Couples with the desire to travel but limited funds may find using travel auctions a good way to take a trip without blowing the budget. By checking out various travel auctions, you can determine whether or not this style of buying a trip is for you. Personally I'm not 100% in favor of travel auctions because a) you can end up spending more by overbidding and b) with "blind" auctions you may end up getting something you don't really want just because the price is right. Below are some of the sites where travel auctions are conducted.
The best-known online auction source for everything under the sun, eBay began to offer auctions for airline tickets, car rental discounts and upgrade coupons, cruises, lodging, vacation packages, and related categories. Don't expect to score nights at five-star hotels here; most of the accommodations are condos in resort areas and cabins in the mountains. But if that sounds right up your alley, go ahead and bid
after you do some online research to determine what the place would cost if it weren't offered at auction.
Luxury Link is the opposite end of the spectrum compared to eBay. Its travel auctions are all for high-end properties including
Five-Star and
Five-Diamond hotels. The majority are located in US resort areas and the Caribbean. When you click on the link of a place you're interested in visiting, you may see both an auction price and a "buy now" price. In addition, the site quotes the "regular" price. But if I were you, I'd do some investigating about that regular price before I bid. I might even call the place myself and say, "I saw you on Luxury Link for $X; would you be willing to match that price?" But that would be me.
This travel auctions site has been around for a long time (and its design shows it!). It's the most like a real-time auction in that if someone bids at the closing time, they add another three minutes so that someone else has the opportunity to bid against them. And in the fever of the moment a bidder may exceed the value of the offering. What I also don't like is that accommodations are masked. I don't want to bid on "the resort of your choice" in a destination. I want to bid on a resort whose name I know. If you feel the same way, this travel auctions site isn't for you.
This is a Canadian site that features a small selection of travel auctions. It donates part of its profits to selected organizations. The last time we checked, it featured fewer than 20 auctions and they ranged from Miami Beach hotels to Caribbean resorts to a private chartered cruise through the Mekong Delta.
Priceline isn't a travel auctions site per se, but it does offer users the opportunity to save on lodging, particularly if they're not picky about selecting a specific hotel. After you put in a "name your own price" bid (and hand over your credit card info), you'll either be charged for the stay or your bid will be rejected and you have another chance to try. I've only used Priceline once, when I bid on a four-star hotel in Boston. I ended up at a Sheraton, which wasn't romantic at all. My colleague at About Budget Travel has more to say about
Priceline. What many travel searchers don't know is that they can also book brand-name hotels on the site and often at discount. I think that's the way to go.
The new kid on the block, Jetsetter doesn't operate travel auctions either. What it does offer is an ever-changing selection of very top hotels around the world at up to 50 percent off the usual price. Many of them are new and hip. Others are ultra-luxury brands such as Mandarin Oriental. However, you must visit often as deals are in effect for a limited time of between seven and ten days. You can use the on-site calendar to pick when you want to visit among the available days. Full disclosure: I periodically review hotels for Jetsetter.com.
