According to this thread on Flyertalk and this thread and others at Biddingfortravel.com, La Quinta Resort & Club is coming up on Priceline for $40 when bidding for a resort in the “Rancho Mirage-Indian Wells-Palm Desert” zone… and $25 when bidding for a three-star hotel in this same zone.

Priceline has been known to set minimums for successful bids at a particular quality level. It looks like there’s a rate of as low as $25, but when bidding for a resort Priceline rejects bids under $40. There aren’t any three star properties willing to accept anything even close to $25, so Priceline ‘upgrades’ you to a resort when bidding on a three star property.

My hunch is that La Quinta loaded a Priceline rate of $250, err they meant to load a $250 rate, and loaded it as $25 instead. The mistake has been around since Saturday but still appears to be working.

This is a legendary property living off its past glory, but regularly commands room rates over $400 a night so at $25 or $40 it’s a steal.

As always one must be fairly savvy, read the relevant discussions, and know what you’re doing when bidding on Priceline. But this one is worth looking into. (And of course, bid via fatwallet.com for a 3% kickback.)

Not likely to last long…