Travel Deal of the Day (August 2, 2010)

Hotel rates in Hawaii have dropped dramatically over the past few years. If you are looking to stay in Hawaii on a budget, be sure to check out Priceline and Hotwire. BiddingforTravel.com, which provides reports regarding bids made on Priceline, shows winning bids at 4 star and "resort" level hotels on the island of Oahu for under $100 (see examples of such bids here). Paying $80-$90/night for a nice Hawaiian hotel is a great deal. Be sure to check out Priceline and Hotwire when booking your next Hawaiian vacation - the deals are incredible.

Travel Deal of the Day (May 12, 2010)

If you have not yet booked a Memorial Day weekend vacation, time may be on your side, especially if you are considering a vacation in Florida. With the current economic conditions and the threat of an oil spill affecting the beautiful Florida beaches, you may find more vacancies along Florida's beaches over the holiday weekend than in past years. You may find the best deals within seven days of the holiday weekend. Be on the lookout for last minute air and hotel specials, especially in larger, business-oriented hotels that have many rooms to fill and might be more affected by the economic conditions. Also, hotels might be more willing to unload unsold rooms via Priceline and Hotwire if they see decreased demand, but especially for the most in-demand days over the holiday weekend, you may have to wait until just before the holiday weekend to find such deals. You may also have success negotiating with owners of rental properties on vrbo.com (Vacation Rentals by Owner) than in prior years.

Travel Deal of the Day (March 22, 2010)

If you are thinking about attending some of the March Madness basketball games and need a hotel, be sure to try Priceline and Hotwire. Hotels likely will dramatically increase rates in cities hosting the basketball tournament games; however, you will likely save money by trying Priceline or Hotwire. Be sure to consult a Priceline/Hotwire posting website such as Better Bidding or Bidding For Travel.

Travel Deal of the Day (April 23, 2009)

If you are traveling to London this spring or summer, be sure to think about Priceline to save money on your hotel.

The Deal:
Priceline (a service allowing you to bid for a hotel by choosing the location and star rating, but not the specific hotel) is offering great rates for four and five star hotels in London. (Hotwire, a service that provides a discounted price for a hotel in a selected location and with a selected star rating without providing the exact hotel name) is also offering good deals. People are posting on BiddingForTravel and Better Bidding (websites dedicated to posting winning bids for Priceline and Hotwire) that you can successfully obtain a four star hotel in London for 51 Pounds to 69 Pounds and a five star hotel for 89 Pounds to 103 Pounds. This is a tremendous savings off of standard rates, and this deal can help you trim your travel budget during a difficult economy.

How:
Use sites such as BiddingforTravel and BetterBidding to review winning bids on Priceline and hotel prices on Hotwire.

Travel Deal of the Day (January 9, 2009)

There are some good Las Vegas deals for the next few months. Rules and restrictions apply to these rates (which you can view via the links below). Here is a list of some notable Las Vegas Deals:

(1) Mandalay Bay is running a sale of $80/night for Mandalay Bay and $100/night for THEhotel.

(2) Bally's is running a sale that is $72 for the first night and with second night is free (average of $36/night for a two night stay).

(3) The Wynn is on Hotwire and Priceline for as low as $72/night.

Travel Deal of the Day (December 22, 2008)

Another amazing Las Vegas deal – this time at the five-star Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas.

The Deal:
People posting on Better Bidding are noting that they are winning the five-star Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas for as low as $72/night. As has been reported previously, Las Vegas is hurting tremendously – this demonstrates that high end resorts such as the Wynn are providing excellent deals in this economy to attract visitors.

How:
So far, I have only seen the Wynn appear via Hotwire (it has not yet been reported at this price-level on Priceline, though that can change at any time). See Better Bidding to find out more information about bidding for the Wynn via Hotwire.

Travel Deal of the Day (December 15, 2008)

There are some incredible Hawaii deals over the next few weeks via Priceline. The deals last into what is usually a very expensive time period.

The Deal:
For the first time in a long time, you can stay at 4 and 4 1/2 star Hawaiian resorts for under $200/night during the week between Christmas and New Years Eve by using bidding websites such as Hotwire and Priceline. One example is this post (on BetterBidding.com) showing a successful Priceline bid over New Year's Eve at the Wailea Marriott for $170/night. These deals will likely last until well into 2009, so if you are planning a Hawaiian vacation, you should consider bidding on Priceline/Hotwire to save a lot of money on your trip.

Travel Deal of the Day (November 18, 2008)

If you are traveling to London or anywhere in Europe, you may want to review the successful winning bids on Bidding For Travel and Better Bidding before going.

The Deal:
Bidding For Travel and Better Bidding publish rates for those people who have “bid” for hotels on Priceline and Hotwire. If you are traveling to London, you can save a tremendous amount of money, especially during the off-season, by using these bidding services. People have posted winning bids in London at 4 star hotels for approximately 48 British Pounds. This is a phenomenal deal for a 4 star hotel in London.

How:
Go to Bidding For Travel and Better Bidding to check what people have posted regarding winning bids.

Travel Deal of the Day (October 17, 2008)

Though economic downturns normally mean quite a few deals, usually finding a sale during the week between Christmas and New Years Eve has been next to impossible in major tourist destinations. Well, this year is quite different. You have an opportunity to find excellent deals, especially through blind bidding websites such as Priceline.

The Deal:

Look out for excellent deals on hotels in leisure destinations, even during the week between Christmas and New Years Eve, on blind bidding websites such as Priceline and Hotwire. Here is a prime example, BiddingForTravel.com, a website where people post their successful hotel bids on Priceline, is showing successful bids at the Hyatt Maui over New Years Eve for $199/night. The fact that Hyatt is putting its rooms in Maui on Priceline during its busiest few days of the year demonstrates that there are going to be incredible deals using Priceline over time periods which have been off limits previously - such as Christmas week and the week between Good Friday and Easter. In most situations, hotels can offer huge discounts using the bidding feature on Priceline and Hotwire and generally not worry about impacting traditional rates, as only a small segment of travelers would be willing to bid for a hotel room (at a deep discount) and accept whatever hotel is given to them by Priceline or Hotwire. Hotels generally did not have to engage in this kind of discounting over truly high demand weeks (such as Christmas week) as all the rooms would be purchased at standard rates. This is not the case this year, and you may benefit tremendously by using Priceline and Hotwire this holiday season.

Travel Deal of the Day (July 8, 2008)

Thinking about taking a trip involving a hotel stay – if you are visiting a major city, you may want to ensure that your trip involves a weekend.

The Deal:
When you are staying in a city hotel, you will quite often save money by planning your trip over a weekend. Weekday rates in city hotels are normally higher as the rates are generally aimed at corporations – these weekday, corporate rates are much higher than leisure-oriented weekend rates. If you are staying, for instance, from Wednesday to Friday, you may “transform” your midweek stay into a weekend stay by staying until the end of the weekend. (Most hotels will charge you midweek rates for a stay from Wednesday to Friday, but many hotels will alter your rates to “weekend rates” if your stay includes the weekend; some hotels will even make the entire stay a “weekend” stay even if you only stay until Saturday). You can save even more money if you also search airport hotel locations – since many airport hotels are empty on weekends, you are likely to really save money with weekend rates at airport hotels.

OK – so your next question is: what do I do if I must stay midweek and the city hotel rates are outrageous? My advice is to try suburban locations or locations near tourist attractions. Many business travelers prefer to be in the middle of the city and avoid the hotel located right next to a theme park or other tourist attraction. These leisure oriented hotels thrive on the weekend stays and may be empty midweek – accordingly, you may save money (if you must travel midweek) by staying at these kind of hotels.

The Inside Scoop:
The above advice does not negate the value of prepaid services like Priceline and Hotwire. The rates that you can obtain through these services can be extraordinary. You may find that the rates are even more extraordinary if you use the above rules to determine when and where to “bid” for a hotel.

Travel Deal of the Day (June 5, 2008)

Before you book a high-end hotel or resort on Priceline or Hotwire, be sure to investigate whether resort fees or high parking charges are commonplace in the location where you will be vacationing.

The Deal:
The bidding process on Priceline and Hotwire allows customers to obtain highly discounted room rates in exchange for accepting the terms of a non-refundable reservation at a hotel which is unknown to you until after you submit your payment information. When researching the possible hotels that you might obtain for a Priceline or Hotwire bid (at websites such as BiddingForTravel or BetterBidding), be sure to also investigate the parking and resort fee charges at many hotels. In locations such as big cities, parking can add up to $40/day to your hotel stay. Resort fees can be $10-$20/day. These extra fees vary tremendously by hotel – so be sure that your research reflects which areas of town are most likely to have these fees. Also, be sure to budget for these fees as guests that use Priceline and Hotwire are likely responsible for these fees (just like any other guest that used a non-opaque website to book the hotel).

Travel Deal of the Day (May 11, 2007)

If you use hotwire.com to book travel, it is important to note that your past activity on Hotwire may influence the rates you are quoted for travel for future purchases on Hotwire.

The Deal:
Hotwire.com is known as an “opaque” travel booking website, in that it allows you to receive discounted air/hotel/car rates in exchange for not knowing the exact airline/flight times (for air travel), hotel name/location (for hotels) or car rental company (for car rentals). Hotwire (and Priceline) often provide tremendous discounts as opposed to booking through normal channels. One thing to note when booking travel on Hotwire is that the site tracks your past searches and purchases through internet “cookies,” so the price it quotes you may be based on your past searching and/or purchasing tendencies. What this means is that it may be best to search using your Hotwire profile and then clear out the cookies from your internet browser and search again without logging into a travel profile to compare rates.

Travel Deal of the Day (Apr. 10, 2007)

Services such as Priceline.com and Hotwire.com (where you bid for your air, hotel or car reservations without knowing the exact airline/hotel/car rental company) advertise that their rates are extraordinarily low but that all reservations are non-refundable. Sometimes “non-refundable” travel services such as Priceline.com and Hotwire.com are not actually non-refundable.

The Deal:
Services such as Priceline.com state that all bookings are non-refundable regardless of the circumstances. Such restrictions are understandable given the tremendous discounts. However, there are extremely limited circumstances where services such as Priceline will let you refund or change your booking. Some examples include:

(1) During a major weather event such as a hurricane or blizzard, Priceline will often let you cancel your reservation without penalty, if you provide proof that you were unable to complete your trip due to the weather event. I have recently been involved in two major winter weather events - in both circumstances, Priceline refunded the reservation without penalty (after I provided proof of flight cancellation).

(2) If you make a mistake when booking your reservation (wrong city, wrong date), Priceline will sometimes let you change your reservation with a small penalty (often you are required to rebid using Priceline for the correct city or dates).

(3) In the event of a death or major illness of a close relative or a traveler booked in the same reservation, Priceline may (on a case by case basis) allow you to change or refund your reservation.

How:
Call Priceline.com at (800) 774-2354.
Call Hotwire.com at (866) 468-9473.

The Inside Scoop:
In a majority of situations, Priceline and Hotwire reservations are non-refundable. However, exceptions sometimes apply. Non-refundable travel services will not advertise that these limited exceptions apply. Most people assume that non-refundable means non-refundable, regardless of the circumstance. While these exceptions are not the general rule and apply only in limited circumstances, there is very little to lose by attempting to obtain some kind of exception when extraordinary circumstances occur.