Save Money on Four- and Five-Star Hotels

As we all know, travel can get expensive...even more so these days with higher fuel and operating costs being passed on to consumers.

For those of you who are always looking at 'retail' search sites for deals, there are other options.

One such alternative is Priceline.com. Priceline is a website based on a bidding process, and they have a unique proposition for you: if you have a set date and destination in mind, and know which type of hotel* you'd like to stay in, they can get you a deal. Priceline customers need to be flexible about the exact hotel desired, and be able to travel with relatively short notice.

*While we will focus today on hotel room bidding, you can also use Priceline to get deals on flights and rental cars.

Background

Many hotels, once they have sold all the rooms they feel they can within a given time period, offer their 'extra' unsold rooms to sites such as Priceline to sell. For this reason, almost all hotel deals at Priceline are found last minute; a day to within a few days of your expected travel. The deals are well worth the effort - they can often be at least 50% off regular hotel room rates.

Priceline offers hotel rooms on a bidding system, which works as follows:

• You decide on the dates and destination


• You decide the minimum level of hotel quality you'd like to stay at (3*, 5*, etc.)


• You bid on a hotel TYPE based on your preferences, and then are informed of the hotel you've been appointed.

With a system like this, you MUST know what you are willing to settle for, and accept what you get once a bid has been filled. Because you won't know WHICH hotel you are getting until you pay for your bid, you must be careful in your bidding, and you must accept what you get. For instance, if you enjoy staying only at 5* hotels, be sure and bid accordingly. If you are willing to be more flexible with your star level or location, your options open up further.

Some of the successful bids I have made in the last year serve as examples:

4* Hyatt in Downtown Miami - Rack rate $179 paid $60
4* Monte Carlo on the strip in Las Vegas - Rack rate $249 paid $69
3* Holiday Inn Airport Miami - Rack rate $129 - paid $50
4* Hilton Airport Chicago - Rack rate $279 paid $60

An alternative to priceline is Hotwire.com. In this sister site's system, you put in your criteria and a bid amount, and then the search engine will return with an offer or several offers. You WON'T know which hotel/s are bidding for your dollars until you accept an offer. Based on location and star ratings, you can usually have a fairly good idea which hotels are involved. I often use Hotwire and Expedia as testing gorounds to see what the going rates are, and then place my bid/s through Priceline.

IMPORTANT TIP: DON'T PAY TOO MUCH! Be sure and visit the forum site www.BiddingForTravel.com for further instructions and advice on using Priceline and Hotwire. You will find useful strategies discussed, as well as recent successful bid details, which can help you determine how much to bid.

Bon Voyage!

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