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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Travel Tips for The 'Two Weeks a Year' Vacation

If you are one of the millions of people who have two weeks’ vacation per year away from the office, you undoubtedly want to make the most of them. You’ll want to squeeze every ounce of fun, enjoyment and relaxation out of your vacation, and here are some tips to help you do just that.

 Know what you want: Don’t leave it until the last minute and then scramble around to book a vacation. You’ll end up paying more, and the destination is not likely to meet all of your needs. Especially if there will be children coming along, there needs to be some planning involved to be sure you all have a great time and your money isn’t wasted. This planning should be fun, not a chore. Grab all the travel books available at your local agency, and enjoy some time reading through them to see what piques everyone’s interest. Narrow down your choices based on what really appeals to you.

 Know what you like: Are you a beach person or a mountain person? Would you love to backpack through Europe, or visit the outback in Australia? The cliché ‘life is short’ exists for a reason! Don’t leave all those ‘someday’s’ on the backburner. Know what you like and what you would love to see and do, and plan your vacations around accomplishing some of these dreams. Especially for people who get very limited time off each year, the temptation to just ‘get away’ because it is a relief often overpowers the dream list. Don’t let this happen to you. If you only get so much time off, then make it count. You’ll remember that mountain you climbed for the rest of your life, while that 3 star all-inclusive you may have settled for would have been long forgotten.

 Do your homework: For each trip and each destination, there are usually various ways to make it happen, and various price points for the same features and details. By doing a little legwork yourself, you will not only save a great deal of money, you may even find something nicer than you would have otherwise found. As a little proof, I offer the story of a couple with three kids who searched around following this advice, and for the price of a suite for ONE night in Orlando, they were able to find a flight and accommodation package deal that allowed them to stay in a private villa with their own pool, in a 5 star resort community. This is not an exception – it’s the kind of deal you can expect to find when doing a little homework yourself.

 One final tip is to check out the travel insider secrets in the Travel Industry Secrets guide. There is nothing like knowing what the pros know, and it will save you money and hassle every time. After all, what’s your time worth?...

Have a great time planning your trip, and an even better time enjoying it. Bon Voyage!

P.S. To explore lightening your load and having more leisure time, try this infamous book by Tim Ferris, packed with brilliant ideas on how to work less and enjoy life more.