I am currently through promotions or qualifing a SPG PLT, HH Diamond, Hyatt Diamond, and Mariott Silver. While I enjoy the perks they seem to be less and less. I used to pay a little more to be involved in a program. Now upgrades seem less worth it and with priceline I seem to be able to pay less than half what I would have to pay to have a qualifying stay. I think I will do more priceline and save the money. What opinions do others have? Hotel programs or priceline?

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dallasflyer, Let's put the fun back in FlyerTalk!

Priceline all the way. From what I've seen, no hotel perk program can possibly equal the value of saving 40%-70% on every hotel stay. I have only paid a published rate for hotels 4 or 5 times since I started using Priceline in 1999.

If it's the company's money, I'll go the hotel program route and try to keep it reasonable. When it's my money, it's Priceline all the way. My last 6 winning bids:

Toronto Intercontinental: $65
Toronto Radisson Suites: $35
Tampa Hyatt Regency: $30 (received all Diamond perks)
Minneapolis Hyatt Regency: $35 (received all Diamond perks)
Minneapolis Hilton: $35 (received all Gold level perks)
Chicago Hyatt Regency: $50 (again, all the perks)

Why would I pay 3-4 times as much when I receive the same benefits except points? There is no way a night at any of these properties yields $100 in frequent guest points...

I save up my points for when the Priceline deals are unavailable, which isn't very often.

I own the company so it is always my money. I just got the Hyatt Regency Denver Tech Center, which is a pretty nice hotel for 10 days at $30 per day. Lowest web site price on Hyatt.com would be about $129 average.

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dallasflyer, Let's put the fun back in FlyerTalk!

[This message has been edited by dallasflyer (edited 10-10-2003).]

After being called a "tightwad from the smallest of companies" in print this year, I'm now forced to use nothing *but* opaques for my business travel, or risk being tarred and feathered by everyone I know who read that blasted article.

The equation to me is simple: I'm an employee-owner of the company, and our business travel is rarely billable back to our customers, ergo, it behooves me to stay for as little as possible. Also, while I may whine about cheap hotel pillows (Hyatt Regency Vancouver, are you listening? *Your* crappy pillows were specifically mentioned in my USAToday interview, but the reporter was nice enough to redact the worst of my vitriol - oh, wait, I'm off on a rant), I am remarkably tolerant of almost any clean, comfortable 2.5 star or better property for business trips, so, Priceline it is.

Do I miss the points? Yeah, but I save more than enough money to pay for that swank suite on leisure trips. I don't have to be worried that I won't be upgraded as an Unobtanium Elite Mondo Executive Premier - I'm guaranteed the room I want. I'm still a ridiculously "elite" guest to the properties I visit frequently (and get treated accordingly - could it be my policy of using some of the money I save to overtip, or is it that I know which desk clerks like flowers and which ones like Scotch and which ones kill for Callebaut chocolate? Dunno.). I just don't have the systemwide recognition. Big whoop - if I want chocolates and bottled water, I can buy my own with the money I'm saving even off a good negotiated rate.

Eric


[This message has been edited by VibeGuy (edited 10-10-2003).]

I'm about 100% leisure travel (the one time I travelled on business, it was made to be done via a corporate rate), so I figure its best to Priceline it - however, if I'm going somewhere on a MR or something, I'll stay at the cheapest place possible & get points. (I'll be staying at a Rodeway Inn in CMH, get the airline miles + the bonus for M.A.R. with NW, and its only 30/night) - however, if it's with multiple people (no family, just friends) I'll use priceline and if I can't get a cheap enough rate, I'll pay the extra 10 bucks to stay at a hotel that I like and earn the points (room is being split 3 or 4 ways, why not?) - so I guess its based on what my purpose is for the travel. Hotels don't have that great of reward programs, but I like knowing where I'm staying. On a MR, I'd rather be able to book a hotel that is near things (bars/movie theaters, etc) or that has free airport transportation and pay an extra few bucks than priceline something that will include additional costs, like taxi cabs or other transportation - also a "free" continental breakfast is great for MRs...
just my 2 cents...

Well, I just made a booking for nights 60-64 at an HHonors hotel. 80% reimburseable business travel, the rest leisure. As such I've always considered the small premium paid for the leisure stays to be worth it for the elite benefits (example: $115/night at the Caribe Hilton in San Juan got me the executive floor, just down the hall from the President to of Uruguay).

I made the switch to Priceline about a year ago. It was a no brainer. I'm thankful for the years of big-company travel that helped me build Marriott and Hilton point totals for six free weeks in Hawaii and Europe, but now that I've cycled through the points, it's no longer worth it to build them back up with my own money.

I still hang on to low-elite cards through various means (promos, credit cards, etc.) but hotel status isn't terribly important to me. Yeah, I like the free breakfasts and executive lounges, but they aren't worth paying 3x the Priceline rate for.

Disclaimer: Most of the hotels I stay in either give breakfast/happy hour to everyone (Hampton, Res.Inn., Embassy, etc.) or no one (most hotels that have designated themselves as "resorts"). If I did a lot of big-city weekday stays in 4* business hotels, I might think differently about the value of status. Then again, I would probably still say "Is breakfast and happy hour worth $100/day? No."

I will always check the winning bid web sites before making a res. I am finding more often that I will reserve on the chains web site and get the benes as most places I do not see much difference. Two recent exceptions were:

Radisson at JFK for one nite, $40 less on Priceline and I still got Gold reward points;

Regal Kowloon one nite $65 less than spg, Marriott, Hilton etc.

Priceline all the way for me.

I even use it for company use when possible (of course, the company travel agent does not like it).

I see it as a way of saving money in my budget for more travel for me or my employees.

William

I am beginning to see the benefits of Priceline. Similarly, I have been able to get pretty good prices on Hotwire as well. So, if hotwire doesn't a price that I am comfortable with, I would try priceline.

Over 80% of my stay is leisure. I don't really care about the hotel programs since I don't stay enough to be their top elite, but I am very particular on which hotel I stay. So I do not use Priceline because they do not let me specify the hotel.

I am all for Priceline except in rare instances where it doesn't work (like the wine package at the Inn my hubby got for me as a gift).

DSW -- What is so special about certain hotels that you won't use Priceline? 4 star hotels aren't all that different -- are they????

I'm near 100% leisure, always on my own dime and definitely partial to Priceline (to give you an idea of the typical budget, Motel 6 was starting to get too expensive for me. In many places they cost double what they did 8 years ago).

Many of my hotel stays, especially in the U.S., are in conjunction with mileage runs. I just can't justify to myself flying someplace and then flying back, so I always make a trip out of it. Typically 3-day weekend, rent car at weekend rate with a free day coupon, hotel through Priceline.

That said, though, there's one frequent destination where Priceline usually falls short: Las Vegas. I always try PL, but it might come through one time in 4 (For LAS I try to pay $15-20/night and top out around $30). Usually the third-party sites like tripreservations.com and Expedia and the websites of downtown casinos will have something PL just can't see to beat. You also have places like the Sahara that you might get through PL that will gleefully charge an extra $3/day energy surcharge, or Palace Station and its $4.95/day "hotel services fee." Seems unfair to me that these guys are on the same footing to take your bid as places that don't charge those fees.

As an aside, cheapovegas.com's "Hotel Bargain Bin" is filling with reports of people landing $10-15 rooms at pretty decent places (through their websites) in Las Vegas during the December dead weeks. Check it out.

I've always liked Priceline for times when I couldn't get an award room or didn't want to use points and the rates in the city were too expensive.

As a Hilton Diamond and Starwood Platinum member I have had some luxurious rooms in international cities and that is an incredible feeling because all my travel is leisure. Prior to learning the tricks of the trade on FT I regularly used Priceline, stayed in B&Bs, and always spent a great deal of time trying to find a nice bargain room for my travels. Many of these rooms were wonderfully charming and some were rooms I wish I could forget. I have enjoyed the all around higher standard of the chain lodgings with Hilton and Starwood.

That being said I am now trying to accomodate to program changes with Hilton. Airline mileage transfers made it easy to accrue 600,000 points a year with HHonors and that was enough for 36 nights in luxury hotels. It was worth the money to make sure I had diamond status and access to awards anytime and nice upgrades. Now United and LatinPass have discontinued transfers and at the same time there have hardly been any lucrative bonus point offers in 2003 with Hilton. Starwood looks much more attractive this year.

I think a strategy of Priceline and some status with Starwood is my favored route for 2004. It all depends on where you travel and need rooms as to whether a Priceline only strategy is the best way. Last night I studied the bidding-for-travel board and I see some pretty high rates in the $100-150 range for 4* hotels in several of the European cities. I favor a method of accumulating Starwood stays in the range of $60-80 to accumulate points during bonus offers, Priceline when the rates are low for the places I am traveling or in Europe when I want to conserve hotel points, and then an annual splurge of points for something really luxurious that is way out of the range of my pocketbook change.

My calculation is about an extra $1,000 to split my bookings of about 50 hotel nights a year between Priceline and Starwood, maintain status with Starwood, and accumulate 50,000 points a year vs. an all Priceline hotel stays strategy.