Greetings posters, so much great information here! Although I thnk I already know the answer, I would like to ask a question about bidding. I have read the info on Fodor's, BFT, and BB. We are a family of 5- 2 adult/3 kids- contemplating using priceline for our vacation to southern Florida next month. Does anyone know of a way to specify a suite when requesting a hotel? From what I've read, I thought I would be able to give more specifics to my request other than zone and num. of stars, like amenties- pool etc, but when I did a practice bid stars and zone were the only options. Two rooms don't work, does this mean I should abandon priceline/hotwire?

It is my understanding that you normally just get a room with a queen size bed when you bid on Priceline. However, if you bid low enough you could get 2 rooms and then call the hotel you get and request adjoining rooms.

To clarify the previous post (and answer your question), Priceline guarantees you will get a room to sleep two people...that's it. It could be one queen bed, or two, or two doubles, or one, or a king. It might work out that more could sleep in the room, but you can't count on it, and they don't have to provide it.

In your situation, I would not use Priceline unless you want to bid for two rooms, which I just read you do not so yes, you should give up on using it. When we traveled as a family (2 adults/2 kids) I never used it, but when it was just my daughter and myself, or my sister, then it can work great and save you a lot of money!

Have you looked at Quikbook? www.quikbook.com

Yes, abandon the bidding. On Priceline, you can only specify a room for 2 people. You can't even guarantee that the room will have 2 beds. That's the way Priceline works, and it will not be useful for you unless you reserve 2 rooms. Hotwire is a little different because you can specify a room with 2 beds for 4 people, but otherwise, you can't specify.

You have specific requirements and should not be using an opaque bidding site.

Hotwire is different from Priceline, in that Hotwire tells you the amenities (and the price) before you choose to purchase the hotel (and only after purchase do you learn which one it actually is). One amenity I've seen listed is "suite." So if you find a hotel deal on Hotwire that lists "suite" as an amenity, go for it.

BetterBidding does identify some hotels from the amenities, FYI.

Thank you- I had not tried Hotwire, I will and see if we can specify a suite. That is the only way we could possibly use priceline/hotwire, and even then... I am going to check quikbook too, but am disappointed- had hoped to find a way to get lower rates.

Book, you can't "specify" a suite on Hotwire. Just enter your city and dates and 5 people (although I actually think you can only specify up to 4). After the search engine returns the results, on the left hand side, eliminate those areas you aren't interested in, and if star rating is important to you, click on "3 stars and up" or "4 stars and up". Run the search. Then the hotels they have available that can accommodate you will show up. One or more of them might be suite hotel, which will be indicated by an "S" in the list of amenities. Personally, I don't think this is really a feasible method of finding a suite for a family of 5 -- after all some "suite" hotels, like the Residence Inn Times Square for example, can still only accommodate 3 people -- it's really just a big room that happens to have a small sofabed. You wouldn't know that, because it's anonymous until you "buy".

In many places you are not allowed to put 5 people in a room.. In NC it;s against fire laws. for 5 people you have to take either 2 rooms - one double and one triple - or a suite. And just picking a hotel with "suite" might not work - since you don;t know if it's a suite with one bed in the bedroom and a pull out sofa in the LR.

For 5 people (assuming you're not talking infants or toddlers) I think you really need to go to the hotels directly (many have internet specials) to be sure of getting the bed configuration that you need.

Yes, yes, and I agree...it was a long shot. I am finding some great internet rates, and in a different post I found a ref. to travelzoo.com and it seems similar to priceline/hotwire with really good rates on certain hotels, but you know the hotel first. I am abandoning pl/hw for now. Thanks all of the help

Yes, yes, and I agree...it was a long shot. I am finding some great internet rates, and in a different post I found a ref. to travelzoo.com and it seems similar to priceline/hotwire with really good rates on certain hotels, but you know the hotel first. I am abandoning pl/hw for now. Thanks all of the help

opps, sorry multi-tasking- badly!