Ayal

After several months of hard work we are soft launching a new iBIDLow site, and Flyertalk members are invited to be the first ones to use the service, with hopes that you would use this thread to feedback and help us improve it further.

IBIDLow is a search engine for Priceline secret hotels which enables Priceline customers to estimate beforehand, which secret hotels they are likely to receive and how much they would need to pay in the bidding process for maximum discount deals. The information is based upon research and historic bookings by crowdsourcing.

Flyer talk savvy bidders will find some interesting features like same day Rebidding Strategy Tool. The tool replaces the need to use an Excel sheet to plan the rebidding permutations and it produces the bidding strategy automatically.

iBIDLow also includes summarized bidding data and deep links to hotel price comparison websites for each listed hotel, so the best market price in various sites can be known before estimating how much to bid.
Another nice feature is the ability to check which attractions and point of interest are in every city zone in order to decide where to stay. Today the traveller needs to be familiar with the city to be able to choose preferred zones.

We are still testing the new solution, so I would love to hear from you with thoughts and comments regarding this project. iBIDLow was made with love to the bidding community and to Priceline and its values. In order for this service to succeed, we would need contributions from the Priceline users' community.

Ayal @ iBIDLow.com

jabez

This thread was approved for informational purposes

cordelli

I think you really need to expand your areas.

I typed in Newark, NJ and it didn't recognize it. If I put in an airport code, it doesn't recognize it.

It presents meaningless things like 5877 Corporation - Newark, NJ USA, Amusement Park, which doesn't do anything for me.

Since I can't really figure out how to get to the zone I always bid in and stay in, I really can't tell you if the service would be usefull to me or not, right now it seems pretty hard to navigate to where I want to go, at least in this case.

jabez

The concept is a good idea. When I used to my be so addicted to points i stayed in lots of PL hotels. Because I often traveled to the same cities for a period of time, I often could predict the hotels. However, PL chnaged them often. They even changed the star values at times to "confuse" folks like me.
I'll be interested to see how current PL customers view your site.

PDXracer

Very nice site!

Nice to have this additional tool to get a better idea of what kinds of bids are being won by other travelers.

Ayal

Hi Mike,

Thank you very much for your feedback!
Please check: http://ibidlow.com/search/Better-Bid...-Newark-NJ-USA


Newark appears as an airport in the search results (Newark Liberty International Airport - Newark, NJ USA), so your feedback is very interesting.

What do you think that needs to be different in the search result ?

Ayal

Hi Thank you very much!

What do you think about the automatic Priceline rebidding strategy tool?
(In the third tab)

Ayal

I meant the right tab in every city page result

lo2e

I typed in "Portland, Maine", one option that came up was "Portland, Maine Mall - Portland, ME USA". When I clicked on that option and put in dates and rooms, it says "Sorry, we couldn't find your chosen location".

Ayal

Hi Lo2c

Please look at:
http://ibidlow.com/search/Better-Bid...ortland-ME-USA

Thank you for the feedback I learnt from it
Apparently I have a problem with the state names, they could only be found as the state abbreviations.

will5404

cool feature, but the UI just isn't intuitive IMO. I have to look over to the far left to select the star level and zones. Think it be better if you could fit all the options on to the center of the page along with the price range etc.

lo2e

Thank you, I figured out that the best thing to do for my query was just to type in "Portland" and scroll down to Portland, ME USA.

I tried typing in Portland, Maine five different ways and here are the first result it popped up with:

"Portland" - A bunch of cities that are named Portland (including Maine)
"Portland, ME" - Gives me a bunch of cities that start with M
"Portland, Maine" - Maineville, OH
"Portland Maine" - no results
"Portland ME" - Portland Metropolitan Exposition Center, Portland, OR

So as I said, "Portland" gave me the best option for finding what I want. But there's no reason why the other four things shouldn't get me at least close to what I'm looking for and none of them did. Not being harsh (or at least trying not to be), just letting you know so you can try to fix it!

When I got to the list of hotels, they are listed in order of rating, and some of the hotels are given a rating of "Etiquette". Do you mean "adequate"?

Ayal

Hi Lo2e,

Thank you very much, it will be fixed!

Ayal

Hi Will5404,

Thank you for letting me know. I make it more clear.
Did you like the Priceline Rebidding Strategy explanation?

Sam75

I'm still facing the search problem as well. (For example Boston, MA Vs. just Boston)
But in general the site is wonderful and really friendly. It will save me allot of time and money in my next trip.