026 Priceline Tips

We all need to save a little money when we travel, right? This week we chat with Bethaney Davies from Flashpacker Family to get her best tips on using Priceline.com to save money on family travel. ON THE PODCAST :37 Kim takes a special flight with Southwest Airlines 9:55 Bethaney Davies from Flashpacker Family 13:02 Favorite money saving tips 16:47 Ways to determine what the "mystery" hotel is 19:55 Name your own price tips 22:57 Areas where Priceline is more successful 31:15 Using Priceline for flights and car rentals 33:05 Best Priceline deals 38:10 Favorite travel outfit  42:24 App of the week 44:21 Looking for feedback on topics/destinations ABOUT BETHANEY DAVIES Bethaney is from Flashpacker Family, a globetrotting family from New Zealand. Bethaney, Lee, Reuben and Hazel are passionate travelers who love adventure. She shares tales from the road and awesome travel tips. You can follow Bethaney on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. PRICELINE TIPS  To figure out what hotels are offered in the Express Deals as "mystery" hotels, find an express deal that looks good and look at the price, percent you are saving and the amenities of the hotel. Then do a normal search on Priceline and sort by the star rating, amenities and location offered by the Express Deal. Then look at the percentage off and try to figure out which hotel it is. Stick to properties that are rated 8+ by previous guests. With Name your own price, you typically get the same hotels that are on the Express Deals so work out which Express Deals are interesting first and figure out what hotels they are, and then offer $10-15 less than the Express Deal. If it is not accepted, you can add another location to bid again to keep trying to see what their acceptable price point is. When you rebid, raise your bid by $5.00, up until you get to the Express Deal price. Priceline works very well in big cities like New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, etc., but there are not too many Express Deals in smaller towns and cities. Primarily use Priceline for shorter stays vs. stays greater than three nights. Use the app for last minute deals. Sign up for the cash back rewards site where you get 5% cash back reward on Priceline bookings. FAVORITE TRAVEL GEAR Bethaney loves her Skechers Go Walk shoes. She also loves dresses because they are easy. Bethaney also recommends keeping the family in similar colors, which looks great for family photos. APP OF THE WEEK Touchnote is a mobile app that allows you to turn your smartphone photos into a physical postcard so you can easily take a photo, design your postcard, add an address and text and they print and mail it for you.  MENTIONED ON THE PODCAST How to book cheap five-star hotels in Las Vegas with this amazing Priceline hack Using Priceline Express deals to save big on hotels Two ways you can save even more on Priceline   FOLLOW US AND SPREAD THE WORD! If you liked this show, please be sure to subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play and leave us a review! Have a question or comment? Send us an email or leave us a voicemail at +1.641.715.3900, ext. 926035#   You can also follow our travels on Stuffed Suitcase and We3Travel, or follow the Vacation Mavens on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter. Thanks for listening!