Posh Hotels for Even Less
By Gretchen M. Lindell, EdM
Well, you already know about the deals that Priceline.com and Hotwire.com can offer you, but most people still reserve rooms the traditional way, directly through the hotel. Why? Well, quite simply, people are afraid of the unknown. When you bid for a room on sites like Priceline and Hotwire you will not know the exact hotel you are bidding on until your price is accepted. Since you cannot cancel the reservation (you pay for the room upon winning the bid), most people find this way of buying hotel rooms too risky.
But what if it didn’t have to be so risky? What if you could make an educated bid and almost know the hotel you’ll be staying in? Using the following strategies, you could find yourself winning a 4-star hotel room in downtown Boston, Massachusetts, for $76 per night (normal going rate $299 per night) or a 3-star hotel room in New York, New York, for $119 per night (normal going rate $399 per night); you will also have a pretty good idea of where you will be staying.
For those of you who are a bit less adventurous, using Hotwire.com is probably the way to go. One of the advantages of using Hotwire.com over Priceline.com is that the site has determined the price of the room, so the consumer doesn’t need to worry about overbidding for a room.
Once you decide that you are going to use Hotwire.com, you should narrow down the areas within a city where you are willing to stay. (Hint: In most cities, you will want to stay clear of the airport area. These hotels are almost always marked down, but the neighborhoods might not be the most tourist-friendly.) What if you don’t know where you want to stay? Ask someone. Call a friend who lives in the city you are visiting; ask a relative who has visited there before; or research the areas on the Internet. What if after you’ve researched an area you still don’t know where to stay? This is when you look to the stars!
The star levels of the hotels in an area tell you a lot about that area. Think about it. Would a hotel mogul put a posh hotel in the ghetto? Of course they wouldn’t. When you see areas with 3 to 5-star hotels, you know you’ve found a good area where tourists are willing to spend top dollar to be located on a trip. So, try to get a hotel in that location. Most people find the accommodations of a 3-star hotel more than adequate for their needs. The following is a list of example hotels at different star levels:
Once you know the star level and the areas you’d like to stay in, go ahead and try the search on Hotwire.com. When you’ve received your results, open up another browser window and go to www.betterbidding.com. This is a forum where people post the hotels they’ve gotten when the use Hotwire.com. On the Better Bidding page, scroll down to the state you plan to visit and select the option for Hotwire. Navigate through the next pages to read about the hotels Hotwire offers and the prices that people are paying for those hotels. Go back to your results on Hotwire.com and see if any of the prices match up. Using this strategy, you’ll almost be able to hand pick the hotel you want to stay in. Please remember that there are no guarantees that you’ll get the hotel you want. But how bad could it be if you are in the right area of town and in the right star-level hotel?
For those of you who would like to spend even less, Priceline.com is the site to use. With Priceline, you have control of telling the hotel how much you are willing to spend on a night. Just as you did above, you’ll want to decide on the areas you are willing to stay and choose the acceptable star level of the hotel you’d prefer. Then you’ll research BetterBidding.com again. From the home page, scroll down to the state of your choice, then select the Priceline link. From there, you’ll navigate through the forum to determine what prices were accepted for different rooms in the areas of your choice. Next, you should double-check those results on the website www.biddingfortravel.com. With this comparison, you’ll have an excellent idea of what to bid for a hotel in the area you want.
Finally, for those of you who don’t want to spend a penny over what the hotel’s lowest acceptance price is, you can use a bidding method known as the “Permutations” method. From the Bidding for Travel homepage, you should scroll down to the FAQ section and then select the option for Hotels. On the Hotels page, select the option for Advanced Free Re-Bidding for Experienced Hotel Bidders. This is a difficult concept to get at first, but for those of you who put in the time to learn it, you will save tons of money.
When using travel sites like Priceline.com and Hotwire.com, you are reserving a room without knowing exactly where you are going to be staying. However, using the strategies outlined above, you’ll have a pretty good idea of where you will be staying. Considering the amount of money you could save using either of these sites, most would agree that a bit of the unknown is well worth it. Good luck and happy bidding!