Online Travel Booking and Bidding Agencies - Priceline or Hotwire Equivalents for South America?

Does anyone know of any equivalent to Priceline or Hotwire that offers hotels in South America (specifically Argentina/EZE and Brazil/GIG)?

Both companies ignore South America, though many of the same hotel chains that operate there also operate in the U.S., Mexico, Europe and Asia (areas that both companies do cover). Lost opportunity or is there perhaps something that prevents them from covering South America?

haven't heard about any such equivalent operating in South America for a while.

I haven't heard of one either but I hope priceline will add South America soon. Does anybody know why they haven't?

Have not found anything along the lines of either PL or HW - however, I have found good coverage of South America from Travelaxe - if you search with it often before your trip, you can snag some decent pricing....also, it shows how pricing varies from site to site.

I have found good coverage of South America from Travelaxe

Thanks for this suggestion -- I just downloaded it tried it out and my first impressions are that it will be very helpful.

I was the OP of this thread, and just noticed that even though priceline doesn't offer hotels in South America on the bidding portion of their site, they do offer them on the "Shop and compare" part. Not sure what that means, though. It's possible that the newer "shop and compare" part is using a completely different reservation system/engine. The prices on the "shop/compare" side aren't too different than the other major booking sites.

It appears priceline is offering a bidding option for Rio de Janeiro now.

I started through their retail (non-opaque) hotel site, and noticed the option to "Name your own price" which clicked through to a bid page for either 4 star, or 3 star hotels.

There are no zones, though, and Rio de Janeiro is quite large and so this isn't something I'm going to try. Anyone brave enough? I'd be curious which hotels come up. Possibly the Marriott since they seem to use priceline in many European cities.

There does not appear to be a bid option for Buenos Aires currently.

Updated to add: Interestingly, if you do a search for priceline, "name your own price" and "rio de janeiro", you get this web page at priceline (http://travela.priceline.com/hotel/city-Rio_De_Janeiro_Rio_De_Janeiro_Brazil-5000457862.html) which shows two hotels prominently (Marriott and Tryp Barra) and extends an offer to name your own price. One is a 4 star the other a 3 star -- coincidentally the only two categories you can bid on. All the other hotels have a single line listing and no picture.

If you do a similar search with Buenos Aires, you get a similar page (http://travela.priceline.com/hotel/city-Buenos_Aires_Distrito_Federal_Argentina-5000450066.html) that features two hotels (again, a Marriott) and extends an offer to name your own price, but clicking through on that link tells you that it doesn't recognize Buenos Aires as a name your own price city.

It appears priceline is offering a bidding option for Rio de Janeiro now.

I started through their retail (non-opaque) hotel site, and noticed the option to "Name your own price" which clicked through to a bid page for either 4 star, or 3 star hotels.

There are no zones, though, and Rio de Janeiro is quite large and so this isn't something I'm going to try. Anyone brave enough? I'd be curious which hotels come up. Possibly the Marriott since they seem to use priceline in many European cities.

There does not appear to be a bid option for Buenos Aires currently.

Updated to add: Interestingly, if you do a search for priceline, "name your own price" and "rio de janeiro", you get this web page at priceline (http://travela.priceline.com/hotel/city-Rio_De_Janeiro_Rio_De_Janeiro_Brazil-5000457862.html) which shows two hotels prominently (Marriott and Tryp Barra) and extends an offer to name your own price. One is a 4 star the other a 3 star -- coincidentally the only two categories you can bid on. All the other hotels have a single line listing and no picture.

If you do a similar search with Buenos Aires, you get a similar page (http://travela.priceline.com/hotel/city-Buenos_Aires_Distrito_Federal_Argentina-5000450066.html) that features two hotels (again, a Marriott) and extends an offer to name your own price, but clicking through on that link tells you that it doesn't recognize Buenos Aires as a name your own price city.

Thanks for this info and it'll be interesting to see what the Marriotts there come up at.

Thanks for the Priceline link.

I wouldn´t rely on the Marriott being the 4 star option available through name your own price. The 2 hotels that feature on the regular page change - a Best Western was featured when I visited.

Given the vast differences between prices for 4 star hotels it could be a dangerous exercise being the guinea pig - they have one 4 star hotel (an Othon) listed for about $100 and the Marriott for $300. So if you bid $125 who knows what you will get, I tried some 4 star bids at $75 but was rejected.

Their regular price though for the Lancaster Othon is about 20% better than I can find on any of the local sites in Brazil including the hotels booking engine,

As an aside www.wotif.com now has Rio de Janiero hotels on its site although a cursory look doesn´t reveal any greta bargains.

anyone figure out what any of the priceline hotels are in Rio yet?

I just checked out PL and they offer bidding in EZE for up to 3* (although they do not specify a zone). I seem to remember staying at the Buenos Aires Sheraton (listed on PL Shop & Compare as a 3*) on a PL stay. Or it could have been Travelocity, it was a while back. Anyway, you can get a PL Name Your Own Price room there, although the only reported winning bid, reported on both BFT and BB, is the 3* Imperial Park for $90, said to be only a slight savings from the hotel website's rate.

Rio seems like an exceptionally bad bet to me, because there are no zone maps, so you have no idea at all where your "winning" hotel will be placed.

Buenos Aires also has no Priceline zone maps, and I can't figure out why a hotel like the Marriott Plaza is only rated as 2.5* by Priceline.

So in both cases, I can't see how using Priceline would be advisable.