Priceline

[RweTHEREyet]

Can anyone fill me in on Priceline. Like what to look out for, best approach, etc. Anyone had bad experience or any rave comments? It looks like this is best used if you are really flexible with your travel plans.

[Mike]

I am a Priceline newbie, but I found these two sites to be very helpful

http://p070.ezboard.com/bpricelineandexpediabidding

http://www.betterbidding.com/

Good Luck!

[dianeschlicht]

Thanks for the links. Frankly Priceline scares me!

[Mike]

I admit it was a little intimidating. I am arriving on a Saturday night in July so I figured I'd give it a shot for a cheap offsite stay for 1 night. I was pleasantly surprised with the results.

I won the following with a $36 bid for a 2.5 star in the Disney Vicinity.

Amerisuites Orlando Lake Buena Vista
4991 Calypso Cay Way
Kissimmee, Florida 34746
United States

This room would cost me about $109 + tax to book directly on the internet. With the fees and taxes I paid $44.35. Not a bad price for a room and breakfast for the whole family.

I am now bidding for a room for our drive down from Boston somewhere in the Lumberton, NC area.

[ErinC]

I have had very good luck with priceline. I only like to bid in area's that others have bid and I can kinda get a good idea what I will end up with. I never bid for anything lower than a 2.5 star (I'm not that brave). I've gotten some really nice places before using priceline, so I figure if I ever get burned, I still have saved enough before that I won't be too upset. Good luck with your bids.

[mushu]

I want to know where I am staying before booking, that's why I don't do priceline.

[carolina_yankee]

I want to know where I am staying before booking, that's why I don't do priceline.

I'm not sure about the sites that Mike listed, but http://www.biddingfortravel.com keeps a list of which hotels cover which zones, and the successful bids.

If you like any of the hotels in the, you should be OK. It takes a lot of research, though.

Dirk

[bavaria]

If you do the research and know what you MIGHT receive, you should be ok. I use priceline occaisisonaly for car rental if nothing good is available; one year we had a huge car for $11/day from an onsite agency.

I used to use the hotel side occaisisionally after doing thorough research. Once I ended up at the Sheraton Safarai (fine with me) but I don't recall ever staying anywhere else at WDW on priceline.

I did stay several times at the Hyatt at DL for less than $30, and once for about $14/night with some Amex/Priceline deal years ago.

[RweTHEREyet]

Everyone here seems to use it for hotel. Is it not a good thing for airfare?

[bavaria]

I can't recall if airfare has changed, but it used to be that you could end up with a very wide range of times ie for a weekend trip, you could end up departing Saturday EVENING and returning on Sunday MORNING.

I think that this may have chagned over the years as the airline portion wasn't doing well for them. Priceline also entered into agreements with other travel retailers as a result.

[Mike]

I am not sure about how airfare works, but I just wanted to add that I just helped a friend use Priceline for the first time for a car rental. He is going to WDW on 4/23 and the best rate he could find for a minivan was $27/day through Dollar. His first bid through Priceline was $17/day and it was accepted by Alamo. He saved about $100 on his 9 day rental. Gotta love Priceline.

Since my last post I booked two more rooms using Priceline. I rearranged my trip a bit to add a day. So instead of needing a room on Friday night in Lumberton, NC I instead bid on a room in Richmond, VA for Thursday night. I got the Marriot Springhill Suites with a $39 bid. I went to expedia, orbitz and a few other sites and the best I could get this same room for was $163 after taxes. My final cost through Priceline after taxes and fees was $52. The room includes a hot/cold buffet breakfast (for the 5 of us). How can you go wrong with that deal?!?!

So now I will be arriving in Orlando a day earlier. I had already booked the Amerisuites for Saturday night through Priceline but I needed a place to stay on Friday. I decided to use Priceline again even though I was sure that I would get a different hotel. But I didn't feel like paying $110 for the Amerisuites. So I submitted a bid for $36 and I got the Amerisuites again!!! So now I don't have to move until we check into OKW on Sunday. I was very lucky.

Once you get over the initial fear, you can save a lot of money using Priceline. I am now bidding for a room in Emporia, VA for my return trip. My first offer of $22 was not accepted so I will try again today with an offer of $24.

[rdarr0914]

HI. I am a newbie to these boards -- just signed up a week ago. BUT I have been using priceline for years! I have gotten the Marriott Orlando World Center and Hyatt Grand Cypress for $100 night. I always type in resort or 4stars. I have never been burned. I have also used it for flights -- you can do well if you are somewhat flexible on the time of the flights and you can choose one stop or no stops, etc. I have always found it to be a big rush when waiting for the priceline site to crunch your request. SO, I say go for it!!!

[dgaston]

I've used it for car rental -- got Alamo once and Hertz 2x. I think I bid between $11 and $15 per day for compacts on these trips. Once we were given a Lincoln town car -- they didn't have any compacts left!

We also have used Priceline to stay near the Airport on late Saturday arrivals. We've stayed at La Quinta for $22 and MCO Marriott for $50. I will likely use Priceline for a Friday stay before our Feb cruise, too.