Best travel search engine Kayak.com *Est. $0
Best for hotel discounts Hotwire.com *Est. $0
Top site for airline travelers Yapta.com *Est. $0
Best travel bidding site Priceline.com *Est. $0
Best for reviews of hotels and attractions TripAdvisor.com *Est. $0

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Priceline.com

Reviewed May 2009

Best travel bidding site

Bidding for rooms/air travel can produce savings
No booking fees for price-published flights

Best rates are for nonrefundable blind bookings
Not the best choice for inflexible travelers

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Our Analysis

If you don't mind a little adventure or uncertainty, Priceline.com can deliver significant travel savings, reports say. However, the catch is that Priceline's best deals are available only via its blind bidding tool. You won't know the full details of the flights you've booked or the hotels you've selected until the bids you've placed on them have been accepted and paid for. That said, users still have some control -- you do get to specify a hotel's rating and general neighborhood, and Priceline.com has instituted guarantees that say flight times, connections and layovers won't be unreasonable. Priceline.com also has a standard booking engine that works just like those at other major travel sites, such as Orbitz.com. If you don't like the idea of bidding, Hotwire.com offers a blind hotel reservation system that includes preset pricing. If you want complete control over your trip, Kayak.com searches hundreds of travel sites to find the best published deals and discounts.

We found several good sources for information regarding Priceline.com. It's included in J.D. Power and Associates' latest customer satisfaction survey, and in reviews in Kiplinger.com, The Washington Post, PracticalHacks.com and LifeHacker.com.

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Our Sources

1. J.D. Power & Associates

This survey measures travelers' satisfaction with seven independent travel websites when booking airline, hotel or car reservations. Priceline.com lands in second place; competitive pricing is the biggest plus.

Review: 2008 Independent Travel Website Satisfaction Study, Editors of J.D. Power, Nov. 25, 2008

2. Kiplinger.com

Editors at Kiplinger say, "We've personally used each of these sites to research and book travel and found them superior to others." Priceline.com offers the best deals in luxury hotels, according to Kiplinger's testers.

Review: 30 Best Travel Sites, Stacy Rapacon, Dec. 2008

3. The Washington Post

Michael Shapiro says that while Priceline.com's premise is "irresistible," the site has lost a little luster recently because of full hotels and crowded airlines -- something that's changed in recent months. He adds that he prefers bidding on hotels over flights. "We like to fly when we want (with Priceline, you have to accept departures at any time of day), but if we can get a three-star hotel for $68, we don't really care if it's a Radisson or a Sheraton," he says.

Review: 54 Online Travel Sites to Bookmark Now, Michael Shapiro, Feb. 3, 2008

4. Lifehacker.com

Adam Pash includes Priceline.com in his listing of best sites for budget travel. He notes that if you can deal with the uncertainty, bidding for travel "is a good way to go." For others, Priceline.com's traditional booking engine -- which works just like ones at other travel sites -- "still has lots to offer," and it turned up similar pricing to other sites on his test itinerary.

Review: Five Best Travel Sites for Cheap Tickets, Adam Pash, Nov. 2, 2008

5. PracticalHacks.com

PracticalHacks.com names Priceline.com to its list of top sites for hotel reservations, noting that it is especially good at delivering deals on luxury rooms. One major negative cited is that refunds are not available if you cancel.

Review: The ultimate list of top travel sites, "Kevin", Oct. 6, 2008