As we all know, traveling can be expensive! So much time is spent focusing on finding a cheap flight that the costs of hotels are overlooked. Often times the total cost of housing on a trip will easily equal or surpass the cost of the flight (especially if you use these methods to fly for free!). Below is a simple “hack” using Priceline’s search interface and their Priceline Express Deals feature that can save you money with very little effort!
Using Priceline Express Deals
Priceline.com has a great money-saving feature called Priceline Express Deals. The idea behind Express Deals is to pick an area of a city where you want to stay and a star rating “1-5”. From there, Priceline will select the hotel for you. By allowing Priceline to choose the hotel you lose some of the decision-making power, but get a substantial discount from the amount you would normally pay.
Priceline Express Deals hack
With a little extra searching and observation, you can pinpoint the exact hotel that Priceline will select for you, eliminating the mystery before making a hotel decision!
I’ll walk you through the process I use, and show you how easy it is to save money the next time you book a hotel.
For this example I’ll search for a hotel in Austin, TX. I recently stayed in Austin and used this exact method to save money.
Once you have selected your dates and city from the home page and done an initial search, your screen should look similar to this:
Next, scroll down and select the area of the city where you would like to stay from the checkbox menu on the left hand side of the screen.
Also, select a star rating. I suggest only clicking one star rating level at a time to make comparing as easy as possible.
This will narrow down your selection to fewer choices. In this case, it leaves us with 12. Now, one of those choices will be the Priceline Express Deals option. Notice that the Priceline Express Deal gives criteria of an “exceptional” rating of 9+ as well as 70 verified guest reviews. The Priceline Express Deal is priced at $94 a night.
Match the reviews and ratings
By comparing the ratings linked with the number of verified guest reviews of the 11 other options, we can easily narrow down the possibilities to only one option: the Embassy Suites hotel Austin-Arboretum. This is the only hotel that has at least 70 reviews as well as a 9 rating or higher.
In addition, the amenities listed match up. This can help further distinguish which hotel will be selected if there are more than one that meet the criteria. In this case, the price difference between the listed price of the hotel ($125) and the Priceline Express Deal ($94) is $31 per night! Furthermore, when using this trick for nicer hotels, the dollar amount saved can be quite significant.
Or, skip the leg work all together
Want to skip the time and effort of figuring out which hotel is on Priceline Express Deals? The Hotel Deal Revealer is a free service that will automate this process for you. Personally, I like the manual way as from Priceline.com I can check out hotels that aren’t offered on Priceline Express Deals as well as the ones that are. From there I can make a comparison and decide what I want. The Hotel Deal Revealer will only show hidden price hotels. If you decide to go with a Priceline Express Deal hotel, this tool can quickly check and take the guess work out!
Considerations
Typically, Priceline Express Deals are non refundable. If you need flexibility then this might not be the best option. When flexibility is required, consider booking a fully refundable fare at a hotel. As the travel date approaches, use this method to check for a better deal. If you find a better price at an acceptable hotel, just cancel the first reservation.
Priceline Express Deals are not available everywhere. However, most larger cities will have the option available.
Want to stay completely for free? Check out this post for how to stay for free at hotels!
Get to your destination for free using the Southwest Companion Pass and points! Find out how here!
Did you find this “hack” helpful? Let me know!
I haven’t tried it yet, but this was easy to follow. Thanks!