<p>We are trying to book a hotel in an area we’ve booked several times before, always on Priceline. In the past, we’ve gotten the same $350/night hotel (we wanted to stay at) for under $100/night.</p>
<p>For the past two days we’ve been logging on and attempting to book, even broadening the area, but keeping the same number of stars we want. The hotels range from $115-$350/night if we book ourselves. Now bidding $100/night and still not getting any hotel at that price.</p>
<p>Any clue what is going on? Is it that we are more than a month away from our date?</p>
<p>There’s a possibility that none of the hotels are offering any Priceline rooms for your date. They could decide to eventually to release some rooms, but if so, when? Booking over a month away may be too far out for the hotels to accurately gauge occupancy at this point. My suggestion would be that if the $115 hotel rate is refundable, book that for now and keep trying Priceline. Closer to your date, maybe 2 weeks out, bid lower than $100 because you could end up getting the $115 hotel and not really save any money.</p>
<p>It may be that you are trying to book at a time they expect to be busy–there may be a convention or other event in the area. In that case, rates may not go down until closer to the event–or may never get to the pricepoint you would like. What I have done in a similar situation is to book the best possible fully cancellable rate I can find (usually through the hotel’s website). I then keep trying Priceline every few days. If I am able to book a room through priceline at a lower cost than my current room --great. I just cancel the room I have, which you can usually do up until the date of arrival. If the Priceline bid never works out, at least I have a room when and where I need it.</p>
<p>I’d start with MomOf3’s advice of booking a back-up hotel you can cancel. Next I’d check with the hotel you want to win (and maybe a few others) to make sure they’ve got rooms available for your dates. Have you checked [BiddingForTravel.com</a> - The informed Priceline Travel Bidding Forum](<a href=“http://www.biddingfortravel.com%5DBiddingForTravel.com”>http://www.biddingfortravel.com) and [Priceline</a> and Hotwire Forum](<a href=“http://www.betterbidding.com%5DPriceline”>http://www.betterbidding.com) to see what others have been winning? I’d do that before broadening you area or a lowering your star level. You may just have to be patient and submit the same bid each day until a property becomes available. Good luck. I love Priceline and am using them on my trip to Mexico in three weeks.</p>
<p>I also recommend the betterbidding.com site - it is extremely valuable in figuring out what properties are available. I have used Priceline succesfully, but now prefer to use Hotwire since I am better able to figure out which hotel I can get.</p>
<p>We tried Hotwire and just got $$$. We booked a hotel through them (non-bid site) which we can cancel if we get a priceline room closer to our date.</p>