Priceline

I wonder if I'm one of the few people who enjoys using priceline for hotels and car rentals? Most people I've talked to won't use priceline because they hate not knowing which hotel they will get. But I've found it makes it a bit more interesting not knowing what you'll get.

Last night I booked a hotel for the weekend in Washington DC. It was $60/night for a 3 star hotel which turned out to be a Hilton. The place looks nice, is 5 miles from my brother's house and seems convient. When I had checked out hotels in the area using orbitz, hotels.com, expedia, etc most were running $100/night. I'm not hotel loyal and we don't travel enough to make it worth being brand loyal to earn points.

I also used priceline to get a rental car for the weekend. We got a full-size car for $15/day which turned into $25/day including taxes. That's not bad considering taxes are 10% for rental cars and 15% for hotel rooms.

All in all my experiences with priceline have been excellent. I'll report back on the hotel, but in June when we went to Toronto and Niagara Falls we used priceline and got great hotels for the price. The locations were fantastic and the quality of the hotels were superior to what we would have booked based on price.