Bidding against community members

[funtimes]

Hi I definitely understand the predicament and fortunately it hasn't happened to me yet ... if and when it does I will probably send the community member a private message saying "may the best "man" win" Hey we are becoming friends but, we all enjoy a travel bargain right??? Happy Travels ...Funtimes

[leaser]

I am a longtime LL user and fan, but new to the "Community". I will volunteer that it might sometimes be a case of "be careful what you wish for, you might get it". I outbid someone for 3 nights in a London hotel property to use as a layover on the wayto a St Petersburg, Russia auction that I had won. Have lived in England off and on, I thought I was getting a great deal at the Capital Hotel, since the price which won the auction was about 1/2 the listed retail value. Imagine how frustrated I am now to see that I could have booked directly with the hotel for the exact same package (all the amenities included except a 10% discount to the adjacent spa) for less money than I paid to win the auction. Given the situation with falling tourism in the UK because of the dollar to pound rates,I don't exactly blame Luxury Link, but it would be nice if this could be avoided. I've never had this happen before, but am feeling a little disgruntled. Oh well, if I'm looking for someone to blame, I can always fall back on "It's the economy, stupid!"

[lhbrown]

Hi laser,

Welcome to the Community. You are right, that sometimes you can get as good a deal or better by checking with the hotels directly, and sometimes, the hotels are willing to match the LL packages. It all has to do with doing your HOMEWORK. I have found that the $1 Mystery auctions are often more expensive than the initial offering price for the regular auctions of a particular property. Nontheless Happy Bidding!

[leaser]

Hi Travel-fan,



Actually, I prettythoroughly research all my travels and, at the time of the auction, the hotel's website prices were in line with the "suggested retail prices" shown on the auction page. They have since dropped their prices since most of England's tourist-related industry is struggling right now. But thanks for the advice. You do know that ALL CAPS in a message is the same as shouting at someone, right? No need to get excited... :-)



Leaser

[kyshel]

Hi LHBrown! I was curious about your comment about $1 mystery auctions. Nearly all of the mystery ones I've won were less than the initial price I've ever seen offered--2 were almost less than half of the cheapest price (those were REAL deals!) The last one I got was barely a hair under the current starting price. Those were all prices before I applied contributor or regular GC's, too.
I've seen demand/interest drive a few way over what the typical purchase price was--is that what you meant? But, I guess that's the action of the "auction game", eh?
Now that I ponder it further, you may be "righter" than I thought, since I usually bid on some of the weird ones nobody else wants!!

[claassenam]

Hi Kyshel and LHBrown - I agree, at the beginning when the $1 Mystery Auctions were more of a novelty, it did seem that the prices were getting to be a little ridiculous - especially when you consider that you can't quite be positive where you are going! But I think that the prices have calmed down lately. Or maybe it's just that I, like Kyshel, happen to be looking at the less popular ones. I recently purchased a mystery package to Prague for a couple hundred less than the regular LL price (which happens to be quite good). It was fairly obvious to me which hotel it was, so it really wasn't a mystery. Of course, back to the thread topic, if one of you were bidding against me I would probably be a little less agressive about it!

[jashermd]

Hello,

So far I haven't encountered any situations where I was bidding against a fellow Community member (perhaps because the things I bid on tend to be less popular)? I'd probably be a bit less aggressive particularly if I knew that the other person had been planning a trip for a long time and was really looking forward to it, as many of my bids are impulse buys (e.g. for a long weekend in Europe).

Cheers,
Julian

[maylinglai1]

I get a lot of bidders remorse, so feel free to bid against me if you are happy to pay more than I am. I may outbid you if I really want it, but that's part of the fun!
That's so weird with the London package. Is that the second person that's mentioned that in the recent months? Interesting....

[nomadbea]

Hi all

To be honest, I'd feel "funny" bidding agaisnt a friend, so if I were in this situation, I'd probably just back away. Regardless, I can sort of rest assured that LL will have another package that interests me soon (hopefully!)


Cheers!

[kyshel]

Maybe I'll take more care to see if you're in the auction, Maylinglai. If that's the case, then you're just driving the price up by casually bidding with no real intent to buy. Thanks for the tip...