As you probably know, for hotel room only reservations, Hotwire does not reveal the name of the hotel where you will stay until you pay. You'll know its neighborhood, star quality rating, and price, but not its name before you book.
However, you can find out typical hotels Hotwire uses in each star quality.
See BidonTravel's Hotwire Hotel Names and Ratings.
Hotel bookings are significantly down in Las Vegas. Passengers coming by airline are significantly down too, in spite of large conventions.
In April, MGM Mirage, which operates 10 Strip casino hotels, announced 400 layoffs. During February, Strip gaming revenue fell more than 3%, in spite of an extra day in February this year. Last week, the owner of the Tropicana casino on the Strip filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
For Priceline users, these events mean prime opportunities for extra low prices.
See sample Priceline winning bids at
Name Your Own Price Hotel - See Winning Bids in Top Cities!
On BidonTravel's hotel strategy page, you'll find out about making "Smart Bids" on Priceline, bids that allow you to rebid right away, without having to wait 24 hours.
Here's one tip: Always aim high. Don't start Priceline bidding at a low star quality level.
If you start low, let's say start by bidding on 2-star hotels, Priceline considers that a bid for 2-, 3-, and 4-star hotels. That means if your bid fails, you'll have to wait 24 hours before bidding again if you want only that neighborhood.
However, if your bid on 4-star hotels fails, you can immediately rebid in the same neighborhood on 3-star hotels and so on.
That means extra chances to save.
Priceline.com now posts winning hotels bids at Name Your Own Price Hotel - See Winning Bids in Top Cities!
Can you sometimes pay less than these examples?
Yes.
However, be sure that you have time to rebid if your first one fails. Remember that you have to wait 24 hours before bidding on the same neighborhood and star quality.
Have a small group?
You can now book up to 9 rooms at one time using Priceline's "Name your own price" bidding.
This means extra savings for class field trips, teams, small business conferences, weddings, and family reunions, because "Name your own price" discounts are usually greater than group discounts.
Remember, though, that Priceline bids are for standard hotel rooms, which especially in a few older hotels in large cities may not have room for more than two persons.
I've posted easy-to-follow hotel tips suggesting what you can do before and during your hotel stay to keep it as problem-free as possible. These five tips will help you have a pleasant stay.
Some 243,000 Hotels.com customers have had their credit card information stolen from a laptop in a locked car of an Ernst & Young auditor, according to the Associated Press.
Ernst & Young audits the finances of the Hotels.com division of Expedia, Inc. Interestingly, it also claims to specialize in “security auditing,” in spite of apparently a number of similar incidents working with other companies, when its employees did not keep their laptops with them.
The laptop was password protected. Most customer transactions are from 2004, but a few are from 2002 and 2003.
If you are in this group and have not been contacted by Ernst & Young, call Hotels.com at 1-800-246-8357 for more information. Ernst & Young will provide free enrollment in a credit monitoring service.
At this time, there’s no evidence that any of the stolen laptop information has been used, according to the Associated Press report.
I like Hotels.com, and use it. As part of a public company, it must be audited. It's a shame that has had negative consequences in this case.
When bidding on Priceline.com Hotels, use star quality as part of your bidding strategy.
Start bidding with a higher star quality so that you can make immediate rebids using lower stars.
For example, if you start your bidding with 2 stars, Priceline checks for 2-, 3-, 4-, and 5-star hotels in your price range. You cannot rebid within 72 hours for the same neighborhood using 3, 4, or 5 stars (even if you want to bid a higher price).
But, if you start with 4 stars, you can rebid for 3 stars and then for 2 stars right away.
This dramatically increases your chances to save.