While everyone is in the hunt for a cheap airfare (myself included), we shouldn't let that make us miss out on big savings available on cars and hotels.
There are plenty of tools now available to help you get some cheap sleep -- in a nice place.
"Priceline" is one of the first words that comes to mind when you're thinking about cheap hotel rooms. Sometimes the magic works -- and sometimes it doesn't. But there are some additional tools that help bring sky-high lodging prices down to earth.
Check biddingfortravel.com for some comparative notes on your destination and what other travelers are bidding. You can scroll down through the listings and find both successful bids and declined bids for specific properties.
My friend and travel mentor Johnny Jet (www.johnnyjet.com) was the first to tell me about this site.
Priceline is best for top-flight hotels, such as four- or five-star hotels. You can look at Biddingfortravel.com and find a good listing of hotels in a particular neighborhood. For example, in San Francisco, "Union Square West" features the Renaissance Parc 55, the Mark Hopkins and the Hotel Nikko.
Currently, the Parc 55 is running a special in March, lopping 35 percent off the cost of their rooms. That means it's about $120 per night. Compare that with the successful bids of $55-$65 noted on Biddingfortravel.com. Even with the extra surcharges that Priceline tacks on, you're still saving money.
If you're unsuccessful in your first bid, you can adjust the neighborhood as well as the price to work the Priceline engine a little more.
Priceline is just one of the tools that smart travelers use to hold down hotel costs. Other sites, such as local visitors bureaus and the hotels' own websites, can help you trim the total.
For example, in Seattle, Kimpton Hotels offer a 30-percent discount to Alaska residents. Kimpton operates three hotels in Seattle: the Alexis, Monaco and the Hotel Vintage Park. The 30-percent Alaska discount is valid through the end of March, 2010.
Additionally, the Seattle Convention and Visitors Bureau has a special site: www.SeattleSuperSaver.com that lists hotel specials. For example, the Fairmont Olympic is offering a suite for $199 per night. The Hotel Max has a Queen room for $139.
When it comes to rental car deals, I avoid airport rentals at almost any cost. Although I personally prefer Enterprise for off-airport rentals, almost any off-airport location will trim the cost of your rental by about half. Honestly, airport car rental taxes and fees are scandalous.
For example, in Seattle, Portland and San Francisco, there are inexpensive and dependable airport-to-town mass transit options. In addition to the rental car itself, the cost to park the car can cost as much or more than the car itself!
If, however, you're stuck renting at the airport, Priceline can save you some dough. For example, I was struggling over an upcoming trip to Atlanta. There was an Enterprise office nearby, accessible by the airport train "MARTA." But it closed about 50 minutes after our flight arrived.
Accordingly, I started putting in some lowball bids via Priceline. Hertz took my $20/day offer for a full-size car. For a week's rental, it was $140 for the car and $83 for Priceline's additional profit (they label it "taxes and fees"). Still, the $223 rental was 45 percent less than Hertz's lowest published rates.
As usual, there is no "silver bullet" for savings on hotels and cars. And I pay absolutely no attention to providers' "best price guarantee." Those guarantees are garbage -- less than meaningless because they do not include prices you receive from "opaque" name-your-price sites like Priceline. Priceline is a win-win for travelers and vendors, which is why the site has established itself as an important tool for budget-minded travelers.
Online resources:
Priceline. I like this site for hotels and car rentals. www.priceline.com
Bidding for Travel. This site gives travelers a good idea of which hotel they're bidding on in any given city, along with recent reports of successful bids. www.biddingfortravel.com
Seattle Super Saver. This is a good site for Seattle travelers to snag a good deal on hotels, operated by Seattle's Convention and Visitors Bureau. www.seattlesupersaver.com
Scott McMurren is an Anchorage-based travel marketing consultant who has lived in Alaska for three decades, spending much of that time traveling the far-flung corners of the state. Visit his website at www.alaskatravelgram.com.