Road Trip

[Randi]

Good Evening-

My DH, DD4 and I were planning on meandering down from Detroit and visiting Columbus, Louisville, Nashville and St Louis. I was thinking of doing some same day bidding, since we won't be sure of where we are going when. Like, we may decide to skip St Louis and stay on Nashville longer.

What kind of luck have you guys had with same day bidding? Do you think it's too risky. We are willing to stop at a mom and pop if we have to just to sleep.

I figured since you can almost always find wireless it would be worth a try.

[dahammer]

you can bid up until 11:00 eastern time for a same day reservation. The only negative is that you will have to pull off the road to find a public computer or a wifi signal and spend vacation time bidding. An alternative is HOTWIRE since this there is no bidding, the transaction should go faster.

[thereuare]

Also, some zones don't offer same day bidding (and in areas where same day bidding is avaialble, there may be some hotels within the zone which do not offer same day bidding, so selections may be a little limited)

As well, i'd look ahead of time at the general area to see if there are other zones available so that you can utilize re-bids OR are you bidding a location which just has one zone, thus giving you only one shot at a successful bid.

[Colfax]

I've done several cross country drives where I Pricelined as I went, doing same day bidding. It gets easier each year as there are more and more wifi hotspots. Almost all truckstops have wifi now, or pay by the minute kiosks. More interstate rest stops are wifi hotspots now. Last time I drove across North Dakota (not that you're going there) I saw free internet kiosks in the interstate rest stops.

I see more fast food restaurants advertising free wifi. Stop at any La Quinta hotel and there's free wifi in the lobby. Holiday Inn Express lobbies usually work too. Most medium sized cities have a Kinko's (now FedEx Office) with pay by the minute computers. There are LOTS of places to connect.

It's true some zones don't allow same day bidding but in my experience those are rarely bid zones with one or two hotels, often 2* hotels. I don't see it as an issue, especially as all the cities you mentioned are large and have multiple zones.

Since you're willing to stay at a Mom & Pop if Priceline doens't work it should be fine. But really I think you'll find success on Priceline almost every place you go.

I do have one question though.

My DH, DD4 and I...

"DH" is Dear Husband, I think, but I don't know "DD4". Are you talking about a party of three adults? Priceline only guarantees double occupancy, which could be a room with one bed. If you need two beds Hotwire is better. But you can do Hotwire same day on the road too, just like Priceline.

Have fun!

[Randi]

DD4 is Dear Daughter 4. It's something I picked up on Disboards. I wasn't sure if it was a standard bulletin board term.

Double Occupancy isn't an issue, if we get a king we can sleep together. Not three adults.

I've only ever used the extra night option once, and it was last year. We had two nights in Cleveland and decided to leave a day early. I think we decided to leave at like six in the vening and Priceline let us book our extra night for that day.

Is there ever a time when Priceline doesn't offer you the extra nights? I was planning on bidding one night and then adding extra if we needed it. Does that work?

Thanks for the help. I figure this adds a little to the adventure. We used to road trip using mom and pops or knights inn as a kid.

I don't mind a mom and pop. I might book one night using Hotels.com so I can definately get an indoor pool for a night or two.

I am just too cheap not to use priceline. I've never tried hotwire, I was thinking of trying it this time for a pool, but it doesn't distinguish between indoor and outdoor.

Oh, and I can hook my pda up and use that for the internet, so technically I don't need to stop. If DH is driving at least. I'm not that much of a multitasker.

I am a little concerned about security, but I thought since I have a priceline profile it should be safe.

[thereuare]

Is there ever a time when Priceline doesn't offer you the extra nights? I was planning on bidding one night and then adding extra if we needed it. Does that work?

The extended your stay option is not always offered, and when it is, it doesn't guarnatee success... PRICELINE could come back and say that no rooms are avaialblel OR they could state that they found you a room but it's at a different (higher) price and give you the option to accept it or not.

Also, a reminder that you can only try to extend your stay for a number of nites equal to or less than the length of your original bid.

Please use these PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links to begin your travel purchases.