Priceline Question
 

I need to book rooms for two different people with different arrival dates and the same departure date. If I bid on Priceline what do you think my chances are of getting the same four star hotel with the same bid price? One person arrives one day ahead of the other. It is in a business type location. I have never used Priceline so I am afraid to try it when I am trying to book for two people.

You would have to book it separately and no way of knowing if you will get same hotel. If price is right and trip is long enough to make up for the difference, the only way to really guarantee is to pay for an unused night for one of the rooms.

If you do 2 of the exact same bid, at the same time I'd say there is a good chance, but it's not a given. We once did a priceline and had to add an additional day. A few days later we did priceline again for the 1 extra night. It landed the same hotel.

You can also book one via priceline, than call the hotel directly or check regular on-line rates and book the other room not with priceline. It still would be cheaper, combined than booking the regular way.

If it's essential they stay at the same hotel, I'd book two rooms at the same time - for the same (shorter) dates. Then add one night for the person coming in a day earlier (provided it's not a Saturday - that changes everything). If you don't get the same hotel, you have a choice of explaining to the person or booking conventionally for that one night - this will probably be the cheapest way to do it.

Priceline does offer the option of adding nights to a successful bid, at their option. So if you booked two nights with Priceline, and want to extend the stay, you can contact them and ask. They may say yes. Chances are, if the website rate for the added night is the same as the previous two nights Priceline would do it but again, there's no guarantee. (also, I've recently heard that Priceline doesn't offer the "add a night" option outside the US.)

But, it depends where exactly you plan to bid, which zone and which star level. If you go to BiddingForTravel.com you'll see that in many cases, one zone and star level will show only one hotel. For example, in Fort Lauderdale, FL, there's only one 4-star hotel (the Renaissance) that has ever shown up in the downtown zone. So I would feel safe doing separate bids in that zone/star level as you suggest. You say you want a 4-star hotel so I'd say that improves your chances of this happening. Also, if you see that one of the hotels listed in BFT happens to be sold out, your chances of getting that one instead of the one you got the first time are remote.

Otherwise, I think I would do a combination of Priceline and planning to add nights on my own or booking the hotel separately. I would book the nights where the two overlap as a single Priceline bid, then try to add that first night with Priceline or just pay for it at full price.

You could also try Hotwire, which probably won't give you as cheap of a price but tells you the amenities before you book, so that's a fairly safe way to guess whether the hotel you'll pick is the same for both groups of nights.

Andrew

Thanks everyone!

For clarity:

As already stated, you book BOTH rooms for the exact same itinerary for all but that first night.

Then you contact the individual hotel on behalf of the one guest who needs an extra night.

Priceline does indeed have measures in place where a night can be added onto one end OR the other in cases where it is needed.

IF one of the persons is you, this is all simple. If not, then be sure to have BOTH names spelled-out on your path through Priceline. (meaning: don't book under your name and then assume that YOU don't have to be there at check-in.)

Worst case scenario is that that one extra night at the same hotel simply isn't available... in which case that person finds another hotel nearby, for that first night, and is still there on the same nights that the other person is there.

Or you can try Hotwire. Their prices will be a little higher than Priceline, but if you stick with the hotel with the same amenities and customer comments, you can be sure it's the same one.

Gee, rkkwan, I wish I'd said that!

Andrew

My only problem with Hotwire is that some of their 3* hotels are Priceline 2 1/2* hotels. ((b))

One needs to be careful when using Hotwire, just like Priceline. Use betterbidding.com to try to find out what hotel one might be bidding. If you're not sure, then don't use it.

I used Hotwire to book a wedding party of like 5 rooms, some one-night, some two-nights, some booked later on, at a Westin in Dallas for ~$52. So, if you know what you're doing, it can work.

Well I chickened out...the guys need to share a car so I wasn't willing to chance it. Next time when I have the same arrival and departure i think I will try it and save some $. All of this due to the Marriott changing the rate on all of the nights when I had to shorten the stay for one person...up from $79.00 to $179.00. I called the hotel to see if they could do anything since I had booked three room for multiple nights...they refused, basically saying we know we can get $179.00 from someone so go ahead and cancel everything...