BB Hotel PriceChecker (now AIRFARE too!)

[thereuare]

Well the "BUZZ" from the other post is out and it's the release of the BetterBidding HOTEL PRICE CHECKER. Feel free to talk about it and link to it at other message boards that you visit.

It is well known that Priceline and Hotwire rates are determined by supply/demand and the only way to measure that is by getting prices directly from the hotel websites. In running this board i probably check rates more often than most, and the biggest pain in doing so is having to type in the URL of each website, type in all the city, state, arrival, departure information, retrieve it, write it down so that you can compare to the next site, then repeat the process, so-on, so-on for each property.

This tool aims to make this all much easier by only requiring you to input your information once and then putting all of the information on one page so that it is easy to compare the offerings!

Simply input your information once and get hotel website direct prices from all of the Starwood and Marriott brands. This encompasses a LOT of hotels since it includes: Marriott, Renaissance, Courtyard, Residence Inn, Fairfield Inn, Springfield Suites, Westin, Sheraton, Four Points, and W Hotels. Expedia is also included to check prices of other hotel brands and i find their interactive maps quite helpful when trying to determine in which hotel zone a property resides. Expedia also breaks out the offerings day-by-day so it's easier to see if there are rate changes over the course of your multi-nite stay.

If there is something you want to see bigger in one of the windows on the right, you can adjust the size of each window by clicking the border and dragging it. A scroll-wheel on your mouse also comes in VERY handy for scrolling thru prices.

I hope you all enjoy this and find it useful in helping to determine where to start your Priceline bids or to compare rates when Priceline or Hotwire isn't an option. It will also come in handy when bids that are typically accepted come back as rejected as it will give a quick way to guage demand and if prices are higher than usual.

Just doing what we can to remain the BetterBidding site! :)

Please tell everyone about this tool at other travel related sites and your allowed to provide a link. We can use this thread for comments/suggestions/bugs.

[gleemonex]

very cool!

one suggestion i would make is for it to be canada friendly, adding the provinces to the pulldown menu maybe.

nice job!

[thereuare]

Thanks for suggestioning it.

Canada will hopefully be coming in the <near> future. Many obstacles were encountered while developing it and i was trying to keep it fairly straight forward as it makes it easier to troubleshoot problems. As it gets more use and there are no/few reported bugs, i will look into adding Canadian cities as well.

Thanks for the suggestion, and as with all aspects of this board, we will attempt to add requested features that the majority of users favor.

[fly_up_front]

Very cool - I haven't seen anything like it anywhere else.

Almost makes me wish I had a 13 question form to fill out.

Just kidding ....just kidding.

[thereuare]

Well it is a free tool open to anyone for any purpose.

However, we hope that those that use it for Priceline and Hotwire purposes report their winning bids/purchases to the BetterBidding board.

[WillTravel]

If we buy from Expedia using this checker, is that as good as going through the SavingsBarn.com link to help support the board? (I assume so, but just thought I'd ask.)

[thereuare]

Thanks for asking, but "no", the Expedia screen in the hotel checker is not an affiliate link.

After using the tool, you can always get to Expedia (and Orbitz, Travelocity, etc) by clicking the "Other Travel Deals" link at the top of every page.

[WillTravel]

Glad I asked then. :)

[Phaelon56]

As usual... most of the best cool and free stuff is right here on BB. This tool really makes it soooooo much easier to research - thank you!

[thereuare]

... and now we've added an AIRFARE CHECKER to our list of tools!

Check fares at Orbitz, Travelocity, and Expedia with just one click!!

[liveforbargains]

Thank you so much for these search tools Theruare! This makes it so much more convenient and less time consuming. :)

[anng3]

Hi,

When I try to open the windows on the hotel checker by grabbing the bars it jumps like it is trying to open but snaps back so I still see all 3 website.

I am on a Macbook. Any ideas on how to open the individual sites?

Thanks

[thereuare]

I'm not really sure the situations you're describing, but first thing i would try is holding the CTRL key when you press the submit button. If that doesn't work, please send me a PM describing the issue in a bit more detail and i'll try to help you troubleshoot.

Please use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases.

[koostum]

Tried it today--got all blanks in the results. San Diego (CA) search for late August. Probably a Firefox problem...but no results. Prompt at the bottom reads "DONE".

[thereuare]

Currently working fine for me in FireFox.