Save $$ -use Priceline.com for your hotel
Written: Jun 20 '00 (Updated May 26 '03)
The Bottom Line
I have had great luck with hotel prices through Priceline. The major negative is that you are hooked into the price and hotel. There is no changing your mind!
|
| Full Review |
I love www.Priceline.com. I loved it for groceries and use it frequently for hotel stays.
This is an updated review and since I first wrote it, I have used it many times. I usually went through Travelocity.com or Travelscape.com and actually had a reservation at the Ramada Inn at the Airport in San Francisco through Travelocity.com. for $99 per night the first time I reviewed Priceline.
I decided to try Priceline figuring I loved it for groceries so why not? The way it works is you tell them where you are looking for a hotel (in my case it was the San Francisco Airport area) and you tell them what grade you want.
Priceline grades the hotels themselves from 1 – 3 stars. They claim that even the 1 star hotels are nice. NOTE: once you put in the bid there is NO turning back. So don’t choose a one star hotel if you won’t stay there!
I put in that I would pay $65.00 for a 3 star hotel. You cannot request a hotel – only the grade so virtually the hotel is the luck of the draw but if you trust their grading system you are all set. Again grade 1 meets their criterion of service and cleanliness.
I got an e-mail back (which is how you are notified) saying that I would not likely get a 3 star hotel for that price so I raised it to $75.00.
Priceline does warn you that there will be taxes and there might be a charge for parking. In one hour I was notified by e-mail to go to the link they sent. The link congratulated me on getting a hotel for $75.00, told me where we would be staying- The Westin Hotel at the Airport in San Francisco. There would be an additional $12.00 a day parking and Priceline charges a $5.00 fee.
This was still less than the Ramada Inn. Having recently stayed at the Ramanda Inn at the Airport in Philadelphia, I wasn’t too excited about going back. The Westin is a top notch hotel and Priceline did very well by us. We recently spent 3 weeks in Hawaii and our first stop was once again The Westin Hotel. This time on Priceline I paid $37.00 plus tax for the night!
The usual price of an average room at the Westin is well over $200 per night depending on the time of the year and the demand. You must remember, though, you cannot change your mind. In fact while sightseeing a distance from the hotel before we checked in, I suggested to my husband that we might want to stay closer to where we were sightseeing. He reminded me that this was pre-paid.
Normally when reserving a room, we don't have to guarantee it until 4:00pm of the day of the arrival. This plan is much different and I can't reiterate that enough.
It was well worth the drive back to the Westin and I would definitely use Priceline again for a hotel.
As you can see from my update, since this was first published I have used it a number of times - all very successfully.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.