I've been going to priceline to try and name my price for hotels. They will only allow me to try it every 24 hours. Do you know of any other sites that allow you to name your price?

What about your free rebids?

Did you read www.BiddingForTravel.com and www.BetterBidding.com ?

That said Hotwire usually isn't much more than priceline.

Are your bids reasonable?

PRICELINE SUCKS...read my recent experience on them. I told them I would spread the word if they would not correct my problem, and they could care less....so now I am spreading the message....do not use these guys!!!

My experience is the same as yours, mark99.

I'm glad for those who are pleased with the great deals they get on Priceline, but I'm not one of them. Perhaps I'm to finicky.

This will explain Mark's unhappiness.

http://fodors.com/forums/threadselec...1&tid=35120849

candi - definitely check out the web sites GoTravel recommended - you will learn a lot about Priceline strategy. You can save quite a bit of money with Priceline, but as evidenced by mark's recent experience, you have to do your research first.

Yea, mark's experience is a little weird. He didn't look at the list of hotels or check the rating system, he bid outrageously hight ($175 a night) which of course got accepted. And THEN he found out that's more than he could have gotten the same hotel if he had gotten it direct. Duh!

But I understand. I saw an ad in the newspaper for a car dealership where they said all their cars were high end and worth up to $60,000. So I called them up and said I'd give them $50,000 for the nicest red one they had sight unseen and I didn't need to know what car it was. I went to pick it up and would you believe it? The car they gave me, I could have gotten at any dealer for $35,000. Talk about a scam! Sound familiar?

Here's a lesser known secret, if you delete your cookies and reopen a new internet browser you can bid again using a different credit card and slightly adjusting your guest name,ie, adding a middle initial or the like.

You must know how to use free rebids as mentioned above, it's the most important thing to know when using PL. Sometimes there are large price differences between Hotwire and Priceline, especially in Las Vegas with the Venetian usually $30 or so cheaper per night.

When I post my winning bids on www.biddingfortravel.com I always compare it to the priceline rate, here's an example copied and pasted for a hotel in Pittsburgh:

"Hotel rates were higher for this night. Looked at Hotwire and the Marriott was $79, my previous bid of $38 failed and I used my last bid for $50, so that's a $29 difference for the same hotel through Hotwire! Marriott direct is showing $259, a big savings!"

I have saved tons of money using Priceline for hotels over the years. But you have to do a little homework first. BetterBidding is a good place to start as suggested. Learn what a "free rebid" is.

Here are the best rules for using Priceline:

1) Do not do any preparation. Don't look at Bidding for Travel either.

2) Do not check out what prices hotels in the area are going for.

3) Go to Pricline and randomly name a really high price -- like $175 for a starting bid.

4) If Priceline accepts your outrageously overbid price (which it probably will do), then you can complain and post messages like this all over the internet:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Author: mark99
Date: 04/02/2008, 11:38 pm

PRICELINE SUCKS...read my recent experience on them. I told them I would spread the word if they would not correct my problem, and they could care less....so now I am spreading the message....do not use these guys!!!