Today I want to show you how to save more money on hotels.
I got this cool tip from watching a Lynda.com video the other day and wanted to share it with you. I know many of you are traveling this winter – so trying to maximize your travel dollars and get the best possible deal you can is important.
We’re going to visit two websites. Priceline.com and BetterBidding.com. Priceline is known for its “name your price” offers and Better Bidding is a site for travel hackers.
So, at Priceline, we’re going to be using the hotel tab. Enter your destination, check-in/check-out, and also how many people will be staying at the hotel.
It takes a few moments for Priceline to scour the web and find the best deal. When it comes up, click on the 3-star / 4-star hotels in the sidebar. Then Priceline is going to sort by the best price possible.
Now you'll get a sense for what hotel prices are at the destination of your choice. This will help as we move on to the next step.
Let’s try the “Name Your Price” option. So, we need to click on EXPRESS DEALS.
In Express Deals, you'll need to reiterate the same options you selected previously (3-4-star hotels, locations, etc). This time though, you won't be able to see which hotel is available. This is where the fun begins.
Now, let’s go to BetterBidding.com. When there, scroll down to your state, click on it, and then the list of hotels for Priceline/Hotwire.
Select the Priceline hotel list and then the area. For us, let’s click Round Rock again. So, we’ve narrowed down the ones on our list to 4 since they list four, 3-star hotels.
Now, let’s try to get an even better deal. Going back to Priceline, let’s name our own price. Now, Priceline touts you'll save up to 60% on some of their Express Deals – so if you can't something close to that there, you may be able to try for it in Name Your Price.
Another way that I like to save more on hotels is by going “hotel shopping” when you arrive at your destination. It's a little more risky – but if you are going to a bigger city, it may be worth the hustle and hassle.
Be sure to select the location you want to stay, along with the 3 and 4-star rated hotels. Again, you won't be able to see the hotels that you can bid on. But, this is why we visited BetterBidding.com.
Looking at your BetterBidding results, you should be able to narrow down what hotels are in the results based on the star rating for each.
When you name your own price, you'll want to be sure you don't low-ball the offer too much. A good rule of thumb is to go off the lowest result in the Express Deals and go just a bit lower than that (also keep in mind they aim to get you “up to 60% off with Express Deals”). Note that you may get your offer rejected and Priceline does limit the number of times you can name your price – so just be aware of this.
I hope this works for you – as it will at least give you a better picture of what is out there, and what you are bidding on when you go hotel-hunting at Priceline.
Are there any other ways you save money on hotels using Priceline or another service?
Check out Priceline to save more on your hotel stays
3 Comments
I love Priceline’s NYOP and Express Deals. Get a priceline visa credit card and you’ll get 8.3% cash back for your booking, in addition to cash back rebates.
Yes, just by comparing the amenities, star ratings, and price(regular and percent off) will get you pretty close to what the actual hotel is.
Actually someone figured out their algorithm and made a site that can accurately predict the exact hotel, which Priceline was pretty unhappy about.
Does BetterBiding use the same star system as Priceline? I ask because I’ve tried this technique before using ratings from other search engines and found that often a three star at Priceline is a two start at whatever site I’m using so that throws off my search results.
I’ve had some luck sorting by ammenities and figuring out which hotels are the ones Priceline is offering me, but I would love to try this tip as well.
Good point Tracie. I believe they take it directly from Priceline’s rating (cuz it helps folks unmask what they are bidding on). But, I don’t think this is 100% foolproof – so I would check it against amenities, like you say.