Using Hotwire to determine Bid

[louisd]

Here's one that has worked for me about 90% of the time. I have booked dozens of hotels, some rental cars and some flights using this method.

I first use Hotwire to determine what their prices are in a particular area of a city for a particular class of hotel. I then move to Priceline and match those criteria as closely as possible and bid 18% lower than the price shown on Hotwire. Works nearly every time and saves me some cash.

--Louis

[thereuare]

I haven't found that there is a set percentage... picking a number (such as 18%) in some zones would be a wasted bid, while in other areas is could easily results in an overbid.

[louisd]

In the past I never had a good way to guide my bids, so this was the method I used. Now that I've found this board, I will certainly use it to a much larger extent. I guess what counts is that normally I would have been happy with the hotwire price so I was thrilled to get it for nearly 20% less than that. Most of my purchases are for hotels in NYC or rental cars at MCO or PBI so that's what I've been using for those.

Thanks for the feedback.

--Louis