Carl’s Journey

A step by step guide to hotel room bidding on Priceline.com.

I started writing my travel journal because I enjoy traveling and enjoy helping friends and family to travel well without paying a fortune for it. Unlike the Hilton sisters, I am not an heir and I have to work hard for my money. In order for me to travel as much as I do, I must plan and budget most of my trips at least three months ahead (there are always exception to this rule). You don’t have to be wealthy to travel well, just well informed. Always determine how much you can afford and then draw a budget which you must stick with. Travel sites such as Priceline.com and Expedia.com help me keep my spending low. Since I have been using Priceline.com, I rarely ever pay more than $75 per night for a four stars hotel.

Many people, including my close friends, are afraid to use Priceline.com because of the “unknown factor”. Not being able to pick the exact hotel at the exact location is unnerving for some, but I never had a bad experience using Priceline.com . When I used Priceline.com for my trip to South Beach, Florida in 2003, I ended up with a three star level hotel, Holiday Inn South Beach. This hotel was not on the hot and trendy Ocean Drive, but it was only a ten minute walk away, and when you walk on the beautiful sandy beach, ten minutes is nothing. The fact that I got this hotel with its own beach front for only $40 a night was a bargain of high magnitude. The same room was going for $80 a night had I booked it directly with the hotel. The bottom line is that when I pay almost half of what the room is worth; I can deal with the “unknown”.

1. Register with Priceline.com
2. Determine your travel date. Give yourself at least two weeks before travel date to start your bidding with Priceline.com (if your bid is rejected and you chose not to alter your trip date or hotel classes or location of hotel then you have to wait 72 hours before you can submit the exact trip)
3. Determine how much you are willing to spend your hotel. Keep in mind that most hotels in major city will charge you parking fee and this is not included in your Priceline.com cost. (The average parking rate in New Orleans is $15 to $30 per day. San Francisco’s hotel parking rate can go up to $40 per day. I have a rule of never paying more than $90 per day (TOTAL cost including parking) for a 4 star and $75 for a three star hotel
4. Go to Expedia.com, Hotwire.com and Orbitz.com and check out their hotel rates. I normally use Expedia.com to see how much the average 4 stars and three stars hotels go for and then go to two or three hotel’s web site to compare their prices to these internet services. Sometime the hotel will have special that will be less then the internet travel sites. There are times when I will actually use Expedia.com.com to book my room if it is substantially less than the hotel direct site and Priceline.com does not have a three stars or higher hotel.
5. MAKE YOUR BID – IMPORTANT – Once you make your bid and Priceline.com accepts your bid, you will be charge immediately and there will be no refund if something catastrophic happened which cause you not to go on your trip unless you buy travel insurance made available to you by Priceline.com , before you submit your request.
6. DESTINATION – City and area of the city you wish to stay in I Start out with the area of the city you mostly like to stay at
7. QUALITY LEVEL – HOTEL CLASS – PICK your star level. I always start with 4 stars
8. PRICING – Price your room according to your hotel class and research. START LOW and keep in mind that appropriate city tax and Priceline.com’s service fee will be added on top of your bid.  EXAMPLE – When I did my recent road trip I knew that 4 Star hotels in Los Angeles in the Beverly Hills, Hollywood and Los Angeles areas were very expensive. All above the total cost of $75/day I was willing to spend. However, I gave it a shot and was rejected by Priceline.com after starting out low at $40 bid to a high of $65 bid. I then lower my hotel class to a three star hotel. My research shows that some three stars hotels were going for around $75 and up. With this in mind, I decided that I was not going to bid any higher than $60 for a three stars hotel.  So I resubmit my bid at $40 for a three stars hotel room in Los Angeles in Beverly Hills area. My bid was rejected since Priceline.com could not find any offer from any hotel in the area. I then up my bid to $45 and extend my hotel area to include Hollywood area. This bid was also rejected. I then increased my bid to $50 and extended my hotel area to include downtown Los Angeles. FINALLY in five minutes Priceline.com notified me that my bid was accepted by a three stars hotel. This three stars hotel turns out to be the Hyatt Regency Downtown Los Angeles on Hope Street. This hotel was going for about $120 per day or more through the other travel services and through its own reservation site. Add on the local taxes and Priceline.com fee (about 15 to 20 %) and my cost for my four nights stay was only around $250.00. The additional parking fee was about $20 (I don’t remember exactly) a day so I stay under my budget. The cheap motels around the areas were going for $60 per day, so this was a real bargain.
9. Once your bid is accepted, print out your confirmation for safe keeping. In my experience, all I have to do is to give my name when I check in, along with a proper ID and a credit card for incidental if required (some hotels does not require this)
10. IF your bid is rejected, then you either have to change your travel date, area of hotel and or quality level (star level). If you have time and or not willing to extend your hotel area or change your price or star level, then you must wait a full 72 hours before you can submit the same trip. (I have done this before and it work out to my advantage – The Westin St. Francis in San Francisco for $59 a night in February of 2002)

PRO AND CONS

PROS

• I have never failed to get a nice hotel for much less than I would have pay for if I had book directly through the hotel or through other services (I have use Expedia.com for rooms that was offered at a very low rate – 2002 Reno – The Coronado Hotel and Casino at $25 per night)
• I have stay at some of the nicest hotel my little money could buy. This included the Westin St. Francis San Francisco at Union Square – $59/night in 2002.; The Marriott on Canal in New Orleans – $50/night in 2000; Park Hyatt on Avenue of the Stars next to Beverly Hills – $59/night in summer of 2002; The Holiday Inn South Beach – $40/night in 2003; The Sheraton Safari Orlando – $50/night in 2004; Hilton Phoenix Airport – $35/night 2005..
• The participating hotel treats Priceline.com customers as well as anybody else. They do not discriminate. I have experienced a few small incidents (Example: bad showerhead) but they were not related to me being a Priceline.com customer.
• The price discount is so vast that even if the hotel may not be as I want it to be, I still would have pay the same or more for a much lower quality hotel or motel room.

CONS

• It is scary at first not to know which hotel you will end up with. Keep in mind that you get to chose your location and star level.
• The location may be far from a particular point of interest if you end up in one corner of your location of choice which can be several square miles.
• Sometime, a participating hotel will give you a room with only one bed for two people; if you plan to sneak in 3 or more people, you may be in trouble. This has happened to me twice. However, I always book only two people per room. At the Westin St. Francis, I was given a one bed room with an option of upgrading to a two beds room for $20 more. My friend and I chose not to upgrade, but if we did, it would still be a bargain considering that the Westin St. Francis usually goes for $160 per night and we only paid $59 per night for it.
• Forget about the room with a view. Sometime I have rooms that have wonderful view sometime I don’t.
• If you are a demanding Diva, then you need to book your own $1000.00 per night room.