Priceline Hotel: New to this and need help

[GuyRichy]

I am new to the whole online booking thing, and I was looking at PRICELINE and HOTWIRE, and I just have to ask a few questions..

Why is it that they dont tell you the name of the hotel until you pay?

Do they only have good quality hotels and not some cheap seedy hotel?

How do some of you get hotels like the Beverly Hills and Hyatt so cheap?

Any tips or advice is greatly appreciated!

Thank You All

Guy

[mrxow]

They don't tell you because if they did, the hotels would not want to participate. If their priceline price was published, their regular customers would want THAT price, not the much higher price they are paying to book direct and know exactly where they are going to be staying.

In a hundred tries, I have ended up in one somewhat seedy room. Even that wasn't that bad. It was a 2* in Atlanta. And when I complained, I got 10 bucks off per night on a reservation up to 5 nights. So the next time I needed a long stay, I got more off the cost of my reservation than it cost for the 2* room I received. I was essentially paid to stay there. Basically, you don't need to worry about the quality of the hotel. It is probably higher than average, actually.

You never know what you are going to get. It depends what participating hotels have available and how much they want to fill their rooms. Certainly incredible deals happen. On high end hotels, 50 to 75% savings is not uncommon.

[pterrell]

Welcome to the world of "opaque" pricing. When they've got available rooms, the Hyatt and the Beverly Hills are willing to fill up rooms for cheap rather than let them go unsold.

That's why folks post their winning bids here on this site so that things become "more transparent". But even then there's a gamble that a new hotel will be available on Priceline and you'll be the first to get it.

You can refer to the list of identified hotels here on BetterBidding for a particular zone and then look up reviews to determine if any of them are "seedy".

Most hotels match their star rating, so if you're bidding on 3* and 4* hotels, like the Hyatt and Beverly Hills, you're not likely to end up in a seedy hotel.

I've never bid on a 1* in Fresno because it's very likely going to put me in a bad neighborhood. :)

[smartcookie]

If 4-star hotels were seedy, they would quickly become 2-stars. You will have no issues if winning a 4-star hotel. Just learn how to bid to get what you what in a specific area. You can't choose a specific hotel, but you'll get a 4-star in your chosen area at at least 50% usually. For most, that's worth it.