Cheap Disneyland Hotels Using BetterBidding.com
This is a guest post by Nate Parrish, cohost of WEDway Radio, a podcast covering the history of the Disney theme parks and the Disney company, as well as the cohost of Betamouse, a podcast about the convergence of Disney and technology. He vacations to Disneyland regularly with his family.
There’s a great booking trick that my wife has been using for years for getting a hotel near Disneyland. But first, a few disclaimers:
- You will have to live with you get. This method uses Priceline and Hotwire. You’ve probably heard of them but you may not know that once your bid has been accepted, it is yours and you will be charged.
- This doesn’t work for any of the three Disney Resorts, but there are many hotels within a few miles.
First let me introduce you to the website: Betterbidding.com. This site is a message board that allows travelers to post their recently accepted bids on either Priceline or Hotwire so others can see either what hotels are sold by the two sites. When you go to the site you’ll want to select the state (in this case California). The first post is a list of the hotels being sold. You’ll need to scroll down to your desired region, then you will see all the hotels that have been reported by different bidders.
Also in the message boards you will find:
For Priceline:
- Bidders post their recent accepted bids along with the booking hotel and dates so others can see what bids have been accepted at specific hotels.
For Hotwire:
- Bidders post what hotels they were awarded, along with the price, dates, and amenities.
BetterBidding is probably geared better toward the Hotwire crowd rather than the William Shatner (aka Priceline) crowd, simply because it has broken down all of the different hotels that you could possibly get. BetterBidding lists hotel amenities which correlate with the amenities listed by Hotwire. With some but not complete assurance, this allows you to know which hotel you’ve been awarded before receiving your confirmation email.
It might be wise to have two browsers set up on your desktop while going through the bidding process. You can view the different hotels sorted by star rating and amenities while viewing recent bids or looking at what is available on Hotwire or Priceline.
Other ways of categorization that help you with your bidding:
- Stars: You can bid on a hotel (in this particular region) from two to four stars.
- Price: Hotwire gives you the price up front.
- Region: Priceline allows you to select from a certain region (Anaheim, Garden Grove, Costa Mesa).
Have fun saving money!
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It is worth pointing out some of the pros and cons of Hotwire vs. Priceline. For families, I strongly urge avoiding Priceline because of some of the limitations that might cause problems for families. One thing with Priceline is that you’re only guaranteed a room to accommodate a maximum of 2 guests. For families of 3 or more, you’re rolling the dice.
Also you don’t know what hotel amenities you’re going to get with Priceline NYOP. Imagine getting a hotel without a swimming pool? Rare in Florida, but knowing your amenities is a good thing.
I booked the Lake Buena Vista Resort on Hotwire. Got a 2 bedroom unit with a kitchen for an amazing price. I was able to reveal which hotel before booking, using the website http://www.hoteldealsrevealed.com. Here’s a good article on how I was able to reveal my Orlando Hotwire hotel: http://www.hoteldealsrevealed.com/blog/lake-buena-vista-resort-hotwire/
Another Priceline bid forum is Biddingfortravel.com.
I have used it for many years and with proper research you can guess what hotels you may get on Priceline.
Using Betterbidding with Biddingfortravel, you have two resources to base your bids on.
Also use Tripadvisor.com to check hotel reviews on Hotels that are accepting Priceline bids.
You can avoid a bad hotel accepting Priceline by not bidding in that area or in a particular star level.
Biddingfortravel has a detailed explanation on how to “correctly” bid using Priceline. A bad bid and you will pay too much or stay where you do not want to.
I use this site every year for our Disney trip. We always get the Comfort Suites on Turkey Lake Dr for around $20 using this site and hotwire.com. They have a free hot breakfast and with my AP I get free parking.
Awesome, Chad! I think that hotel is near Universal right? Lots of good bargains up that way as well.
These tips are great! I have used BetterBidding with Hotwire many times for booking hotels at Disney World, so this works in Florida, too. If you know in advance what the hotels are on Hotwire, you can determine the precise resort fees and parking fees (both of which can kill your bargain!) and location in advance, plus you can read reviews before you book.
Thanks David, Yeah, it basically works everywhere. On our first trip to Disneyland we were a little scared of what we might get so we booked the Hyatt for $150 a night. the next time we used Hotwire and got the very same Hyatt for $59 a night. This was 2003 so dont count that as a recent bid.