zombietooth

I have made a few bookings recently where I checked the prices on Priceline and several other sites and have noticed that they are rarely the cheapest and the hotel sites themselves are often cheaper. Is this a change or am I just having bad luck? And, along those lines, is there any evidence that the major hotel chains are trying to freeze Priceline and other sites out of the market by offering cheaper rates on their own sites?

BearX220

Priceline doesn't guarantee the lowest price, and some hotel chains do. As long as it's a non-opaque booking, you can sometimes get the hotel to match a Priceline quote. But you should always shop around. There's nothing magic about Priceline rates.

cordelli

There has never been, is not, and probably will never be one best place to get rates. Sometimes Priceline will offer the best price, sometimes the hotel will, sometimes another site will.

With many hotel sites offering a lowest price with guaranty, it's going to be harder and harder to beat their prices, they won't want to match and pay the bonus or whatever the terms are.

Romelle

I've seen a Las Vegas bid have to get higher than the special on hotel web sites before the bid was successful. (Mine - ouch.)

I just went through Hotwire for a $73 Istanbul 4*, after Priceline bidding the same star level up to $91. I figured the Hotwire might be the usual 1/2 star less and $6 of that $91 was Bonus money, or I would have quit even sooner.

Going through AAPR recently yielded the best rate I could find after quite a few hours of serious hunting lots of other sources, including Priceline and Hotwire.

The basic rule is to do your research first - lots of it - and then make informed bids up to your next best alternative.

I totally agree with cordelli and BearX220.

Romelle

MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

Generally I have been finding that Priceline is not beating or even meeting the hotel and car rentals prices that I have been getting on Hotwire. I also like that Hotwire tells what amendities are offered, for example an airport shuttle. In fact, I'm able to determine what specific hotel property is being offered or at least I can at times knock it down to a couple of properties.

BearX220

I made the mistake on PL this summer of bidding to $95 on a 2.5* in Pittsburgh, "winning," then immediately seeing the same property/dates on Hotwire for $89. I'm still a PL fan but now know when to quit and try another channel.

zombietooth

I can remember in the past getting killer deals on PL and now realize that Hotwire is better most of the time, but hadn't realized until recently that the chains were beating or matching prices so aggressively.

6rugrats

Totally agree about car rentals and Hotwire. I have consistently gotten better prices on car rentals for the last couple years on Hotwire. I don't even bother bidding for them on PL anymore.

B1

I use Hotwire as a standard of comparison for car rentals in my Priceline bidding because unlike hotels, there is no difference in descriptions with Priceline - the car types are set by the agencies. So I look at Hotwire and then bid lower on Priceline (looking at total cost). So far, Priceline has won every time in the past year, though Hotwire has won in the past. If you don't bid you won't know. As for hotels, I am certain that if the same hotel is on both, the lowest acceptable bid on Priceline will be lower because the hotel charges both sites the same amount. Priceline profits on a fee plus over-bidding and Hotwire has a fixed margin in their fee since there is a set price at any time. The difference between the Hotwire margin and the minimum Priceline bid is typically at least 20% of the price before taxes on Hotwire. Since both are opaque and the hotel rating scales are different, there is no reliable way to know what you paid on Hotwire would have been on Priceline for the same place and date. Hotwire has more of a tendency to inflate ratings in my experience.

Romelle

This inflation seems to run about 1/2 *, as near as I can tell. Lots of variance thought.

Romelle

Sheryl

This is nothing new and that's why I've been saying for years that hotel rates should always be checked directly on the hotel website. That doesn't mean an OTA won't have a lower rate periodically, but not for the most part. No one seems to believe me.

What I don't believe is that Hotwire will beat Priceline for the same hotel because they both get the same rates from the hotels unless Priceline has a low rate exclusive. Priceline will accept a bid at their cost where Hotwire builds profit into their displayed rate. Further, not all hotels participate with Hotwire that participate with Priceline like most Marriotts. It's highly unusual but not unprecedented that a hotel participates in Hotwire but not Priceline.

DJGMaster1

I've definitely experienced Hotwire offering better prices on Car Rentals than PL, but invariably, the difference has come from the added taxes and fees, rather than the base rental rate.

As far as hotel bidding, I still generally experience Priceline beating Hotwire for the same property when my research can actually isolate the property, by at least a few dollars, but the typical difference seems to smaller in recent months - say $3-7 on bids below $80 a night, whereas the differences used to be more typically in the $7-12 range.

Sheryl

Hotwire is definitely not beating Priceline most of the time on hotels.

biggestbopper

What is the factual basis for this claim that PL is beating HW on hotels?

Seems to me no one outside PL or HW could have access to anything even close to complete info on this--and, maybe not even PL or HW.

Sheryl

Call it what you want, factual or not, but I think the thousands of comments on message boards that discuss this like mine, BiddingForTravel.com, prove it.

And it's definitely factual that Priceline will accept a bid at their cost whereas Hotwire builds profit into their rate. I don't think you could get more factual than that.