What is the difference between Priceline and Hotwire, and which of the two is better.
 

I was going to book through Travelocity
but then I checked Hotwire, and they have
very good prices, and I wonder which of the
two has better prices, and savings?
Thank you

I sometimes book on Hotwire. The difference is that on Hotwire you don't know which hotel you will receive. I get excellent prices with them, but only book when it doesn't matter exactly which hotel I use. A few examples are: This past weekend we booked a suite hotel in the Westminster, Colorado area, and received a TownPlace Suites by Mariott, suite for $45 per night. We also have a Hyatt in Lille, Ill., near Chicago for $60 per night and we've booked a wintertime hotel at the Bercy metro stop in Paris for $50, that's USD not Euros, this past February! It was a fine business hotel. It's great in those circumstances.

I booked a car through Hotwire just this past weekend and it turned out to be through Hertz. We were even given a complimentary upgrade to a nicer car than we had reserved.

"The difference is that on Hotwire you don't know which hotel you will receive.."

Depending on how you book on Priceline you don't know which hotel you will receive, either.

With Hotwire, they tell you what price you want, and you can accept or not. With Priceline, you can try out whatever price you want, and it may or may not be accepted. With Priceline, you select a star level, which provides limited information about the hotel, but some indication of its quality. With Hotwire, you get amenities listed for each hotel, which help you narrow down the possible hotels you might get. Both Priceline and Hotwire use the principle that you could get a hotel anywhere inside the map of your specified zone.

Both services can be very useful and save lots of money, and both can be very disappointing if you don't properly research. Look at Betterbidding.com for help on both.

I use Priceline more than Hotwire by a large margin, but in certain areas Hotwire is the best bet.

All of them have the best prices - for some hotels in some cities at some times. Except when the hotel's own web site has the best price.

All you can do is search everywhere, hope you can figure out which hotel Hotwire is listing and be very careful in selecting categories/areas in Priceline.

The original poster was asking the difference between Travelocity and Hotwire, not Priceline and Hotwire. There is a big diffence here!

But the title of the post asks "what is the difference between Priceline and Hotwire and then the QUESTION refers to TRAVELOCIY and Hotwire.

It all depends on the city and your dates. I've had great luck with Priceline and have nearly stopped using Hotwire. You run a serious risk with Hotwire of (pre) paying as much or more for a room you can book directly with the same hotel with a generous cancellation policy.

Thank you for all the feedbacks!!
I am sorry I made a mistake and wrote
travelocity instead of priceline and
Hotwire. I will do my homework.
Thanks for your help!!

Good question.
I've never used Hotwire but I've used Priceline quite a bit. In addition to Betterbidding, www.biddingfortravel.com offers some good info for Priceline.

I've never used Hotwire to book, but have researched there a lot. Priceline is great for a lot of the cities we visit, or want to. There best cities for us have been:

New York
Washington DC
and I would try London

Since we're on the European board, Priceline areas in Paris and Rome are just too huge, and I would rather stay in a cheap hotel in a great location, than in one of Priceline's better hotels far from the center of Paris or Rome.

I hope this is helpful.

Priceline is ok for US bookings but the whole appraoch doesn't seemt o work when travelling in Europe as the make up of accommodations is totally different. In the US there are are a large proportion of hotel groups whereas in Europe I think 80% of properties are indepently owned which means the standards vary vastly.

Trying to book through the Priceline model is therefore very risky in Europe as you're not too sure what you may get for your money unlike the States where hotel chains have a degree of reliability in terms of standards.

When travelling across Europe I'd be inclined to use someone like www.laterooms.com as they have some fantastic, totally transparent deals, why take the risk?