Priceline: Find Cheapest Flights and Hotels

These websites often a better deal than the hotels themselves. But the price difference across OTA sites is pretty small.

Hotel Terms
Rules for changing or canceling your reservation vary by hotel. Some require upfront payment, others ask for a small fee upfront. Still others allow you to pay once you arrive.

Express Deals for Hotels

You can save a significant amount of money by booking an Express Deal hotel. Just like with flights, you won't know all the specifics of your booking until after you pay.

1. To access hotel Express Deals, on the "Hotels" tab, click the "Express Deals" link under the search bar.

2. Type in your destination, travel dates, and the number of rooms you need. Click "Search."

3. You'll see a list of Express Deals that you can choose from. From these, click on a listing to learn more. However, you will see the name of the hotel or its address.

4. Further narrow the search results by star rating, neighborhood, and amenities. You can also sort the list according to guest rating.

5. Choose the hotel that fits your needs and pay right on Priceline's site.

Once you pay, Priceline will tell you the name of the hotel, its exact address, and the type of room (two double beds vs. one king bed, for example). Again, no changes or refunds are allowed.

Fun Fact: It's not too difficult to figure out which hotel you're getting with Express Deals. Keep reading to find out how.

How to Figure Out Express Deal Hotels

After you find an Express Deal you like, make sure you note the area the hotel is in, its star rating and its listed amenities. You can find this information by clicking the listing.

Here's figure out which hotel you're looking at:

Determine the Non-Discounted Price
Sometimes Priceline will give you the original price upfront. If it doesn't, you'll need to do a little bit of math.

For example, let's say the Express Deal is $74 at a 48% discount:

1. Convert: Move the decimal 2 spaces to the left = 0.48
   
2. Subtract: 1 - 0.48 = 0.52
   
3. Divide: 74 / 0.52 = 142.30
   
4. Original hotel price: $142, with a few dollars above or below as a margin of error.

Sometimes just knowing the price is enough. If Priceline shows you a map of hotels in the area, your hotel is probably one of them. It'll say so in a box at the bottom of the map.

From there, find the hotel price that's the exact price you calculated or just a few dollars above or below, that's your hotel.

If Priceline does not show you a map in your listing, you have just a few more steps to take.

Search Again with All the Information
Search for hotels with the same dates and location. Then, filter the listings to match the star rating, exact location of and specific amenities your Express Deal hotel offers.

From here, you should only see a one or a few listings. Find the one that most closely matches up to the original price, and you'll have found your hotel.

Name Your Own Price for Hotels

This tool is now exclusively for hotels. The process is slightly more complicated than just looking and booking:

1. Search for your city and dates of travel.

2. Look at the general prices for the hotels in the neighborhood and star rating that you want to book.

3. Find a hotel that has a "Name Your Own Price" link.

4. To place a bid, you must enter your payment information. The hotel(s) will then choose to accept or reject the bid, usually within minutes.
   Rule of Thumb for Bidding
   Check prices on other OTAs like Hotwire to get an idea of what initial discounts hotels are offering. Then, try bidding up to 20% less than that. You can get a great deal if you're willing to be patient and keep trying.

5. If the hotel accepts your bid, you are locked into that rate. If it's rejected, you must wait two hours before submitting another bid for the same hotel quality, city area and dates.

Never make your first bid the highest you're willing to pay, even if the site warns you that your bid is too low.

If you struggle to figure out how much to bid, check out a site like BetterBidding for insight into how much to bid. You can submit multiple bids to multiple hotels.

Priceline Rental Cars

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If your travel plans require a rental car, consider booking with Priceline. We cover what you should know when booking a Priceline rental car.

How to Book a Rental Car with Priceline

To rent a car through Priceline:

1. Click the "Cars" tab on the homepage.

2. Enter your pickup and drop-off location and dates.

3. Priceline will pull your options from all car rental agencies. You won't see the exact car, but most listings will provide a similar model to the car you're booking.

4. Make sure to read the fine print on any car rental. Each company has different policies and restrictions about changing reservations.

5. Read the fine print on any car rental. Each company has different policies on restrictions or changing reservations.

6. Make your pick and pay.

Priceline charges taxes and fees that aren't reflected in the prices shown. Check out the smaller-sized "Total Price" listed under the price per day for the total cost you'll pay.

How do Priceline's car rental deals stack up against the competition? Read on.

Priceline Rental Car Rates

Here are Priceline's cheapest 3-day car rentals in Los Angeles compared to its competitors:

Insurance for Your Priceline Rental Car
Priceline offers a Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) through their website. But several credit cards from CreditDonkey partners also offer rental car insurance.

Priceline for Cruises

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Priceline also offers significant discounts on cruises. Again, it's better for a cruise line to fill a room at a discount than let it sit empty.

Follow these steps to book.

1. Go to the "Cruises" tab on the Priceline website.

2. Search by dates, specific cruise lines, types and length of cruises, and departure cities.

3. Pick from a range of rooms on different cruise lines.

While you will find good deals, Priceline doesn't offer Express Deals or opaque booking for cruises. You'll always see the specifics of your room and cruise line. Some cruise lines will offer extras, like travel credits to use on activities or free specialty dinners.

Priceline Vacation Packages

Priceline's package bundle multiple travel reservations under one price. The goal of the bundles is to help travelers save when making all the necessary arrangements for their trips.

You can bundle your:

• Hotel and flight
  
• Flight and car
  
• Hotel and car
  
• Hotel, flight and car

Priceline advertises that customers can save up to $625 when booking a hotel and flight through one of the vacation packages. We found that the advertised savings for many bundles in different location can also be less than $100.

Always cross-reference your Priceline reservations/airline tickets on the companies' actual websites. You could end up getting better discounts by booking individually while also getting the brand's loyalty points, which Priceline cannot give you.

Here's how to access Priceline's vacations:

1. Click on the "Packages" tab at the top of Priceline homepage.

2. Select your desired type of bundle.

3. Enter your departure city (for flights), destination city, travel dates and number of travelers.

4. If you're booking a hotel, you'll first choose the hotel from a list of options. Clicking on listing brings up all the hotel's details and allows you to choose your preferred type of room.

5. If you're booking a flight, you'll be shown a list of flight options. You'll be able to choose from all the flight details, such as the airline and the takeoff and landing times.

6. If you're booking a car, it will be the last thing to show up as you book your vacation package. A suggested booking (with the possibility of an Express Deal) will be listed beneath your hotel/flight info. You can change the type of car you want by clicking "Change car" in the top right corner.

7. Once you're satisfied with your vacation package, click "Continue to check out". You'll then enter information for each traveler and pay directly on Priceline's website.

While searching, use the filters on the left-hand side to only see the listings with specifications you want. If searching for a package is too overwhelming, you can also look at pre-made bundles for specific cities by scrolling down on the main Vacation Packages page.

Priceline Rewards Visa Card

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If you are a dedicated Priceline shopper, you might consider applying for the Priceline Rewards Visa. It offers:

• 5X the points on all Priceline purchases. That means for every $1 you spend, you'll get 5 points.

• 1 point per $1 spent on all other purchases.

• 5,000 bonus points after your first purchase.

• 10% of your points back after you redeem points through Priceline.

The Priceline Rewards Visa card has no annual fee.

How Priceline Compares

Priceline's discounts are similar to other OTAs and metasearch sites. Their Express Deals are almost always cheaper than what you'll find on a specific airline/car rental agency/hotel site. But remember, those deals lock you in without the ability to change or cancel your reservation.

The main opaque booking competitor to Priceline's Express Deals is Hotwire's Hot Rates.

It's not easy to compare the two because of the lack of details about the options and overall availability. But, our research shows some trends:

• Priceline's Express Deals on flights are generally $15-$40 cheaper than Hotwire's comparable Hot Rates.

• Priceline has more Express Deals on flights.

• Hotwire has more Hot Deals for hotels and rental cars.

• Priceline has better prices for their Express Deals on rental cars.

Again, these comparisons aren't perfect, but they offer a general idea. It's worth checking both Hotwire and Priceline if you want an exhaustive search on the cheapest options.

The Bottom Line

You can find deep discounts on everything from flights to cruises through Priceline. Use it as one of your first sites to search for cheap travel, especially if don't need to rack up program-specific points.