AOL User's Please Note: *CaddyBytes is best viewed in Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Netscape or any browser other than AOL's!

Begin Here once you've just read out Introduction To Bidding on Priceline.com page here: and you've put in your city, dates, clicked on the 'Name Your Own Price' link and are now at the maps page with the zones for which you will be bidding on:

Following is an example of how to bid on Priceline.com if you were searching for a hotel for the Chicago BMW tournament.  You can use the same techniques to bid the other tournament cities:


Here is a sample HOW TO Bid using the Chicago Area.  Some cities may not be this complicated but the bigger market cities are.  For Turning Stone it's just East Syracuse NY, Utica, and Rome on the other side.   For the big cities it can get complicated.  Here is an expert example on how to do it correctly.  

Granted this is long and tedious narrative but it's the process that you are trying to learn in order to successfully obtain a winning Name Your Own Price hotel from Priceline.com:

The following is a contributing article written by Harry Brown who has become an expert on how to bid Priceline:

... So now let's plan a Priceline
bid.

You have already selected several zones in the city you want to stay in as acceptable. You also have the choice if what quality in each zone. You have selected your dates of stay. So what should you bid and where? Remember, Priceline is a poker game. You can only make one bid per 24 hours unless you change something besides the price. That something can be the zone, the dates, or the quality level.

In other words, you can't just bid $30 and if rejected immediately bid $31, then $32 until you win. You need to change something else as you
increase your bid.

What follows is a long process and is typical of what you need to do each week unless you already know what success others had on
Priceline. Please share your successful bids with us and we'll share them with you. Tell us what hotel you got, when, what * rating it is,
what area it is in, what you paid for it, and the details on how you got it. For example, did you bid lower before and got rejected? How much lower?

A made-up example follows with the information we and others would like to hear:

"2.5* Hyatt Place Dallas Airport, March 21-27, $48. I was rejected at
$38, and $43. I added Irving which also had a 2.5* as that was close
by. and then did a free rebid and got accepted at $48."


OK, without any help, let's get a cheap priceline hotel for the Western Open on the South Side of Chicago. the first thing to do is
goto PGATour.com and look at the schedule. Make sure you have the dates right, and the name of the golf course. Most of the time, the address of the golf course is curiously missing on that site: instead they give out driving instructions, which are not what we want. So Google COG HILL LEMONT and you will find the address: 12294 Archer Ave Lemont, IL 60439.

Enter this address in a map program and you will see exactly where the course is located. Now link to Priceline through our link: and sign in if you have an account. If not, you don't need one, you can do without it if you don't mind entering all
your financial info each time you use Priceline. Click on Hotels and enter Lemont, Il and your dates of arrival and departure . You wil
then be shown Lemont along with LaGrange and Oak Park, Il, Curiously there is no map showing you the boundaries of these 3 zones. They do
tell you that LaGrange is 16 miles away and Oak Park is 25 miles away. click in the box left of Lemont and below you will see the 1* radio
button becomes active but the others are ghosted. So Priceline only offers a 1* in Lemont, nothing better. Unclick Lemont and click the
radio button for LaGrange. This zone offers  2.5* and 2* Hotels. If the hotels are along I-55 (likely) they are about 5 miles from the Rte
83 exit which is 6 miles from the course. Unclick LaGrange and click Oak Park. it's too far away but useful: Priceline offers 2* and 1* hotels in this zone.

Bid on a 1* in Lemont if you want. Many don't want a 1* especally if they don't know what it is. If you are rejected you can then click on
LaGrange and increase your bid, say another $5. If you are rejected, you are done in this area for 24 hours, as you don't want to add Oak Park: it's too far away. Additionally, once you bid on a 1*, you can't go bidding on a higher rating the same day: Priceline considers your bid includes all the better quality hotels in that area but not the lower quality hotels. and Priceline will upgrade you to a higher level hotel if possible. Priceline will never downgrade you. And that is the key to our most useful bidding technique: the FREE REBID.

Let's go after the 2.5* in LaGrange. What would likely be the least they would accept for it? An easy way to estimate this is to go to Hotels.com and search for LaGrange, Il. They list hotels in Oakbrook and Willowbrook, but not Lagrange. 2.5 and 3* hotels are over $100 and the cheapest 1* is $65. Many of the prices are stable the whole week, but some of the cheaper hotels raise their rates on the weekend, while
the 3*'s may lower their rates on the weekend. This is common as weekend drivers fill up cheap hotels, while business travelers return home on the weekend and leave the best hotels with many vacancies.  The best rate we can hope for is about 1/2 that offered elsewhere. the Hilton Garden Inn shows 3* but on Priceline that is likely a 2.5*.
pricelin's standards are higher than anywhere else. So $55 is a reasonable place to start. If we have lots of free rebids, we could try lower. Or if we have lots of time and can come back in 24 hours, we could start lower. In this case we can bid $50 for a 2.5* in LaGrange. If we are declined, we can add Lemont immediately and raise
our bid to say, $55. Why? Because, Lemont has only a 1* and we don't have to worry about getting downgraded. By adding Lemont, we have
fulfilled Priceline's requirement of changing something besides the price and yet we are still only bidding on a 2.5* in LaGrange.

If we get rejected, next add the Oak Park zone and increase the bid to $60. Oak Park has only a 2* and a 1*, thus we can't possibly be accepted for a 2.5* there, so this is another free rebid. If we are
not accepted at $60 we can wait 25 hours and bid more (or bid the same, as prices do change, up or down as the hotel sees fit). Or we can try another approach.

Oakbrook has hotels on Hotels.com and it's not too far. Willowbrook is even closer. Click on Hotels to start over in Priceline and enter Oakbrook, Il and your dates. You get a screen with 15 zones and a map showing you the boundaries of each zone. It looks like Bolingbrook is closest to Lemont, followed by Willowbrook, Lisle, and Oakbrook. Get a piece of paper and a pencil. Click on the radio button of each Zone and note what * qualities each one offers. Be sure to unclick before
you look at the next zone. When you are done you have this information:

Algonquin: 2-1
Arlington Heights 3-1
Arlington Heights North  2x-1
Auora 2-1
Bloomingdale - Itasca - Carol Stream 3-1
Boling Brook - Romeoville 2x-1
Dundee - Elgin 3-1
Elmhurst 2x-1
Hoffman Estates 3-1
Lisle - Naperville - Warrenville 3-1
McHenry County 3-1
Oakbrook - Downer's Grove 4-1
Saint Charles  2x-1
Schaumburg 4-1
Willowbrook 3-2-1

---------------------------------

Boling Brook - Romeoville  with their 2x* and 2* hotels are the closest to Lemont. Let's ttry for that zone. Priceline shows us that the 2* is the best deal there and this tip is usually true. We can bid
the 2* now but we only get one shot at it without adding other areas we might get. Look what happens if we bid a 2.5* instead:

There are 2 zones which only have 2* and less hotels: Algonquin and Auora. So we have 2 free rebids for a 2.5* in Boling Brook. Let's do
that for $45, $50 and $55. Of course if we get accepted this whole process stops and we are done. But let's push on, assuming we are
rejected. Willowbrook is close too. It doesn't have a 2x* but does have a 3* We have to start over by clicking on Hotels. This clears the selected radio buttons and is VERY important. It's like erasing the
blackboard before starting a new problem.

Look at all the free rebids at the 3* level: 6 zones don't offer as high as 3*'s That means we can mak a low bid for a 3* Willowbrook, and raise our bid 6 times by adding these zones without any risk of
getting anything but a 3* in Willowbrook. Let's bid $45, $48, $51, $54, $57, $60, $63. Nothing?
Then click on HOTELS to start over and then select 2.5* and click on Boling Brook - Romeoville and Willowbrook together and bid $60. This is allowed because we have not bid both Romeoville and Willowbrook TOGETHER at the 2.5* level. Remember, when we first bid Romeoville, we
did not add Willowbrook because with it's 3* hotels, we could have been accepted with an upgrade. We were bidding on Romeoville
exclusively at that time.

So we've been rejected again. now what? Lisle - Naperville - Warrenville has a 3* rating. Let's bid that and add those other 6 free rebids like we did with the Willowbrook Zone. Still shut out? try the
2.5* hotels in Lisle and you have 2 free rebids, plus start over and combine it with Willowbrook for another 3 free rebids, plus start over & combine it with Romeoville for another 3 rebids.. start over and combine all 3 of them for another 3 free Re-Bids.

Are you getting the picture? With several areas that you are willing to stay in, the amount of changes you can make and still increase your
bid can be huge. I booked a room for someone recently for this event. I got shut out until I added Oakbrook. I bid a 3* in Oakbrook and after using several free rebids, I got accepted at the Holiday Inn for $56 a night. It's 15 miles from the course but in a nice area with lots of resturants, and 10 miles are freeway travel. It's a former Sheraton and definately 3* material.

One word about counteroffers: Sometimes Priceline will reject your offer and make you a counteroffer. Unless you are desperate or don't
like saving money, ALWAYS reject this counteroffer because it is always way too high. Simply use the techniques you learned here to bid
again a little higher, with the knowledge that you are getting close to the lowest $ priceline will accept.

                                                  by Harry Brown

If you feel this is too complicated and want us to do the bidding for you Email Us Here:

Caddy Guide Home Page:

Tournaments page - with more Winning Caddy Interviews

New in 2010: Golf News of the Day is the place to go on CaddyBytes for daily stories from around the world of tournament golf!

More CaddyBytes 'Featured Caddy Stories'

Read our exclusive caddy  'Haul' of Fame Interviews!

The Virtual Golf Tours are great visual golf tours of some famous courses...

Our Resource of Caddy Books provides you with a bibliographical resource of all the books ever written on, about, or by golf caddies! (*Now with Book Reviews added!)

Tiger Woods 2006
PGA Championship
(Medinah)
Highlights DVD!
Click Here:

New in 2007!
Sonocaddie
Personal GPS
Yardage Caddie
Click Here:

Phil Mickelson 
2006 Masters
Tournament
Highlights DVD!  
Click Here:


Black Shark MX
EZ Launch
Hybrid Clubs 
to replace your
long irons!
Click Here:


Personal Golf Simulator 
- Play the World's best courses
at home on 
your XBox or PC! 
Click Here:

Signup for the CaddyBytes Newsletter Here: When you Submit your email address you will receive information about how to get a collectible BC PTCA Caddy Doll, as well as upcoming CaddyBytes News, Golf Product Specials and Giveaways! CaddyBytes.com will not share your email address with Anyone, Ever! (Also: We've recently updated our Email Security!)

Click Here: To Email Us Here for help in getting your hotel room for you

Caddy Guide Home Page: