I think it’s safe to say that every single person in the entire world loves William Shatner.
The guy is hilarious, and is not afraid to make a complete idiot of himself. One of his more ridiculous acting jobs includes his sponsorship of Priceline, the website where you can name your own price on hotels, flights and other stuff. Most commercials make me want to throw the nearest remote control or live animal at the TV screen, but I have always enjoyed the Priceline Negotiator bits.
Which is why I’m so sad to report that the Priceline Negotiator has died.
I love that there was a nun on the bus. She looks so horrified when he dies. Doesn’t she know he’s going to a better place?
At Least Priceline.com is Still Alive
Anyway, Tag is going to be the maid of honor in a wedding in March and we needed a hotel for the wedding weekend. I looked on Kayak, which is always my first stop because it aggregates multiple discount sites. Then I went to Hotwire to see what kind of deals they had, but holy crap it was expensive!
We’re going to College Station, Texas, not Chicago! I’m not paying $75 or $100 a night for a hotel! Unfortunately that’s what all these sites wanted (unless I wanted to stay in a Super 8).
Tag and I needed a hotel, and I needed to save money on it. I was running out of options, so I figured I would give this “name your own price” thing a shot and see if I could actually save any money.
I Saved 40% on My Hotel!
Priceline bidding is really easy. You pick the category of hotel (by number of stars) and the location. You set the price you are willing to pay, and if any hotel is willing to accept it then you’ve got yourself a hotel. The catch is you don’t know exactly what hotel you’re going to get; you just know you’ll get one in the location you specify and of the quality you selected.
College Station doesn’t have a lot of fancy hotels. In fact, the “best” hotel available on Priceline or Hotwire was a 3-star option. Tag and I decided we wanted a 2.5 or 3 star place, and for these categories we were looking at a minimum of $69 a night if we purchased outright. Only 4 of the 16 hotels were under $100. Seriously, it’s freaking College Station. No thank you.
The first day, I bid $50 for a 3-star hotel (cheapest one was $107). I knew it was low, but I wanted to start low and work my way up. Keep in mind, you can only make one bid every 24 hours for the same criteria (location and star-level). My $50 was rejected.
I changed the criteria from 3-star to 2.5-star and bid $45. Again, nothing.
I waited a day and upped the bid a bit. $55 for a 3-star place. This time it said “we got nothing, but we’ll let you bid immediately again if you want to bid $65”. I have a feeling that definitely would have been accepted, but I still didn’t want to spend that much. I decided to try my luck with the 2.5-star option.
This time I put in a bid for $53. This was $8 more expensive than my last bid, and I really wanted to just find a place and get it over with. And guess what…
Boom! Accepted. I got my hotel for $53 a night. The hotel I ended up with goes for $89 on Kayak.com, which means I saved about 40% by naming my own price on Priceline. My $53 a night is also $16, or 23% cheaper than the lowest available 2.5-star hotel if I had bought one outright.
How to Bid Most Effectively
Even though I saved a lot of money, I think I could have done better. First of all, my travel date is in two months, which means I had time to make lots of bids day after day. I shouldn’t have jumped from $45 to $53. Who knows how cheap I might have found if I was going up by $1 or $2 a day?
Also, it’s super important to bid for the fanciest hotels first. The bidding includes the level you pick and everything above it. If you fail on a 3-star bid, you can go back and try again on 2.5-stars. However, if you bid on a 2.5-star hotel first and fail, you can’t go back and do a 3-star hotel because all those hotels were included in your 2.5 star bid.
I’m a little upset I didn’t try Priceline earlier. Sure the commercials say that you can save 50%, but I assumed that was just in extreme circumstances. Looks like I’ll be starting my next travel plans on Priceline!
photo credit: vek
Not to mention preferring to pay 8.25% Sales Tax and 7% Hotel Occupancy Tax on $53 rather than that $89. That’s another $5.50 worth of savings daily.
Another great point. That makes it even better!
I am planning to start bidding tonight on a car rental on priceline I’ll need in Massachusetts in June, they say recent winning bids went for $14 a day, but I think I might start off at $10 and see what happens?
Shoot, if you have until Jun, you may as well start even lower. You can just keep raising the price $1 until it hits.
I used to use Priceline all the time. Not so much anymore. I usually am willing to pay the higher AAA rate or use the government rate. Since I have some status at a certain chain, the upgrades make it worth it for me, and I am able to earn free nights.
The other thing I did recently was take advantage of a promo from the Radisson where I stayed one night (we took a mini vacation) and earned 50000 points. This will allow me to stay at some Radisson properties for the next year or so for free.
I have yet to try using it on a rental car, but I think that is probably where I would find it the most useful
Wow, I just read this title and thought that they got rid of the program! That really scared me because I use this thing all the time. Have you use their app by chance? This is a great way to save on hotels when on the road. As for your strategy, I’ do the same exact thing. I’ll start 3 days before I need to go and lowball. You’ll be amazed at what some hotels will accept. One time, I was able to get a $90 room for $45!
PLEASE! Do you know who played the nun at the pool in the commercial?? She reminds me of a child actor…but I cannot recall where I have seen her! It’s driving me insane and no one seems to make the connection I do!
After doing some research I too thought it may have been Audrey from the Nat’l Lampoon European Vacation but unfortunately I learned that Dana Hill is now deceased so my curiosity is still peaked as to who is playing the nun on these commercials.
I think she’s the girl from “European Vacation”..
I see it. She reminds me of Dana Hill from National Lampoon’s European Vacation.
I see it. She reminds me of Dana Hill from National Lampoon’s European Vacation.
I think its dana hill, she played the daughter (audry ) in european vacation…
GREAT post. I booked a trip to Vegas & LA last October to travel in June on my own. I’ve never used Priceline but cleearrlyyy could have in this instance. Ah well. Awesome info for going forward.
Thanks!
(ps, found your blog via a comment you made on budgetsaresexy and am enjoying it thus far. thumbs up!)
YES!!!!! YES!!!!!! Laura…you rock! That’s it! I don’t even have to search to check! That’s it! Oh my God..I can sleep. Thank you!
NNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! It’s not her! She’s DEAD! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Hill
AAAAGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
Maybe she faked her death because THAT’s the young person I saw in the nun’s face.
The Priceline Nun is Debra Winger (ie, from “An Officer & a Gentleman”, and many other movies)
It is NOT the girl from European Vacation,sadly she passed away in 1996. Nor is it Debra Winger..not even close! There has to be away to figure this out cause its driving me and hubby crazy!
Anyone by chance know who plays the blonde girl at the end of the new EDGE shave gel commercials(the one who serves the guy his drink in his “man cave” at the end of the commercial) I swear it looks like Eve Alice. She’s the girl who played Molly in She’s Outta My League. Thats another one driving me crazy!