I first heard about this site from a review I read here on Ciao. When I decided to take a short break to London I decided to take a chance and give it a try. I couldn’t beat the price that I was offered, nor could I get anywhere near it so I am here to encourage you to try it too.
** Idea ... Read review
Splendia, a unique selection of luxury and design hotels with character in the most beautiful locations: Marrakesh, Paris, Rome, Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Dubai.... Book directly online or contact our customer service available any day of the week.
SOL Spain On Line. Spain tourist guide and reservation center with over 3000 establishments in Spain, from budget to luxury. Online reservations and full information of each establishment with prices, photos and location maps. No booking fees.
Discount Car Hire at Sky-Tours.com. Included in our rental rates: all rentals come with unlimited milage, all taxes an fees included, basic 3rd party liability insurance required by state law, CDW Collission Damage Waiver.
Record Rent a Car is present in the main spanish airports and has a very wide fleet. We offer: exceptional discounts, free additional drivers,
unlimited mileage... subscribe to our Club Record and take advantage of special offers.
Advantages: Fantastic deals, easy to use. Disadvantages: Don't know where you are staying before you buy. You have to pay at the time of booking
I first heard about this site from a review I read here on Ciao. When I decided to take a short break to London I decided to take a chance and give it a try. I couldn’t beat the price that I was offered, nor could I get anywhere near it so I am here to encourage you to try it too.
** Idea Behind The Site **
There are a lot of sites available on the Internet that offer cheap and discounted hotel rooms, but I have never ... ...as this one. The idea behind the site is that instead of the hotel determining the price of something the consumer (you) should decide on their own price. It sounds too good to be true and in reality it is I guess. You are never going to get a hotel room for 1p a night or anything like that but as long as you are realistic you can find a hotel room for a price that you are willing to pay rather than what the hotels want you to pay.
I first heard about this site from a review I read here on Ciao. When I decided to take a short break to London I decided to take a chance and give it a try. I couldn’t beat the price that I was offered, nor could I get anywhere near it so I am here to encourage you to try it too.
** Idea Behind The Site **
There are a lot of sites available on the Internet that offer cheap and discounted hotel rooms, but I have never come across one that works in quite the same way as this one. The idea behind the site is that instead of the hotel determining the price of something the consumer (you) should decide on their own price. It sounds too good to be true and in reality it is I guess. You are never going to get a hotel room for 1p a night or anything like that but as long as you are realistic you can find a hotel room for a price that you are willing to pay rather than what the hotels want you to pay.
** Services **
There are four different services offered on this site and these are described below.
> Hotels
The default search when you go to the site is the search for hotel rooms. Like other sites offering cheap hotel rooms you are required to enter the city you wish to stay in and the dates you wish to stay. Once you have chosen the place you want to stay you are normally presented with a map of the city and asked to select the areas you wish to stay in, allowing you to be as specific or general as you like with the location of your hotel (this is not available for all cities, although it has been for all the searches I have tried). The next step is to enter a price per night for the room. This is the price that you would like to pay. The site will offer you guidance on the sort of price that you should go for, but in my experience this is normally about double what you can get a room for so be brave and enter something a lot lower.
Once you have entered the details of your search the site is ready to go away and find a hotel for you. You normally get an answer pretty quickly. The site will send you an email when it has an answer for you and provide you with a link to a results page. One of three things can happen at this point: 1. Your price has been accepted and your hotel room booked 2. Your price has not been accepted but they have found a price near to what you wanted 3. Your price has been rejected.
If your price has been accepted then you will be given the details of the hotel that has been booked and a confirmation number, which must be taken to the hotel when you check in. If an alternate price is offered then you are given the choice of accepting the new price or not. If you choose to accept the new price then your room will be booked and you will be given the confirmation number.
> Flights
The flights search works differently to the hotel search described above. The search begins by recording your requirements in terms of date, departure location, destination, number of passengers, class, transfers and ticket type. Once the details have been collected the site conducts the search, returning all the flights it finds. The flight search does not allow you to specify your own price and returns all flights that meet your criteria.
> Car Hire
The car hire search facility is a front to the www.holidayautos.co.uk website and uses their search facility.
> Holidays
This is a flight and hotel combined search similar to that offered on other sites. It allows you to pick you flights and hotel details in a single step. This facility does not allow you to specify your own price for the hotel rooms.
** How It Works **
Once you have entered the search criteria for the hotel search, as described above, you are required to login or enter some personal details, including your name and credit card details. Ordinarily I wouldn’t even consider using a site that requests this sort of information in advance, but this site does explain the reasons for doing it. If the price you enter is accepted then the room will be booked instantly to avoid you missing out on the price. For this reason, the site needs your credit card details to secure the room. You should consider this when specifying your initial price. I would always go a little lower than you would like to pay and then up your bid if you are unsuccessful. When the room is booked a full payment is taken for the room. This is non-refundable so be sure you want the room before searching.
If a similar rate is found to the one you requested then you will be shown the price on offer and asked to confirm if you would like the room or not. As above, of you accept the new price the full charge for your stay will be charged to your credit card and the room will be booked.
The hotel that the room is in is not revealed until after the room has been booked, but from what I can tell it is always a well-known brand hotel.
If your bid price is rejected you must wait 72 hours before repeating the same search. I think this is used as a deterrent from entering prices that are too low. You can modify your search slightly though and do it again, so if you are flexible this shouldn’t be a problem.
** Ease of Navigation/Use **
I found this site very easy to navigate around and to use. The basic site design is very basic which greatly aids navigation and ease of use. The site homepage contains the hotel search, which is far and away, the main feature and focus of the site.
Each stage of the search process is well documented on the page with easy to follow instructions and there is also a tutorial style page that can be access from the homepage that gives full details of the process.
** Customer Service **
At this stage I can’t comment on the quality of the customer service as I haven’t had need to use it. I guess that says something about the quality of the service.
** My Experience **
As I mentioned earlier I used this site to book a hotel when I made a short leisure trip to London. I was very flexible about where I was going to stay as I knew that during the day I would be out and about in the city and would probably only be sleeping in the hotel. For this reason it didn’t really matter where the hotel was. I entered a price of £30 per room (the site suggested something like £80 I think) for a 4* hotel in London. As I was flexible on location I selected most of the available areas. Sadly my price wasn’t accepted but I was offered a price of £41 a night. This was still a fantastic price as far as I was concerned so I took it. By the time I had paid the tax on the room and so on, the hotel cost me £50 a night.
When my confirmation came through I found that the room was in a Holiday Inn hotel in Kensington. I had been a little sceptical about the standard of hotel I would be given and was relieved to see that the room was in such a well-known hotel chain. Eager to find out how much I had saved I went to the Holiday Inn website and checked the price the room would have been had I booked it through their own website. At the time I could get a similar deal for £80 a night, so I had saved over £30 a night. I was impressed.
It got even better though when I arrived at the hotel, as I was upgraded to an Executive room which according to the board in reception was charged at £225 a night. I had paid £50 and was very pleased. You can read my review on the hotel (Holiday Inn Kensington Forum) to get a further review of the hotel and its facilities.
Since the success I had with this site I have recommended it to friends and family. They haven’t been able to find deals as good as I got but I know that they have been a bit more particular than I was.
** My Opinion **
I really like this site and think that it is well worth a look if you need a hotel room. The range of locations is good so you can get hotels in this country and abroad. The site is easy to use and does offer genuine bargains.
There are a couple of things that are worth noting about the site though. Firstly, the rate quoted is for the room and does not include breakfast. If you want breakfast in the hotel then this tends to be expensive to buy once you are there. Secondly, if your rate is accepted then the room will be booked for you so you need to be sure that you want the hotel. I tend to try and price trips up before I finally decide if I am going to go. This site is no good for that sort of speculation.
If you are going to use this site, I recommend being flexible as possible. The more flexibility in your request, the more chance there is that your offer will be accepted. Sounds fair enough to me when you consider the savings that could be made.
Having looked around the rest of the site I would say that the hotel search is the only one that is really worth looking at. The other searches are not really any different to those offered on other sites and are certainly no better.
Advantages: I got a really good deal - instant fan! Disadvantages: Takes a bit of nerve!
Whilst Annabella Marr may be the mother of Amanda's mother, Necessity is certainly the mother of bold experimentation. Allow me, if you will, to explain!
Amanda's grandparents are about to celebrate 60 years of marriage and have invited us to join them in this happy occasion. There's a problem, though. They live in Aberdeenshire (Scotland) and we live in Kent (England). It's a long way to go for a few days.
I promised Amanda I'd look into the possibilities ... ...has a fantastic offer on at present, whereby you can go anywhere on their network for UKP 20.00. I looked up the times and selected a Friday evening departure and a Sunday morning return. The advertised price was there - UKP 20.00. Tickety-boo! Let's just do it.
Foolish me! I left the web site and booked a hotel first, before returning to the GNER site to book the train tickets. D'oh! These tickets are not, apparently available on Fridays or Sundays. ...
andymcf 14.11.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of priceline.co.uk
Advantages: Cheap tickets, 'name your own price' Disadvantages: Strict no-change policy
Priceline is a brand new concept in the UK. Customers actually name their own price for airline tickets, hotels and car hire. Can't be true surely? I mean how can they let us, the consumer name our own price? There has to be a catch?
So - 'name your own price' - Yes, you do! I have used both the website (http://www.priceline.co.uk) and the customer service call centre (0800 074 5000) to get as much information on priceline as possible! Priceline ... ...tickets at a great price. Although you name your own price, you need to be realistic, the company suggests savings of between 20%-30%.
Priceline is a very open and honest company, they are completely upfront about the product they offer, they even suggest that sometimes they may not be suitable.
So how do you make a saving? and is priceline suitable for me?
Search around using the web and teletext, even your local travel agent and find the lowest ...
themanwho 08.03.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of priceline.co.uk
Advantages: Savings Disadvantages: No choice on hotel with name your own price, no refunds or changes
Whilst priceline does allow you to make flight bookings and normal hotel reservations, I only use it for the "Name Your Own Price" functionality.
The way it works is that you pick a city, an area in that city and a star rating. You then offer a price that you would like to pay for a hotel that matches the description. You have no idea of which hotels are available, so this kind of setup isn't for everyone!
If your offer is accepted, you get the ... ...option to change something, like add another area of the city or a lower star rating, then offer again. If you don't want to change anything then you will need to wait 24 hours to start again, understandable as otherwise we'd all work out the best price rather quickly starting from £1 and increasing the offer.
Priceline works by taking excess inventory from hotels that they have negotiated with, it's not every hotel in every city, sometimes they ...
non_sense 07.01.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of priceline.co.uk
Advantages: Fast and comprehensive service - pretty much idiot proof too Disadvantages: Once your price has been accepted there is no turning back!!!
Yup, we've all seen the "amusing for the first three times only" adverts plastered on our tv screens. Those darling customers who really would settle for less if it meant a lower price - shame it's not like that in real life - Every flight I'm on there's always a nanny screaming at the hostess for her denture cream (in the bottom of her suitcase) or something equally important.
But anyway - the website.....
My mum and darling lil sister (the furbytrator) ... ...you probably know that already) in Germany during half term, but didn't want to pay the full wack!!!
Fair enough - so after several sites my darling mummy stumbled across priceline.co.uk
She promptly started plipping (I love that noise) away on the keyboard asking for two tickets to Dusseldorf that cost £55, but it didn't get accepted until the next day when she was told to collect her tickets at Heathrow... I was happy - I had a whole five days ...
pookypop 01.06.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of priceline.co.uk
Advantages: Could get discounted tickets Disadvantages: Might not be able to get discounted tickets
...price per ticket.
4 - priceline.co.uk then search for an airline that has tickets available and is willing to offer them to you at the preferred price.
You are therefore not really able to "Name Your Own Price" - this is essentially a new method of haggling. The airlines are not obliged to accept any offers, nor are there any guarantees that a flight will be available. The website indicates that through "reasonable" offers you can save up to 20% ... ...travel agents for late deals. The two schemes are largely the same, in that the airlines are simply trying to fill unbooked seats - after all a discounted passenger is still worth more than an empty seat. ANd of course, some hapless fools may even bid over the odds for their fare.
There are a few qualifying criteria for priceline that may not immediately have occurred to you:
1 - You can't travel and return the same day - which would rule out many ...
LostWitness 18.01.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of priceline.co.uk