Planning a vacation for 2006 on a budget? Boldly go where no traveler with a modest wallet has gone before: a five star hotel. By doing some online research beforehand, you can score an out-of-this-world hotel on a hitchhiker’s budget with your next Priceline.com hotel bid.

The website Bidding For Travel, a bulletin board where bidders communicate with each other about recent bids, is a blessing to the Priceline bidder. Bidding For Travel is especially useful for bidding on hotels, which maintain relatively stable pricing. Combining the data from winning bids with an understanding of the hotel bidding process can yield excellent rates, especially on higher end hotels.

Know Before You Bid
Most major cities listed in Priceline are divided into multiple zones, each containing one or more hotels. Hotels are assigned ratings based on their amenities (1 to 5 stars; plus the more rare Resort Hotels, Boutiques, and Vacation Condos).
Decide on your first choice of zone and quality level. The biggest savings are generally on 4 star hotels and up.
When a bid is unsuccessful, Priceline allows users to rebid by adding zones and increasing the price.
Since different zones contain hotels with different ratings, bidders interested in higher rated hotels can take advantage of “free rebids” by adding a zone containing only lower ratings than what they had been bidding for.
Caveat emptor: A successful Priceline bid entitles you to a standard double occupancy room. Priceline does not allow you to specify a non-smoking room or a particular number of beds. You can try calling the hotel after your bid is accepted, but the hotel is not obligated to accommodate you. This article is intended as an overview of the bidding process; be sure to familiarize yourself with the Bidding For Travel Hotel FAQ before placing a bid. And keep in mind that Priceline policies are subject to change.
Bidding
As an example, from the Bidding For Travel main page, select the “Illinois – Chicago” board under the Hotels section. At the top of the board is a permanent thread that contains a list of all the hotels in the Chicago area. The list is divided by zone and quality level, with links to the official website of each hotel. Some hotel entries also include a link to customer reviews.

Next, browse or search the board for recent successful bids in the area you are interested in. For instance, if you were looking for a hotel near O’Hare Airport, you might find that successful bids for a four star hotel in the area range between $49 and $70.

You would then start by bidding for hotels in just that zone, at a price near the lower end of the range. If your bid is successful congratulations! If your bid is unsuccessful, you are given an opportunity to rebid by increasing your bid and adding zones. To find additional zones, refer back to the hotel list and look for a zone containing only lower level hotels.

For the O’Hare example, you might add the “Midway Airport Area” zone which only includes 3 star hotels and below. You also need to increase your bid amount by at least $1. If necessary, continue rebidding as long as you can safely add zones. If you exhaust all available rebids, you will need to wait 72 hours before bidding again on the same dates, zones, and quality level.

This method may seem complex at first, but other Bidding For Travel users will gladly provide assistance along the way. If you book hotels often it will quickly become second nature. On some multiple night stays, I’ve saved hundreds of dollars compared to the rates found anywhere else.

Do you have a killer

Priceline.com is the leading travel service for value-conscious leisure travelers. No other travel service gives customers more ways to save on their airline tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars, vacation packages and cruises.
We negotiate the best travel deals to help you stretch your travel dollars further!

Priceline is the first travel site to eliminate priceline booking fees on ALL published-price Flights. The fee chops don’t stop there, we have also eliminated priceline hotel cancellation & change fees on every published-price Hotel!

We’re also working hard to keep priceline’s hotel booking fees lower than Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, and even Hotels.com. Lower fees means lower prices on the hotels travelers want.

Shop & Compare Low Published-Prices. Looking for a specific flight, hotel, rental car, or vacation package? No problem. Just tell us what you want and we’ll search through thousands of published itineraries and prices. We’ll instantly show you an easy-to-compare product and pricing chart drawn from the thousands of flights, hotels, rental cars and cruises available to priceline. Then, just choose what works for you. We do all the work so you can find exactly what you want in seconds. Start your next search from the priceline.com home page.

Name Your Own Price®. It’s what made priceline.com famous. If you can be flexible when you travel, we can save you up to 60% or more on your Hotel rooms and up to 50% or more on your Flight or Rental Car, compared to the other leading travel sites.* You name the price, we pick the flight, hotel or rental car brand – it’s that simple.

Best Price Guarantee. When you book a Name Your Own Price® Hotel, Flight or Rental Car we not only guarantee the lowest price we guarantee a BIG DEAL! We are so confident that you won’t find a bigger deal on some other site, that the Big Deal Guarantee is available all the way up until the day before you travel. That’s not all, the Big Deal Guarantee also covers Flight+Hotel Vacation Packages.

If you find a lower published-price for your reservation, priceline will:
- Match the lower price
- Give you $25*
- Send you a $50 Vacation Package Coupon for your next trip*

Save up to $500 with a Flight+Hotel Vacation Package. It’s true – buy your flight, hotel & rental car as a package and you can save an average of $500 over buying separately.** Over 2,000 destinations to choose from. No bidding or flexibility required – just pick the exact Hotel & Flight you want and we’ll show you the best price.

More ways to save tips. Here’s where priceline goes “above and beyond.” Every time you shop and compare prices for flights, hotels, rental cars, or vacation packages, we’ll not only show you the best available options for what you asked for, we’ll also recommend additional ways for you to save on that trip. Like using a different airport. Or flying on different dates. Or staying at a hotel in a different part of town. It’s like having a personal savings consultant at your side.
Priceline Hotels – Select your Exact Hotel or Name Your Own Price!

Unpublished Rate Hotels – Save up to 50% & get the deal now and the hotel name after you book! – Expires 12/31/12