Priceline Express Deals – Better than Bidding
A few weeks ago we told you the secret to bidding on Priceline and gave you some strategies to help you get the best price for a hotel room with strategic bidding. I have successfully bid on hotel rooms many times and seldom have I been unpleasantly surprised with the hotel I have won. However, there were a few times where the amenities that the hotel I won were not up to par with similar star rated hotels in the area I am seeking.
Two amenities that are important to me are a free breakfast and free parking. If you are trying to get a hotel for around $50, the extra $15 to $20 parking fee and $10-$15 you would save (based on two people) with a free breakfast really makes a big difference. When you bid on a hotel with Priceline usually you won’t know if there are additional fees for parking and sometimes there is resort fee that you aren’t aware of until you get your “winning” bid email. I don’t travel to resorts very often, so that fee doesn’t bother me much. I don’t have a pet, but if I traveled with one I wouldn’t know if they were a pet friendly hotel. Bed choice is also a concern and while you can often get the bed type of your choice if you call the hotel right away after you winning bid is accepted, there are no guarantees either.
Priceline gives you three ways to purchase a hotel room. Priceline became known to price conscious travelers because of the cost savings they received from bidding on hotel rooms. Priceline also offers more tradition search and purchase options where you may browse specific, named hotels with a published rate, just like other sites like Travelocity or Orbits. There is a third option and it is called Priceline Express Deals. This option is really a cross between the two first options. You still won’t know the exact hotel name or location before you choose to purchase, but you will know most of the amenities and general location and yes, you know the exact price of the room.
Convenience
Priceline Express Deals is also much more convenient that bidding if you are serious about saving the most you can. An actual bid may not take much time, but if you are trying to find the ultimate deal and utilizing the strategies of our previous article, that might require more of a commitment.
Once you click on the Express Deals tab you will see a list of hotels with just about everything you would expect sans the hotel name. Take a look at our snapshot of my upcoming trip to Charlotte. I decided to stay in that Charlotte Douglass airport area, so I will use the filter on the left to select two sub areas of Charlotte that are near the airport.
You may also filter out hotels based on the features you are looking for like star ratings, free breakfast, free parking and more. After I selected my two Charlotte areas, free breakfast and parking features I was presented with a list. The city and days of my trip are at the top and the specific areas of Charlotte I chose (airport) are in the spot you would usually see the hotel name. The price is prominently displayed along with the percentage you will save off of their regular price.
Hotel Ratings
One thing I have always looked for when shopping for a hotel is the user ratings. Hotel star ratings tell me the overall style of the hotel, but they don’t tell me how clean it will be on the inside or how courteous the staff is. In our example the first hotel listed has a user rating of 7 out of 10. Not terrible, but if you have ever read specific reviews for hotels, you can find some really gross details about hotels in that 7/10 range. I like to see hotels that are in the 8s or above. That seems like the separator for me. Also note, these aren’t exact ratings, but the minimum rating a particular hotel will have in the Express Deals list. In our example Priceline will guarantee a rating is at least a 7.0, but it could be as high as 7.9.
As I scrolled down the list of hotels in the Charlotte airport area I thought I would pass on a 1 star hotel with no reviews as well as the 3 star hotel for $131 a night and liked the potential of a 2.5 star hotel in the Executive Park – Airport South Area. If you look just below the amenities you will see this Express Deals hotel also shows a bed choice option is available. This isn’t the norm for hotels in Express Deals, but you will sometimes find it.
I thought this hotel looked good so I clicked on the “Choose” button and looked a little deeper. You won’t find a ton of extra info on this page, but our bed choice options appear at the bottom and the price and days of stay are re-affirmed along with checks next to each of the hotel features.
My Hotel Revealed
Sometimes you can deduce which specific hotel you are getting by using the hotel star rating, amenities and user rating found in the Express Deals list and comparing them to Priceline’s regular list. You will also be able to use the regular price to get it closer, but I have noticed that it isn’t an exact science with list price vs. what the hotel is actually going for on Priceline’s regular list view. Remember, the user ratings only show you the rating of your hotel within a range. My 8/10 hotel was actually an 8.0 out of 10. I was hoping for an 8.9, but I was OK with it. You can really narrow things down and if there aren’t many hotels in a particular area, sometimes it is a no-brainer after you compare lists and you know exactly the name and location.
There is no better way to get a rock-bottom price on a hotel then bidding on it and being patient. However, if you don’t have the time, don’t want the hassle Express Deals can simplify things quite a bit. Maybe you want to make sure of the features of a hotel and don’t want to take the chance of paying extra for parking or breakfast. For all of these reasons the Priceline Express Deals option could be the best one for you.
