American Web Hotels

courtesy Priceline.com

One of the ways to find Louisville cheap hotels is by using Priceline’s Name Your Own Price option, which allows you to bid for cheap hotels in Louisville. Although you won’t know the exact place you’ll be staying in (you find out what hotel you’ll have only once your credit card is charged), the kinds of prices it gives you more than makes up for the uncertainty. While you’re bidding the only 2 things that you will know about your hotel is the general area it will be in and minimum amount of stars it will have. Why the ambiguity?

When hotels have rooms which are left unsold they use Priceline to fill them. As such, Priceline connects bargain shopping customers who do not mind not knowing which hotel they’ll be staying in, with these hotels.

The key to getting the best price possible on Priceline is how you bid. If you only know how to bid one time, you’ll be forced to bid high. If you know how to bid many times, you can bid low from the beginning and increase your bid by a little bit each time, guaranteeing that you get the lowest price possible on Priceline. How do you rebid many times?

Although the rebidding method is not shown on Priceline’s website, it is prevalent elsewhere on the web.

Search Louisville in Priceline and you’ll notice that it gives you 6 zones:

Brooks – Shepherdsville
Louisville Airport Area (SDF)
Louisville Downtown
Louisville East
Louisville North
Louisville Southwest

By clicking and unclicking on each zone you’ll find out the maximum star level available within each zone:

Brooks – Shepherdsville: 2-Star Moderate
Louisville Airport Area (SDF): 3-Star Upscale
Louisville Downtown: 4-Star Deluxe
Louisville East: 3-Star Upscale
Louisville North: 3-Star Upscale
Louisville Southwest: 2 1⁄2-Star Moderate-Plus

Why do you have to find out the maximum star level? Because it is the key to rebidding…

I’m assuming here that you want to stay in a hotel that is at least 3-Star Upscale. This means that you can only bid for the zones which contain at least 3 stars (Louisville Airport Area, Louisville Downtown, Louisville East, Louisville North). If you want immediate rebids you simply include additional zones in your bid that do not include your minimum/chosen star level. This way you get immediate rebids. Because these dummy zones do not include your chosen star level, you know you won’t get stuck in these “dummy”: zones.

Louisville Airport Area, Louisville East, Louisville North, or Louisville Downtown can each be substituted for the “bid zone” you see below. How much should you start the bid for each zone? Check betterbidding.com and biddingfortravel.com. In the Kentucky zone of each website you’ll see the winning bids for 3 Star Upscale hotels within each zone.

If your 4 bids for one of these 3 zones does not work, you still have 2 zones with 4 bids each. (make sure to have 3-Star Upscale at all times as your chosen star level)

1. bid zone
2. bid zone+Brooks – Shepherdsville
3. bid zone+Louisville Southwest
4. bid zone+Louisville Southwest+Brooks – Shepherdsville

For bid 3 you’re going to have to start brand new bid by clicking the Priceline logo at the rejection screen (check picture at end of article)

For bids 2 and 4 you simply add the additional zones (check the picture at the end of article)

If you want 4-Star Deluxe or 3 1⁄2-Star Upscale-Plus you only have Louisville Downtown with which to work with because it is the only zone which contains 4-Star Deluxe and 3 1⁄2-Star Upscale-Plus. What should your first bid be? I checked out biddingfortravel.com and betterbidding.com.

If you want 4-Star Deluxe as your chosen/minimum star level: At the time this article was written there were only several winning bids posted dating back to 2007. These bids were in the neighborhood of $90. I’d start bidding at $65 with $5 increments. Or you can start at $80 with $2 bid increments. It’s all up to you.

If you want 3 1⁄2-Star Upscale-Plus as your chosen/minimum star level: I saw recent bid for around $55.

Despite what I saw, you should still check yourself. By the time you read this article there will be newer recent bids posted.

You have 32 bids available! Feel free to mix it up:

(Make sure to have 4-Star Deluxe or 3 1⁄2-Star Upscale-Plus as your chosen star level for all bids and that your bid higher each time, otherwise you are wasting your bids.)

For every even numbered bid you simply add a zone to where it says “Can you select additional areas where you can stay?” For every odd numbered bid after the first bid (3,5,7,…) you’re going to have to start a new bid by clicking the Priceline logo in the top left corner of the rejection screen.

1. Down.
2. Down.+Brooks
3. Down.+Airport
4. Down.+Airport+Brooks
5. Down.+East
6. Down.+East+Brooks
7. Down.+Airport+East
8. Down.+Airport+East+Brooks
9. Down.+North
10. Down.+North+Brooks
11. Down.+Airport+North
12. Down.+Airport+North+Brooks
13. Down.+East+North
14. Down.+East+North+Brooks
15. Down.+Airport+East+North
16. Down.+Airport+East+North+Brooks
17. Down.+Southwest
18. Down.+Southwest+Brooks
19. Down.+Airport+Southwest
20. Down.+Airport+Southwest+Brooks
21. Down.+East+Southwest
22. Down.+East+Southwest+Brooks
23. Down.+Airport+East+Southwest
24. Down.+Airport+East+Southwest+Brooks
25. Down.+North+Southwest
26. Down.+North+Southwest+Brooks
27. Down.+Airport+North+Southwest
28. Down.+Airport+North+Southwest+Brooks
29. Down.+East+North+Southwest
30. Down.+East+North+Southwest+Brooks
31. Down.+Airport+East+North+Southwest
32. Down.+Airport+East+North+Southwest+Brooks

A big thanks to betterbidding.com and biddingfortravel.com Although both sites talk about permutation method which I use to help you, biddingfortravel.com has an “advanced rebidding” post which places all the permutations in a logical order, thus making you start a new bid every other bid rather than for most of the bids (you’ll see what I mean once you start bidding yourself).

Happy bidding! With this method you are sure find Louisville cheap hotels!