In a recent discount travel site comparison it was discovered that Priceline.com came out the frontrunner for offering the most consistently affordable rates for both four and five star hotels whether travelers booked the room in advance or on the actual day of their trip.� This is wonderful news and can save you tons of money and time when booking your next family vacation.

The consumer’s group conducting the study came to this conclusion when comparing Priceline to other well known travel sites whose names are easily recognizable including Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz.��

It was reported on Wtop.com that when booking through Priceline a room at Seattle’s four-star Edgewater Hotel went for less than $70 per night when rooms at the same establishment were going for over $200 at other site such as Expedia and Travelocity.���

Another example was a night’s stay at Chicago’s downtown Hyatt Regency costing less than $60 per night through Priceline found to be over triple the cost through other popular booking sites.

WHAT’S THE CATCH?�

The travel site comparison seems to recommend choosing Priceline for your hotel needs and it’s true the savings are there, but there are a few drawbacks that you should be aware of before you take advantage of those low, low rates.�

When using Priceline, you get the discounts, but travelers are not allowed to choose a particular hotel.�The risk of less than satisfactory accommodations can be reduced by requesting a four star hotel and specifying a particular neighborhood which requires some knowledge of the city that you plan to visit but should help to insure the quality of the establishment.���

Another issue is that you are only allowed to name your price on a room once per twenty four hours.�If your price is rejected, the rules are that you must wait a day before making another offer. �

We can thank Checkbook.org for a strategy for getting around the 24 hour rule.�They recommend that travelers initially submit a very low bid of around $50 which will probably initiate a statement from the site that your bid is too low.�However, you might just get lucky and find that your lowball offer is accepted.�

BUT in the event that your offer is rejected, you can now start the bidding process over with the requirement that your chosen neighborhood must have a four or five star hotel.�You see, Priceline divides major cities into neighborhoods and you should check ahead of time to see which neighborhoods have four- and five-star hotels before starting the bidding process.

During this round of bidding, being the savvy bidder that you are, you will include a second neighborhood that you know does not have a hotel rated four or five stars.�The choice of a different location will skate you right around the 24 hour rule.�

Even if your initial bid was rejected, you are now allowed to start bidding again using a marginally increased bid with the assurance that you will be booked in your desired location because it's the only one that has a four star hotel.