I have often tried Priceline and have never been successful (approx. 13 attempts).

I know the first Question asked, "did you bid stupid $25 offers"? No. I researched fair prices on Expedia.com, Travelocity, etc. and then knocked anywhere from 5 to 20 bucks a night off. Never have I been successful. I have even offered the same rates I received for several hotels in a location that I got on expedia, still declined.

I always have done better on the other sites. Pricelines "guide" to bidding is Outrageous (the guide is what the hotel may hope to get but if you follow their guide for bidding and then go to travelocity or expedia you can find a plethora of places to swamp that guide price.

Priceline sucks!

Oh course they grant one in a hundred some ridiculous price of $45 a night in downtown Manhattan just to have this qoute to post "I just got the deal of a lifetime, 45 a night in Rome the night before Easter Sunday!" - John Doe, Topeka, KS

I thought about trying Priceline on an upcoming trip but I do not like the fact that you don't know the airline, flight time and/or hotel beforehand. Plus, I personally don't like to plop down my credit card blindly....

I've had mixed luck getting my bids accepted. I've always gotten my rental car bids accepted (and save hundreds of $$ in the process), and I've never had a hotel bid rejected. I've had less luck with flights.

I usually bid ridiculously low, because I see no point in taking a risk just to save $5-$20. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

I agree wholeheartedly.

But Priceline did come in once very well - had a last minute trip to LA for a funeral. All the airlines wanted $1000+. I went to expedia and discovered what a typical advanced fare ticket would cost and plugged this into priceline and got a ticket. Of course, I ended up flying out at 5 a.m., and left LA at 1 a.m. to come back, but at least I got to go.

However, I have never found one of the "sensational" bargains on Priceline. I figure I would need to save 25% on a ticket cost to justify there deciding when I would fly and what my layovers would be - I have never been successful. I even tried a few times on car rentals and always found them MORE expensive than renting directly. As far as hotels go - forget it - this is one area where I would never let them decide. There are too many other ways to get great deals on hotels and KNOW where your are staying.

Priceline books based on availability of inventory. If the hotels are holding rooms, Priceline won't get them. You have to be patient and willing to hold out. Also, you have to realize that rooms just MIGHT NOT BE available to PL!!! Your best bet is to book a backup that you can cancel, and continue with Priceline until your bid is accepted.

For those of you that don't want to bid without knowing your hotel... check out www.biddingfortravel.com They have a list of hotels that normally come up in winning bids. But hey, that's how Priceline works, like it, or don't use it!!

I've used Priceline for about 10-15 hotel bids and have saved lots of money on hotels--beat the Expedia and Travelocity prices by a lot more than $5-$20 every time.

I agree that Priceline's "guide" prices are ridiculously high--I always bid much lower than those prices.

I disagree that Priceline only gives great deals to one in a hundred people. I've always gotten a good deal there, at least for hotels. I've had mixed success with rental cars, and I haven't tried to get an airfare there.

Anyway, I respectfully disagree with the original poster about Priceline sucking. I think it's useful, it's saved me money in the past, and I expect it'll save me money in the future.

I recently bid for a hotel in NYC on priceline, and my bid was accepted. I bid $95 for a three-star or higher hotel in midtown south or soho, and it worked. That was the first time I've ever bid for a hotel on priceline. The rates at the hotel's website for the same dates were $249-279 per night, so I figure I did okay.
I also got a round-trip ticket from the West Coast to East Coast for $195 RT; I had searched hotwire, expedia, orbitz etc. and the lowest price I could find was $240. It was a trip I wasn't sure about taking (because of finances) so I figured if I could get a ticket under $200 I'd do it. The flights were one stop only and times were fine.
I'm still trying to get a rental car via priceline but so far, my bids have not been accepted.

Priceline almost always works for me. For an upcoming trip to Canada, it saved me $300 per ticket for a family of four and I'm flying American, the airline I usually fly anyway! The hotel in Canada...$50 US for a four star!

If it doesn't work for you, sorry. I'll keep using it!

I too was skeptical but hahve had the following experiences within the past year:
Ann Arbor MI - Candlewood suites for $35 (reg typical $69-89)
Philly PA downtown - Crowne Plaza for $55 (reg typical $110-125)
Seattle WA downtown - Crowne Plaza for $60 (walk-ins that weekend were $169)
East Syracuse NY - Embassy Suites for $45 (reg $110-119)
Austin TX - downtown Sheraton for $25 (reg typical $89-119)
San Fran CA - Hotel triton (boutique hotel) for $65 (reg $109-129)

Once I really studied the FAQ at biddingfortravel.com to understand how to get "free rebids" and also began using the successful bids posted by others as a guideline for my bidding, I had great success. It is not a scam and for me it has been a great money-saver. If you bid on rooms in a popular destination a time when tourism or convention business is traditionally very busy, there may be little if any inventory available to priceline and this could explain your lack of success. If the whole bidding process is aggravating to you it might be worth trying hotwire - you can save more by using priceline but hotwire is still much cheaper than most other optiosn and you know in advance how much you'll pay.

I've only used Priceline for airline tickets, and have generally been quite satisfied (I say "generally", because I would always prefer non-stop flights, but have only gotten that once).
For example, for my wife's upcoming trip from Denver to Burbank, here's what I found:
Orbitz: $587
Expedia: $363
Travelocity: $481
Trip: $579
Cheap Tickets: $480
LowestFare: $512
I bid $180 with Priceline, and it was accepted (I probably could have bid lower, but that's 20-20 hindsight). Total cost, with taxes, fees, etc. (which would also have been added to the above quotes) was $215.
This is typical of my experience with Priceline. I'd say that they DON'T suck!

I'm a travel agent . . . had a person come in (notice I didn't say client) bragging about getting a ticket on priceline.com from west to east coast for only $300 . . . then I told them that I would have been happy to have sold him the same ticket . . . because the sale fare was only $198.

I've used priceline many times for hotels. We've had great deals and never had a problem to accommodate my family of 4. We've had prices almost half of the expedia prices several times. We always bid 4* unless not available onm the location. The guidelines priceline gives is ridiculous. Way too high. We recently stayed in scottsdale, az through priceline at a very nice resort. They even upgraded us to a 3 bedroom townhouse from a basic hotel room at no additional cost.

I am a travel agent also and when my clients need to travel last minute for a funeral or emergancy and they are flexible with their times, I tell them to try Priceline. With what the airlines charge for last minute fares you can not beat Priceline if you are flexible. I have used them myself with much sucess.

I recently attended a conference in Sacramento. Learned through www.biddingfortravel.com that there're only two 4-star hotels in the city. Both were downtown, near the conference site and either would have been OK, so I bid for a 4-star in the downtown area. My colleagues and I ended up paying $45/night for the Sheraton Grand. The least expensive room on the Sheraton website was $159. And, because my home address is on Sheraton Drive, I was given an upgrade! I'm a Priceline convert.

My husband and I are going to Monterrey next week and I'm planning my bidding strategy. I understand from the biddingfortravel site that a lot of people have had success with a Hyatt property near Monterrey.

You really have to do your homework before you can become a successful PL bidder. I think the time that I spent at www.biddingfortravel.com was well worth it.

We travel a lot and use Priceline whenever we can. We have always paid half price or less for the best hotels (3 star or better).

From our experience, here are a few suggestions for best success with Priceline:

1. Go to www.biddingfortravel.com and read the FAQ. Read it again.

2. NEVER use Travelocity or Expedia for researching or price comparisons -- they are usually wrong. Travelweb is the most reliable for good pricing.

3. Bid intelligently and don't try to get something for nothing.

4. Ignore Priceline's caution that your bid is too low -- time after time I have successfully bid for hotels after seeing that caution.

5. Be aware that even Priceline may not have access to the hotel inventory you want because of holidays, length of your stay, local events, etc.

6. Said it twice -- I'll say it again: read the Hotel FAQ on biddingfortravel.com

Good luck.

2Travelers-I checked out travelweb and it is owned by Expeida.

I've had a few failures on Priceline. Once I wasn't successful in getting a room in Traverse City, MI. I can only assume they didn't have any rooms available. I've never been successful with a car rental through Priceline, although I got a great deal through Hotwire.

I've spent $28 for a room at Amerisuites (and duplicated this bid successfully for 5 other rooms at the same hotel for family members who were attending the same wedding) which included a free breakfast. I've paid $23 per night for 4 nights at the Wyndham Orlando. airfare for this trip was $112 per person RT total, and there were 4 of us - again, Priceline. When attending a conference in Boston, we passed on the host hotel and the suggested alternates, all at $205 per night and above, and stayed at the Wyndham Boston for $85 per night. Through Priceline.

Yes, I'll keep using it.

Never got the price on priceline that would have made all that work worthwhile. I'll take Expedia or Travelocity any day over that shell game they run at Priceline.

I recently used Priceline to get a room in Anaheim, CA during President's Day Weekend. I bid a bit lower than the average bid I found on biddingfortravel.com and got the Marriott which was extremely nice. I bid on Friday afternoon, the day before my Saturday to Monday stay. When I got there, the hotel was a zoo. The front desk said that they were full up for the weekend, but I was still able to get a room the day before? Seemed strange to me, but it was a great deal for a great room, so I have no complaints.

I won't use Priceline for airline tickets because I prefer to choose my flight times and airlines. But I have had great luck using it for hotels. Got the Hilton Times Square in New York for $75 (3*), the Novotel at B'way & 52nd in New York for $85 (3*), and the W Lakeshore in Chicago for $41 (4*).