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Well, nobody has said more nasty things about priceline cars than me the last couple of years, but this goes to show that you never know. Needed a car at LAX for about 10 days in August and, surprisingly, the published rates stink (usually, cars in LAX are very cheap). So I used hotwire and some other sources to get an idea of what to bid, and I started with midsize at $15. Rejected. Next bid of $17 on the standard accepted by Avis. That works out to $119/week. Shockingly, Avis' best rate (according to Orbitz) on this car class is $275/week. And there was nothing below $158 by any of the major car companies for even an economy car for those days. So it seemed worth bidding. And even if a deal pops up, I doubt it would trump $119 on a standard, so it was a safe bid. Taxes and fees only added about 10%, which always brings a smile to my face in California. Ever rent a car in PHX? Don't get me started. It can be like 40% in extra mandatory costs!

Staying here on a couple of days in September. Historically, this property "always" goes for $38 on priceline, and voila! I've stayed here before and it's fine, especially at that price. BTW, it used to be a 3*, and I've heard rumors that it was changed to "camouflage" the property (I don't think there are any other 3 star Lafayette options), but I don't know for sure if that rumor is true.

For Sept. 8. I actually wanted a 2 star and started bidding at $24. I've heard that some of the 3 star N.O. airport properties aren't great, and preferred to get a free breakfast at the La Quinta or Fairfield Inn. Went up to $27, but got upgraded to this 3 star property, which seems to receive mixed reviews. Of course, for $27, I won't be that picky.

Visiting Yosemite next month but, like my usual practice at National Parks, I don't think I'll try priceline. Oakhurst is a good drive into the Valley (I think about 50 miles) and it's just not worth it to me. I doubt I could get a room for $30 in summer, also. Prices inside the park are regulated by the gov't and usually aren't outrageous. Yosemite, though, doesn't seem to have enough lodging options. I'm likely to stay in one of those tent cabins in Curry Village, which I hear are pretty crummy, but at least very convenient.

What, Wilmington not a "destination" city? :) For the Northeast, it is somewhat of a backwater. But it does make a nice weekend destination, the "Brandywine Valley" as I think it's called. Most famous for the "chateau country" that stretches north to Chadd's Ford in Pennsylvania. Some excellent old DuPont estates worth visiting, especially Winterthur, which is one of the nation's most famous decorative arts museums, and Longwood Gardens -- which actually seems better known among foreigner visitors than Americans. The area is also known for tax-free shopping. Somewhat diluted by the fact that I think both NJ and PA don't charge sales tax on clothing, but Delaware's a good place for Northeasterners to buy other big ticket items like diamonds and computers. The most famous Wilmington hotel, the Hotel DuPont, doesn't participate in priceline. But the 3 that do are all fine, and certainly bargains for under $50. There are several country inns in chateau country, but for 50 bucks, I think you're better off staying at a chain hotel. My guess is the inns would be 3X that price.0 Downstate Delaware does tons of tourism in summer at its beaches. Rehoboth and Bethany are practically DC suburbs in summer. There's a priceline zone there, but I don't think we've seen a lot of successful bids. Like the Hamptons, people don't really stay there in hotels. They either own or rent beach houses for the week. I'm personally not a big fan of Rehoboth -- I think it's characterless and expensive and wouldn't dream of telling anyone to travel far to get there -- but if you live in DC or Baltimore and want a beach, it's more than adequate.

Again bid for some friends (can't believe there have been NO Delaware posts since mine last October!) for some August days. Wyndham popped up this time for $45. FWIW, there seem to be only three 3* hotels that participate in Wilmington -- the Wyndham, Sheraton Suites and Doubletree. Started bidding at $41, rejected, waited 3 days. Guided by hotwire, which shows a 3* available for $54. Looking at hotwire seems to be good guidance here. If you don't want the Wyndham, make sure hotwire is more than $54 (personally, I think all the hotels are about equal).

Interesting odds, thereuare. Of course, what can you do with that? It means almost half the time a hotwire customer is going to be disappointed, because he's going to get a 3 star hotel for 4 star money.

I would always assume a hotwire hotel is a lesser property than an equally rated hotel on priceline. In my case, I'm looking at a hotwire 3 1/2 star property for $54. I'll be surprised if I can't snag it for $10 less on priceline, and I don't have to worry about getting a sub-3 star hotel. It's what makes hotwire usually a poor choice -- you pay more and often get less.

Admittedly, I don't use hotwire very often, but I just asked for a quote (to get an idea of what might be available for less on priceline!) and saw a property listed as 3 1/2 stars. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't recall seeing "half star" ratings at hotwire before. True? I've had bad experiences with my few hotwire purchases in the past (ordinary holiday inns getting 3 stars, etc), but I'm wondering whether a 3 1/2 star hotwire hotel might at least be a 3 star priceline property. That would make hotwire bidding more bearable.

I've been planning a trip with Cynthia of Wow! Argentina in BA and she seems quite knowledgable and helpful. Many folks have recommended her and, so far, I can tell why. If you're doing any flying around Argentina, make sure you look at the Southern Winds website. It is in English. Unlike Aerolineas Argentinas, Southern Winds will sell foreigners tickets at the "locals" rate. You just need to buy them from a local travel agent, like Cynthia. I've heard good things about Southern Winds, and you can get a roundtrip ticket to pretty much anywhere in the country for little more than 100 US dollars.

I think a lot of what you say is true. There's certainly a sliding scale of "affiliate marketing," and priceline has foolishly slid too far when they fail to initially inform customers that their bids have been rejected. It almost seems like they need a regulatory agency to remind them of some basic rules on how to deal honestly with their customers. I also think it unlikely they'll shut down the car function because it probably costs them little to maintain it, even if "most" travellers know its useless and don't use it. Unfortunately for priceline, their model only works if the industry players find is useful for unloading heavily discounted distressed inventory. For whatever reasons, much of the hotel industry doesn't mind dumping unsold rooms into this channel. The airline industry tried it originally, but seems to have come to the conclusion that it is more harmful than helpful. The car rental companies never embraced it, and they don't seem likely to start.

I bid for a car rental on priceline yesterday (something I rarely do, given the weakness of their car program) and I got a strange response. Instead of sending me a typical message like "sorry, we could not accept your offer, here are the rates from our partner" the response page just reads "more rental car options." It's a direct link to lowestfare.com, which seems to scan the ordinary CRS links to compare rent-a-car prices. But nowhere in this response does priceline bother to tell you your bid has been rejected! Now, admittedly, you can figure it out by supposition, but when you give someone a credit card number for a non-refundable bid, you don't want to have to "figure out" the status of your bid. Shame on priceline for making it unnecessarily confusing. BTW, I kind of think they should just close down the car program. You can't even get a 10% savings (usually it cost MORE to rent cars from priceline!), which is a rotten value equation for not getting to choose your own company and being stuck with a non-refundable, non-changable reservation.

I think this is my cheapest 3 star hotel this year. Convenient if you want to be near the Toronto Airport. Initially bid $30 and they said they'd take $38. Offered $33 and was hit.

I'll let you know in a few months. :<) From my past experience, I would say Buenos Aires was safer than an American city but not quite as safe as a European one. Since their latest round of economic troubles began a few years ago, I have heard that crime has increased somewhat, but that things seem to be getting better now as their economy improves. That said, BA appears to be more than safe enough to visit, and one need only exercise reasonable prudence. Like in Europe, your biggest risk seems to be non-violent crime, like pickpocketing. I have read of a few incidents of "the mustard trick" where somebody splashes some foul substance on you on the street and then rushes to clean it up while "cleaning out" your valuables.

Those hrs prices are pretty much "average", Will Travel. Argentina is a cheap country these days. I still haven't found any great discount travel sites, and they simply may not exist. A lot of people seem to hook up with a well regarded local travel agent, as the weak peso down there makes it easy to pay for more personal service. I've had some communication with wowArgentina.com, and they seem to have received rave reviews from many web travellers. They recommend the Argenta Tower in Buenos Aires, which they offer to their clients for US$75. Apparently it is wise to ignore the "star system" of hotel rankings, as there are some 5 star hotels that are really 2 or 3 star, etc. For folks making their own internal flight arrangements, it seems to pay to look at the Southern Winds website (in english), which offers foreigners good deals if they pay in pesos. It's little more than $100 roundtrip to fly from BA to Iguazu, which I would highly recommend to folks who haven't been there.

OK, I need to tap the board braintrust again. We've found lots of useful discount hotel sites for Europe, and there are certainly a number of them for Asia and the Pacific. But what about Latin America -- a so far Priceline-less destination? I'm specifically looking at Argentina right now, but I'm curious about other South American countries, too. Last year in Chile I used a local travel agency that uses the gotolatin.com URL, and I would recommend them -- although their discounts were better on internal air reservations than on hotels (they basically got me the local airline deals that aren't loaded in the big CRS systems). They seem to have an Argentine affiliate, too, but that site isn't as well developed as the Chilean one. The last time I was going to Buenos Aires, about 4 years ago, I simply went to the websites of each hotel I was interested in (almost all had English pages) and looked for "promotions." Those rates were generally lower than through any booking service. This may still be the best way today. Every country is a little different when it comes to travel discounts.

Well, the price is certainly right at Paul's -- maybe "too right" though! I'm contemplating my first trip to Vancouver Island this summer. When I go to Canada, I usually rent a cottage for a week, and that seems possible on Vancover Island. I generally like to stay in quiet, scenic locations. On the other hand, it does seem like I'd want to spend some time in Victoria. I wonder if there's any place NEAR Victoria that would fit this bill, or whether I'd need to move around a bit. Any insider travel tips would be appreciated.

I was looking for any combination of bedding for 5 people (3 children). I called Sheraton before departure and requested 2 twin bed connecting rooms. They delivered on the connecting part, but each room had only one queen bed. No other rooms were available. The good part was that the connecting rooms seem to be in each corner of the building and one of them is quite large, so it was no problem putting in two rollaways. But if you just booked 1 room for, say, 4 people, you might run into a problem.

A good value for the $50 I paid, but certainly not a "destination" hotel. Old, big skyscraper hotel showing its age. Hotel seems to be slooowly renovating its rooms. I had 2: one was a 20-year-old time warp, the other had new carpeting but otherwise old decor (hallways were all redone). But the rooms are large and the hotel has a nice and unusual rooftop swimming pool. Location isn't perfect, although you can walk to the main square in about 15 minutes (or take the subway right outside the hotel). I drove there and it's on a main road and VERY easy to find. Even found free parking across the square! There's a Hilton and Crowne Plaza right next door, in case you get one of those. If travelling with a family, be careful that you wind up with enough space. Hotel in theory has 2 bed rooms, but they seem scarce. I had reserved 2 rooms, and couldn't get the 2 bed rooms. The manager did bring in rollaways for free, however.

Certainly a rate worth checking on. The couple of times I've looked, though, half off the 21-day rate was still MUCH higher than comparable priceline opportunities. The Starwood Preferred Guest perks (which they've now excluded from priceline reservations) would add some value, however.

Boy, that's certainly true. I'm not a huge drinker, but I enjoy a bottle of wine with dinner or a beer in a pub. In Scandinavia, I'm a teetotaler, since it seemed like a beer averaged about 8 bucks and a mediocre bottle of wine could be $50. I do remember this small Homehotel chain offering FREE beer during certain hours, and it felt almost illegal to be able to drink one! But other than good summer hotel deals, the region is overpriced. If you want to get "off the beaten path" in Europe, I think Eastern Europe is much better. There's more to see, it's more "unusual" (although not difficult for travellers), and the low prices enable you to enjoy experiences that would be outrageously expensive in a place like Scandinavia.

I've got a room booked at the Paris Hilton, but I now understand the rate (including taxes and breakfast) is good at most non-UK European Hiltons through April 17. Some other very good deals in cities like Rome. So if you're headed to Europe in the next few days, you might want to check out this deal.

That does seem like a very good rate. Luxury hotels in Scandanavia in summer are often an incredible deal, and I would urge anyone travelling there at that time of the year to research their options carefully. BTW, I was told the reason the rates are so low during summer was because there is very little business travel then. I remember my own summer trip to Norway and Sweeden a few years ago and staying in the region's top hotels for very modest rates. It was a good thing, too, because otherwise Scandanavia is quite expensive. It was actually a strange experience feeling both rich and poor at the same time!

Yes, I saw A'dam has no free rebids at 4 stars. What a drag -- especially for "strategists." :<) It seems the Renaissance has been "hot" of late, so if you bid $95 you'd probably get it -- but is "probably" good enough for you? I'd probably be rash and go for it -- the worst thing that happens is you pay a fair price for the Jolly and don't get a deal. Anything on hrs.com for your cities and days? I found some competitive stuff, especially for Paris. And if you want to be "super cheap" there, I don't think you can beat some of those ratestogo.com rates within 21 days of your arrival.

Yeah, I think there's no question that the internet is bringing down the price of travel. I know on an upcoming trip to Western Europe, my hotel expenses will decline and the quality of my accomodations will improve DESPITE the current poor exchange rate. I hope priceline continues to expand because it does often offer the best rates, but even if it doesn't, the availability of all this new information on the web (including specials and last minute offers) should make travel more affordable for years to come. It's actually pretty revolutionary! Maybe the biggest change in travel since the 707?