@Cam, you are so smart to allow time to start with an aggressive low bid and then re-bid higher as n

I ve always been reluctant to use the name your own price feature on Priceline . It allows you to name your own price by bidding for a hotel in a specific area for specific dates, but you don t get to pick the place. Same for airfare you give the general parameters, but you don t get to select the actual flight.
If your bid is accepted, your reservation is made, and you then find out where you will be staying or when you will be flying. hertz car rental toronto While I know you can use it to save loads of money, I ve never used it because I like to thoroughly research hotels the location, the amenities, the reviews, etc., in addition to flight details.
But lately, several people I know have snagged great deals on Priceline, making me wonder if I should hertz car rental toronto give their name your own price feature a whirl myself. To learn more, I talked to Don Nadeau, a Priceline bidding expert. He kindly answered these questions for me via email. You can find Don on Twitter at @donnadeau .
A: Needless to say, I've always loved to travel. As for travel-related work, I started off teaching hertz car rental toronto hundreds of high school students the geography—primarily cultural geography—of Africa and Asia. I also developed perhaps the first secondary school Urban Studies curriculum. That's me you'll see spending most of my time walking around the cities I visit.
Then I got involved with a predominately inbound travel company that at the time was second largest seller of Amtrak tickets in the world (not counting Amtrak itself). We chartered hertz car rental toronto entire trains. I still love rail trips and the budget side of the business.
Eventually, I became manager of a travel agency in Canada that specialized in Third World corporate travel. Those are the places in the world that I enjoy so much and so it was a perfect fit. I earned the CTC, the highest industry designation in Ontario, while there. I have lived in Canada, South Africa, hertz car rental toronto and the States.
A: I had two reactions when I first heard of Priceline around 1997. How in the world did Priceline get a patent on a concept hertz car rental toronto as simple as online travel bidding? Even eBay had to pay Priceline to offer this. And, two, Americans weren't used to and don't especially enjoy situations where prices are not set such as buying a car.
I figured people would welcome help and started learning as much as possible, but didn't take BidonTravel online until 2002 when I saw how easily Priceline survived hertz car rental toronto the dot com collapse. It's still one of the most financially secure online companies around.
A: Start your Priceline experience with hotels. These are reasonably easy to book when "naming your own price" and you can readily tell that you are saving money by comparing prices hertz car rental toronto on other sites for the same neighborhood, quality level, and dates.
Q: I've never done Priceline hertz car rental toronto bidding because I like to read hotel reviews and know about their exact location and amenities before I book. What do you say to someone like me who is reluctant to use it but knows there are benefits?
Even though you can save, I never recommend bidding on a hotel for a very special occasion such as a golden anniversary. There, you may want to know every little detail. And, you won't want to bid if you have special needs such as bringing a pet into your room or wanting a bed and breakfast-type experience.
Frankly, for most trips, do you really need to know more than neighborhood, quality, and price when you book? Priceline hotel star ratings closely track AAA or CAA auto club diamond ratings for quality and availability of amenities hertz car rental toronto and maps on the Priceline site show the neighborhood you're bidding on.
Particularly in larger cities, you may end up with a room that may not be large enough for a rollaway bed. Priceline warns us not to bid if we need more than two people per room. That impacts a lot of families and groups of young people!
A: Physically challenged people should go ahead and bid for the savings. Once they know the name of their hotel, I highly recommend that they contact it immediately to make sure that they are assigned a suitable room. If a room will not be available, Priceline customer service will assign them another hotel at no extra charge. This is best done early, before alternatives sell out.
A: The last time I booked a "name your own price" hotel in Manhattan, the Plaza was offering its standard rooms for $700 per night. Now, I've stayed at the Plaza and it's a really nice hotel in a perfect location, but $700? No way.
Although $700 skews toward the upper range, top-star hotels in Manhattan hertz car rental toronto typically list prices of over $300 even during less busy seasons. Instead, my Priceline bid got me the 4-star Millenium Hilton in the neighborhood I most wanted. I looked out at the Hudson River. There was a large flat screen TV.
I paid just $135 per night plus tax—a real bargain hertz car rental toronto in New York. If lucky, hertz car rental toronto that amount might fetch someone a 1- or no-star hotel with bath in Manhattan at regular prices. Of course, price depends on demand. For good discounts, we're not talking hertz car rental toronto about Easter and Passover in Orlando hertz car rental toronto or during a huge convention in Chicago.
A: Right now, hotels near many large airports like O'Hare, Los Angeles International, Vancouver, Newark, and San Francisco are overbuilt for the demand. Winning name your own price bids for these can be unbelievably low.
Great tips! This really helps understand the world of online travel hertz car rental toronto bidding. We ve used Priceline a few times and grabbed some great deals. It s hit and miss though, so we typically hertz car rental toronto get really bold a fews days out (bidding for %25 of asking price), then start to come back to reality as the date approaches. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn t!
Wonderful information, especially for reluctant Priceline users like me. Now that Don has taught me how to do it, I ll be much more likely to place my bid. I ll be linking to your post today at the My Itchy Travel Feet page on Facebook. I know my baby boomer readers will appreciate Don s expertise.
I ve used Priceline quite a bit. Especially last minute I ve even bid on something on my iPhone ON THE WAY yes that last minute. It s worked hertz car rental toronto especially well for me in Vegas. There are so many rooms in Vegas; they re never sold out so they re willing to negotiate on price. The first time I used Priceline in Vegas I skimped on the Star Rating and ended up staying in one of the worst hotels on the strip. Since that trip I ve become hertz car rental toronto a little more bold and a little hertz car rental toronto less cheap (while still being cheap lol).
@Cam, you are so smart to allow time to start with an aggressive low bid and then re-bid higher as needed. [Cam has to wait 24 hours between bids for the same quality level and neighborhood.] I hope that you are also starting with the highest star rating and working down a star or so, if needed. That allows immediate re-bids.
When bidding on a room at Priceline, why are there no options to say you will be needing a handicapped room? This is very bad. Do you not want the handicapped to use the bidding option? Or smokers? Your site needs to incorporate in a way to add these 2 very important requests.
There should hertz car rental toronto be a Priceline hertz car rental toronto online option for handicapped rooms. In fairness, however, online booking options for physically challenged people are hardly universal (to put it mildly) even if you go directly to hotel sites. hertz car rental toronto Priceline discounted displays of this type would depend on hotels feeding availability of these types of rooms to it electronically.
As for smokers, hertz car rental toronto I believe extraordinarily few hotels actually guarantee smoking rooms even if you request these. However, in my opinion there should hertz car rental toronto be an online option to request hertz car rental toronto these on Priceline.
I ve never used Priceline b/c I am always hertz car rental toronto nervous as to what I am going to get. I don t think I would use it for airlines, but for hotels sure!! Especially is I could save that much!! Great interview.
I did Priceline for a hotel in Denver a few years back. I got a really nice place in the perfect downtown location for $50 a night. Awesome! Will definitely use it again, especially now that there are better tips now on how to get a good deal.
Welcome! I'm Johnny, a 28-year-old lifestyle designer and world traveler. I'm closing in on my hundred country mark fast! Stop daydreaming. Get off the couch. I'm here to help you embark on your own maiden voyage!