Bidding in the hotel's parking lot, so to speak...

[FogNoggin]

I've never used Priceline, but I've used Hotwire. We're planning an impromptu trip from NY to WI with no solid plans, no reservations. Essentially, we would arrive in a town, decide we want to spend the night there, and bid on Priceline with my laptop in some parking lot where I could pickup WiFi.

Is this done? Can I win and pay via Priceline and show up at the hotel 5 minutes later with the confirmation info still on the screen of my computer? Am I rushing the process?

[AaronJB]

Welcome to the site. :)

Sounds like a fun trip - I don't see anything wrong with bidding on PRICELINE at the last minute, and there should not be an issue at check-in (although you may have to show the information and/or have the reservation number handy if you literally just booked a few minutes before check-in)

I think the only issue - especially in some smaller markets - is that you would have to spend a little time researching the local hotel situation (prices, potential alternate ideas - is there a HOTWIRE alternative if your PL bid is not accepted?) for those dates, since you may only have one chance at bidding in some smaller cities.

In larger cities, you may want to consider some outlying areas - Chicago has some very nice suburbs, and parking is generally free outside the city versus as much as $40-50 at some downtown hotels.

Overall though, sounds like a great trip, and I don't see any problems really beyond what I've outlined above.

Please use the site's PRICELINE or HOTWIRE links to start your purchases.

[GM Mike]

I've done this from the airport before...

Stranded at O'Hare (weather) twice. Got the airline's best offer late in the evening, beat it on priceline from the terminal, then walked over to the hotel shuttle area. It's great. :)

AaronJB is right tho, make sure you are in a place with many hotels and preferably many rebid zones. Other options are also the Entertainment Card rate (especially with Holiday Inn-family hotels) and those roadside hotel coupon books.

You should consider Cleveland. Lots of nice cheap hotels downtown (tho $$$ for parking) and at least a few nice attractions.

Minimize risk by using tripadvisor and betterbidding. :)

[FogNoggin]

A few more questions, Family of 4 likes clean room, free breakfast.

Our family of 4 is taking a 2 week road trip across 6 states. We want 2 Priceline, or Hotwire, along the way. We have no set schedule. I have just a few questions to ease my nervousness about all of this...

1. Star rating. We like clean, know brands with decent free breakfast. What star rating gets me this? What's the difference between 2 and 2.5 stars? Is it a pool? We don't like 3 stars because there's no free breakfast.

2. I'm worried about the HUGE difference in quality within a star rating. In my own hometown we have a new lovely Hampton Inn. (Is that 2 stars?) But there are other 2-star hotels in town that I wouldn't go near. Brands such as Days Inn seem to have a huge variation in quality from town to town. I know TripAdvisor is my best friend in finding quality, but that can't be used with these services. You sort of get what you get and are stuck after you pay.

3. Being a family of four, we have the obvious problem with Priceline, getting enough beds in the room. Should I go with Hotwire for this reason alone?

Thanks VERY much for all your help. I promise to post my hotel-finding experiences from all 14 nights of our trip.

[yellowdog]

Please don't double post!

I have merged your threads since they are releated to the same trip. Keep all your posts in this thread.

Yellowdog.

[FogNoggin]

Not trying to double post, just confused. Thanks for the correction. :)

[yellowdog]

FogNoggin

i don't want to be The bad guy here. But there's some problems with this that you have to solve.

1. PRICELINE only guarntee a room for two adults. That could men one bed. And there's plenty of hotels with only 1 bed. And walking in to a small hotel late at night as a family might not cut it. Hotels got fire regulations and can refuse you to check in.

2. You have a time limit on both HOTWIRE and PRICELINE for last booking/bid. So stoping 9 PM and bid for same night don't work.

3. You need to be willing to stay at any hotel within the star rating (or higher) you're bidding at. And rolling into a a city that you don't know anything about and start bidding for a 2* is not anything i would do since you're concerned about quality. And smaller towns with bigger zones can take you to a strange area.

4. Using HOTWIRE is not always so easy. You need to get pretty swift at ID hotels. HOTWIRE is tricky sometime with few amenties listed. And the lower rated hotels got limited amenities listed sometimes. ID a hotel with just a Laundry icon for an unknown city is not easy.

5.

I'm worried about the HUGE difference in quality within a star rating. In my own hometown we have a new lovely Hampton Inn. (Is that 2 stars?) But there are other 2-star hotels in town that I wouldn't go near

You answered your question. You have to live with this problem. You will not have the sufficient information to weed out the hotels and make a choice between HOTWIRE or PRICELINE.

6.

We like clean, know brands with decent free breakfast.

You will not always have the option to choose this. PRICELINE isn't always that good.

If i had done this trip with your "concerns" should i have done a rough plan to start with. And i would have done next days booking/bidding the night before. This will take the stress out of bidding/booking and making mistakes. It's not always easy to make the right decisison when you're tierd and hungry after a long day and the kids are fighting in the back.

And i would like to repeat what AaronJB said, make sure you are in a place with many hotels and preferably many rebid zones.

I hope this is helpful for you. And i would like to add after all my pessimistic comments that i also think that this sounds like a fun trip and i really hope that you do this :)

Yellowdog.

[FogNoggin]

Yellowdog, your reply was extremely helpful and informative. I thank you very much for taking the time. As for your pessimism, no apologies needed. It was exactly the reality slap that I needed. I knew that the PRICELINE system had limitations, I just needed to clarify the downside for myself. Now I can make an educated decision.

For my purposes, I'll probably read TripAdvisor for a certain city and call the hotel for best rate. Perhaps I'll try HOTWIRE again if I'm feeling dangerous. :)

[thereuare]

I'll also add that some HOTWIRE hotels will show you the Tripadvisor rating, so you can also get some 'comfort' if the hotel you're purchasing has a higher user review rating... taking some of quality risk out of the 'opaque purchase'.

With that said, PRICELINE and HOTWIRE are not for everyone and not always right for every stay... you have to know your own tolerances and what your expectations are. Will you get upset at any (every?) thing that goes wrong with a stay... or do you weight the circumstances vs. the price paid and can overlook any 'imperfections' if you got a great deal and the price is substantially lower than you would have otherwise paid.

Many of us have had 'marginal' stays which we thought were GREAT hotels and GREAT values based upon the price we paid... whereas that same stay may have prompted a negative reivew if were were paying rack rates. For most of us, it comes down to value, and not quality in the absolute terms.

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

[Liset]

FogNoggin,

You've received excellent advice on the use of HOTWIRE and PRICELINE and I don't have anything to add. But your thread interested me because I drive what I think will be your route at least four times a year. (I'm a Chicagoan that drives 80 east to the NY thruway and then to Boston or NH to take kids to college.) I think general travel advice is beyond the intent of this forum, but if you'd like any advice on sights, cities along the route, etc. please feel free to pm me If you decide you'd prefer a more set itinerary, or at least decide the city you'll sleep in each night, you can do more research that will take at least some of the unknowns out of using PRICELINE or HOTWIRE. (FYI, I do always use PRICELINE while driving this route.)

And I second the advice to stop in Cleveland. It has a lovely downtown and there's much to do in the area. I first visited it two years ago and was shocked that it was so different from the negative picture in my mind.

[Colfax]

FogNoggin,

Does your family like La Quinta? LQ's got the free breakfast and usually plenty of two-bed rooms.

La Quinta's affinity program, La Quinta Returns, is free to join and fairly generous with frequent Double Points and Triple Points promotions that lead to free nights quickly.

And La Quinta's Weekend Specials---different hotels are featured every weekend---are sometimes a lower rate than you'll get on Priceline or Hotwire, with no transaction fee.

LQ won't be the best choice every night in every city...no one channel is the best solution everyplace...but over 14 nights I bet you can find enough decent LQs to earn one free night along the way...especially if you've got some Triple Points hotels along your route.

[themaster]

Here is a real travel tip..

I assume you have a cell phone, yes?

Well some cell phones allow you access to data networks everywhere.. for example last I checked.. verizon has a policy where you could use 1xx (which is internet not just voice) internet or your minutes anywhere.. (and night and weekends means full on free internet) the term used to hookup your laptop to a cell phone is called "tether" (some tethering is free.. some tethering is illegal per phone company.. but done anyway)

1xx = 56k equivalent or so..

So a traveler like myself does a lot of this..

Driving down the road and researching on the internet..

Even better is the ability to use EVDO on some providers.. the best EVDO networks in my opinion are verizon/alltel and sprint.. (sprint roam's on all alltel) If you want to know a hell of a lot more about cell phone networks I suggest howardforums..

So when I travel I typically..

Carry a laptop, a inverter or a special laptop to cigarette lighter power pack.. and yes.. use internet generally all over.. as 1xx is everywhere and EVDO is about 80-90% of the country (least for sprint.. verizon might be like 90%)

All I'm saying is you can drive and get your hotel ready before you get there.. with a navigator :)

(for the record.. surfing and driving can be somewhat frustrating in certain bad areas.. like mountains.. so it takes patience.. especially for the 1xx network)