How to bid on priceline

Decide what hotel quality you want (number of stars) and the areas you would be happy to stay in. For example, you may want a hotel that is four stars or better in Downtown LA, Beverly Hills or Santa Monica.

Go to the Priceline.com website and see what Hotels of that quality are present in the areas of your choice - for example, you might find that the four star hotels in downtown LA available on Priceline.com include the Hilton, the Marriott and the Sheraton.

Now go to the websites of two or three of those hotels and look at the price of their cheapest rooms. Make sure you do this right before you bid - the prices must be recent. This is a crucial step: you cannot bid successfully without knowing the prices of rooms on the hotels' websites. Make a note of the prices. For the purposes of this guide, let's say that the prices were around $150. The whole point here is that on Priceline.com you will bid approximately 40% of that.

Now go back to Priceline.com and find areas that only have hotels that are of a quality inferior to your original choice by one star or more. For example, if you want a four star hotel in Beverly Hills, Downtown LA or Santa Monica, find another area that ONLY has hotels of three stars or less.

This is a free rebid zone. In our example, if you find that in Hollywood all hotels available on Priceline.com are three star or less, this is a free rebid zone for you. Why do you need it? In our example, if you bid $60.00 on a four star hotel in Beverly Hills, Downtown LA or Santa Monica and you are rejected, you can rebid immediately for free by adding a free rebid zone - in this case, Hollywood. So by adding that zone and rebidding, you have essentially relaxed your demands and increased your chances of a successful bid, but without increasing the price.

When you rebid you can increase your offer, of course, but the whole point here is to get an amazing room for not much money, right?

Remember: find one or more free rebid zones for your city but do not include them in your first bid. If your first bid (involving only four star hotels in our example) is accepted, you will not need your free rebid zones.

You are now ready to bid. Select the star quality and zones you hope for and put a price that is approximately 40% of the lowest prices you found on the hotels' websites, as outlined in step 3.

If your bid is accepted, you're set: your credit card will be charged and you will be shown the details of the hotel you have been assigned. Typically however, your first bid will be rejected. If that is the case, opt for a free rebid by adding one free rebid zone, and bid again. If you are rejected again, add a second free rebid zone and bid again.

If your bid is rejected again, do not be tempted to increase your offer, unless you are pushed for time and need a room immediately. The best strategy is to wait two or three days and repeat the process from step 5. All being well one of your attempts will be successful after a few days - in other words, the very bid that was rejected three days earlier will be accepted on your second attempt - without increasing your offer. Persistence is the secret to success with Priceline.com.

If your second round of bidding also fails, now is the time to increase your offer slightly. Add five or ten dollars to your offer and repeat the process.

Remember: the way to get an amazing deal on Priceline.com is to stick to your initial offer as much as possible and try again every few days, following the procedure outlined above. Eventually you will get what you want. Do not be discouraged by failed bids, as that is how Priceline works.

If you follow this guide and persist, you will get an amazing room at prices that were unheard of before the advent of Priceline.com. Good luck with your Priceline bidding!