Opinions on Priceline please
 

I'd like to get your opinion on purchasing airline tickets and booking hotels thru Priceline.Does it really give you the best deals?Is it as easy(and safe) as they say?Is it better than Orbitz or Expedia for ex?Any info would be much appreciated.
Thanks!

I've bought quite a few hotel rooms with Priceline and I think that if you can live with the restrictive parameters, then Priceline is really good. I've never found lower rates for the hotels than I have gotten with Priceline at any of the other booking sites.

As for being easy - I always do some research ahead of time, usually with biddingfortravel.com to make sure I will be happy with any hotels in the zones and star levels I am bidding and to see what sorts of rates other people have been getting.

Some people have been disappointed because they ended up with a hotel they didn't like - usually an issue with location. For example, a zone will be "San Diego Coastal" but extend to the other side of the highway. People get the hotel on the other side of the highway and are disappointed because they wanted to walk to the beach. The zones are clearly defined on Priceline, but people didn't look carefully before bidding.

Safe - I have not had any issues with Priceline. No overcharges, no issues when checking in. I have pretty much only bid on 3* and above hotels and I always check out the listings on Biddingfortravel.com - never been surprised by a hotel or its location.

So basically, I think that if you can live with the parameters - non-refundable, guarantee a room for 2 people only, no guarantees about smoking or non-smoking room, etc. then it is a good choice. If you need a specific hotel, need to be able to cancel or anything, then it isn't.

I used to use it for airline tickets but haven't in a long time. For airline tickets, it's ok if you have more time than money. They can have you flying all kinds of strange places to get you where you're going. You have to be really open as to departure time and arrival time.

I use it a lot for hotels. It is great. But I'm getting spoiled. I'm beginning to not want to stay in Comfort Inns and Super 8s anymore. With Priceline, you can have Sheratons and Marriotts for the same price.

I use it for car rentals too. I probably only save $5 day at the most (probably usually only 2-3$ a day).

The only hitch, is that there is no cancellations.

One time I had a hotel room go to waste. Because of weather I wasn't able to fly to my destination.

For lowest prices with Priceline you name your price, date, category and general location of a hotel, and Priceline tells you which hotel you have after your credit card has been charged. So there's some risk involved, but well informed bidders do very well. Do not even consider bidding on Priceline until you spend plenty of time learning of all the benefits and pitfalls with this system == devote a few hours to biddingfortravel.com for a start.

I've only used Priceline for hotels, always with great results. I can't advise re air; I know folks who have positive experience renting cars this way.

Thanks for your reply.Not being able to choose a non smoking room would be a real problem for us :-(
Can you request that at least?
Please forgive my ignorance,what if something happens and you need to cancel?Is the amount charged to your cc non refundable no matter what?What about if you're not happy with your room(dirty,etc)can you request to change rooms or do you have to use the room given?

Hotels/Rental cars = YES
Airfare = NO

If you cancel/change your plans, you lose the money...no cancellations and no changes.

Yes, you can request a change of room if something is really wrong with the room...they usually will not let you change for say, a better view, or higher floor....but if something is physically wrong, they will try and accomodate you. And yes you can request a non-smoking room....I have never NOT been given a NON-Smoking Room.

No cancellation - that's the risk you take for getting a deal on Priceline or Hotwire. I was once at Heathrow or Gatwick and a passenger there had missed a flight because of a change which he said he wasn't informed of. Well, it was a Priceline ticket, and they told him to take it up with Priceline, it wasn't their problem. (I just overheard this conversation)

Priceline has two separate services. One is like a regular booking site, and their prices are similar to using Expedia, Travelocity, etc.

The other one, which is what most people mean, is &quot;Name Your Own Price&quot;. It <b>can</b> save your very significantly money if you know how to bid and do your homework. But since it's <b>you</b> who name the price, you can just as easily overpay.

I use Priceline for hotels all the time. I usually go for 3* or 4*. For the 4* hotels, the price I pay is usually about 40-50% what the hotel's asking on their own website or on Expedia. Like $80 instead of $170. The percentage saving is usually lower for 3* and lower properties.

But doesn't mean they're always the cheapest. They only work with a limited number of hotels in each zone, and for your dates none of those hotels may have inventory, while some other non-Pricline hotels of the same grade may.

For example, I'm going to Kansas City tomorrow and need a 3* or better airport hotel for two nights. Best price on Expedia, etc are the Marriott for $99. Hotwire has a 3.5* for $61. I bid Priceline 3* up to $59 (same total price as the Hotwire offering) but didn't get a hotel. So, I went with Hotwire and got the Four Points Sheraton.

You can change rooms if they aren't full, if you have an issue with yours--something non-functioning or the like. You should know though, that the best rooms go for the highest rates and although you might find a pleasant surprise with a Priceline room, especially during a low occupancy period, you could well end up with the least desirable of rooms to be had as well..simply because you paid the least. Much depends on the hotel and their &quot;attitude&quot;. I would certainly bid the highest star category I could afford and for myself, wouldn't consider less than a 3*.

The biggest drawback that I can see to PCLN is the inability to change your reservation for anything. You simply cannot cancel. That reservation is written in stone.

There are no shortcuts to making an educated priceline bid and it is time consuming but very worth it.

Priceline is good for hotels in some places and not so good in others. You really have to know what you're doing BEFORE you begin. Biddingfortravel.com and betterbidding.com are required reading. Both websites have lists of hotels that Priceline uses. Once you select an area and a star level, you pretty much know which hotels you're likely to get. If you would be happy with ANY of them, you're fine. Occasionally a new one shows up or an existing one gets reclassified to a different star level you might not agree with.

In some cities their designations of locations are often too broad to be able to get what you want or the hotels they use are not attractive. For example, in Paris (France) there are plenty of small charming hotels that many people would prefer to the larger chain hotels that participate with Priceline. In other cities, like NYC, the areas and hotels are fine, but you can't really count on getting anything for a more than a few days at a time and you can only get a room for 2.

The danger with airfare is:
&gt;they don't include taxes and surcharges which have gotten so high it can dramatically change the price
&gt;you can't select time of day for the flights so you could wind up losing up to 2 days of travel time.

So what you're saying is to check how much the hotels are charging,before I bid on Priceline?For example I want to go to Denver CO,and I don't know the area at all,but I look up four star hotels so I know how much they charge and then bid about 40% lower?Again,I must apologize for my ignorance...I'm learning tho....

PS--If you can get a 4* hotel in NYC on Priceline and educate yourself about bidding so you don't bid too much, it will most certainly be at a price you could not get elsewhere.

Quikbook.com and Venere.com have some good prices for some cities. Kayak.com and sidestep.com are websites that search other websites for best prices.

If you take your time and study up on biddingfortravel, you can get some *really* good deals with Priceline's &quot;Name Your Own Price&quot; option. I've had great luck combining biddingfortravel info with advice from this forum regarding what areas to bid in, etc.

Remember that there will be a Priceline fee included in your total cost. To get an idea of how much that will be, study the biddingfortravel posts, which usually include all the fees and taxes posters paid for their rooms.

After you win a bid, call the hotel with any (polite and reasonable) special requests, such as non-smoking, king, whatever. You don't need to mention that you booked with Priceline, although they will know.

As far as airline tickets, I've never quite had the nerve to try that.

Annabelle2007 -

I'll use Denver 4* as an example. Don't know if that's really where you want to go or not, but same strategy will work in other larger cities.

1. Go to Priceline, put in Denver, CO, your dates and click on &quot;Name your own price&quot;.

2. You'll see there are 13 zones. Click the check box for each <b>single</b> one to see what the star levels are. You'll see that 4 of those zones have 4* hotels - Cherry Creek, Downtown, Tech Center S and Westminster-Broomfield.

3. Go to biddingfortravel and look at what hotels in those zones people have reported, and check the areas to see which one (or ones) you want.

4. Say you only want Downtown. There are 5 hotels listed - Westin, Grand Hyatt, Hyatt Regency, Warwick, Monaco. Check each of those hotel's website or use Expedia, Orbitz or Travelocity to see what prices those hotels <b>and</b> nearby 4* hotels want. Also go to tripadvisor.com and glance the reviews. If <b>any</b> one of them is unacceptable to you, <b>you cannot bid on this zone!!!</b>.

5. Now, compare the prices you find on the other websites, and the prices reported on biddingfortravel. I see mostly the Grand Hyatt and Hyatt Regency being reported for $75-95.

6. Device a strategy of how to bid. <b>The most important thing</b> is to set a absolute maximum you're willing to pay. Keep in mind that you also have to add taxes and fees (which PL will show you before you commit). Say the most you want for a 4* Downtown is $95 + tax/fees; and you've checked that none of the 4* hotels in Downtown Denver has lower rates directly. Then you decide on your starting bid. Say you'll happy with getting it for $60.

7. Remember you checked the zones on Priceline? Out of the 13 zones, 9 doesn't have 4* properties. <b>These are your &quot;free rebid&quot; zones. Priceline won't allow you to rebid within 24 hours unless you change zones and prices, and here are what the &quot;free rebid&quot; zones are for. Since those zones have no 4* properties, they cannot give you a hotel there, and your winning bid MUST BE in Downtown.

Put in 4* Downtown for $60. You have 9 more bids to get to you $95 maximum. $35 divided by 9, and you can increase your bid $4 at a time. If your $60 Downtown bid didn't come through, bid again at $64 for Downtown and Aurora. If no, then $68 for Downtown, Aurora and Denver Airport.

8. Hopefully, you'll get something before $95. Your last bid for today should be $95 with 10 zones checked at 4* levels If still no go, then bid again 24 hours, or think about other zones than Downtown to get your 4*. You can bid again immediately with say Tech Center South 4*.

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After you get your hotel, call the property directly (not the chain's 800 number, but the actual hotel) to request a room type (1/2 beds, smoking/non). They'll never guarantee you anything, but chances are you'll get what you want.</b>

Sorry for the bold problem. Here's #7 onwards again:

7. Remember you checked the zones on Priceline? Out of the 13 zones, 9 doesn't have 4* properties. <b>These are your &quot;free rebid&quot; zones.</b> Priceline won't allow you to rebid within 24 hours unless you change zones and prices, and here are what the &quot;free rebid&quot; zones are for. Since those zones have no 4* properties, they cannot give you a hotel there, and your winning bid MUST BE in Downtown.

Put in 4* Downtown for $60. You have 9 more bids to get to you $95 maximum. $35 divided by 9, and you can increase your bid $4 at a time. If your $60 Downtown bid didn't come through, bid again at $64 for Downtown and Aurora. If no, then $68 for Downtown, Aurora and Denver Airport.

8. Hopefully, you'll get something before $95. Your last bid for today should be $95 with 10 zones checked at 4* levels If still no go, then bid again 24 hours, or think about other zones than Downtown to get your 4*. You can bid again immediately with say Tech Center South 4*.

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After you get your hotel, call the property directly (not the chain's 800 number, but the actual hotel) to request a room type (1/2 beds, smoking/non). They'll never guarantee you anything, but chances are you'll get what you want.

<i>Put in 4* Downtown for $60. You have 9 more bids to get to you $95 maximum. $35 divided by 9, and you can increase your bid $4 at a time. If your $60 Downtown bid didn't come through, bid again at $64 for Downtown and Aurora. If no, then $68 for Downtown, Aurora and Denver Airport.</i>

Your explanation was great, but I am confused on this one step. Why do you have 9 more tries (is that because there are 9 zones that don't have a 4-star hotel?). Why do you ADD Aurora, then Aurora and Airport (is that because of &quot;free re-bids&quot;)?

dmlove - You need to change zones to rebid again right away. So, I keep adding those zones without 4*, while adding a few dollars at a time.

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Another thing is that sometimes PL will give you a &quot;counter offer&quot;.

For example, after you bid $68, they may say they'll offer you a room at $80 guaranteed. Since you still have several &quot;free rebid&quot; zones left, <b>ignore the offer</b>. Keep doing your thing and you'll should get the room at about halfway between $68 and $80. Meaning, around $74-75.

Great info - thanks.

i bought airline tickets with dep of 9/14/01. i asked for a refund, (most airlines were doing so at that time). i got the run-around, ua said they would be happy to refund me but b/c of the booking agency (pl), they couldn't. pl on the other had said the same thing about ua. ua was willing to do 3wy conf call while pl wasn't. i lost out $450 and never bother with pl again.