Priceline/Hotwire what's the catch?

[shawn99]

Let me see if I have this correct...

You enter which zones you want to stay in ( problem is they won't tell you which hotel you will be staying in) and you enter your credit card details, and place a bid.

They give you couple of times to bid. What if you lowball em and lose all your bids. Do you lose how much you bid last?

What is the strategy to get the lowest rate?

[Arrgh]

You don't "lose" how much you bid. You bid a price, say $50 for a hotel room. Either you get it or you don't. If you get it, they charge you right away, and tell you which hotel.

If you did not succeed in your bid, you have to wait 24 hr, or change the criteria of you bid (e.g. go up in star quality, or widen the zone/area).

You can also google priceline bidding, and find web sites with advise on bidding. Or can go to Hotwire.com to see what you need to pay now, to book a room through them. That'll give you an idea or what you need to pay for a confirmed room now. If it's $70 in hotwire, you may be able to successfully bid with a figure a little lower.

Sometimes it's a matter of keep trying and you may get what you want.

[baruray]

Check out betterbidding.com, it's a website that will answer your questions on how to bid, and what are the prices that won bids recently.
It was very helpful for me when I was trying to get hotels in London just this month. Note that there is an additional charge on top of your bid, but you still save a lot of money...