betterbidder.com and biddingfortravel.com?

[mercydisney]

I have heard that these are great sites for figuring the best deals on hotwire and expedia. I have logged in but I have no idea how to figure it out. Can someone tell me how it works. Also if I'm bidding for a trip in June is it to early to start bidding?

Do I make sense? I'm sorry if I have confused anyone. This is all new to me.



THANKS!!

 

[tweetylori]

I think you mean bidding for travel dot com, and better bidding dot com. Both sites can help you learn how to bid for travel. I'm happy to help, if I can. Feel free to IM me.

 

[JennSaint]

I have heard that these are great sites for figuring the best deals on hotwire and expedia. I have logged in but I have no idea how to figure it out. Can someone tell me how it works. Also if I'm bidding for a trip in June is it to early to start bidding?

Do I make sense? I'm sorry if I have confused anyone. This is all new to me.



THANKS!!

These sites are great for figuring what hotels mights come up on hotwire and priceline (not expedia). I suggest you read their FAQ pages. It's much easier to figure out a hotel that's coming up on hotwire than priceline. I've used both but tend to use hotwire more since they will allow you to book a room for 4 people Priceline only guarantees a room for 2.
Also hotwire you don't bid you plug in your dates and hotel star and amenities pull up then you go to betterbidding.com and click on the state then scroll through until you get the area you are looking to stay at then you match the star rating and amenities.
If you are really confused tell me your dates and which area you would like to stay in and I can help you figure out what hotels it might be.
Good luck!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I have used betterbidding.com many times for Hotwire stays, at least 7 or so and they've always been right.

I don't use Priceline only b/c they don't guarantee that your room will sleep 4 and I don't want to take a chance. With HW, I can search specifically for rooms that will sleep 2ad, 2 ch so sorry I can't give any advice there.

Anyway, the website is laid out with message boards, similar to the Dis, but one for each state. There are PL boards and HW boards for each state. I just look up the FL HW boards and read what each poster asked. For HW, they will ask something like this: "I found a 4* in the MCO area with these amenities:xxxx" and then list them. (shuttle, fitness ctr, etc.) "What hotel is this?" They will try to answer but not all hotels have been ID'd. Also some hotels change their list of amenites so it's never carved in stone so to speak. Once someone makes the purchase thru HW and reports back, the "answer" is then revealed as the title of the thread like this, "Hyatt MCO 4* 5/2/09 $74"
and so on for each poster. If they never buy the hotel room or report back what the actual hotel was, the thread dies with no real confirmation of what it was.
There is also a HW Hotels List that simply lists all known hotels for HW. So you don't have to scroll thu 20 pages of threads, many repeating. You could just go to the FL section of the hotel list, find the MCO area and look for one that matches your search. This way you only have to post a new thread if it's not already on the hotel list. kwim?

I find it easiest to do a HW search and printout the results. I then go to betterbidding.com and write the name of each hotel on the paper so I don't get confused.

hth

 

[mercydisney]

WOW!! Thanks so much info. . It does some a litlle confusing but its worth doing your homework.

JennSaint I appreciate your help. I am looking for June 11th thru the 13th. Seaworld area. I don't know exactly where to start. Will I be able to get a 4* hotel for about $70. I have looked on the hotwire site but do not see any bids for these date.

Thanks so much.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

WOW!! Thanks so much info. . It does some a litlle confusing but its worth doing your homework.

JennSaint I appreciate your help. I am looking for June 11th thru the 13th. Seaworld area. I don't know exactly where to start. Will I be able to get a 4* hotel for about $70. I have looked on the hotwire site but do not see any bids for these date.

Thanks so much.

I did a search for your dates, 2 adults, SW area, and see 2 4* but they are $95 and $98.
There's a 3.5* for $67. There are 2 hotels with same exact rating and list of amenities but it also lists a Trip Advisor rating of 3.5/5 with 180+ reviews. According to the list on bb.com it's either Rosen Centre Hotel or Rosen Plaza Hotel. Just look them both up on Tripadvisor.com to see what matches.

The $95 one is a close match with Rosen Shingle Creek Resort
The $98 one is a 1br condo with no match on the hotel list. You could ask on betterbidding.com if you're interested.

If you're not traveling with kids, you might do better on PL.

 

[JennSaint]

Not sure if you really need to be in the Seaworld area? Will you have a car? There's a 4.5* hotel coming up in Disney's Maingate/Celebration area that is a match for Gaylord Palms hotel. It's coming up for $90 per night plus taxes. It's a really nice hotel. You could check reviews on tripadvisor.com
The 3.5 & 4* properties coming up in the seaworld are not matching up exactly to hotels on betterbidding.com so I would be leary to book them.

I don't think you will get $70 per night for a 4* for your dates. You could try bidding on Priceline but how many are in your party? They only guarantee a room for 2 people.

 

[mercydisney]

I did a search for your dates, 2 adults, SW area, and see 2 4* but they are $95 and $98.
There's a 3.5* for $67. There are 2 hotels with same exact rating and list of amenities but it also lists a Trip Advisor rating of 3.5/5 with 180+ reviews. According to the list on bb.com it's either Rosen Centre Hotel or Rosen Plaza Hotel. Just look them both up on Tripadvisor.com to see what matches.

The $95 one is a close match with Rosen Shingle Creek Resort
The $98 one is a 1br condo with no match on the hotel list. You could ask on betterbidding.com if you're interested.

If you're not traveling with kids, you might do better on PL.

Thank you so much for your help!!! I'm off to look.

 

[mercydisney]

Not sure if you really need to be in the Seaworld area? Will you have a car? There's a 4.5* hotel coming up in Disney's Maingate/Celebration area that is a match for Gaylord Palms hotel. It's coming up for $90 per night plus taxes. It's a really nice hotel. You could check reviews on tripadvisor.com
The 3.5 & 4* properties coming up in the seaworld are not matching up exactly to hotels on betterbidding.com so I would be leary to book them.

I don't think you will get $70 per night for a 4* for your dates. You could try bidding on Priceline but how many are in your party? They only guarantee a room for 2 people.

Thanks. We live in FL about an hr from Seaworld. That's why I don't really want to pay much for a hotel. We will be investing in Seaworld,Aquatica and Busch Gardens Tickets instead of our sesonal Disney Tickets .

We thought it would be nice to stay for the weekend since we have not been to Seaworld in over 10yrs

 

[erinch]

There is generally much more information on biddingfortravel than betterbidding. But biddingfortravel has many, many rules if you post there, and reprimands are frequent for omitting a detail. The guy who runs better bidding is wonderful, and was a huge help to me when a bid I'd made through his site came up with unexpected charges.

If you go to the better bidding site and click through it to make your bid on hotwire or priceline, that click helps maintain the site.

 

[Vijoge]

I've been using Priceline for about 10 years now. I don't think you'll see Priceline releasing inventory for June this early in the game. If you want to try your luck with Priceline your best bet is to book a cancellable backup hotel now and then try bidding on Priceline about three weeks before your trip.

 

[JPTexan82]

I dont know I have used Priceline and Betterbidding.com so much I have it down to an art, plus Hotwire is so simple to use with betterbidding.com I used it to book eight rooms for my wedding in Oct 07 in Miami for my guest before a cruise and saved more than 180 per room.

 

[mercydisney]

I dont know I have used Priceline and Betterbidding.com so much I have it down to an art, plus Hotwire is so simple to use with betterbidding.com I used it to book eight rooms for my wedding in Oct 07 in Miami for my guest before a cruise and saved more than 180 per room.

Were the hotels what you expected? I have heard so many bad reviews about the 3* hotels around the Seaworld/ Universal area booked through Hotwire.

Its my 1st time booking in this fashion but I really what to take a chance.

All opinions wanted.

 

[mercydisney]

I've been using Priceline for about 10 years now. I don't think you'll see Priceline releasing inventory for June this early in the game. If you want to try your luck with Priceline your best bet is to book a cancellable backup hotel now and then try bidding on Priceline about three weeks before your trip.

Thanks for thie info. I've decided to book through hotwire because I have 4 people in my party.

 

[JennSaint]

Were the hotels what you expected? I have heard so many bad reviews about the 3* hotels around the Seaworld/ Universal area booked through Hotwire.

Its my 1st time booking in this fashion but I really what to take a chance.

All opinions wanted.

Personally I wouldn't book any lower than 3.5 star. That said I generally try to stick to 4 star hotels thru hotwire unless I can match the hotel for sure on betterbidding.com
Alot of the 3 star hotels on hotwire are only rated 2.5 star on Priceline. Priceline seems to have bit of a higher standard.
So if you book 3.5 * and up you should be fine.
Once you book let us know how you made out.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Personally I wouldn't book any lower than 3.5 star. That said I generally try to stick to 4 star hotels thru hotwire unless I can match the hotel for sure on betterbidding.com
Alot of the 3 star hotels on hotwire are only rated 2.5 star on Priceline. Priceline seems to have bit of a higher standard.
So if you book 3.5 * and up you should be fine.

I agree. Once you drop to 3* you're taking a risk.

 

[erinch]

The point to betterbidding (especially for hotwire) and biddingfortravel is to use the expertise of the group to know exactly what you'll be getting. Most of the hotwire properties have been identified based on the amenities list. Using priceline lists, you'll know exactly which hotels are possible. If there are any that are coming up in bids that aren't acceptable, then don't bid in that zone, period. If you do research, then you can get some amazing deals.

 

[JennSaint]

The point to betterbidding (especially for hotwire) and biddingfortravel is to use the expertise of the group to know exactly what you'll be getting. Most of the hotwire properties have been identified based on the amenities list. Using priceline lists, you'll know exactly which hotels are possible. If there are any that are coming up in bids that aren't acceptable, then don't bid in that zone, period. If you do research, then you can get some amazing deals.

I think she has decided not to use Priceline due to the fact she has 4 people in her party.

 

[funcinderella]

A word of warning. Use biddingfortravel.com for your own purposes, but if you don't use their link to priceline, DON'T POST. They will ban you after the second time. I found this out the hard way. I used betterbidding's link (I couldn't seem to easily find the biddingfortravel link). I posted my results on both sites, and bft banned me. I would have been better off just lurking and not posting to try to help others out. I did a search and found many posts of the the moderator on bft ibeing just nasty, and this happened to many other people too.

 

[SeattleRedBear]

A word of warning. Use biddingfortravel.com for your own purposes, but if you don't use their link to priceline, DON'T POST. They will ban you after the second time. I found this out the hard way. I used betterbidding's link (I couldn't seem to easily find the biddingfortravel link). I posted my results on both sites, and bft banned me. I would have been better off just lurking and not posting to try to help others out. I did a search and found many posts of the the moderator on bft ibeing just nasty, and this happened to many other people too.

Yes, I was one of those other people. I mentioned to the mod that I found her links difficult to find and then I was banned. An absolute freak. Easy enough to get around the ban (access from a different IP) but I'll never contribute there again. The mod at betterbidding.com is nicer, more helpful and he's doing interesting things with the data (such as creating calendars and maps).