Hotels are offering more and more bargains in the wake of rapidly rising gasoline prices and airfare increases. As other travel costs rise with the price of fossil fuel, opaque Web sites like Priceline and Hotwire should become more important for travelers looking to save money.
Be on the lookout for hotel bargains based on early booking with virtually every major hotel chain. Kimpton, Marriott, Omni, Sofitel and even bed and breakfasts are trying to lure summer travelers and get them to lock in their stays.
Deals range from gasoline cards or rebates and kids stay free to picnic baskets and straight discounts off the rack rates. Bedandbreakfast.com has a full page dedicated to gas rebate deals.
My experience has been that the best bargains are found on Priceline. They don’t even need advanced planning. In fact, sometimes the best deals are found at the last minute with the hotel’s excess inventory. The Priceline mapping systems also allow users to bid in small geographic areas, meaning that you won’t get stuck with a big-city hotel that is really way out in the suburbs.
Hotwire uses the same opaque inventory model where Web bookers don’t know the name of the property until they push the “buy” button.
Personally, I find Priceline’s inventory far more extensive and I like their mapping technology. Bidders can also use Biddingfortravel to see what other bidders have recently had to pay for hotel rooms. With both Priceline and Hotwire, users are assured of being booked in recognized and vetted establishments.
Between the growing hotel deals available for advanced purchase and the bidding deals through Hotwire and Priceline travelers this summer can be sure to find some kind of a bargain to help ease the sting of higher auto and jet fuel charges.
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