B1

Hotwire requires the hotel give no one lower rates. The only way that works out is if they don't give Priceline a lower rate. Specifically: "Hotel agrees that it shall make hotel rooms available to Hotwire under terms at least as favorable as Hotel offers to any other opaque model Internet company including, without limitation, terms of pricing and availability."

rmiller774

In your comparison, Hotwire's price of $71 is a fixed price. The $71 "bid" you listed for comparison on Priceline's bid page is not. Maybe a $61 bid would have been sucessful resulting in a far lower PL total price. We just don't know unless someone actually tried some bids at lower than the $71 price used for comparison. A lower bid price would result in a change to lower PL taxes and fees. I'm strugling with what the $71 example demonstrates with respect to actual cost.

Sheryl

Great response!

swag

Well, the thread is titled "Hotwire as an upper limit for Priceline bidding".

The suggestion is that if I want the lowest possible price, and am bidding on Priceline, I should first check Hotwire. If I see a room on Hotwire offered for $71, I can bid up to that level on Priceline.

Of course if I have rebids, either due to free rebid zones or from having the time to rebid over days or longer, then yes, I should start lower and try that $61 bid first. That's PL 101.

But if I don't have the rebids, or if the lower bids are rejected, then I should be aware that my $71 or even $70 bid on Priceline will likely end up costing me more than booking the $71 room on Hotwire.

That's what my example demonstrates with respect to my actual cost.

Sheryl

"if the lower bids are rejected, then I should be aware that my $71 or even $70 bid on Priceline will likely end up costing me more than booking the $71 room on Hotwire."

You are correct but I don't think that would ever happen if you bid a few dollars less than Hotwire's rate.

ranman1973

To answer the original question: Hotwire as an upper limit...

I generally bid on Priceline to the Hotwire price less 10% to 20%, then max out. Reason: Hotwire tells you the hotel amenities. A guaranteed airport shuttle, swimming pool, or free breakfast is worth it to me to pay a bit of a premium for a Hotwire room over Priceline. (I suspect someone will disput this ;-) )

Having said that, I think the original post was pertaining to a hotel somewhere in Europe? As a general rule, I've seen a lot of complaints about Hotwire hotels in Europe not meeting standards we've come to expect in North America. E.g., a 3.5 star hotel in Europe is about the equivalent of a 2.5 star in the US or Canada. Anecdotally, this seem to be more of a phenomenon with Hotwire's ratings than with Pricelines.

fanger

This is more or less what I do, this year I was getting within 10% of Hotwire or closer without getting Priceline hits, so went with Hotwire for 2 of 3 bookings because of the amenities thing. I did get a 5* in Madrid just below 11% of what I think was the Hotwire quote, so that was my Priceline.

Regarding the star level debate, which is probably worth a separate thread, I confine my European bids/purchases on both sites to 4 and 5* and have been pretty happy. I do think that if you go into it thinking that the * level correlates strongly to your own conventionally booked North American experience, you will sometimes be disappointed. E.g. 4* Holiday Inn in Europe no better than your average Courtyard in the US. That said, I am more often pleased than disappointed, e.g. Crowne Plaza in Zurich or NH in Milan. Location is usually more of an issue.

I've always been happy with 5* results.

hammie

I have used Hotwire's listings for years to prepare bids, along with the tools found on Betterbidding; search function and calendar of wins. Betterbidding also lists Hotwire wins.

Hotwire will show only the lowest priced property at a specified star rating in a given zone. Hotwire also engages in star inflation, that is, their properties are a half star and occasionally a full star rating higher than Priceline so this has to be considered when using Hotwire as a bidding guide. So, if the same property is rated 3* on Hotwire and 2.5* on Priceline this has to be taken into account when preparing bids.

As for which is cheaper? It is a very rare occasion when bidding on Priceline where I cannot beat Hotwire, and I have been doing so for at least 6 years and at least 200 wins. This includes taxes and fees, this is a walk out the door price.

hammie

No need for the third grade insults, after all, this is a respectful community.

MarcJ55

Big Hotwire and Priceline user myself. Not quite at the 200 win mark but somewhere around 50 on each of those sites.

I would very much concur with your response. Very rarely can you not find a better deal on Priceline than Hotwire. ~80% of the time Priceline is cheaper. Also noticed that Hotwire seems to be generous with their star rating.

Given this, it does make sense to use Hotwire as the upper limit. Sometimes I go a bit higher because of the generous star ratings that Hotwire uses.

Also makes sense to use some of the helper sites such as BetterBidding and HotelDealsRevealed.com just to see what other people are bidding and winning.

ftfan

+1

Same experience here. PL almost always beats HW (of corse it is hard to prove unless one commits to a hotel in both sites for the same night)

Great to learn about HotelDealsRevealed - we can never have enough of these sites. BTW big betterbidding fan here.