<p>Anyone have experience using either of these websites to save $$ on cars and/or hotels? I am not interested in using them for airfare. I prefer to reserve directly w/airline.</p>
<p>Would appreciate any positive or especially any negative feedback.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>I’ve used priceline for hotels, and I’ve managed to get some pretty good ones. It will only allow you to name your price once in 24 hours - if they say no, you have to wait before you can try again. However, they determine if it’s “you” by your e-mail address. So I’ve just created a few free e-mail addresses, used my h’s and my d’s, etc. to be able to just keep going until I get to a price point that they either accept or that’s too high for me.</p>
<p>Now, the downside - you get no requests with the rate they give you, and the hotel has very little flexibility in moving you around. We were once put into a smoking room, and the hotel could not move us as this was the only priceline room they’d set aside and they were full with other full-paying guests. Hotels look at it like, “You’re paying cut rate, you’ll get what we’ve got left over.”</p>
<p>If you’re not picky, you can do fine.</p>
<p>What I always do with rental cars is - up to two months or so before a trip, I rent the least expensive car that meets my needs - but don’t pay for it. Then a week before, I play with Priceline. I bid at exactly 30% below the cheapest rate I find on Hotwire. It works about 90% of the time.</p>
<p>I have used Priceline for both airlines and car rentals. I did better with airlines than the car rentals. As far as I could tell, I didn’t get that much of a “deal” on the car rental. It would have been easier to deal directly with the car rental agency. For hotel discounts, I’ve done really well with hotels.com at least for booking hotels in NYC. You can specify an area of the city, and it seems that there are usually 3 or 4 hotels that the company uses on a regular basis. So, if we want a room in mid-town we know pretty much which hotels we’ll get. Last year, my D and a few of her friends (recent high school grads) went to a reunion concert at Madison Square Garden of a band that all of them had followed. We got 3 rooms (2 double beds in each room) for $700 dollars in mid-town Manhattan. That’s a great rate. My husband and I went to Manhattan last month and we paid $500 (plus taxes) for a room at the Marriott Marquis (in the theatre district/near Times Square). It wasn’t a fancy room or a suite–just a basic room with two double beds/tv/desk and a bath room.</p>
<p>I have bought hotels on Priceline for about 1/5 of the stated cost.
However- since that includes not knowing the hotel until after you pay for it, that puts a damper on knowing if you can take pets or end up paying $25 a day for parking.</p>
<p>however- if you know the hotel you often can get best deal dealing with them directly.</p>
<p>I prefer a hotel that has a small fridge/coffee pot and microwave & it is really nice if I can take my pet.
One of the hotels was very high end- but parking was about $20 & didn’t have even a coffee pot in the room.</p>
<p>I’ve used both for both hotels and cars. My comfort level regarding surprises is low, so I tend to do car rentals (since the limited list of agencies is revealed prior to bidding or choosing) more than hotels. For example, I got a mid-size SUV (Hyundai Santa Fe) from Hertz for $9.95/day this past weekend in St. Louis. Did I need an SUV, no, but it came in handy visiting my S and his roommates whom I affectionately refer to as the 3 bears on steroids! And the lowest daily price I could identify on the main rental company sites for that weekend was in the $25-30 day range.</p>
<p>I have used Priceline for hotels and did not encounter any problems. There is a definite art to using Priceline, knowing which hotels in which area are how many stars, and which “lemons” you could be stuck with. I also made sure to confirm the reservations with the hotels directly a few weeks in advance.</p>
<p>I have tried to use priceline over the last 2 weeks for a college trip. It has not worked out. They have denied all of my bids, and I feel that my bids went quite steep considering that I did not know which hotel I would get. I was willing to stay in a 3 star, 2.5 star, and reluctantly I tried a to bid on a 2 star. I have given up on priceline for this trip. I was successful on a bid for a nice hotel last summer for one night, and that worked out well.</p>
<p>I have always used Hotwire and was happy with the results every time. For me it’s not about trying to get the cheapest deal ever but a fair deal quickly. Hotwire is perfect for that.</p>
<p>I have used priceline rather extensively over the years, mostly for hotel rooms, and with the aid of this site. [BiddingForTravel.com</a> - Message Board - Yuku](<a href=“http://biddingfortravel.yuku.com%5DBiddingForTravel.com”>http://biddingfortravel.yuku.com). Previous bids are listed, as well as strategies for securing a room in an area you select, at a price you determine. I have even used priceline for hotels in Europe. </p>
<p>If you are saavy, you can do very, very well.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the tips! </p>
<p>Another quick query, any problems w/hotwire billing immediately rather than at time of rental, etc? I am finding really cheap car rental on hotwire, but you are billed immediately in full, and don’t find out which car company until you seal the deal.</p>
<p>But they do tell you which 4-5 companies they use, and they are the major ones. You can sometimes tell by checking where its located…“in terminal; shuttle to car” etc. I did that for St. Louis and was able to figure out that it would be either Hertz or Avis. Turned out to be Hertz. For the price I was happy to pay in advance. And we had no problems when we showed up to get the car either. FWIW, we’ve had to pay in advance with any of these types of things…including Hotwire, Priceline, Expedia etc. I know they don’t disclose which agency before paying on Hotwire, but they DO limit the options prior to purchasing.</p>
<p>Ive used Hotwire. We are pretty familiar with the hotels in D’s college town and have figured out which listings are which hotels. Example—we generally stay at a Sheraton with the rack rate of about $175 for $40-$60 a night. I made a cross country trip with the lap top in the car and would book hotels on hotwire when we would be about 3-4 hours outside the town we would be staying at. Ive also gone on Tripadvisor.com and posters have listed which hotels on hotwire are which(for trips to Europe). Once I booked a $450/night at the Intercontinental in Paris for $150/night.</p>
<p>I have used Priceline at least 50 times and LOVE them. 90% of the time I know exactly what hotel I’m going to get and their lowest bid accepted by checking [BiddingForTravel.com</a> - The informed Priceline Travel Bidding Forum<a href=“as%20already%20mentioned”>/url</a> and [url=<a href=“http://www.betterbidding.com%5DPriceline”>http://www.betterbidding.com]Priceline</a> and Hotwire Forum](<a href=“http://www.biddingfortravel.com%5DBiddingForTravel.com”>http://www.biddingfortravel.com). Hotwire is generally more expensive. With both companies, you pay first and find out later who accepts your bid. Also, Priceline now guarantees non-smoking rooms.</p>
<p>I have used Hotwire 3 times and I have never had a problem. Very reliable an dprofessional. I still haven’t tried Priceline, but after all your comments guys, I will give it a chance, thanks!</p>
<p>With Hotwire, you really dont bid. There is a list of hotels, names not revealed with general descriptions, star ratings, facility description etc. and the price. You choose a particular hotel (if you do a little research,especially on the sights above you can be pretty sure of your hotel name) and then pay before the name is revealed. Correct me if Im wrong—but dont you bid on Priceline and it can be any number of different hotels in the same rating?</p>
<p>I had success w/ priceline; $110 for 4 star hotel in Boston commons area. Tripadvisors.com gave me the inside scoop by putting priceline in their search engine under Boston. Tripadvisors is an amazingly informative website.</p>
<p>Thanks all. I have successfully used hotwire for the first time, and if all goes well w/the reservations will continue using them in the future.</p>
<p>You’re right, musicamusica, Hotwire is technically not a bid, but it is still a surprise. Both of these services work best for larger cities with 4* hotels, where the savings is the greatest.</p>
<p>livesinnewjersey, tripadvisor only lists hotel reviews. You have to use one of the other web sites to find out how much to bid and what hotel you should get. According to biddingfortravel, if bidding 4* in Boston, you’ll likely get the Omni Parker House for $87 or the Hyatt Regency for $90.</p>
<p>[Massachusetts</a> - Boston - USA Hotels - BiddingForTravel.com - Message Board - Yuku](<a href=“Massachusetts - Boston - BiddingForTravel.com”>Massachusetts - Boston - BiddingForTravel.com)</p>
<p>I like the betterbidding website. I use it along with tripadvisor reviews when attempting to get a great hotel price. If I see hotels that I really don’t want, though, I won’t use priceline or hotwire. I’ll search for deals directly at the hotel or its website. Sometimes, retailmenot has coupon codes for hotels - or you can just do a search for coupon codes for a particular hotel. I have used priceline for rental cars, which worked well. My dad has tried & not been able to get the deals he wants, though, and so he does a coupon code search and books directly with a rental company. I have also hit great sales at orbitz. Flyertalk has a good forum for hotel deals and coupon codes. It doesn’t take too long to search for great rates once you get the system down!</p>