How to Get a Cheap Hotel Room on Priceline

You may have heard about finding cheap airline tickets through Priceline.com. But have you heard that you can use priceline.com to find some of the best hotel bargains out there, especially in large cities? Priceline.com's hotel feature is easy to use. As it does with flights, priceline.com offers both "set price" and "name your own price" features. You'll find the best deals by naming your own price.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• internet access
• a credit card
• a sense of adventure

1. Go to Priceline's website at www.priceline.com. When prompted, simply type in the name of the city you'll be staying in and the dates you'll need a hotel room. You'll be offered a list of neighborhoods in your city of choice. If you choose New York City, you'll be offered a list of neighborhoods that includes "Midtown East", "Midtown West" and "Downtown." Simply select one or more neighborhoods that you'd be willing to stay in and then select your preferred hotel star level (e.g., four-star hotel).

2. Then name your own price. Priceline will then check to see if any of the participating hotels will accept your offer. Hotels will often accept offers that are fifty percent or less of the usual rate. Why? Because the hotels would prefer to have someone stay in a room at a vastly reduced rate than have the room remain vacant. The "name your own price" feature can yield some surprisingly low rates, especially if you are looking for a room at the last minute. This priceline.com user recently bagged a four-star hotel in Boston for $100 a night and a three and a half star hotel in Philadelphia for $75 a night. In smaller cities, like Baltimore and Milwaukee, three star hotels can be had for as low as $40 to $50 dollars.

3. If your offer is accepted, your credit card will be charged automatically at the price you named. It is only at this point, after your offer is accepted, that you will learn the name and exact location of your hotel. However, this customer has used priceline frequently for hotel reservations and has never had an offer rejected. All in all, if you want to save big on your next out of town trip, priceline.com offers great hotel savings.

4. If your offer is rejected, you will have to wait twenty-four hours before you make the exact same offer. However, you can bid again immediately if you change some detail of your request other than your bid price. The easiest thing to do is to change your preferred neighborhood (for instance from Midtown West to Midtown East) or change your preferred hotel star level (for instance from four-star to three-star).

5. Once your offer is accepted, take pride in the fact that you've snagged a bargain, and think about what you'll do on your next out-of-town vacation with all the money you've saved on your hotel room.

Tips & Warnings

• You don't find out the actual name and exact address of your hotel until your offer has been accepted and your credit card has been charged. Never fear, though, the hotels on priceline are familiar, reputable hotels--Omni, Westin, Hyatt, etc.
• Since you don't know which hotel you'll be staying at until after your credit card has been charged, Priceline's "name your own price" feature may not apeal to you if you belong to a loyalty program or ahve a rewards card with a particular hotel chain.

Resources

• Priceline

[herbalist]

on 2/23/2009 I use this ALL the time and the real trick is to wait until the DAY you want the room. The hotels know how many rooms are sold for that night and are willing to accept a $35-$50 offer. I have NEVER paid more than $50 for a room because of this little tip!