If you are new to the world of hotel reverse auctions/ bidding, you must do some research before bid on hotel rooms and travel services. New online bidders can be paying much more for an item than is necessary. Here are some things that you should look for:
1. Type of Auction:
Is it a Dutch, English, Sealed-Bid or Vickrey Auction? Most online hotel auctions are the Dutch-style, which means the auctioneer asks a certain price as a minimum (called a reserve) and the bidders keep bidding until time is up. The person who has out-bid the others wins and then must pay for the item.
Other types of auctions include business to consumer or
consumer-to-consumer. eBay is the consumer-to-consumer model where almost anyone can sell their wares and anyone can bid on the item or service. All though bid2travel.com is a business to consumer auction site for hotel room, where there are trusted Indian hotel chains who sell their vacant hotel rooms by reverse auction process.
2. No Reserve Bids:
This means there is no minimum amount you must bid before the auction will send you the item. This is a great way to save money and get great items generally, there is no catch. Check the details before bidding. Bid2travel.com is also using the same pattern for hotel rooms.
3. Packing & Shipping Costs:
Always, and I cannot stress this enough, always check to see how much the shipping charges are before you bid! There are many examples of people having the winning bid on an item and then realizing the shipping fee is more than the cost of the item.
4. Spending:
Always know the maximum amount of money you are willing to spend for your hotel room or travel services. Also, do your research to find the fair market value of the room in a particular hotel.
5. Questions & Contact Info:
A reputable auction site or hotel room seller like bid2travel.com will have easy to find contact details to answer all of your questions. If you find no contact information, do not bid on anything. Chances are if you want to cancel / amend it or if the item is not as promised, there will be no one to contact then either.
6. Fair Value
When you are participating in a reverse auction hotel process of any hotel always gets an idea about the fair value of the room cost in that hotel. You can get the same from the travel Meta search engine sites like chaklo.com. They will give you an idea that which other online travel sites is selling room in a hotel and at what minimum cost.
7. Reverse Auction Newsletters:
You should sign-up for online auction newsletters, like one is available for the registered user of http:// bid2travel.com especially if you are not a regular visitor to this hotel bidding site.
8. Sniping:
It has happened to all of us. No one has outbid you on the item you want. Your bid has been the top bid for about a week. You check your bid moments before and when you turn away from the computer for one second a sniper comes in and outbids you and wins. Who is to blame? You are, in most cases. A sniper can be bidding on his own or can use automated bidding tools to outbid you. There is nothing illegal about it.
9. Bigger is Not Necessarily Better:
Its not always better to bid big for the hotel rooms. Because when you place a bid for hotel rooms on site like bid2travel.com you are practically buying the vacant rooms and you can have a great chance of bidding the bid even at the 50% cost.
10. Oopsoh my God !
In the world of online hotel room reverse auctions, or any other auctions for that matter, a bid is a bid, and it is like taking your finger off a checker. You made your move and now you must live with it. If you must renege, you will be considered a bad person, regardless of the issue. This is because you have driven up the cost of the item for other buyers, you have promised the vendor that you will buy and now you have just gone back on your word. What do you expect? Only, only, only retract your bid when absolutely necessary. Thin09k before you bid for hotel room or any other travel services.
Following these basic rules will help you in the online reverse
auction world. These are not the only things you should know, just the basics. Spend some time watching the auction before bidding and see how it works. Happy Bidding!