Many trips involve spending no more than a night or two in many different places. I took a combination business/vacation trip of this type, and sought winning Priceline bids for 13 of the 20 nights on the road in the western U.S.
The total cost of those 13 nights, based on what was posted on each hotel's Web site at the time of my Priceline bid was $1785 USD, for an average of $137/night.
I paid a total of $1155, for an average nightly cost of about $89.
That's 35% savings, and a dollar savings of $630 ($48/night) that went for parking, gasoline, entry fees and a host of smaller expenses.
Please note: Your results will vary, perhaps by a wide margin. In fact, you could bid this very sequence of zones and star levels with much different results. The goal here is not to provide bidding help or prove that Priceline is good or bad for travelers. The intent is to show a typical trip, and the variations in savings each night. Some nights were definitely better values than others.
Significant savings were gained using Priceline. But it must also be said that some sacrifices were involved.
I was not able to choose the exact location of my room. Priceline bidding involves a zone within each city and a level of quality (measured in "stars") in each of those areas. If I had driven into town and surveyed possible hotels, some of the places where I was booked would not have been my first choices. Some rooms were more convenient for visiting the location than others.
But in most cases, I wound up with a comfortable stay near the attraction of interest. In all purchases, I got a reasonably clean room in a safe location.
Priceline allows you to re-bid if your offer is rejected, but you must change your star-level or zone to do so. If you don't make one of those changes, you must wait 24 hours to try again.
Take a look at the breakdown by destinations for a better idea of the benefits and drawbacks of bidding for hotels with Priceline.
