cruiselife Posted December 11, 2018 Report Share Posted December 11, 2018 Just wanted to give a shout to Matt for recommending the Priceline "Express Deals" on one of his podcasts. I was a little skeptical about it at first, but I decided to give it a shot. The way it works is you select a certain criteria such as location, number of stars, etc. that you are willing to accept. The site will then give you a price per night that you will pay, the general area, and the rating that the hotel will have. It is a lot like booking a guaranteed stateroom for a cruise. In my case it offered a rate of $102 per night for a 4-star hotel and showed that the hotel had a 8+ guest rating as well as the general area the hotel was located (See screenshot below). The idea is they can't tell you the specific hotel beforehand because the rate is much lower than advertised. To be honest I thought this was just marketing talk and I would get the cheapest possible hotel that was 4 stars in that area, which may be the case sometimes. In our case we ended up in the Sheraton Suites, which would have been a rate of $242 a night for the same date. So we were able to book a 4-star hotel in West Fort Lauderdale on a Saturday night for only $127 total after fees, and it was $143 cheaper than it would have been had we booked the same room directly. I highly recommend checking out this service if you aren't super specific about what particular hotel you stay in before your cruise. Just keep in mind that these deals are non-refundable. Thanks again for the recommendation @Matt! I solemnly wear to spend all of the savings at Sabor. Skigoofy, Firemanswife2 and melski94 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted December 12, 2018 Report Share Posted December 12, 2018 Really glad to hear this strategy worked for you! cruiselife 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alamode123 Posted December 12, 2018 Report Share Posted December 12, 2018 We did the same for our cruise in March. We've never been to Miami, so we're flying in two days early. Got The National Hotel in South Beach for $250/night. The rate on the hotel's web site is $450/night. cruiselife 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted December 12, 2018 Report Share Posted December 12, 2018 Just now, alamode123 said: We did the same for our cruise in March. We've never been to Miami, so we're flying in two days early. Got The National Hotel in South Beach for $250/night. The rate on the hotel's web site is $450/night. I love Priceline for situations like this when you just need a nice hotel for one or two nights and don't really care which exactly because it's just a homebase before the cruise. cruiselife 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alamode123 Posted December 13, 2018 Report Share Posted December 13, 2018 Here's a chrome extension that claims to figure out what "mystery" hotel they are offering. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hotel-canary/akjikdkembhkhceaegjokdpggfcefigk 4ensic, Rose City Cruiser and cruiselife 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monctonguy Posted December 13, 2018 Report Share Posted December 13, 2018 I can usually figure it out by looking at the details..or at least get it down to a cpl.....sometimes when you click the deal priceline will show you 4 hotels and tell you it is one of those... Priceline is a great site for some travel deals....not a scam...use them often. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted December 14, 2018 Report Share Posted December 14, 2018 21 hours ago, alamode123 said: Here's a chrome extension that claims to figure out what "mystery" hotel they are offering. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hotel-canary/akjikdkembhkhceaegjokdpggfcefigk Have you used it? I'm curious how accurate it is Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alamode123 Posted December 19, 2018 Report Share Posted December 19, 2018 On 12/14/2018 at 9:17 AM, Matt said: Have you used it? I'm curious how accurate it is I learned about it from touringplans.com. Here's a brand new article about it.https://blog.touringplans.com/2018/12/19/priceline-deals-into-2019-vive-la-values/ Matt 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AGSLC5 Posted December 19, 2018 Report Share Posted December 19, 2018 On 12/11/2018 at 12:30 PM, cruiselife said: Just wanted to give a shout to Matt for recommending the Priceline "Express Deals" on one of his podcasts. I was a little skeptical about it at first, but I decided to give it a shot. The way it works is you select a certain criteria such as location, number of stars, etc. that you are willing to accept. The site will then give you a price per night that you will pay, the general area, and the rating that the hotel will have. It is a lot like booking a guaranteed stateroom for a cruise. In my case it offered a rate of $102 per night for a 4-star hotel and showed that the hotel had a 8+ guest rating as well as the general area the hotel was located (See screenshot below). The idea is they can't tell you the specific hotel beforehand because the rate is much lower than advertised. To be honest I thought this was just marketing talk and I would get the cheapest possible hotel that was 4 stars in that area, which may be the case sometimes. In our case we ended up in the Sheraton Suites, which would have been a rate of $242 a night for the same date. So we were able to book a 4-star hotel in West Fort Lauderdale on a Saturday night for only $127 total after fees, and it was $143 cheaper than it would have been had we booked the same room directly. I highly recommend checking out this service if you aren't super specific about what particular hotel you stay in before your cruise. Just keep in mind that these deals are non-refundable. Thanks again for the recommendation @Matt! I solemnly wear to spend all of the savings at Sabor. I personally live 10 min from this hotel. Its in a good area. If you don't have a rental car you can take about a 10 min Uber to various restaurants, shopping, and movies. I would suggest Westfield Broward Mall, or Sawgrass mall.. Sawgrass mall has many more options but both are good. cruiselife 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruiselife Posted December 19, 2018 Author Report Share Posted December 19, 2018 2 hours ago, AGSLC5 said: I personally live 10 min from this hotel. Its in a good area. If you don't have a rental car you can take about a 10 min Uber to various restaurants, shopping, and movies. I would suggest Westfield Broward Mall, or Sawgrass mall.. Sawgrass mall has many more options but both are good. Thank you! AGSLC5 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrMarc Posted December 20, 2018 Report Share Posted December 20, 2018 I just got the Sheraton 4 Points Pesort at Coco Beach for $96 including taxes and fees for January 26. Cheapest rooms I could find online were $225 + Matt and cruiselife 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpeedNoodles Posted December 20, 2018 Report Share Posted December 20, 2018 We're kind of disappointed in the site, because you used to be able to choose a much smaller search area (walking distance sized areas). When we tried this for Seattle years ago it gave us an area within 6 blocks of Pike Place Market. When I looked a few days ago it gave me an area from the Space Needle to the NFL stadium. Not remotely useful for us anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted December 21, 2018 Report Share Posted December 21, 2018 17 hours ago, MrMarc said: I just got the Sheraton 4 Points Pesort at Coco Beach for $96 including taxes and fees for January 26. Cheapest rooms I could find online were $225 + Wow, heck of a deal 15 hours ago, SpeedNoodles said: We're kind of disappointed in the site, because you used to be able to choose a much smaller search area (walking distance sized areas). When we tried this for Seattle years ago it gave us an area within 6 blocks of Pike Place Market. When I looked a few days ago it gave me an area from the Space Needle to the NFL stadium. Not remotely useful for us anymore. In general, I feel the Express Deals/Name Your Own Price features require a bit of flexibility in terms of where you are willing to stay. I think it's perfect for pre- or post-cruise hotel stays where it's the usual "I'm just here for one night and want something nice and clean", rather than "I need to be exactly in this location or at this particular hotel" MrMarc 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpeedNoodles Posted December 23, 2018 Report Share Posted December 23, 2018 Ok, I decided that I wasn't comfortable with the original hotel I booked for Miami in February, so I got bold did a Name Your Own Price on Priceline (areas were better defined than in Seattle, still wouldn't do it there), and got an amazing hotel with spectacular reviews in a reportedly very safe neighborhood for $175 (just 8 dollars more than the hotel in the sketchy airport neighborhood). So thank you, Matt! Matt and cruiselife 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tdcackler Posted December 24, 2018 Report Share Posted December 24, 2018 On 12/14/2018 at 8:17 AM, Matt said: Have you used it? I'm curious how accurate it is I just did this for my upcoming cruise in February. If I recall, Priceline said it would be one of these four hotels and then the extension narrowed it down to 2, one of which is what it ended up being. So, fairly accurate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted December 24, 2018 Report Share Posted December 24, 2018 On 12/23/2018 at 4:11 AM, SpeedNoodles said: Ok, I decided that I wasn't comfortable with the original hotel I booked for Miami in February, so I got bold did a Name Your Own Price on Priceline (areas were better defined than in Seattle, still wouldn't do it there), and got an amazing hotel with spectacular reviews in a reportedly very safe neighborhood for $175 (just 8 dollars more than the hotel in the sketchy airport neighborhood). So thank you, Matt! Wow, that's awesome! 11 minutes ago, tdcackler said: I just did this for my upcoming cruise in February. If I recall, Priceline said it would be one of these four hotels and then the extension narrowed it down to 2, one of which is what it ended up being. So, fairly accurate. Just installed the extension, thanks. tdcackler 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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