I was looking at the Priceline Europe for hotels in Milan. The prices are attractive as they are discounted deeply for up to 70%. It seems unbelievable. Can anyone tell me about the pros and cons of this type of discount booking.

Priceline Europe is like other large European booking sites - like Venere.com, bookings.com, otel.com, etc. I don't think there's anything wrong with booking with any of these.

Booking through Priceline is like any other hotel booking site. Those same rates can be found elswhere.

But the best bargains on PL are w/ the "name your own price" option. Check out biddingfortravel.com to see how it works and what hotels are being won at what bids. But if you must stay at a particular property - this won't work because you don't find out which hotel it is until after you've paid.

To use priceline.com, and bid your own price the book
Priveline.com for dummies is a big help. You can get it used or new in amazone for a few dollars. It is worth it.

Interesting...had never heard of Priceline for Dummies. Checked at amazon.com and found the book was published in 2004, so it may be outdated by now. Just a heads-up.

Go to http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=204
Ask your questions.You'll be steered in the right direction.

Thank you all for the input. This is my first try on Priceline and feel comfortable to do so after reading it. So far, it seems PL offer is better than those of Venere at some of the Milan hotels I am looking.

And Jabex, this site is helpful. I have more confidence now than before I write this post. I hope more people will use it.

I haven't used Priceline for European hotels, but I use it regularly for US city hotels. One "trick," if you can handle a bit of uncertainly, is to hold off bidding for a hotel as long as possible. The very best deals will be the last-minute ones, as hotels are anxious to fill their empty rooms. Not sure about doing that for a European vacation, but in the USA, we have waited as late as the same day to bid on a four-star hotel in downtown San Francisco - and we got an amazingly low price acceptance - (way less than we would have expected to pay for a funky Motel 6 along a dead stretch of highway somewhere in the boonies)

"One "trick," if you can handle a bit of uncertainly, is to hold off bidding for a hotel as long as possible. "

Hate to differ,but that's far from true. Different hotels make their PL rates available at different times.
One of the factors is whether they have yield management software or not.

Hello scdreamer, I can handle holding the bids in North America, but I dare not do it in Milan since it will be my first visit there. I would prefer a secured reservation.

Hello jabex, you are right too because within the few days I ventured into PL site for Milan, they have added a few more hotels on their list.

By the way, I also looked into another site call HotelClub, this site is too good to be true. They guaranteed instant booking while other sites answered that the days I requested were unavailable. Their rates are incredibly low as well. Moreover, they have a rebate system that give you credits for future bookings. Are they reliable?

I have tried Priceline twice recently in the US and have had good luck, but did not do well last September with Zurich. I kept bidding for Zurich and less and less showed up. Ultimately I wound up having to take an expensive room with a direct reservation at a mediocre Hilton because most moderate rooms at other hotels were booked.

I have done the name your own price for both London and Paris. London is great in that there are lots of options. Paris tends to be a little more outside the main city. (I got the Sofitel Forum Rive Gauche, now the Marriott)

I use the hotel listings on www.biddingfortravel.com and www.betterbidding.com to help me decide where to place my bids.

I have used PL in Milan twice, Paris twice , London and Venice.

In Milan, I won the LeMeridien for 100 per night US and got a large and beautiful room with two beds in high season. It was a delight.

My most disappointing was the last time I used it in Paris as we had an old, not remodeled room at the Meridien in Montparnesse. It stunk of smoke and was nasty. We asked to be changed and they did accomodate us in this instance but this is not always the case.

Smoking vs non smoking is the biggest issue for me as I hate the stink of cigarettes and in Europe, it is commonplace not to have non smoking.

Otherwise, all have been a very good value.