Q's re Hotwire / Priceline - UK resident

[Nylsor]

We want to stay in Ft Lauderdale for 3-4 days pre-cruise in February 2011. I have read a lot on this board about bidding for hotels on both Priceline and Hotwire. Can anyone answer the following q's for me please:

- which is the best site, Hotwire or Priceline?

- how far out should I start bidding ? (we need one room in the Downtown area)

- do Hotwire / Priceline accept bids from UK residents?

All advice gratefully accepted

Ros

[JohninDC]

Not sure about restrictions on UK residents - seems to me that if you've got a credit card they should be ahppy to deal with you.

 

I've used priceline for hotels and hotwire for cars and had good luck. February is high season in south FLA so prices will be higher.:eek: Savings will be best the closer you are to your arrival date as hotels try to sell of empty rooms, but selection may be limited or non-existant. Do your homework (check both the stickies on top of these boards and better bidding dot com) and reserve an okay room that you can cancel as a back-up in case the sites can not meet your needs. Good luck!:)

[andrzej5914]

Priceline is cheaper, IF done the right way.

 

Research http://www.biddingfortravel.com to get any and all info about what you can expect in terms of hotels, the going rates and how to bid.

 

Priceline.co.uk is a British site and you can bid on US hotels.

 

I would wait until about 2-3 months before your stay to place a bid, and only after researching the going rates on the above mentioned site.

 

Do the "Name your own price" on Priceline. You will save money.

 

Good luck!

[eandj]

You do not bid on Hotwire. They tell you the star rating, amenities and location of the hotel and you just agree to pay what they show you as the low cost. You can figure out which hotel it is by comparing the amenities and star ratings on the list of hotels using betterbidding.com You'll narrow it down to probably one or two hotels. But there are no cancellations on either site. And you pay in advance.

 

you'd have to call them to find out UK rules if any.

[baljaffray]

We want to stay in Ft Lauderdale for 3-4 days pre-cruise in February 2011. I have read a lot on this board about bidding for hotels on both Priceline and Hotwire. Can anyone answer the following q's for me please:

- which is the best site, Hotwire or Priceline?

- how far out should I start bidding ? (we need one room in the Downtown area)

- do Hotwire / Priceline accept bids from UK residents?

All advice gratefully accepted

Ros

 

I checked priceline.co.uk, and they do not have the hotels i'm looking at in Port Canaveral, ie raddison,country inn, only ones further from the port, but to bid on the .com site I need a us address for credit card.

[Globaliser]

I checked priceline.co.uk, and they do not have the hotels i'm looking at in Port Canaveral, ie raddison,country inn, only ones further from the port, but to bid on the .com site I need a us address for credit card.

You need to distinguish between two things on both Priceline sites.

 

If you can see the name of the hotel, then you are not bidding but just booking through Priceline as a travel agent.

 

To bid, you need to use the "Name Your Own Price" section of the Priceline site. You bid for a hotel in a particular area at a particular quality rating. You have to give your credit card details in advance. If a hotel accepts your bid, you are immediately charged in full for the entire stay, and only then told which hotel has accepted the bid. You do not see the name of the hotel before you pay for your entire stay. It is this opacity which is the distinguishing feature of the bidding side of the site, and which is the quid pro quo for the cheap prices you can sometimes get when you bid and succeed (which is never guaranteed).

 

For help for non-US residents who want to use the .com site (which I do), it's worth looking at this thread on one of the guidance sites for Priceline bidding: Non-U.S. Resident FAQ.