Are they both bidding sites? Does Hotwire give you a little more selection for hotels? Or is where your bid will be still unknown until it is awarded? I have never used Hotwire but have used PL about ten times.

You don't bid on Hotwire. They tell you the price up front with area, star level, and amenities, but no hotel name. If you're satisfied, you pay. You only know the hotel after they charge your credit card. No refund.

Must read www.biddingfortravel.com for Priceline, and www.betterbidding.com for Hotwire.

I have not used Priceline but have used Hotwire. This was in a location where I already knew the area and pool of hotels quite well. So, I felt I would be reasonably satisfied with any property that might be assigned in the category that I was choosing. I actually got the property that I hoped would be assigned. However, after making the reservation for 1 night, we decided to stay 2 nights. So, with the same category of property still available at the same price, I bought a second night (hoping that the same property would be assigned, but understanding that it might not be). As fate (or the computer) would have it, we were assigned to a different hotel on the second night -- not a problem in this instance since they were less than 1 mile apart and we were traveling light.

At www.betterbidding.com you can see a list of hotels with amenities to help you determine which hotels might be offered at hotwire. It's not definitive - there could be another hotel that no one has reported there with the same amenities - but it's a start.

I've personally never found hotwire to be useful. After checking hotel rates at more conventional sites like the hotels themselves, travelocity, expedia, etc. I often go to hotwire and find not much savings. But, sometimes I've used hotwire to give me an idea of an upper limit to bid on priceline. When I've used priceline, I've always gotten a better price than what I've seen for similar quality hotels on hotwire. It may depend on the area, though.

I use Hotwire for car rentals in particular to determine what the added taxes will be. Then when I bid on PL, I know what will be added. Only one time did I find a better price on Hotwire than PL which surprised me.

Hotwire is most useful when you need to add more nights or add more rooms after initial booking. For example, for weddings.

We did that for a large party at the Westin Park Central in Dallas late last year. With Priceline, chances are slim that all will be given the same hotel. And while the price may be higher than PL, it's still a great bargin, if you do your research.

With priceline you can bid for up to 4 rooms at once, so it's still good for a party of up to 8 people.

But that made me think of another benefit of hotwire - priceline only guarantees their rooms for 2 people, but with priceline you can specify the number of people per room, up to 4. So it's better for families.

I've read on BiddingForTravel.com that sometimes, if you need to extend your stay or add rooms at the same hotel, you can call Priceline customer service and ask them, and if they have rooms, at their option they can offer you additions rooms and/or nights at the same price. Not a guarantee but worth a try.

Andrew

I've logged more than 60 Priceline nights and about 3 on Hotwire. If you are an informed bidder (using info derived from BiddingForTravel and BetterBidding)Priceline will beat Hotwire virtually all of the time for comparable hotels.

However, I'd like to point out that Hotwire has a coupon worth $30 off on any Hotwire flight, hotel,car rental or package purchase over $95 that is in all 2005 city editions of Entertainment books available through www.Entertainment.com. And the Entertainment people have just reduced the cost of their coupon books by $10, about a 33% reduction in most cases.

I've had my $30 off coupon in my wallet since November just in case I find an instance where I think in might help Hotwire beat Priceline!

Thanks for responses. So, if I understand correctly, PL gives better prices, Hotwire more flexibility? Does that sound right?

Here is my main complaint about PL. I would have used it last time I stayed in La Jolla, but they don't have that location. They just have coastal, which gives a great range of areas to be assigned. Since we had to be somewhere the next morning at 7 am and didn't want to take a chance with traffic, I just booked through the hotel. But maybe Hotwire would have been an option?

I'll have to check it out. Sometimes we are able to travel places where we can be flexible about where we will stay, so that is a good time to use PL. We find it fun to see where they will put us. Kind of a surprise. Most of the time it has worked out just fine.

Hotwire doesn't offer much more flexibility. However, the keys are:

- You know what price it is, right away. No need to play the bidding games on PL, which may take a while if you're doing it correctly.

- If the hotel matches the description on betterbidding.com, then you may know exactly what hotel you'll getting. This is not possible at all with PL.