Priceline's mysteries explained
UNDATED Sascha (SAH'-shuh) Segan swears by Priceline-dot-com. He says next week, he's paying 104 dollars a night for a hotel room that's 206 on the hotel's own Web site, and last week he paid around 71 dollars for a 199-dollar room.
Without any cooperation from the company, Segan has written "Priceline-dot-com for Dummies." He says if you're afraid to use the name-your-price travel Web site, get over it.
One common source of unease is not knowing which hotel, airline or car rental agency you're getting until after you've paid, but Segan says a few very helpful Web sites show what you're likely to wind up with. There's Bidding-for-Travel-dot-com, which is the biggest and oldest of these sites and has a vast library of postings from successful Priceline bidders who tell what they paid and what they received. Another site is Better-Bidding-dot-com.
Rising demand for travel is making it a little more difficult to get deals through Priceline, but Segan says there are still plenty of bargains.
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