Englishmum

For anyone who is planning to travel and needs to book an hotel (or air tickets or rental cars) I thought I'd pass on the following information:

If you are looking at hotels and prices for your preferred destination on Priceline and Expedia you have two options. You can choose the hotel you like the look of and pay the fixed price. Or you can 'name your own price' but the condition is that you may get a range of hotels in the same star quality banding and if you want to make a lower bid for a room, you take the risk that you may not get the hotel you prefer.

Last night my friend needed to book an hotel near Newark airport in New Jersey for four nights as her ex-husband is flying in from Australia this week for his US citizenship interview and oath. He has no money so she is paying for his hotel stay.

I'd heard of a website called 'Bidding for Travel' which is a guideline of prices people have paid for hotels, car rentals, airfares etc. when they made a bid on Priceline or Expedia.

We looked up one hotel - the Country Inns & Suites which is brand new. The official non-bid Priceline cost was $108 per night + taxes. We looked up recent bids for this hotel category (21/2 stars) and some people posted that they'd had successful bids and stayed in this same hotel for $50 - $60 per night.

She took a gamble and bid $55 for four nights + local taxes.

Incredibly....she won the bid and was informed that it was successful within 1 minute of posting it - and this was her preferred hotel! It also includes a Continental breakfast.....so the saving is a minimum of $112 and of course the taxes will be lower too.

I'm definitely going to try and use the 'Bidding for Travel' guidelines next time I need to book an hotel.....it's a good idea to add it to your 'favourites'


http://www.biddingfortravel.com

The hotel is:

http://www.countryinns.com/hoteldire...01240601270610

PS: You can also use this same site if you are planning to go to the UK, most of Europe and Asia as Priceline & Expedia also operate internationally.

britchicknyc

I second this. I've had some great success on priceline.com - and biddingfortravel.com is a great guideline.

Scouse Express

Working in the Travel Industry, I stay in Hotels approximately 200-250 nights per year.

I always make reservations directly with the hotel concerned, and, they often match or sometimes even beat the rate quotated elsewehere. I also make a note of the person with whom the reservation was made, just in case.

Trip Advisor.com has lots of reports where an Internet Booking Agency has failed to make a reservation with the property, leaving Clients out of luck for a room, and, waiting a long time for their money back.

Just beware of this, if you choose to book online with a 3rd party agency.

Jim.

HoosierDaddy

I've been using BiddingForTravel for a few years now for hotel stays. My best one was getting the Park Hyatt in San Francisco for just $57/night back in '02. "Best hotel stay ever" as Comic Book Guy would say.

anotherlimey

I had that with Expedia; I turned up at the hotel but they couldn't find the reservation even with the confirmation number, and as they were fully booked I had to find a different hotel... which sucked.

Saying that, I've never had a problem with Priceline; I managed to get the Trump Sonesta on North Miami beach for about 1/2 the cost of the regular rate - over Valentines Day weekend.

MrDub

Whats the deal with booking international flights through priceline. Has anybody tried that ?...and did it work out ?. As far as i can see you specify dates and get up to one connection. Thing is I would not want to be stuck in some airport over night (through a connection) waiting for a flight....would that happen !?

BigDavyG

Interesting - anyone know if this works ??

Giantaxe

Yeh, overnight doesn't count as a connection, so you're safe on that score. It's in the small print somewhere. However, you could end up with a red-eye from west to east coast and then a connecting flight from the east coast to the UK. For this reason, I've never done Priceline for international flights, only domestic and for hotels.

Englishmum

Did you get a good (large?) discount on naming your own price for flights compared to the airline's website or Travelocity/Orbitz/Priceline/Expedia fixed price fares?

Did you get guidelines from BiddingForTravel etc. or did you just make a wild guess?

I guess you don't find out the departure/arrival times until you have agreed to pay for the air tickets?

Sarah

Done it twice with Priceline, on flights from Philadelphia to Manchester. I wouldn't do it again.
The money you save isn't really worth it in the long run. The first time we had to connect in Boston, where they 'misplaced' our luggage and the second time coming back we had to connect in Chicago where we had a NINE hour wait in the airport lounge, admittedly due to bad weather which can happen to anyone, but the money you save on a cheapo flight with a connection you always end up spending on food and magazines to keep yourself entertained between connecting flights.
Another thing is the times are usually the worst possible so the day you leave you might not fly until 9pm at night and coming back you leave at like 5am so you lose vacation time.

cindyabs

It might sound sour grapes but I subscribe to an online travel newsletter done by an Ombudsman for a travel magazine-one of the previously mentioned online sites is a sponsor. It is interesting to note the number of complaints that he has handled from readers on matters such as you mention.......
If I am not familiar with a property I use Trip Advisor, Fordor, Frommer and any other expert source for my clients before I commit their credit card for a reservation. I also use an industry book- updated quarterly that is an impartial critique of a property. Also if need be, I contact the local visitors and convention bureau to get their take on a hotel from a "local's" viewpoint.

cindyabs

One of my corporate accounts several years back had a secretary who used to love to second guess me on my proposed international reservations for her boss. She proudly came up with a possibility for him that WAS cheaper, but I also pointed out to her meant a 5 hour layover in Charlotte. Unless he had someone to visit there, from a "time is money" standpoint it made no sense. I finally told her one time, I don't try to be a secretary, don't try and be a travel agent.

Giantaxe

If you actually bid on Priceline you can see the limitations on connections. Playing around, domestic flights are limited to two connections, 3 hour max layover and flights between 6am and 11pm. Interestingly, this info. didn't show up for an international bid, so I'm not sure.

I always use BiddingForTravel. Very useful, especially for hotel bids. I've not had much success with domestic plane bids - I live near an SWA hub and it's difficult to get bids accepted under their specials - but a lot of success for hotels.