Robespierre

Actually, you can get many more free rebids than that by using "permutation bidding." It's how I got a 4* in London for $138 all in early this month.

Say the zones are A, B, C, and D. First you bid A. Then A and B, then (after starting at the "NYOP" screen again) A and C, A and D, A and B and C, etc... With four free rebid zones, you can arrange sixteen combinations (the number of bids for n zones is two to the nth power).

There's a complete discussion here: tinyurl.com/y2s8mn

rkkwan

Robespierre is correct that you can get even more combinations. With a city like Denver with that many "rebid zones" already, there's not a big need to use them.

But for cities that have much fewer such "free rebids", then yes. Or say if you want to bid 3* Downtown Denver (you can only use the 2.5* and below for free rebids), then those other combinations can be helpful.

J_Correa

Regarding requesting specific room types - I always take that up with the hotel and am almost always accomodated. Priceline just guarantees you will have a room. I usually call the hotel a couple days ahead with any requests. I find I have better luck that way. That said, you are unlikely to get a room with a nice view or an upgrade if the hotel is reasonably full though. Those tend to go to customers who paid more and/or club members. Most of the time though, I would rather stay in the worst room at the Marriott than the best room at Motel 6 for the same money - LOL.

rkkwan

Exactly, so what if my $80 room at the Grand Hyatt at Buckhead, Atlanta was one of the smaller rooms on the lowest floor? It was still extremely nice and service wonderful.

Annabelle2007

rkkwan,my head is still spinning!!!Wow!! Maybe I should hire you to do the bidding for me....Obviously,I have A LOT to learn here...

smartcookie

I've had luck with the flights within the U.S. Sometimes you do get the 6am flights, so you have to be ok with that since you can't choose the departures times.

I've also had luck changing a flight once, but it was done on the same day by calling them directly. It was a while back, but I believe we somehow talked them into giving us a 1pm flight instead of the 6am we received after bidding. My friend who called though is a really skillful barterer

easytraveler

Annabelle: Do an exercise. Make a mock bid without getting a hotel room.

Choose a smaller city, like Salt Lake City, for your exercise, because it'll have fewer zones, hotels, etc. to confuse you.

Go into biddingfortravel.com and read up on Salt Lake City hotels. You'll get a general idea and be a bit confused. Don't worry.You are just using biddingfortravel for informational purposes, you're not going to bid there.

Then go into Priceline, put in Salt Lake City, any dates, and go forward.

Priceline will display a screen that is their DISCOUNT screen, this is NOT their bidding screen. you'll see a number of Salt Lake City hotels listed with their discounted prices.

In the upper left corner about midway on the screen, you will a box "Name Your Own Price". Click on this and it'll take you to their BIDDING screen.

This screen shows zones (click on one), star level of hotel (click on one), and your bid price.

Here's the exercise part: PUT IN $5 IN THE PRICE BOX.

For sure, you will not get a hotel for $5, but this is just an exercise, a trial balloon, to get you familiarized with the Priceline process.

Continue on if you would like or just quit. I'd suggest continuing on to further familiarize yourself with the Priceline process.

You haven't risked anything, but you've walked yourself through the Priceline bidding process.

Try it! Then come back with more questions!

Good luck!

artlover

I've had good luck with priceline in the U.S. (mostly SF) and Amsterdam on hotel rooms. I didn't even realize you could bid on hotwire. WOW, the information in Fodors never ceases to amaze me.

I think the problem with airfare on priceline for bidding is that you have to take whatever you end up with and it could be really weird hours etc. But for hotels, I think they're a great deal if you know how to play the game.

Annabelle2007

easytraveler,excellent idea,thank you.In order to go all the way thru w/the bidding to learn how it works,am I required to enter the cc info?Does biddingfortravel.com require you to register in order to view what other people are getting?

janewb

I think rkkwan and others have given great explanations of how Priceline works. But, to simplify it for you, I wouldn't focus on the "free rebid" concept at this point.

From Priceline, pick the zone in which you want to stay. Go to biddingfortravel.com to see what others are winning for bids in that zone for similar dates. Then bid something around that amount. If your bid is rejected, figure out what your absolute maximum is or are you willing to stay in another zone. If you haven't reached your maximum for your zone of first choice, keep bidding every 24 hours until you reach your max. If you have plenty of time until your visit, you can keep trying this and monitoring the going rates and inventory using biddingfortravel.com, as well as Expedia, et al.

I have never had a problem with Priceline and have always received a nice room, always non-smoking.

A couple other comments: I've bid Denver (usually Airport zone) several times and have always won a bid. I think Denver is a tough city to be your first place to bid on PL because there are so many zones!

I think the concept of free rebidding was popular because Priceline used to have a 3 day wait before you could rebid on the same zone for the same star level. Thus, using a free rebid, allowed you to place another bid immediately.

janewb

If you want to go thru the whole Priceline process, yes you will have to put in your Credit Card # and if you use the $5.00 "test" that was suggested, it will take you through the whole process. You can go part way thru the process and enter your CC #, but don't press "buy my hotel room now" Prior to that, you will get to a page that will tell you what the taxes and fees are.

I think you can view (but not post) on biddingfortravel.com without registering.

easytraveler

Hi, Annabelle,

Yes, if you go through with the entire process, you will have to enter:

Credit card number

Name and Street Address (has to match the one for the credit card!)

Phone numbers - day and evening

An email address, so they can send a confirmation of losing/winning bid (I set up a separate email address on yahoo for my Priceline needs. Makes it really easy to track my bids).

janewb is correct, you do not have to register to get into biddingfortravel. If you need to post something, then you will have to register. Otherwise, it's a free site.

Artlover: I don't believe you can bid on Hotwire. It just lists hotels at a discount price, you don't know which hotel until you've paid for it (just like Priceline). Their hotel ratings tend to be 1/2* higher than Priceline's.

E.g., Seattle West, 3 * hotel, for a price of $69 a night. You don't know which hotel until after purchase. Also, like Priceline, you're stuck with the hotel once purchased.

I use Hotwire only for small towns where there isn't a ton of hotels and I can't guess which hotel Hotwire is offering at which star level.

easytraveler

sorry, last sentence meant to say "I CAN guess which hotel Hotwire is offering".

rkkwan

The reason one can often (not always) guess a Hotwire hotel is by checking the amenities they list for a particular hotel and then compare that to the database on betterbidding.com.

But there are more hotels and fewer reports, so the database isn't very complete. For example, the Kansas City Airport hotel I just booked using Hotwire wasn't listed on Betterbidding. [I did post it and they've since added it to their list.]

easytraveler

Thanks, rkkwan! yes, betterbidding needs a much larger database, so every new posting helps.

kimmos

For New york city, have already booked a cancellable hotel (2 star Comfort Inn) for first few days of Nov .....USD280 tax included. Would priceline be ok to try for NYC? Any chance of getting a 4 star perhaps for that price? How about Nashville and Las Vegas in November?

rkkwan

kimmos - You can look at the reported bids on biddingfortravel and betterbidding. But the only way to find out if you can get someone at the price you want to pay on the days you want is to actually bid it yourself.

mclaurie

kimmos, the beginning of Nov. is the NY Marathon (Nov 4) which is why rooms are tight and prices are very high. I'm not sure how lucky you'd be on PL for that time, but depending on the length of your trip and whether you'd want to move, you could get something.

The problem with Priceline in NYC is it doesn't work very well for stays longer than 3-4 days or so. The other problem is with hotel occupancy high, the hotels often don't release open rooms to Priceline til the last minute so you could wind up winning a bid a day or two before your stay. Don't know if that will work for you.

janewb

A lot of times certain nights may be "blocked" in Priceline for certain cities. For example if your stay includes a Saturday night your bid may be rejected if the stay includes it. In that case, you could try taking the night in question out of the bid, but you then need to be willing to either switch hotels during your stay or pay full rate for one or more nights (or both).

I find the typically unavailable days vary by city. For example in some cities a Saturday may not be a peak day if the area is popular for business travelers, but not for tourists.

jayne1973

Also, it seems the best deals are to be had more "last minute" when hotels are ready to unload those unsold rooms.