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By doing just a little homework, it is possible to stay at top hotels for a fraction of the rack rate and for far less than the discounted rates offered by services like Expedia and Orbitz.

Many people shy away from using bidding services like Priceline out of fear that they will wind up in a hotel that does not meet their standards or that is not in the best location for their travel needs. To some extent, such fears are justified, because, while Priceline does provide location maps which divide most major cities into smaller areas from which one may choose, Priceline does not disclose the names of the hotels in those areas.

Instead, the bidder must choose among several so-called star levels, and trust that Priceline will provide a room consistent with the standards set for that rating level.

However another web site, BiddingForTravel.com, helps hotel shoppers strike gold on Priceline by taking much of the mystery and guesswork away. The site even provides tips on how one may re-bid immediately when a bid has been rejected despite Priceline's policy of requiring a twenty four hour delay between bids in a single location or at a particular star level.

BiddingForTravel is easy to navigate. From the home page, one may select a state or country in which to search for a hotel. Once you have clicked on a city, you will see a list of successful and unsuccesful Priceline bids arranged by dates of travel. For instance, you might see that someone reported having successfully bid $55 for a three star hotel in Dayton Ohio for travel on July 12 and by which hotel his bid was accepted. By scanning the accepted bids for the city to which you intend to travel, you can determine the lowest bid price that is likely to receive a positive response in a particular class of hotels.

Priceline, itself, posts suggested bids, but a check of BiddingForTravel will show that these are invariably far higher than the bids actually being accepted.

Another invaluable feature of BiddingForTravel.com is that, for each city or area of a city, you will find a link to "HOTEL LIST". By clicking on this link, you will see the hotels that are actually participating in Priceline in various star categories. You will also be able to click on reviews of most of these hotels. For any that do not have direct links to reviews, it is easy enough to research the listed hotels on websites such as TripAdvisor.com.

Already, two of the mysteries of Priceline bidding have been cleared up simply by checking in on BiddingForTravel.

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