How to Get Cheap Hotels: the official Priceline appreciation thread

[Pride of Cucamonga]

Originally Posted by K䲰䮥n

I guess this is for the US.

yes

[EyesofaBlueDog]

The money I could have saved if I had read this thread earlier....

[tipp86]

Guys im pretty sick as an Irish person i have to use .co.uk site. It appears this does not allow name your own price on flights any way around this or am i missing something?

[Longy]

Originally Posted by tipp86

Guys im pretty sick as an Irish person i have to use .co.uk site. It appears this does not allow name your own price on flights any way around this or am i missing something?

I use the .com site, for everything. The only stumbling was having to put down a US state think I went for New Jersey lol.

I must have booked well over 20 hotels with the .com site with my credit card and never had a problem.

[tipp86]

Originally Posted by Longy

I use the .com site, for everything. The only stumbling was having to put down a US state think I went for New Jersey lol.

I must have booked well over 20 hotels with the .com site with my credit card and never had a problem.

Il see what i can do so.

[T50_Omaha8]

From my recent trip to Arizona:

3* Hotel in Flagstaff: Marriott Courtyard
Hotel List Price: $129
Priceline Accepted Bid: $55

2.5* Hotel in Phoenix: Marriott Courtyard
Hotel List Price: $89
Priceline Accepted Bid: $40

2* Hotel at Grand Canyon: Red Feather Lodge
Hotel List Price: $160
Priceline Accepted Bid: $130

3.5* Hotel in Tucson: Sheraton
Hotel List Price: $85
Priceline Accepted Bid: $45


I'll post a trip report soon maybe.

[Josem]

My contribution:

5* Hotel in Dublin, Ireland: Conrad Dublin
Website list price: €181
Accepted bid: £101

Got two rooms, each for two nights

[mcc3504]

Thanks for this thread. Helped cut my travel costs for a poker trip.

*2 Hotel in Florence, Ky Extended Stay
Hotel list price: $54
Priceline accepted bid: $35

Very nice room, fridge, microwave, toaster. Was treated fine when checking in and was even given free wifi. Staying two nights.

[zinna]

Is this still working as well as it did in 08? Any updates on when its optimal to book your rooms? Im planing a trip in september-october and will probably book flights in june or so and then I would like to book hotels soon after that. Will that be to early to use priceline?

[Trix]

Interesting stuff.
Can you book for 1 week+ or only one day each time ?

[T50_Omaha8]

You can book for at least a week I would think. Definitely more than a day at a time.

Yes, it is working just as well as in 2008. You can see the bids from 2010/2011 a few posts above.

Don't know when is best. Probably ~2 weeks beforehand is fine, unless there is some sort of special event in which you would need to book many months in advance. Priceline is best for off-peak times when they need to fill rooms badly.

[zinna]

So 3 months early is too soon? The guys running the forum has to do that fulltime, there is one user who has 153K posts and another one who has 152K posts and they answer every thread and are very nitty about people using their link

[T50_Omaha8]

I don't know if it's too soon, but you can certainly try. If you aren't getting as good a price as you want, just try again later. Time is on your side (often people are doing it for same day so they have a very limited number of bids remaining). The bidding community seems divided on the issue of how early is too early.

Yes, the forum has devolved into a nitty mess. Posting there is awful now, and I usually don't post my bids. They yell at you if you don't use their link to place bids, which is a lot more difficult to use than Priceline's main webpage. Volume seems to have declined.

[zinna]

Im planing a trip to NYC -> Philadelphia or Washington DC -> Boston -> New Orleans -> NYC.

I will probably start the trip in early september and travel for a total of a month or so. Do you know if its high/normal/low season for each city?

(roundtrip to NYC is alot cheaper than flying from the other cities that why Im going to NYC twice)

[T50_Omaha8]

Most American cities don't have big high seasons, and I don't anticipate much of a problem anywhere besides NYC where it is always high season.