I was excited about bidding on priceline but I naively thought you could bid on a specific property. I understand that people are getting absolute bargins but for me, it is a bit disconcerting to pay for something "site unseen"....and not able to make any special requests (non-smoking, 2 beds etc) or know exactly where the property is going to be located... I could book an airport property and end up 5 miles away!! Priceline is great if you are bidding on 5 star properties or don't care exactly where you stay but for people who are unfamilar with a city or area, make sure you do your research and exercise caution before bidding! In some big cities (ie. New York--Midtown) there are some locations that are better/safer than others and you just don't know what hotel you will get.

If you could pick the exact hotel property on Priceline and still get 50 percent off, why would anyone pay the full price using other travel sites? They would have to lower the price for everyone and then the money received would not pay for the upkeep of the hotel and it would no longer be a 3 or 4 star hotel!

Think about it!

Guy, contrary to what you may think, I have "thought about it". The fact is priceline exists because hotel rooms sit empty....the whole supply and demand thing. They allow low bids to ensure that their hotel fills up. When we bid, the bid is either accepted (based on supply or demand) or not. IF a hotel is near full, there is no way they are going to accept a low bid, in fact, room rate go up to the next price level....so why is it not possible to bid on a specifc hotel? Most hotels (I used to work in a hotel) have a block of rooms that they will sell for a discounted/promotional/coupon rate....no matter what. Once that block is gone, the price goes up to the next price level until that block of rooms is sold...and then the price goes up again. The same stands for airlines....Supply vs. Demand If you book way in advance on a flight or an empty flight you will get a great deal....as the flight fills up price goes up. Now you can get last minute deals, but trust me most hotels/airlines would much rather be sold out than have to offer last minute deals. The only reason why you can't bid on a specific hotel @ priceline is because Priceline recognizes that some 5 Star hotels are more desirable than other 5 Star properties....but Priceline has to look after and fill up ALL hotels it is under contract with....even the less popular/desirable properties.....think about it.....

Sandi, you're missing one thing. Priceline drives traffic to a hotel that may not normally choose this property. Let's say I like Marriotts but I get a Westin for $50. I'm happy and Westin is happy because they have a Marriott customer! I may have never looked at the Westin website for any promo offers.

I totally agree that discounts are available at hotels but often Priceline offers better deals than an individual could get on their own. So, the "no refund/no change" policy seems appropriate as does the "blind betting" on a hotel.

Yup! I totally agree. If you are open and flexible and know the location, Priceline has great deals and is definately the way to go--no doubt. But there is always the risk that you won't get the property you are hoping for or you might get a great hotel in the middle of nowhere...and for first time travellers to an area or big strange city, location can make or break a vacation. Priceline offers great discounts but I was just pointing out that those deep discounts exist anyway...and at the property of your choice...it just takes a bit of digging and long term planning to get them.

Can't speak to Priceline, but we have used Hotwire several times, and have never gone wrong. True, you don't know exactly what you are getting 'till you pay for it, but as long as you are willing to be slightly flexible on location, you can get great bargains. We needed to book a downtown Boston hotel for the middle of this summer, and managed to get the Boston Park Plaza Hotel for $63 per night - those are, "Motel 6" sorts of prices!

We also booked a hotel near us (Bothell, Washington) for some friends. They are paying $75 per night for a 2-room suite at a nice hotel (Wyndam Gardens) in suburban Seattle.

I agree it is somewhat disconcerting to not know exaclty what you are getting, but that is why you are paying less. We haven't gone wrong yet.

I'm sold on Priceline. Yes, there's always a risk of getting something I don't want--but that risk is minimized by sites like BiddingForTravel.com (BFT). I can go to that site and find out what hotels people are getting in each Priceline zone and star level, and what their winning bid was. The site also has a lot of hotel reviews from the winning bidders, so I can get a first-hand account of what their experience was.

While you're not guaranteed a bed type or a smoking/nonsmoking room with Priceline, I always call the hotel a day after I hear from Priceline about my winning bid so that I can request those things directly. There's no guarantee the hotel will give them to me, but I've always gotten the bed type I wanted and only once (out of about 15 Priceline stays) did I get a smoking room--all just by asking.

I strongly agree that you need to do your research before bidding. I disagree, however, that you can find the same deep discounts at the property of your choice simply by "digging" and long-term planning. Yes, you can get discounts, but I don't think any amount of digging and long-term planning would've gotten me the same $50/night rate that Priceline accepted at the Westin La Cantera Resort (when the going rate on their Web site for that night was $199/night). I could give other examples, but I've always been pleased with the bang for the buck that I've gotten with Priceline.

Anyway, do your research (BiddingForTravel and elsewhere), understand the concept of free rebids so you don't overpay, and I think you've eliminated most of the risk from using Priceline for hotel rooms.

Usual disclaimers--no vested interest in your using BiddingForTravel, no vested interest in Priceline, yadda, yadda...

To be fair, one should not put Hotwire and Priceline in the same category. Priceline offers far, significantly more, rooms than Hotwire. Also, hotwire overrates some properties; many of their 4 stars are only considered 3 stars at priceline.

I have added Priceline to my options when looking for rates, and as with the others (expedia, discount sites for various cities, etc.) I shop and decide. We chose to try Priceline for Baltimore since the Inner Harbor area was such a small, distinct area that we were comfortable staying in one of several hotels. I chose another method for booking Washington, DC since we wanted a suite with a kitchen and could not guarantee that on Priceline. Also, I was not comfortable with some sub-areas within those defined by Priceline. You can get a little more info from biddingfortravel, but it certainly does not eliminate the uncertainty - and be sure to check NY Times and Wall Street Journal articles about biddingfortravel as there is a financial and profit connection between the 2 sites.

Gail, do you think you could provide us with the links to the NYT and WSJ artivles that you referred to?

Sorry, I read them in the print/paper versions of both papers.

The 'commision' that www.biddingfortravel.com WAS receving from Priceline, which was not only mentioned in the article, but also on the biddingfortravel site, has been discontinued, because of the publicity resulting from the WSJ article. The bidding forum now recieves 'commission' from other internet sites such as amazing-bargins.com, which, when available, will provide discount links when bidding on Priceline.

OK, well, maybe the (approximate) date, title, section? Or a brief summary?

I don't know the terms of the relationship between BiddingforTravel and Priceline, but i once clicked on a link to "add a link to Priceline on your website." (i clicked it out of curiosity, not b/c i have an internet business)

Well, the commission was 1% of accepted bids. I understand how this can add up with so many people linking to a site, but i don't think that 1% per sale creates that much of a conflict. As i would guess the average hotel on Priceline goes for about $65/nite, that means that the "link partner" makes about .65/nite! If the average airline tix is $175, the link partner makes a whopping $1.75. You can see how it would take a lot of referals (and winning bids for these referals) to make a living at this.

Go to biddingfortravel and down near the bottom click on 'Biddingfortravel.com in the news'. The articles in the NY Times and the Wall Steet Journal are mentioned there.

So which is better hotwire.com or priceline.com? I seem to think hotwire.com is better since you know the price you're going to pay and you have choices of ,2 star, 3 star, 4 star etc.without having to play the bidding game, getting rejected and having to wait 72 hours etc. I've yet to have an acceptable bid accepted on priceline.com but have had great success on hotwire.com I'm open to learning so maybe I've been doing something wrong. Yes, I read biddingfortravel.com but still got rejected each time....

Lil,

Taking into consideration the difference in star ratings, i find out the lowest price available on Hotwire, and then make sure to bid less than that on Priceline.

Priceline.com charges $5.95 (I believe), what is the fee for hotwire.com?? I have never used either but have looked at both of their websites. Hotwire seems like the better way to go since you know the price up front. Of course, neither discloses which hotel until you're booked but not sure I'd have the patience to fool with priceline.com since you can't increase your bid for something like 72 hours. This is B.S. isn't it?? I'd be more in favor of priceline.com if you could make a higher bid upon rejection of your first bid. What is this waiting game all about??

Kiki, think about it...if Priceline allowed you to rebid immediately then people would start low and bid in $1 increments until they got it.

There are ways to bid again immediately on Priceline by adding zones that don't have the star level of hotel you are looking for. For example, if you are bidding in New York for a 4* hotel in Midtown West and your bid is rejected, you can add Upper West Side, increase your bid and bid again immediately. Since Priceline does not offer any 4* hotels on the Upper West Side, you really are only bidding on Midtown West. It is all explained on the biddingfortravel.com website under Hotel FAQ.

I've used Priceline twice now...once for hotel and once for air. I did research on biddingfortravel.com beforehand and got a good deal on the Wyndham Franklin Plaza for $40, which is a respectable 3* business hotel. The rock bottom lowest price I could find for this hotel on that date was $99 so it was a great savings! It does really help if you do know the lay of the land in any particular area. I wouldn't hesitate to use them again for hotels.

2nd time was recently when my grandfather died and I was helping my parents try to get out of So. Florida to LA on a flight no later than the next day. My mom and I checked all resources for ft. Myers, Ft. Lauderdale and Miami and the lowest available fare was $1200+ each, even on Hotwire! My mom let me go try Priceline, with me explaining carefully the scenarios and that if accepted they bought it, no turning back. So I tried it, and was able to get them out for $601 apiece, and the flights were just about perfect - 1 straightforward connection going and a non-stop coming back. Flights are more difficult to take advantage of Priceline with though, you really have to be flexible, and have to be accepting of a possible wacky out-of-the way connection (say, having to connect in Chicago on a NYC - Florida flight). I also wouldn't recommend it for quickie weekend trips as the flight times may end up shortening the trip considerably.