There are so many travel apps and it's easy to get confused. There is definitely no "size fits all" and many options are available to help you search for your flight, car rental and hotel. But do any of them do all three, well? One such app is Priceline. It works similar to other travel apps by providing you with the options to book all of the aforementioned options above, but also provides a caveat - secret hotels, which we’ll cover later.
To find your car, flight or hotel on the app simply specify your travel dates and destination. For flight bookings enter your passenger information, and hit search. Priceline will also provide you with the current specials which are available.
If you’re booking a car, all you have to do is enter your pick-up date, drop-off date, whether you’re dropping of the car at the same place as pick up or specify an alternative drop-off location. Once you’ve performed the search you can filter the rest of the search, whether you want a large SUV, a mini car or a hybrid. Priceline will then display various pick up options for you from all kinds of vendors to be able to find your perfect car.
When you search for your hotel you see a huge number of results for your destination, but you can narrow search based on star rating, price range, amenities and much more. Once you select the hotel you can view other information, photos and guest reviews. You’ll also find each hotel's policy on these pages, so you’ll know what time check-out and check-in is. Finally, when searching for hotels on the app, this is the best option out of all three to use the "Name Your Own Price" option.
The "Name Your Own Price" option enables you to place a bid of your ideal price for whatever reservation you are booking. You name a price and priceline will then give you a suggested price range. You start the bidding and priceline will up your price if your lowest offer is not met, this works the same for hotels and flights. If the hotel or airline is happy with your price you’ll then be accepted.
Most of the time, depending on what you bid of course, it will be a lot cheaper than it would be booking directly with the hotel or airline and much less so for the airlines. If your price is accepted you will also be charged immediately, so beware. Additionally you only know the area and star rating of the hotel your bidding on and name is only confirmed after booking, similarly for flights you only know the route and amount of stops before it happens. So there are a couple of downsides to the option.
Verdict:
It is a great app, many options to book, and using name your own price is good, you can easily mitigate risk by researching hotel amenities and regions/deals to make sure you’re getting a good deal.
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