pynchonesque

Does bid acceptance depend only on price/date/area as compared to inventory, or does it also include other factors, like:

total length of stay for the bid (so it may make sense for the engine to be flexible on one night, if it means getting a very high-revenue stay)
user's bidding history
user's rebid patterns (will they keep bidding higher, or close the window?)
user's cookies (are they looking at other travel sites?)
even timing and mouse movement
etc, etc

I think they may avoid some of these not for technological reasons, but because it might bring them into regulatory trouble (state laws against hotels price-discriminating)?

gleff

Priceline uses Worldspan, hotels publish inventory that's visible only to Priceline. Worldspan definitely provides for restrictions as to length of stay.

I do not believe that Priceline personalizes inventory based on rebidding history, whether a user is searching other sites, etc.

swag

It's harder to tell with Priceline than Hotwire, but I'd assume their technology is just as good.

I know Hotwire looks at the total stay, and averages costs out across high priced nights and low priced ones.

There was discussion a couple of years ago (here or betterbidding, forget which) about a fair amount amount of anecdotal evidence that Hotwire rates using Netscape/Mozilla were often a couple of bucks lower than the same query using IE.

BEAV

I know from experience it doesn't work that way. I've had to split a number of bids for longer stays (4-7 nights) because the hotel either had a higher Priceline rate for one of the nights, or hadn't given Priceline inventory for a given night.

BEAV

I'm sure that's true in most cases, but just the other day I stumbled across the following with Hotwire:

Booking the nights individually, one day at a time:

Night 1 - $199 (Wed)
Night 2 - $104 (Thu)
Night 3 - $104 (Fri)
Night 4 - $104 (Sat)
Total: $511

Booking entire stay in one transaction:

Night 1 - $159
Night 2 - $159
Night 3 - $159
Night 4 - $159
Total: $636


By charging $159 per night for all 4 nights could subject Hotwire to a double-the-difference claim since the hotel's rack rate for Thurs/Fri/Sat night was $124.

747LWW

Wow, how interesting. Thanks for sharing....

Cheers

swag

Well, okay, maybe not averaged. But the cost for each night did move in the direction of the mean.

obscure2k

Please continue to follow this thread in TravelBidding
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator

nixande

Probably not. Because: first example was a booking by night and might dipp into different rooms.

Instead the second one is for something through all nights aka demanding the same room.

As in you are comparing apple and oranges here.

BEAV

The only way you'd have a winning Hotwire double-the-difference claim is if you booked all 4 nights in one transaction (2nd example). As to being subject to room type changes from night to night, I have a number of successful Hotwire double-the-difference claims to my name. From my own personal experience, Hotwire isn't caught up in the room type aspect of a claim. But rather only the fact you were able to find a lower rate at the same hotel for the same dates, etc, etc. It makes sense, because your purchase at Hotwire is completely opaque. This is quite different from the hotel chains with their best rate guarantee programs. If you find a lower rate elsewhere, it has to be for the exact same room type. And they are sticklers on that, to no surprise. But the difference is you're seeing what type of room you're purchasing from the outset, which is in complete contrast to the Hotwire experience.

fti

When booking the four nights individually, you have no absolute guarantee that you are booking the same hotel. Based on your research, it might be very likely but there is the chance of obtaining a different hotel, and such chance is non-existent when booking the entire stay in one transaction.

BEAV

In the example case, there would be no point in booking nights individually anyway because then you wouldn't have a claim against Hotwire's double-the-difference program vs the hotel's rack rate.

With regard to no absolute guarantee of getting the same hotel, you are certainly correct. However I for one would never enter such murky waters if I had the slightest hesitation there was a possibility of two (or more) hotels in the zone with the same amenities.