Next time you're planning a trip or vacation, you really owe it to yourself to try Priceline.com. If you don't know what Priceline is, it's a site that offers what's called 'opaque' pricing (there are two sites that I know of that do this - Priceline.com and Hotwire.com - another site you should try). Opaque pricing means that the site will tell you some details about the hotel you're considering or the car you're thinking of renting, but you don't get all the details. They may, for example, tell you that it's a 4-star hotel on the Upper East Side of Manhattan - but it won't tell you the hotel name. This style of pricing allows both Hotwire and Priceline to offer discounts off standard rates because it gives them flexibility in finding rooms (there are probably several 4 star hotels in that neighborhood that they can work with and since they're not telling you the name of the one you get until after you book, they have some flexibility).
You can book that way if you like - I've not had great results in getting big savings that way. I have, however, had good luck with Priceline's "Name Your Own Price" option. This feature allows you to bid on hotel stays, rental cars, airline tickets, etc. For example, you tell Priceline that you're interested in a 3 star hotel near Disneyworld and you're willing to pay $55 per night. Priceline will shop that bid and see if any hotels are willing to give you that rate. Same goes for rental cars and airline tickets. If your bid is accepted, you pay Priceline and you're good to go. If it's rejected, you can up your bid and try again, wait 24 hours and try the same bid again, or change some of the details of your bid - like # of stars or location (different area of Orlando for instance).Now - you probably knew all of this already. It's no big secret how these sites work or that you can, on occasion, save a little money by using them. There are, however, some secrets and tricks that you probably don't know that will help you get the best possible deal on Priceline.
Insider Forums - there are two sites that I know of that you can use to find out what is working on Priceline: BetterBidding and BiddingForTravel. Both of these sites are places where people go to post what bids were and were not accepted on Priceline. They're divided into folders by location (Florida, Las Vegas, etc.) and people go and post what they bid, what hotel they got for what price on what date, etc. You can even post your trip details and people will respond to you with what you should bid and what result (i.e. what exact hotel) you will get. I seriously think that people that work at Priceline are on this site because the information is dead on. These two sites take almost all of the guessing game out of bidding on Priceline. Forget bidding $75.00 per night when you can go there and find out that you only need to bid $42.00 per night!!
Ebates - I know I keep harping on Ebates but if you're not using it before you buy ANYTHING online, you're missing out. If you go to Ebates and click through this site before you go to Priceline, you'll get a 2% rebate from Ebates on anything you book at Priceline. Free money for hitting one site on your way to Priceline. Easy.
Things to Keep in Mind - There are some things you should know about Priceline before you go off and start bidding away.
- If you bid and it's accepted, you pay right then and you can't cancel. If you're not definitely going on this trip or you may need to change dates, don't use Priceline.
- I don't use Priceline for airline tickets. They only guarantee that you'll travel between 6AM and 10PM on the day you specify and there will not be more than 1 layover. I need a little more certainty than that - so I use Priceline for hotels and cars - not for airline travel.
- Priceline only works with large, reputable vendors. You don't need to worry that you're going to be staying at some run down, ramshackle hotel. You're going to get a Marriott or Sheraton or something like that. They don't deal with little Mom & Pop places.
- Deals get better as the trip gets closer. Priceline is selling off unused hotel/car inventory and companies know much more about what hasn't sold as the date gets nearer. If you bid 2 months in advance, you probably won't get as good a deal as you will 1 week in advance.
My best Priceline story is a hotel I booked in Budapest a few years ago. I got a 4 star hotel right on the river in the nice area of Budapest for $40 per night. We checked the rate at the hotel when we got there and our room was going for about $180 per night. Pretty sweet deal!
Good luck! Let me know if you can't figure it out and I'll help you!
No comments:
Post a Comment