Bidding Online for Better Deals

“TO lure elusive customers as the recession deepens, travel companies have tried spicing up package deals with free upgrades and spa treatments. They’ve offered to match competitors’ pricing with money-back guarantees, and they’ve done away with cancellation charges and booking fees. Now, after exhausting marketing gimmicks and slashing rates to the core, they’re increasingly offering their wares on so-called opaque travel sites. These are the Web sites, like Priceline.com and Hotwire.com, that offer deep discounts to travelers willing to make nonrefundable purchases before learning the names of the hotels, airlines or car rental agencies they’re committing to.

Priceline.com’s bookings grew 31 percent in the last three months of 2008, compared with the same period in 2007, as hotels, airlines and other travel companies used its “name your own price” feature to help them make sales in an environment of declining demand.

Travel companies like the opaque booking model because it allows them to unload inventory at rates well below their usual asking prices without tipping off competitors or having to undercut their prices publicly. And now, with published rates already so low, travelers are finding that opaque travel deals are even better than in the past.

According to Brian Ek, a Priceline spokesman, users can save 40 percent on airfare (“up to 60 percent at the last minute”), as much as 50 percent on a hotel room and up to 30 percent on a rental car. “The win for consumers is that retail prices have come down,” he said, “so the discounts will yield an even lower bottom-line price than a year ago.”

There are more options available on the opaque sites as travel businesses find themselves with unsold rooms, empty airline seats or other inventory even on peak travel dates. And for hotel rooms in particular, the range of options has widened.

“Luxury hotels that never worked with us before are particularly interested in working with us,” said Clem Bason, president of Hotwire Group, which lists properties of Preferred Hotels & Resorts and the Leading Hotels of the World among the “five-star” hotels available on the site.

But don’t expect to get any loyalty program points if you book through an opaque site. Customers typically give up that right in return for a good deal. For some vacationers, committing to a hotel without knowing which one you’re getting can be a riskier proposition than booking a rental car or even an airline ticket before learning the specifics.

With Priceline, a traveler can choose trip dates, a preferred neighborhood to stay in and hotel star rating. The next step is to take a deep breath and make an offer, without knowing what price the site will actually accept. With Hotwire, travelers don’t bid at all. Rather, they are given the prices, but don’t learn the name of the hotel until they’ve paid. Lastminutetravel.com, which switched to “undercover” pricing for hotels in January, works much the same way.

But you don’t have to enter into the world of opaque travel booking alone. There are some little-known sites like Biddingfortravel.com and Betterbidding.com designed to help travelers navigate it. They provide strategic advice and offer tips from other travelers on how to game the system. Here’s a practical guide to finding a hotel deal through opaque booking sites.

Figure out the going rate. After determining where you want to go, check other mainstream hotel booking sites, like Travelocity.com or Hotels.com, to get an idea of what hotels are charging for the dates you want to travel.

The star ratings on Priceline, Hotwire or Lastminutetravel may not coincide with those on the more transparent sites, however. For more insight, check Betterbidding, which offers a running commentary by purchasers of the hotel deals they received on Hotwire or Priceline – “4-star Philadelphia (downtown) Loews, $70,” for example, in late March. This can also help you get an idea of the hotels probably being offered through the opaque sites. Another option: Biddingfortravel.com, which is geared specifically to Priceline users, offers a list of Web sites it recommends for checking hotels’ standard rates and displays winning bids posted by users. ” ( via mobile.nytimes.com  ) by MICHELLE HIGGINS

Pointswizard.com Spin: Click here to read the rest of the article – Bidding Online for Better Deals

Link to Priceline

Link to Hotwire

Link to Last minute