Our Vacation Adventures

Name your own price websites may save you money

I recently proved it myself with a hotel room, but the San Francisco Chronicle reports that you can still save money using name your own price websites like Priceline.com. The story outlines just how these companies can help save a thrifty traveller some money.

The industry calls the original Hotwire and Priceline buying formulas “opaque” to highlight the fact that you don’t know the name of the supplier (airline, hotel or car rental company) or the schedule (with air tickets) until after you make a nonrefundable purchase. Opaque sales benefit suppliers by reaching the most price-conscious travelers without advertising those deeply cut rates to the general public. They reward price-conscious travelers with really low prices.

So there you have it. Hit an ‘opaque’ site when you’re looking to find discount travel. You can’t find as many deals on flights using opaque sites as you can hotels, but it’s worth checking anyway because the savings can be huge.