I have very mixed feelings to share about priceline services. It is definitely safe, and can be better than orbitz and expedia, depending on what you are booking. I have used the service 6 times to book hotel rooms. In Indianapolis, I was able to reserve the Westin downtown for $50-$70 each time, which was a huge savings. That was a very positive experience. I booked a hotel in Vegas, and request properties on the strip only. I successfully booked the Westin, but upon arrival to Vegas, learned that the hotel is 4-5 blocks off the strip. This is not what I wanted or expected.

Generally, I think priceline is a good service, and seems cheaper than many other alternatives. Prices seem to decrease if you are booking close to your travel dates.

Priceline is a good choice for lowest prices under certain conditions:

You accept that once you press enter your money is gone (so the trip has to be absolutely fixed, or you willing to risk the loss)

You do all the research and really learn how to use it (including being sure you can live with any of the hotels that have come up in your area)

You don;t have a lot of very specific requirements as to amenities

There is enough inventory that something decent is available (NOT like Dec in NYC)

Thank you all,this is a wealth of information!! I understand Priceline can offer a great deal,but I don't know if I feel comfortable with the process,actually a little scared :-/
I guess I need to get used to the idea...

Annabelle: Your hesitancy is understandable. We probably all felt that way before we took the plunge.

Just give it a "no risk" try and see how you feel after that!

Annabelle-- I was afraid to try it, too. All the bidding info seems overwhelming sometimes.

Like easytraveler said, you might want to give it a try sometime when you are not really pressured (maybe like a little spontaneous weekend getaway.) After you have done it once, you'll see what a great option it can be.

The first time I used Priceline, it was a no-pressure sort of situation. I just wanted one night at a hotel near where my husband's company's winter party was going to be so we could stay over and not worry about driving. The party was about an hour from where we live. It wouldn't have been a big deal if it didn't work out right. So I went for it and it worked well. I probably didn't get the best price I could have, but I got a price that was lower than the event rate the company had aranged at some of the local hotels, so I was happy.

Annabelle, yes it is scary the first time. I really studied bidding fortravel for a long time before actually trying Priceline. Now I'm a confirmed Priceline user.
I wouldn't do it any other way.
YOu have received great information here.
I'll just add a couple of little things to be aware of.
First, the Priceline rules state that you are only guaranteed one bed. I've always called and requested 2,and have always had 2 beds. Just be aware that they only have to give you 1.

WHen you enter your bid, they will always tell you that based on hotel rates, your bid is too low, and do you want to revise it. NO, leave it as a low bid.

Yes, it's true there is no changes allowed, but I've had such great bargains that even if I had to cancel a reservation, I'm still way ahead of the game.

Many people will say that they don't want to use Priceline because they don't know where they will be staying.
As for me, I always bid 4 star... and if I'm getting it for the right price, I really don't care which one it is.

I've only had great luck and great service. DO your studying and give it a whirl.
Oh although they don't really have to honor any requests, I don't think you'll have any problem getting a non smoking room.

Good luck.

I really like Priceline, and I always try to book a room through them whenever I travel. (In fact, my recent trip to Chicago wouldn't have been possible had I not received such a great deal on the rooms). I follow a few ground rules, and I've never been dissapointed.

First, I educate myself about the going rate for that city and also about any events,etc that might affect availability of rooms.

I also *never* bid for less than a 4-star. What's the point? For me, it's all about value for my $. $20.00 a night for a hotel room isn't a bargain if I'm disgusted by the condition or have to stay in an unsafe area. Paying a $100 for a very nice room that normally costs $250-$300 is my ideal of "value."

Finally, I create a bid strategy, and I *stick* with it. If my idea of value is a $100 per night, then I won't go over that price. It's very easy to get caught up in the thrill of bidding and end up paying, say, $195 for a room that only costs $200 to begin with. Not worth it.

I've gotten some terrific deals. And for the record, yes, Priceline guarantees room for 2 people only. But in every instance that I've won a room, I've called ahead to the establishment and requested 2 beds, non-smoking and away from the elevator and have always been accomodated.

Just my 2c - Priceline is very worth it if you take the time to understand it.

Annabelle: Since you got great explanations, I won't go into any. I just want to say that I use Priceline and have been very happy with my wins.

I have bid in the Caribbean as well as in major U.S. cities (San Francisco, Atlanta, Miami, etc..) . I will call the hotel the day before we leave and ask nicely for a King bed and a non-smoking room. I have never gotten a smoking room but I have gotten double beds on a couple of occasion.

I also have successfully used Priceline for car rentals.

I have never used Priceline for airline tickets because I'm not flexible in terms of departure and arrival times.

Research is key to avoid mistakes, as others have said.

If you decide to try it, good luck!

I've used Priceline many times for hotels with great results. Mostly in London, also in Nashville, Tampa Airport, Los Angeles. I've also used Hotwire. In London I get rooms with rack rates of $300 for about $90, on average.

I concur with everyone who says - don't do it unless you are up for really studying Biddingfortravel.com.

Have also used Hotwire a few times, studying betterbidding.com. Great results there too.

Those sites will guide you as to whether or not you're going to aplace where Priceline makes sense.

We've had mixed results from priceline. Basically if you don't mind the restrictions, priceline is good because of the price. We don't use priceline for airfares anymore because we have kids now and have to time it just right to avoid a meltdown on the airplane. We still use it for hotels when our budget calls for it. I tend to not like the hotels I get from priceline: no refund or cancellation, no free upgrade even if you have preferred status with the hotel chain (normally, it's an auto upgrade when there's room if booked from the hotel's site), and the rooms are usually not the best. But...it is cheaper so we still use it sometimes when we want to take an unscheduled trip.Just make sure you do your homework and find out what the lowest price you would get normally and lower that rate significantly to get the best deals.

I never used Priceline for hotels but may try in the future with all the tips i learned in this thread.
We were once traveling to the UK and after pricing all the other sites I put a bid in for several hundred dollars lower at PL and amazingly got an offer at an airport about 1 1/2 hours from here. Since there were 4 of us traveling, the drive and one hotel night before the early morning flight costs were well worth the $800 we saved. I think we lucked out because Continental was just trying at the time to build up passenger load after declaring bankruptcy. The flights themselves turned out to be the best we ever had, even with delays coming back because a tropical storm had shut down Houston for a day.
However, since then we have tried other bids but they have never gotten accepted at prices that made it worth the risk of not knowing the travel times.

We've used Priceline for all kinds of hotel rooms, never air tickets.

Our best deal was $110 per night rooms at a nice hotelin Tokyo. We got a 2bedroom condo at a resort on the west coast of FL for $80 per night. $75 for the Holiday Inn, Kensington Forum, and many many others.

I have used priceline countless times for hotels and have never had a single problem. Maybe once or twice I received what could be called a "priceline room", ie. next to the elevator, next to the cleaning stock room, etc.

Best deal I scored: $48 for the Hyatt Regency in Coral Gables, FL (a ritzy suburb of Miami). The going rate was $350 a night!

Here's my 2 cents: Check biddingfortravel.com first before bidding to get a sense of what the winning bids are and what hotels are available in any given area. This website has been invaluable to be every time.

(Although every so often a new hotel pops up on Priceline that is not listed on biddingfortravel.com!)This has happened to me twice, but both times I was still very happy with my deal.

I got the Meliã White House in Regent's Park for $115 all in on Priceline earlier this month. The web site lists the rack rate at £146.88

I love it, absolutely love it. It only works well in some cities, but when it does - oh man! I stayed at the waldorf hilton last summer downtown london (aldwych) for $100 US per night. It's a lot of fun walking into a hotel like that with a backpack on - granted, they don't give you the best room in the house once they've seen on the computer you booked through priceline, but it is a million times better than any other room you'll find downtown london for 40-50 quid!

I also scored in Amsterdam, where for almost the price of the hostel I wanted for the 2 of us (about $60US), I got the Renaissance hotel. Unbelievable.

I always recommend it for Toronto for relatives visiting too - $50-60/night (CAD) for the Royal York is, frankly, hilarious - I sometimes think about selling my house and just living at the Royal York for that price.

The downsides are obvious: pay up front, rigid dates, probably dont get the best room in the house, etc, etc, but the price benefit for someone my age is more than worth it.

It does work better for some cities than it does for others. I almost always have immense luck in Chicago if I have more than a 2 or 3 month window, it has come up beautifully for a price that is much less than 1/2 of rack rate, usually just about a quarter of rack rate.

And when you add the 17% plus room city tax on the entire total bill, that is even more. You just don't want to bring a car.

Ft. Lauderdale can be a great buy too. One time I got a good Renaissance room for $69 and the people right next door to us going on the same cruise the next day paid over $300.

I never did the air fare either. I'm too stuck to certain flight times.

Let me ditto the suggestion you look at Hotwire for hotels.

You can get a good sense of what the hotels are by comparing Expedia (Hotwire and Expedia are 'related') listings -- e.g., say there are only two 3 1/2 star hotels listed in the "Boston-Logan/Saugus" area on Expedia and they're both on airport grounds (and not up in Saugus-Siberia), then you can probably accept Hotwire's proposed rate and figure you have one of those two hotels.

I've had good luck with airport hotels on Hotwire, but I would -- as others have suggested -- be careful otherwise in larger cities about the various zones -- they can get you two states over. Sometimes it's worth comparing what Priceline "offers" (without the 'name your own price' bidding process) with what Hotwire offers prepaid-outright.

(PS: I have had exceptionally good luck with Hotwire on car rentals -- they only deal with a handful of the most reputable rental companies.)

Thanks to rkkwan for the great tutorial!

I've been bidding for NYC for a few weeks now without luck, so I made a fallback reservation, which I can cancell up to 6 pm day of arrival in case I can't get a good price on priceline. Feel much better about this now--can bid what I want, rather than getting panicky that I'll have no place at all.

In the past, I've gotten great deals in S.F., Tucson, and Amsterdam, so am hoping I'll be able to do so in NYC.

Again, check out biddingfortravel and if you make a backup, what's to lose?