Save Money When Blind-Booking Hotels with This Awesome Site

A few weeks ago, I decided to extend my already-lengthy stay in Orlando so that my wife and I could celebrate our anniversary at Walt Disney World instead of having to drive back home. The problem with this was that I wouldn’t be able to stay in the timeshare I had been residing in and would need to find another hotel. With this being an additional cost, we wanted to make sure we found a great location but also score a deal. This is typically when I turn to sites like Hotwire.com, which allows you to snag special offers on hotels but only learn the exact property you’d be staying at after you complete your purchase. Though I’ve actually become fairly proficient in doing the detective work necessary to get a sneak peek at what hotel I might be buying, I’ve actually discovered a site that makes that task a lot easier: Better Bidding.

As luck would have it, I had just heard about Better Bidding a few weeks before needing to utilize the service. It was then that I learned some of the cool features it had, such as giving you their best guess for which hotel a blind listing likely was. Granted, this Nostradamus-esque skill may not be available for each listing, but even the ability to view the various deals in a stripped-down configuration made finding the right deal fairly painless. Plus, beyond Hotwire, Better Bidding also allows you to view Priceline and Priceline Express on the same site (albeit via different tabs) so you can really compare offers easily.

If all that wasn’t enough, I was shocked to see that — at the time I was booking — Better Bidding listed a special promo code that would earn me an additional 5% off my booking. See, I had assumed that sites like Hotwire would actually be bitter about Better Bidding and yet here they were not only allowing them to exist but rewarding their visitors! Because of all this, I was able to nab a four-star hotel room for $86 a night (for four nights) and save an extra $17 thanks to the promo code.

One word of warning I’ll issue here is that Better Booking’s widgets don’t list resort fees, parking fees, or other expenses that can severely increase the price of your stay on their main page. That’s why, when narrowing down your choice, you’ll want to pop over to the actual listing to find this info as both Hotwire and Priceline Express will disclose mandatory resort fees before you book. Meanwhile, when it comes to parking, you may need to do a little extra research to see what the rates are at some of the hotels. However, if parking is miraculously free, this will usually be displayed under the full amenities.

All in all, I was extremely glad to have discovered Better Bidding prior to booking my stay. Although there are a couple of improvements that could be made to ensure you know about all of the fees you may encounter, using this site is certainly an improvement over the days when I’d have to open 50 browser tabs in hopes of finding clues about the hotel I was viewing. So, if you’re looking to find a deal on a hotel and are willing to give blind-booking a chance, I recommend starting your search at Better Bidding.

Author

Kyle Burbank

Kyle is a freelance writer and author whose first book, "The E-Ticket Life" is now available on Amazon. In addition to his weekly "Money at 30" column on Dyer News, he is also the editorial director and a writer for the Disney fan site LaughingPlace.com and the founder of Money@30.com.

Other Articles by Kyle Burbank

Starbucks Summer Game

Starbucks' Summer Game is Back and You Could Score Free Stars

I feel as though I'm kind of going back to my roots with this week's Quick Tip: discussing a new Starbucks promotion. If you're newer to my site, pre-pandemic, my wife and I would go to Starbucks every weekend as a means of hanging out with our favorite baristas, enjoying...
illustration of a sad woman starring at a wall

Cutting Your Loses: My Brokerage Battle and How I Finally Fixed It

Late last year, word came down that the app Bumped — which allowed customers to earn stock in the companies they made purchases from — was shutting down. As bummed as I was at the time, it turns out that this announcement would only be the start of my troubles....
Sapphire Lounge entrance

Travel Tuesday: Understanding Chase's New Sapphire Lounge

When Chase announced that it was opening a number of airport lounges in partnership with The Club, there were several questions I and others had. At the top of the list, with The Club being a staple of Priority Pass membership, it seemed fair to assume that those with Priority...

This can be a good option to get a deal but you have to a little more patient to research about your blind booking.

Comments are closed.

The "Email" field is empty, you must enter some text to proceed.The text you entered in the "Email" field appears to be invalid, please edit it and try again
Get Posts in Your Inbox
Featured Articles
Starbucks Summer Game

Starbucks' Summer Game is Back and You Could Score Free Stars

I feel as though I'm kind of going back to my roots with this week's Quick Tip: discussing a new Starbucks promotion. If you're newer to my site, pre-pandemic, my wife and I would go to Starbucks every weekend as a means of hanging out with our favorite baristas, enjoying...
illustration of a sad woman starring at a wall

Cutting Your Loses: My Brokerage Battle and How I Finally Fixed It

Late last year, word came down that the app Bumped — which allowed customers to earn stock in the companies they made purchases from — was shutting down. As bummed as I was at the time, it turns out that this announcement would only be the start of my troubles....
Sapphire Lounge entrance

Travel Tuesday: Understanding Chase's New Sapphire Lounge

When Chase announced that it was opening a number of airport lounges in partnership with The Club, there were several questions I and others had. At the top of the list, with The Club being a staple of Priority Pass membership, it seemed fair to assume that those with Priority...
TD Clear Visa Card

TD Bank Has a Pretty Dumb New Idea for a Credit Card Product

Doing what I do, I've seen several new credit card products come down the pike in recent years. Some of these are fairly boring (like 2% flat rate cards — they have a use but they're not exciting), others as more interesting but not for me (see: Ness Card), and...