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Priceline Virgin No More
Cheap Charlie · November 14, 2001

I admit it. I am no longer a Priceline.com virgin. I did it. And I enjoyed it. And I will probably do it again.

Last week, while flying down to Miami to attend the PhoCusWright Executive Conference, I had a discussion with a travel executive about Priceline. He stated, "I would never use Priceline to buy an airline ticket, but I love it for hotels and rental cars."

That got my curiosity going. I asked, "OK, what's so good about it? How about some examples?" This is the basic journalistic "where's the beef" type of question.

He told me that the executive conference host hotel in South Beach, The Loews, had released rooms via Priceline for only $80 a night in his case and for only $70 a night for one of his compatriots. This was dramatically lower than the negotiated conference room costs. Wow. That sure woke me up. What a deal!

Let me digress, and explain why I have been a bit reluctant to use Priceline (or for that matter Hotwire). I have always envisioned these Web sites under an airline pricing model. That is how I was introduced to them and that is where my mindset stayed.

From an airline ticketing point of view, with no ability to have any idea of what time of day my flights might take off or land, at least on a domestic flight, I have shied away from using these "opaque" systems. Heck, who wants to start a vacation with a flight arriving in the dead of the night and finish with a 6 a.m. flight home?

When I asked Jeff Boyd, the current Priceline President and COO, about allowing a selection of morning, afternoon or evening flights, he indicated that Priceline has studied the possibility. However, the airlines aren't too eager to shift the pricing model to include that variable time concept. So don't hold your breath.

I admit that U.S. to Europe international flights with their more-or-less similar evening departure times and return times don't present these problems, but then the consideration of frequent flier miles comes into play.

In any case, I had ruled out flying with a Priceline ticket.

But hotels and rental cars are another story. Here, I am in control of the time of arrival and departure. I will get what I want - a place to rest my head for night or a rental car when I arrive at the airport.

At the PhoCusWright conference, I had the opportunity to speak with both Jeff Boyd from Priceline and Karl Peterson from Hotwire. Both indicated that the hotel/rental car portion of their business was growing. Priceline noted that cars and hotels were about 45 percent of their bids and Hotwire was reported to be around 25 percent.

I predict this hotel/car rental part of the Priceline will grow dramatically. Hotwire is a bit more problematical since it is owned by airlines whose agenda is selling airline ticket vs. selling hotel rooms.

Now back to booking on Priceline. I had a ski and snowboarding show to attend in Hartford, CT, and decided to spend the night there rather than driving back and forth to Boston.

I submitted a $35 bid for a middle-of-the-road hotel. Fifteen minutes later, I received an approval for an "upgraded hotel" for the same $35 plus fees and taxes. I was staying at the Sheraton in East Hartford, right across the Connecticut River from the center of town. It was perfect.

I'm actually writing this column from that very room. I'll be using Priceline again and again and again.

I wonder if I could have gotten this room for $25?

Charlie Leocha is the Boston-based author of Travel Rights: Know the Rules of the Road and the Air Before You Go. Cheap Charlie appears every Monday on this site. E-mail him at leocha@aol.com or access his Web site.