Everyone has heard of priceline.com. But after seeing people start threads like "where can i get a decent hotel in x city" I'm not sure that everyone fully understands how well it works, or how to manipulate it to give you extremely good room rates. I have written a relatively brief guide below.

For a long time I assumed the "name your own price and save" thing was a gimmick, but it actually works extremely well.

Examples

I'm taking a road trip up and down the east coast this week, and here are some sample rates I've gotten:

3* Hotel in DT Pittsburgh on Saturday
Hotel website price: $127
Priceline accepted bid: $45

2.5* Hotel in DT Toronto on Sunday
Hotel website price: $89CAN
Priceline accepted bid: $45US (domestic transaction, no conversion fee)

3* Hotel in Atlantic City on Thursday
Hotel website price: $89
Priceline accepted bid: $63

These are the only nights I've attempted thus far; I'll post more when I buy them.

Here is a basic user guide:

1) Enter the city you want a hotel for in the "name your own price" section of the homepage. Do not enter dates into the regular webpage. Make SURE you use the "name your own price" section of the webpage.

2) Enter the neighborhood you want to stay in (you can check multiple neighborhoods).

3) You will see the star ratings (1* through 5*) available in the neighborhoods you've checked. Select your minimum star rating (generally 2.5* should be minimum).

4) Enter the amount you want to spend on the room.

5) Enter your credit card info (or username/password).

6) It will tell you whether your bid for a hotel room was accepted.
-If so, YOU HAVE PURCHASED THE ROOM.
-If not, YOU CANNOT PLACE ANOTHER BID FOR 24 HOURS.

Advantages:
-Hotels use priceline to sell their unsold rooms at whatever price they can get.
-Hotels sell you hotel rooms at prices they do not want associated with their brand name in advirtisements (eg Hilton would not want to put out an ad for a $50 hotel room when 75% of the people pay $100+).

Disadvantages:
-You have PURCHASED THE ROOM. This is NOT just a reservation and it CANNOT be changed.
-You do not know which hotel you will be staying at before you buy, only the neighborhood and minimum star rating.
-You theoretically cannot "rebid" on the hotel for 24 hours.


ADVANCED STARTEGY -- this method allows you to get the lowest possible price for your desired star rating and neighborhood.

You CAN rebid within 24 hours if you do one of two things:
-Lower your minimum star rating threshold
-Choose another neighborhood to include in the search.
At this point you WILL be given the opportunity to raise your bid.

Most neighborhoods do not have hotels available in all star ratings. Some neighborhoods have only 3* or worse, 2.5* or worse, or 2* or worse. When you are picking your preferred neighborhood (often downtown or a nice area, which generally has up to 4* or higher), you first must find out which other neighborhoods have hotels ONLY BELOW your desired star rating. To do this, DE-SELECT your preferred neighborhood and select each neighborhood individually. WRITE DOWN the names of all the neighborhoods that have hotels ONLY BELOW your desired star rating (the higher star levels will grey out if this is the case). These areas are called REBID ZONES.

Start your bid unrealistically low. I would say a general guide is this:
$35 -- 2.5*
$40 -- 3*
$50 -- 4*
Note: This is highly variable and between and within cities

If your bid is rejeceted, you can add one of the rebid zones to your search. You KNOW there are no hotels that could posssibly be accepted in the rebid zone, but by adding it you will be allowed to raise your bid. Continue this process until you get an accepted bid (usually increase in $5 increments, since there are always a limited numer of rebids available). If you reach your maximum budget, lower the star rating (works in place of adding a rebid zone; make sure none of your rebid zones have your new star rating).

Example:
Let's say you want a 4* hotel in Downtown Atlanta.
-When you see the list of neighborhoods, find out which ones have no 4* hotels. You see that Jonesboro, Stockbridge, and Union City all have only 2* or worse.
-First, highlight Downtown and put out a feeler bid: $50. Rejected. Damn.
-Add Jonesboro to your bid. Rebid $55. Rejected again. Damn.
-Add Stockbridge to your bid. Rebid $60. Bingo!

$60: 4* Hayatt Regency Downtown

-Enjoy paying easily half what the average guest is paying! Or, enjoy staying in a substantially better hotel than $60 could buy using any normal purchasing avenue.

Helpful tip: check out the 2p2 of priceline bidding forums. What I've told you is expressed in much more detail there, and they have developed bidding into nearly an art form. Members also post all their winning bids, so you can get a great idea of what will be accepted where. Pay it forward by joining yourself and posting your winning bids (in their format--they are very picky).

If you have any questions, feel free to ask them here. If you have success, share your winning bids!

Happy bidding!

Many thanks for writing this. I'd never used the system (and probably won't for a while, but it'll come in handy I'm sure)

Nice guide. Priceline has great prices but their hotel ratings aren't always accurate. Lots of advertised 4* hotels will actually be 3* hotels, 3* hotels will be 2* hotels, etc. I discovered this the hard way when I went on a cross-country road trip two years ago. Be careful, use the BiddingForTravel forum and don't overpay.

Priceline does tend to be a bit "optimistic" in its hotel ratings. It uses it's own rating system, not AAA or any other third party rating system.

For everything I've seen, here is roughly the type of hotel you can expect for different star levels:

5* -- Nice hotels: The Venetian, Palazzo, etc. Not available in many areas
4* -- Upmarket major name brands: Grand Hyatt, Renaissance, Intercontinetal, Swissotel, etc
3* -- Flagship name brands: Marriott, Westin, Radisson, Doubletree, Sheraton, etc
2.5* -- Entry-level major brands: Marriott Courtyard, Comfort Suites, Hyatt Place, etc
2* -- Downmarket brands: Extended Stay, Holiday Inn, Days Inn, Comfort Inn, etc
1* -- Places to avoid: Red Roof Inn, etc; not advisable to bid on these, not available in most city center areas either

T50,

this is very helpful, as I'm just right now planning a vacation, and lodging is the major cost factor. So thanks.

My question is this. Say I'm planning a vacation for 6 weeks from now. When is the optimal time to start looking at priceline? This may be a dumb question, but do hotel prices fluctuate as the booking date gets closer, like airfare? If so, is there a risk that waiting for the perfect priceline window screws you over if you can't find something and have to book normally?

I don't think there is much consensus on the best time to book. Some people argue that earlier on, hotels want guaranteed sales and raise prices as they fill up. But others argue that if a hotel has rooms at the last minute, they will be willing to take almost any offer. In other words, it probably doesn't matter all that much when you do it (although there is a cutoff for same-day bidding; 5PM maybe?).

With that said, if there is any reason that lodging in a certain city will be highly sought after when you are booking, make sure to bid as early as possible. This is especially true for Vegas/AC, where people often bid well over $200 unsuccessfully on big nights.

In general, I would start bidding about a week in advance when possible. This way you can wait 24 hours if the bidding just isn't working out well. And if priceline isn't working for a particular booking, you still have time to use an alternative booking avenue.

Remember, Priceline works best when you want a nice, centrally-located hotel room in a large city on a no-so-special night.

You can go a little farther out, I have booked 10 weeks in advance for Palm Springs during easter week. Two years in a row I stayed at a "Resort" for 120 per night. Hyatt Grand Champions.

I think you get some real value at the 5* and Resort levels, because these hotels like to keep their publicized prices high to keep the riff raff out. Priceline is where they dump inventory. While they may know months in advance that they need to drop their prices to fill the hotel, they still won't. but they will put the excess on Priceline early because they know they can't fill up, and if they wait to long they won't get enough through priceline either.


I'm also a HUGE believer in priceline for rental cars.

Priceline is truly great as mentioned here so far. It can be a Godsend when it comes to booking hotels in Europe especially with the current state of the US dollar. I've used it many times in countries that use the Euro and I paid $140 rather than the hotel's rack rate of 200 Euros, which obviously tranlates to over $300. I have always had a good experience with the site. Just use the Bidding For Travel board to acclimate yourself to the whole procedure.

4* In Montreal, QC, Monday and Tuesday (Sheraton Le Centre)
Website list price: $189CAN
Priceline accepted bid: $74US

hmmm, I really need to look into this for all my semi flexible short trips.

One last hotel, gotten on the fly Friday morning for lodging that night:

3* in Washington DC (Downtown Doubletree)
Normal room rate: $179
Priceline accepted bid: $55

As for a total hotel trip report,

The Marriott in Pittsburgh was nice, solid 3* hotel, good location. T50 hotel rating: 3*

The Bond Place Hotel in Toronto was a great location but not the best hotel and didn't quite earn the 2.5* rating, and getting 2 single beds is kinda tacky. T50 hotel rating: 2*

Sheraton Le Centre in Montreal was an absolutely amazing location and view in a great property, but the room itself left something to be desired for a 4* hotel. T50 hotel rating: 3.5*

Trump Marina Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City wasn't my personal ideal choice (didn't gamble due to the no poker, not a big deal for me) but is fiercely maintained and frequently renovated, outshining its 3* rating. This was the nicest room we had the whole trip, but the typical cheesy casino atmosphere diminished overall sophistication and class (as usual). T50 hotel rating: 3.5*

Doubletee Downtown in Washington DC was a good hotel for DC, and a long but tolerable walk from the White House, etc. The $26 valet-only parking rubbed me a little wrong. But the room was sparkling and plush, especially for a 3*. T50 hotel rating: 3.5*

Why does it say you have to be 21 or older to make a reservation?

I'm not sure, honestly. Lots of hotels want you to be 21, including some that are bidding possibilities on priceline. I imagine they put this rule in place so they don't have to deal with the result of an 18-20 yr old buying a hotel they can't check into, so priceline can just say "tough ****".

Bidding is going to be risky if you are 18-20, but if you wanted to really badly you could go to the bidding forum and find the list of bidding possibilities for your zone and star range (make sure to check the most recent posts to find your most probable match), than call the individual hotels and make sure 18-20 is okay (don't mention priceline, just ask if you need to be 21 to check in).

I wouldn't do it myself.

Thanks. I looked online and some people have asked this question and a lot of 18-20 yos were able to check in. But I think this is mainly in the US right? Because I can't see them turning someone down in Europe where the age 21 has no signficance. Maybe because of the alcohol in some US rooms they can't have anyone under 21 check in themselves.

I think in Europe it isn't a big deal. In fact, if you use the UK priceline I'm pretty sure they don't have this requirement.

To my understanding the age limit in the US is a result of insurance.

Great, thanks for the help.

T50-- Cool thread. Thanks for the info.

OP and others--

Just curious, but what's the star breakdown for Las Vegas hotels on the strip? For instance, I assume that places like the Wynn and the Venetian are 5 star hotels, but what about the others, like Harrah's or Treasure Island or New York, NY? Just curious...

Thanks again.

Vegas' priceline ratings, as far as I can see, are a bit...err...frothy--perhaps moreso than any other place I've seen.

Here is an updated list of vegas zones and hotels.

It looks like North Strip 5* will put you in the Venetian, which would be great, but with South Strip you'll be stuck down in Mandalay Bay (4* in my book).

Having Caesar's Palace and Luxor share the same 4* star rating is a bit odd, also, as I'd vastly prefer the former (Luxor is simply not up to par with a 4* business hotel in another city).

The 3* is even worse, with properties like Imperial Palace and Stratosphere, both of which have serious shortcomings. Harrah's would be fine for that star rating.

And so on.

If I were bidding here I'd hammer the North Strip 5* hard, then hammer the North Strip 4*, then relucatantly the South Strip 5* (if you can tolerate the location of MB), then give in and bid South Strip 4*. I wouldn't stray below that.

3* in Downtown Jacksonville, FL, Monday; 7 Rooms (for business)
Website list price: $229/room
Priceline accepted bid: $81/room

Forgot to include hotel name: Hyatt Regency Downtown

Night on the west coast for business:

3* in Downtown Portland (Downtown Hilton), Monday 5/5
Website list price: $199
Priceline accepted bid: $55

I just booked a 4* in STL this weekend for $60.

One strategy I use is to go on Hotwire and see what they are charging, then try priceline a few dollars cheaper. In this case, STL, I could have gotten a 4* for $75, so I tried priceline at 60 and they accepted. The quoted rate for the room is around $130.

how do u get a strip room when i clicked 4star it gave me the Westin which is behind the flamingo? because the ****ing zone is "strip vicinity"

Nice grab on the STL 4*--what hotel did you get?

Yeah, it's worth doing your research before bidding.

FWIW I'm in the Portland Hilton right now--mediocre but a 3* I guess. Weak air conditioner in a west-facing room. Bleh.

so how do i get a strip room? do i have to select 5star? or are the going to put me in a 5star off strip? this thread doesnt tell you how to get around there vague usage of the word "vicinity"