Hotel Bidding....

[Eccie Addict]

Ok so I have been wanting to get a nice room at a nice hotel. I have never once booked a room at a hotel so I have no idea what is involved or required. I hear about ladies finding rooms at 4 or 5 star hotels for as little as 50 for a night.

If it's 25 for 2 hours at a notel then 25 more you can get a really nice room for a night at a nice hotel, well that seems like a no brainer lol.

Can you ladies or guys share some advice on what sites are good for this and the process involved. I've heard of priceline and hotwire, are there other sites or are those the best? Also what is the process? Can you book same days?

Just looking for suggestions and advice

[pyramider]

Go to priceline place a bid in the area you want ..... sit back and wait

[Carrie Hillcrest]

Priceline and Hotwire are my favorites. Hotwire I find usually has better deals, but with Priceline you know the hotel you're getting, so you pay a little more. However, if you do the "name your price" bidding thing Priceline has, you can sometimes get an even better deal than Hotwire, though with that you also don't know which hotel you're going to end up with (outside of its star ranking/area).

At least, that's the way things were the last time I used both. Things may have changed since then.

Consult http://www.betterbidding.com before bidding. If you read through the posts on there, you can usually figure out which hotel is which through amenities/location/star rating, and it will give you an idea of what bids might be accepted so you don't waste time bidding too low or spend too much bidding too high.

[DallasRain]

I use hotwire & priceline.....consult with the betterbidding site for tips

I check hotwire first then try to bid lower on priceline

good luck!

[Chevalier]

I tried Hotwire, but the amenties were often the same for all of the hotels I was looking at, so it was difficult to tell for sure which was which. I finally got tired of trying to figure it out and went back to Priceline.

With Priceline "name your bid," I can usually get a 4-star hotel around the Galleria for a pretty decent price. Including the $14 - $19 the Priceline adds on to what the hotel gets, about 40% of my winning bids have been under $60; 35% $60 - $70; and 25% over $70. I could probably reduce it a little bit with a lower star rating, but there's not much lower it can go.

A few general tips:

1) You bid on the amount that the hotel will get. The price that is charged to your credit card is higher, as it includes the Priceline cut. Beware.

2) If your initial bid is rejected, you can't simply resubmit a bid with the same parameters but increasing the amount. (Sometimes Priceline will offer you an option to do that, but it often requires you to up your bid by $15 or so.) You have to change something else besides price. So it can be helpful, before going into "name your bid," to look through the regular Priceline options. You can get a list of hotels within a particular star rating by sub-area. Find one of the sub-areas that doesn't have a hotel for that star rating. Example, first time I bid for a 4-star hotel at $40 in Galleria area. That's rejected. Next, I bid for a 4-star hotel at $45 in either the Galleria area or "Dallas Northwest" (around 635/35 intersection). That bid is accepted, because I changed one of the parameters -- adding a different sub-area. But since Priceline lists no 4-star hotels in "Dallas Northwest," I'm really still only searching in the Galleria area. (Although once, I had to add a third sub-area, and wound up far from where I intended to be.) Obviously, this doesn't work as well for lower star ratings. But you can still rebid if you're more flexible about the location. Just add one sub-area at a time to allow multiple rounds of bidding.

3) For 4-star hotels around the Galleria, there are just a few that I always seem to wind up at, and they seem in run in streaks -- four or five times straight at Hotel X, then three or four times straight at Hotel Y, etc. Presumably they're changing their minds about how low they're willing to accept.

4) I have bid a couple of days in advance, one day in advance, and the same day. It may affect what rate the hotel is willing to offer, or even whether there are any "extra" rooms at that hotel; not sure. In any event, you don't have to do it in advance.

But read the bidding guides; they have all sorts of suggestions.

Good luck.

[whitechocolate]

Very useful information.

[guest060112-3]

Nifty! I've been using priceline more, so I'm voraciously reading that link. Thanks!

[ramblin guy]

Hotwire is my favorite, especially for areas that I frequent. After a few times you can pretty much determine which hotels you are looking at because of the star ratings and prices being fairly consistent in the areas you like. Hotwire also is a partner of Hotels.com and by referring to their star ratings and regions it's not too difficult to figure out which hotels you are considering. If you purchase "packages" on Hotwire you can see the hotels. Still, I've only once had a bad experience with a Hotwire hotel and when I called Hotwire from that hotel they immediately got me into a different hotel in the same area at the same rate, so I appreciate their customer service. After you had been with them for a while they will do just about anything for you, regardless of the "rules".

[lilred_robin]

Not for everyone, but I know there are a LOT of military guys here...

http://www.afvclub.com/

Amazing rates!
Available for active and retired service members and family

[heidilynnla]

Not sure about your area, but start with 3.5 stars or better on priceline in an area of town you are interested in. If you don't get your first bid, you must change something about your reservation. Either star rating, $15 higher, different area, different night.

[SofaKingFun]

Priceline is my pick.

Plus, William Shatner is just WAY too cool when he's "negotiating" for you.


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[MsPrittiKitti]

lots of helpful info here!!

[pyramider]

Sorry we will do better.

[Guest120615-3]

Try http://www.biddingtraveler.com
It's newbie friendly for priceline bidding.

[R.M.]

Priceline has really been good to me.