Priceline Tools – Cheap Romantic Getaways

Priceline Tools - Cheap Romantic Getaways

 

This is Part 2 in a 3-Part Series on Priceline:

Priceline offers several unique tools to help your bidding process:

The first is Hotel Bid Alert. Click on the link below to access this tool.

See Winning Hotel bids in Top Cities from $28 per night!

With this tool, you simply enter your destination city, the specific zone you are hoping to stay in and a star rating. Then you add your bid price. Every time a bid is accepted that fits your criteria, Priceline will send you an alert. It’s a pretty neat tool. The problem is Priceline doesn’t tell you the date of the actual stay or the bid…just that it was at or below your bid price. It could be $30 below your bid or just at your bid.

The next tool is the Hotel Freebie list. Hotel Freebies – Discounts, Free nights, Upgrades, Extras & more!.

You enter your city then you select the freebie you’re interested in. You can choose Free Internet, Free Breakfast, Free Parking, Instant Discounts (discounts from Priceline) and Hotel Extras. Hotel extras are typically hotel credits for certain packages. I wish this tool had the ability to narrow you search for hotels that include multiple freebies instead of creating a longer and longer list of hotels with one of the selected freebies.

Priceline’s Price Drop Alerts tool is on the right side of this page. You enter your email, your departing city and the destination city. Then, when the airfare price drops, you receive an email alert. Tools like this are available on other websites, so this isn’t a Priceline exclusive. However, if you are a frequent user of Priceline, you may as well receive your notice from them!

The Facebook Negotiator is a new tool from Priceline. When you go to the Facebook page, it’s actually just an advertisement for their Facebook app. That app shows recent winning bids by city, area and stars. If you find one you like, you can click “bid now” to bid on the exact deal. This seems similar to the Hotel Bid Alert except it actually tells you the price, not just that it’s below the price you’d like. Still, like the other tool, it doesn’t say the date or the hotel, of course.

Check back for the next Priceline post!

Have you used any of these tools? I would love to hear your feedback. Do you have any favorite tools to save money when traveling?

For more travel planning tips, check out these other blog posts:

  • It’s Summer Time — Happy Travels – Summer is in full swing, and it’s getting harder and harder to focus on work. My mind constantly wanders off to possible destinations for my next vacation. I’m thinking a two-week European getaway Barcelona for the architecture, Provence and French Riviera for some great food and relaxation by the beach and finally London for some shopping and Broadway shows.
  • danah boyd | apophenia » help with vacation planning – My name is danah boyd and I’m a Senior Researcher at Microsoft Research, a Research Assistant Professor in Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University, a Visting Researcher at Harvard Law School, and an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of New South Wales. I received my PhD from the School of Information at UC-Berkeley. I spend 1/3 of my time in Cambridge, MA, 1/3 in New York, NY, and 1/3 in the air.
  • Web 3.0 & Online Travel: Synthesis | Sramana Mitra – Today anyone with an Internet access and Credit card can just like that, plan for a week’s tour to South Africa or the Himalayas, thanks to the travel sites.

 

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