Get Cheap Rooms With These "Name Your Own Price" Tips

GeekSugar — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 13:15:19 PDT

Travel season is upon us, and I'll be the first to say I have champagne taste, but am confined to a beer-sized budget. Finding deals on hotels and flights has never been so important, especially with gas prices and travel costs through the roof! So lately, Priceline's "Name Your Price" feature (you know the commercials - William Shatner is the "Priceline Negotiator"?) has been looking more and more attractive, but I've heard a story or two about users who have been less than thrilled with their rooms once they've arrived.

My girl Petsugar has been there and told me about a site she found that deconstructs the rules and ways of Priceline's hotel selection process. Dubbed BiddingForTravel, this site schools you on some sweet tips and tricks to using Priceline, and now Petsugar can even guess (correctly!) which hotel she is bidding on!

Go through BiddingForTravel's helpful FAQs first to learn how Priceline chooses your hotels and flights, then start bidding. If it's all too much and you need further help, request for bid assists from the pros to help you get the room and location you want for your next vacay. That's what I call full service!

Want some more tips on how to bid for rooms on Priceline? Then just

How to Be Smart About Bidding For Hotels

Emily Co — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 13:31:56 PDT

If you know how to play the Priceline game, you might be saving a ton of money on your travel digs. But there is a technique, and there are plenty of forums, like BiddingforTravel, that share tricks to gaming the bidding system. CNN recently spoke to the founder of BiddingForTravel, Sheryl Mexic, who shared some tips to winning hotel bids.

Priceline is the best choice for US hotels. Sheryl says Priceline is a better deal than Hotwire because "Priceline will accept a bid at their cost or higher and their profit comes from overbids," and Hotwire generates profits by building them into their set prices.
Detecting a hotel on Hotwire. One attractive feature of Hotwire is that it lists hotel amenities, which makes it easier for consumers to figure out which hotel it is. Users can use BidGoggles, which is a free tool that will help you figure out which mystery hotel you're looking at on Hotwire. It does this by combing through data submitted by Hotwire users and matching up the hotel with information that you have plugged in.
Figure out if you should go with conventional booking. If where your hotel is located is very important to you, you might want to book it through the conventional means instead of booking blind. Remember that if you're booking through Priceline, you'll only be guaranteed double occupancy, so you might end up with one bed. That's something to consider as well if having two beds is important. Hotwire, on the other hand, allows you to name the number of guests rooming with you.
Rebid smartly. In Priceline, if your bid isn't accepted, you get the option of waiting another 24 hours to bid again or changing some details such as star rating, zones, or dates. CNN advises to "re-bid a higher amount adding zones that only offer hotels at lower star-ratings than you've selected."