Here is a list of resources that I have found for travel deals.
1) Priceline/Hotwire Resources: BetterBidding.com
This is a great resource for finding out the list of winning Priceline and Hotwire bids. You can find some really great deals on hotels — I use this a lot if I don’t mind which hotel to stay at. You will need to do some research before bidding to make sure you don’t overbid. BetterBidding has an extensive list of recent winning bids and the site administrator is very helpful.
My typical hotel booking strategy:
- Book a hotel directly and make sure it has a cancellation policy without any penalties (usually a month or two in advance)
- Check Hotwire to see what a typical 4 star hotel costs in the area. Hotwire is a great resource since they have rates that are usually lower than hotel websites.
- Bid on Priceline with the bid amounts won on BetterBidding.com for your destination.
- Take advantage of the free-rebid zones. Raise bid in $5 increments.
- If you win a room on Priceline, cancel the original hotel reservation.
- Stick with 4 star or higher properties. This way, the quality of the mystery hotel will be decent. I’ve only had one case where I was unhappy with the hotel I won with Priceline (out of several) and it was a 3 star.
- Worst case scenario is that there isn’t any hotels available on Priceline with your bid amount — and you’ll still have the room you booked originally.
2) Hotels/Airfare: Travelzoo
Sometimes, you can find some excellent deals on airplane flights and last minute vacations.
3) Airfare: Kayak
This is a good site to check to see if airfare deals are available. They have a calendar that allows you to see what dates have the lowest airfare.
4) Airfare: Farecast
This is another resource for finding deals on airfare. It “predicts” when to purchase airfare, I use it for the trending graph to see when there are deals. They have a useful e-mail notification tool where you set a target price and they give you the best price for the flight that day. For instance, I’ve setup a notification that lets me know when the LAX to HNL flight is $419 RT. This includes all taxes/fees.
If you travel a lot, I recommend getting joining an airline frequent flyer program or even a credit card. Hawaiian Airlines is a very good program if you want to earn island hopping flights. Two roundtrips from mainland can earn you an interisland flight, which is nice.
5) Car Rental: Hotwire is the best place for the lowest price on a car rental on the budget. Priceline is a consideration if you want to rent a convertible or other specialty vehicle since you can save more. However, I find it easiest to go through Hotwire as their prices are very competitive. They often have $14.99 rentals for Los Angeles and Honolulu, Hawaii. $13.95 per day rental cars with low Hotwire Hot-Rates!
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