Jun 03 2009
Great Hawaii Deals On Priceline
I’ve never been a big fan of Priceline, but that’s changing.
Especially after my recent Priceline win of $79 per night at the 4-star Hawaii Prince Waikiki. As a member of their Prince Preferred program, I also received an early check-in, upgraded room and a late check-out. It was an unheard of deal, to be sure.
Hawaii Deals You Could Be Winning Right Now on Priceline.
- Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel, Big Island (4-star): $90-$130/per night
- Best Western Plantation Hale Kapaa, Kauai (2-star): $60/per night
- Kauai Marriott ( 4-star): $110-$112/per night
- Westin Maui (4-star): $150-$155/per night
- Waikiki Beach Marriott (3-star): $120
- Sheraton Waikiki Resort (3-star): $101-$125
I found these successful bids for the upcoming summer months on Bidding for Travel. It’s my essential guide to effective bidding on Priceline. The site provides a description of hotels by category for each area. This way you’ll know what the possibilities are before doing a name-your-own-price bid. It also lists successes and failures on bids that are reported by users.
Receive a $100 Bonus on Priceline by Booking Two or More Rooms.
With Priceline’s Bring-a-Friend Bonus Cash offer, you’ll receive $100 towards your next name-your-price booking. This offer is valid until June 15 and requires that you book an extra room at the same time. It’s perfect for friends traveling together or large families.
Car Rentals.
While I have not used Priceline previously for car rentals, I plan to do so going forward. On my recent Honolulu rental, I saved 40 percent off the best car rental deal I could otherwise find, no matter which codes I did or didn’t use. The rental was Alamo, which isn’t my favorite, but I laughed all the way to the bank.
Photo Credit: Facing the Hanalei River at site of Kauai’s new St. Regis Resort.
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I was going to reply to your post about Priceline and car rentals last time but changed my mind when you dissed Alamo. To be sure, Alamo is a ZOO. I’ve used Priceline for all of my Car Rentals now for a few years. Some rental car companies are a breeze and some not. BUT like you said, I laughed it all the way to the bank. Here’s is the last deal I got in Honolulu; priced a compact car at $15/day! Price accepted! Got to Honolulu Alamo and since it was a zoo, there were no compacts, so we got a Jeep with about 400 miles on it! Nice.
For 7 days it cost us $149.05. You can not beat that. It was worth the 40-45 minute wait in line at the Kiosk. This is the second year in a row we’ve used Priceline for Honolulu and both times we got Alamo.
Thanks for the always informative Beat of Hawaii!
Are you kidding, Jeff? Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel, Big Island (4-star): $90-$130/per night? I have to check that out for our Best Hawaii Vacation blog visitors. Mahalo for now for sharing.
Theresa, we had a similar thing happen with Budget when arriving in LA Airport. Everybody stood in line for a compact. People got really mean to each other. We got a nice upgrade. I wouldn’t want to drive around with a Jeep or huge car (eats too much gas) but we were happy with what we got.
Aloha, Pua
Best Hawaii Vacation blog
Hi! Love your posts. About the cars-only the top 4-5 autos are included. I once tried the discount rentals in Phoenix and had an hour wait with many people behind me. Usually a 5 minute wait and no hassle. In Honolulu, I’ve rented a compact vehicle for $23. Keep up the good work. Terri
Hi guys, you recently posted a piece about super cheap deals at the Prince. I life in California and travel to Hawaii for business regularly, and usually stay at the Prince. I have to make a sudden trip to Honolulu this week, and called yesterday to book a room at the Prince for tonight. Interesting to find out that they are fully booked – although they didn’t want to send me away so took my phone number, consulted with the front desk, and called me back a few hours later to confirm a room (and at a lower rate than they had given me just a couple of months ago). Very service oriented response yesterday, and seems they are really hustling to fill rooms. I’ve not seen this from any Hawaii hotel in the past; rather in my experience Hawaii hotels keep their rates way too high even in very slow times, and are content to have you go elsewhere. Seems the Prince has adopted a new approach, and they are full. An Expedia search for a hotel room in Honolulu for tonight showed that everyone seems to have lots of rooms, judging by the somewhat discounted prices a few were offering. Just FYI.
Hello! I know this is an older post, but I’ve been returning to it in planning my Hawaii trip. I just bid $75 on Priceline for a Resort hotel on the Big Island. It was immediately accepted by the Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel, which is the exact hotel that I wanted. With fees and taxes, the total came out to $92.47. I only needed one night on a Tuesday night in mid-August, so that might affect the bid, but there is an option to extend your stay at the same price. I am planning a super-budget trip and this just topped it off!
That’s great Ingrid. I’m sure you’ll enjoy Hapuna Price. I always do.
Aloha, Rob
My extended family and I would like to stay at the Hapuna over Thanksgiving break. However, I am one of those people who seem to end up paying full price, foolish, seems like it, but it gives me peace of mind to know what I am getting. I’d make a foray into bidding on Priceline — as the prices people report getting for the Hapuna are so unbelieveable, but I worry so much that we would get another area hotel and not the Hapuna. Are the rooms one receives broken down into type — say terrace, ocean front, etc.? And can you opt for bed type, breakfast buffet and resort credit? Or when you get such a great price, you just pay for those items on your own? Clearly, I am a nervous novice.
Hi Amy,
Two thoughts. First, if you plan to do Priceline, then use biddingfortravel.com in order to figure it out and see how it has worked for others. You can’t select room type, and you’re on your own for extras. Alternatively, check to see what the best price is on the Prince website (or one of the online travel agencies), and try calling the hotel and offering 80% of that.
Aloha, Jeff