Bid each of the zones in the Acceptable Zone Matrix plus the 14th zone entry (CA + LIC + UES) from the Free Rebid Zone Matrix.
Bidding Round 16 (bids 226 though 240): Bid each of the zones in the Acceptable Zone Matrix plus the 15th zone entry (CA + CI + LIC + UES) from the Free Rebid Zone Matrix.

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Two Zone Matrix
A
B
A + B


Three Zone Matrix
A
B
C
A + B
B + C
A + C
A + B + C

Four Zone Matrix
A
B
C
D
A + B
C + D
A + C
B + D
A + D
B + C
A + B + C
B + C + D
A + B + D
A + C + D
A + B + C + D

Five Zone Matrix
A
B
C
D
E
A + B
C + D
A + E
B + E
A + C
B + D
C + E
A + D
B + C
D + E
A + B + C
A + D + E
B + C + D
A + B + E
C + D + E
A + B + D
A + C + D
B + C + E
A + C + E
B + C + D + E
A + C + D + E
A + B + D + E
A + B + C + E
A + B + C + D
A + B + C + D + E


Other special situation Priceline bidding matrices are posted here:

http://biddingfortravel.yuku.com/top...e-re-bids.html