Boraxo

You may still end up staying at spg properties since many of them sell rooms though priceline. Officially there are no stated benefits for elite travelers who book via priceline, but IME some properties will provide you with a better room (i.e. high floor, but not suite) and possibly other minor perks. ^

Loyalty programs still have a place for business travel (which often cannot be booked through priceline due to the non-refundability requirement) and for peak occupancy periods when hotels do not supply inventory to priceline. But IMO it seems silly to pay 2x or more for a room just to get a few points and some greasy appetizers.

Sam - DFW

Most of my trips are one day, so I don't spend many nights on the road. I have Hilton, Marriott and Starwood accounts - none of which see much action. I like all three, but having used Priceline for the first time yesterday, it's going to be hard for me to go anywhere else in the future.

I'm staying at the Hilton Suites Phoenix downtown Phoenix for $69+. Expedia lists the room for $199+.

I'm not sure why I fly AA 99% of the time but don't really care where I sleep, but the savings are amazing. Maybe I would develop a stronger affinity if I spent more time in hotel rooms. I don't know, but I'm starting with Priceline in the future.

Sam

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The monthly Dallas FlyerTalk gathering for January is set.

Saturday, January 15, at 4:30 P.M.

Champps Restaurant & Bar

cxn

I stay for business, so I have to use our travel agent, hence I get to keep my points. I use the points to take my family to places like New Zealand, Australia, Hawaii, DC, NYC, etc. This is the least I can do for being away during my travels.

As for Priceline, it is a great tool for personal travel when I dont have points. I taught my Mom how to go to biddingfortravel.com and she was able to book a $60 Westin LAX room (yea i know, not the best) where the lowest cost is $199.

But, for where I stay, like the W Newark, where you can find $59 - $99 weekend rates when visiting family, I do stay at this hotel. Great Hotel for the price. I just wish more Hotels that are this nice had great weekend rates.

venk

Also for business travel for self-employed and in startups. Given the shoestring budgets in the latter, people actually like the flexibility of being able to use PL to stay in decent hotels than do paid stays in low-cost motels (which often are not in safe areas or close enough to where they need to be) for the same price.

Besides, in startups, people are typically more interested in their company getting to a good exit quickly (for much higher payoff) than looking at it as a job to maximize short-term perks/benefits and so can be given the flexibility to manage this on their own without strict travel policies.

ozstamps

All my travel is on my own dime, so I use PL selectively - but often.

I needed a couple nights in Washington DC next week near Dulles airport. Usually PL can't be beat, or even come close, but checked Starwood and found a special for $69 at Sheraton Reston. With the PL $6 or whatever booking fee, that is near line ball to PL rates in the area, and this way I get stay credits and bennies.

You can hardly beat that price on PL, and as our 20+ hour flight time is 4.30pm, after a long lunch with DC Flyertalkers, allows us to use late checkout, have a long shower before heading to airport, and that is priceless. ^

You can't GUARANTEE you'll be allowed to do that on a PL booking. @:-)

iahphx

It's always been interesting to me what a success priceline hotels turned out to be, while priceline air and priceline car rentals are pretty much duds. It works because of the willingness of the 3 and 4 star hotels to offer rates FAR below what they otherwise charge. Contrast that, for example, to the airline industry, where the major players have generally been unwilling to "play ball" with priceline. Given that the hotel industry is healthy, it must be mutually beneficial to have these lowball opaque rates while, at the same time, maintain much higher "book direct" tariffs.

I've always wondered whether the losers in all this are the 2-star motel chains. In the late 80s and early 90s, I was a devotee of La Quinta Inns and their $34 nationwide AAA rate. You got a decent place to sleep for the night, while slightly more upscale hotels like Sheraton were easily charging 2 or 3 times the price. Now I can't remember the last time I stayed at a La Quinta, and it's rare for me to stay at a motel at all, unless I'm somewhere too podunky to even have chain hotels.

No telling what hotel travel will look like in another 10 years, and whether the priceline model will even survive, but it does seem certain that the internet will always enable the cost-conscious traveller to obtain deals better than he/she ever had in the pre-internet (dark) age.

venk

Of course. Smart use of PL always requires you to check the available rates from the hotel websites in the area before bidding. If the difference between available direct rates and PL bids reported on BFT is not significant (say less than $20-$40 depending on PL choices in the area and your requirements), then it is typically much better to book with the hotel directly. It is not worth going the PL route for that kind of saving unless you are really, really, broke in which case you are better off staying in a motel!

The "problem", of course, is that one will find PL providing much more significant savings on many more occasions than the occasional cases such as the one above and so attaining top tier status on such exceptions alone is not feasible. Consequently the cost of attaining top status and maintaining it is a "relatively expensive" one. This is my main reason for giving up on SPG while in no way necessarily giving up on staying in SPG properties. Just that making Plat in such a situation or staying loyal to just one chain is not the most optimal approach.

Besides, how difficult is it to get a HH Gold card (I have had one of those for the last 3 years even though I have only done about 3 stays total in HH properties during those years) to get free breakfast/lounge privileges or a SPG Gold to get late checkout privileges in cases where the price difference is not too high....and you do a paid stay.

itsaboutthejourney

I agree with VENK... with the crazy devaluation in points and realizing that I'm doing all this work just to "manage" my stays to monitor my status, these posts make me think about it really being worth keeping PLAT status this year. (And this is from someone who own HOT stock!)

Besides *wood seems to be doing so many things to give away Gold Status (Ameniti, Vaca Ownership, airline elites, AMEX, etc.) that I have to wonder why I'm earning status the "old fashioned way".

Yes, I get decent rooms, but hardly ever suites. Amenity of 500 points x 25 stays is a big 12,500 points... hardly enough for even one night cat 5 stay. I've never really used the concierge.

Late check-out is nice, but you get that as gold.

What do all of you value as PLATS or GOLD, considering what VENK has said about PL getting you into many *wood or better properties for a fraction of the cost?

cxn

Venk,

You are correct. Sometimes with Multi-National companies, you are required to book using the in-house travel portal where priceline could do just as good. I have not put a priceline through, yet, to be expensed but I am sure it would be approved. By doing this, the Company loses the ability to get better discounts in Select Cities.

BTW, I have asked for many times moving away from a pay for every expense to a flat rate perdiem in our company but they have always had reasons to say no. If companies did this, prices for hotels would drop overall.

kpc

A hotel loyalty scheme always works in the hotel's favour. Otherwise, why would they have it? Throwing a few perks here and there (with the right to withdraw them at their whim without any notiuce) in an attempt to keep a customer staying at their properties is a very clever shrewd marketing scheme....we on FT use our collective knowledge to maximise the benefits to our advantage BUT the hotel always has the last say...as soon as it starts to cost them money, they simply withdraw it, and leave us complaining!

Alysia

Will you be showering before or after you have lunch with the DC flyertalk gang? The way your post reads, it sounds like you will be having lunch and then showering. This will help me determine whether or not I can make the luncheon.

ozstamps

It is the probable cow sh*t on the outside and perhaps the occupants of Mileage Addict's John Deere you might need to be concerned about.

Heck I might go crazy, let my hair down and hit up Sheraton for TWO showers in a few hours. (You only live once!)

Alysia

Hey I've been to MileageAddict's house. While he does live way, way, way out there, he doesn't have any cows roaming around in his yard.

ChickenOrBeef

I'm a newcomer to this forum, and i have searched for the definitive answer for this, but there are quite a few threads, and the information is fragmented. So I'd just like to clarify my understanding of this as I happen to have booked the Westin St Francis through Hotwire for an upcoming holiday.

My understanding is-
* No credit for the hotel stay
* No benefits such as upgrades or 4pm late check-out
* But Starpoints ARE awarded for any incidental spend

In terms of the last point, I rang the hotel and asked them to add my SPG number to the reservation for incidentals, but they wouldn't as it was a Hotwire booking. Do you have to do this upron arrival?

Thanks to anyone who can clarify this for me.

PremEx

Depends on the hotel and sometimes even on the person you're talking with on the phone. Since the new "no benefits for Priceline/Hotwire" policy went into effect, most hotels aren't allowing your SPG number to be put into your reservation over the phone. Most of the time you have to give it to them at Check-In. Some hotels create a separate folio for incidentals on your PL/HW stays, so you only get points on those that way.

But you should still get points for incidentals, as far as I know. By Starwood policy, you can get points for meals even when not staying at the hotel!

I should add that some hotels will even recognize your SPG status on these PL/HW stays, and will upgrade you if available. But that's not to be expected and is totally them going above and beyond Starwood rules.