Bidding for Travel

Posted on June 11, 2013 by Randy Greencorn

Bidding for travel has gained popularity in the United States and Canada over the last few years, and for very good reason.  Travellers can save money on products such as hotels, car rentals and airline tickets.  The biggest savings, however, are to be had on hotels, but bidding for travel also has some risks associated with it.  It is important to understand these risk before booking your travel on bidding sites such as Priceline, Hotwire, Expedia, and some of the other bidding sites:

• Reservations are non-refundable, and non-cancellable.  When you book on a bidding site, you are taking a big chance that you will not need to cancel, and if you do, you could be out of pocket big bucks.
• You usually do not know what hotel brand you will receive.  This is known as opaque bidding, because you cannot see who you are booking with.  In the case of hotels, you usually know the hotel rating and general vicinity but not the exact hotel.  Many people are disappointed with the result of bidding when they find out they received, say, the Holiday Inn when they were expecting Four Seasons.
• Amenities and Bed Choices are not guaranteed:  With some bidding sites, you may not get a particular type of bed or certain hotel amenities.

Basically, when you bid on travel, you are trading some risks for potential dollar savings.  If done correctly, however, bidding for travel can be a great way to save money and stretch your travel budget.

Bidding on Priceline Hotels

Priceline has 2 ways that travellers can bid for travel and hotels. The first is a service called Name Your Own Price. which allows travellers to specify the type of hotel they want and the area they want to stay, and then name a price they are willing to pay.  If your bid is accepted, you have a confirmed hotel reservation.  If you bid too low, your bid is rejected.  Savvy travellers know how to get free Priceline rebids without having to wait the normal 24 hour period.  This allows you to bid low and work your way up, thereby ensuring you get the lowest possible price.  This is by far the cheapest way to get a hotel reservation, but it requires the traveller to spend some time becoming comfortable on how to become a better bidder on Priceline.

They also have something called Express Deals where there is no bidding required.  You still do not know the name of your hotel until after you make your non-refundable purchase, but the Price is displayed for you.  Here s a tip:  Use this as the maximum bid amount when you are actually bidding for travel.  This is a new service offered by Priceline and travellers seem to like it.

Bidding on Hotwire

Another popular travel bidding site is Hotwire.  Technically, there is not actually any bidding required on Hotwire, but it is common to lump the collection of opaque travel booking sites into the same category, known as bidding sites.  Hotwire works much the same way as Priceline Express Deals.  You get to see the hotel area, amenities and price, but the name of the hotel is not revealed until after you buy.  Much less risky, but the savings are not usually as significant either.

There is a way to actually reveal the name of your Hotwire hotel before bidding.  The Hotwire and Priceline forum  has thousands of Hotwire and Priceline customers posting their winning bid details, including the name of their hotel.  The hotel lists can help narrow down the hotel that you are likely to get, and in many cases you can figure out your hotel before bidding.

Other Bidding Sites

There are 2 other common sites used when bidding for travel:

• Travelocity Top Secret Hotels:   This service was launched a few years ago, but has only had lukewarm reviews.  Here is my own review of Travelocity Top Secret going back a few years ago when the service was first launched.  I was not too kind in my review, and I do not know if they have improved their product offering since the article was first written.
• Expedia Unpublished Rates:  This works along the same lines as Hotwire and in fact, is powered by Hotwire.  In other words, its the same as Hotwire.  If you are interested in giving this service a try, you probably will not find it to be much different the the service that powers it Hotwire.  As for taking the risk out of bidding by trying to reveal your hotel, just use the Hotwire hotel lists since they are the same.

Better Bidding For Travel

It is most important to remember that while bidding for travel can save you money, it also has some risks.  These risk can be mitigated, especially with a bit of research.  The top resources for traveller wanting to become better at bidding on their travel are:

• Priceline and Hotwire hotel lists.  An amazing collection of hotels known to be on these sites, helping you reveal your hotel before bidding.
• Bidding Discussion Forum.  An online community where thousands of travellers ask questions and help each other book travel on bidding sites.
• Priceline Strategies.  A collection of article that cover how to get the absolute lowest price on hotels using Priceline Name Your Own Price.