Priceline ?Hotwire?

Ok- having exercised a great deal of caution(ie been miserly) with the flights I'm tempted to continue the theme with the accommodation in Boston (and surrounding areas)and try and use Priceline/Hotwire to secure some bargain deals but am a bit bemused as to the whole thing (rebidding etc??). Anyone got any tips/info and has anyone any good(or bad experiences)?
Thanks
DL

[Scrooge]

http://www.biddingfortravel.com

Take a read there, best site on the net for priceline bidding.

I'm a big fan of hotwire... always gotten a good deal on the hotel I wanted.

[honey lamb]

Originally posted by DragonLady
Ok- having exercised a great deal of caution(ie been miserly) with the flights I'm tempted to continue the theme with the accommodation in Boston (and surrounding areas)and try and use Priceline/Hotwire to secure some bargain deals but am a bit bemused as to the whole thing (rebidding etc??). Anyone got any tips/info and has anyone any good(or bad experiences)?
Thanks
DL

With two exceptions I have had nothing but good experiences with Priceline. As Scrooge says, use Bidding for Travel as a guide. It shows you the areas where the hotels are located and the successful bids posted gives you an idea of the price to bid.

With regard to rebidding, if, for example you wanted to stay in a 4* hotel in Copley you should bid around (and perhaps slightly lower than) the successful bids, bearing in mind that holiday times, etc., can affect the price. If it is unsuccessful you cannot just up the price to re-bid - you must modify one thing in your request. You can change either the star rating or add another area (but don't do both as you may want to rebid again) and then offer another bid - hogher if you haven't lowered the star rating, or the same or lower if you have gone down to a 3*. If however you are determined to stay in a 4* in Copley, to rebid you then add an area which does not have a 4* rating and continue to rebid until you have run out of these options whereupon you go back again another day. It used to be 72 hours before you could go back but it's less now and in any case they send you an email notification when you can go back in and bid. You don't know which hotel you've scored until your bid has been accepted but generally from Bidding for Travel you get an idea of which ones are currently being used.

I haven't used Hotwire but I believe that it is possible to suss out which hotel it is likely to be. Last year a friend was going to the Crowne Plaza at Blackfriars using points and another friend was able to score the same hotel with judicious use of Hotwire.

Hope this helps

Thanks all -just had a look at bidding for travel site. The (main) mod seems a bit ferocious!!
HL, were the bad experiences truly awful or just small issues that could be rectified (I'm aware that all you're essentiallly getting is a room of a certain star rating and no more)?

[honey lamb]

Originally posted by DragonLady
Thanks all -just had a look at bidding for travel site. The (main) mod seems a bit ferocious!!
HL, were the bad experiences truly awful or just small issues that could be rectified (I'm aware that all you're essentiallly getting is a room of a certain star rating and no more)?

Oh, Sheryl is a real virago. Cross her at your peril!! [:0]

To be honest the bad experiences were small issues. One I posted on here. It was the Sheraton Towers in NYC which I found gloomy and in need of decoration. The other was in Seattle. It was a 3* hotel with a lot of oak panelling which made it seem gloomy also. They wouldn't give me a 2-bedded room and insisted I paid an extra $15 per night and also they didn't have a dining room, although there was a Mexican restaurant attached which made breakfast difficult. Round the corner was a 2* with an excellent breakfast menu which we used every day and in fact the whole ambience of that place made me believe that it should be 3*

[preiffer]

Have to say, as long as you know the area (and ratings of hotels) relatively well, Priceline can deliver some CRACKING deals. The once/24 hour retry restriction is annoying, as is the fact that it won't simply let you retry a higher bid within that window without adding additional areas to the search, but in general I've been lucky.

Just watch out for parking charges - although you can get a great inner-city hotel on PL for not that much, inner city hotels sometimes come with (well hidden) inner city parking charges (read: $50+ per day) [:0]

Originally posted by preiffer

Just watch out for parking charges - although you can get a great inner-city hotel on PL for not that much, inner city hotels sometimes come with (well hidden) inner city parking charges (read: $50+ per day) [:0]

Presumeably excluding tax as well?[n][n] As I am loathe to pay outrageous parking charges (for a car which will not be used for several days) I'll be hiring a car only for the time we travel up/down the coast-I just need to decide if this will be at the beginning or the end of the trip.
I also need to decide which area/s to submit and rating. Further dilemma -do I continue with the Queen of Mean theme or opt to try for more salubrious accommodation for not much more cost??

[preiffer]

I'd say...

Set your $ limit first (bearing in mind it's pre-taxes, but they'll show you the guideline amount on the next page, all in). This should be the MOST you want to pay (and DON'T be tempted to increase it!)

Then select your BEST rating. (4/5*)
If that comes back no, THEN set next down rating (and adjust value down too at this time if you feel you're not getting a decent enough deal)


Rinse and repeat....

Thank you for all the advice.I am now officially hooked! Despite failing with priceline.com (and I followed the detailed guidelines for non USA bidders on bidding for travel but to no avail-if anyone has any further advice on how to use the USA site please tell me for next time!!) I used priceline.co.uk(using the name your own price) and managed to bag the Sheraton in Back Bay for £56+tax a night for 4 nights which I was pleased about. Also managed to secure the Hilton Garden Inn in Plymouth for £30 +tax and the Sheraton 4 Points in Cape Cod for £31 +tax (both 3 star as there were no 4 star options).Once you get the gist of the re-bidding lark it's reasonably easy.The guideline price was almost twice what I paid on all three options.Now does the Queen of Mean continue the theme with a cheapo hire car ( a nice Kia compact perhaps????) or something decent? Decisions ,decisions...