Hotel bidding sites: Guide for hotel owners

Why should hotels use hotel bidding sites?

Hotel bidding sites allow you to fill slow periods in your operations. These unexpected dips in demand can tie up cash flow and leave staff staring at half-empty corridors. Bidding platforms give you a quiet back door to move those vacant rooms, protecting the rates guests see on OTAs while topping up revenue that would otherwise slip away.

Lift occupancy on slow dates

Mid-week lulls and shoulder seasons often hurt RevPAR. Load a hidden minimum rate on a bidding site and give budget-minded travellers a compelling reason to book, without touching your public BAR.

Reach rate-sensitive guests

Many guests start with a price ceiling. Bidding platforms surface your inventory to this group without forcing broad discounts across every channel, turning sporadic bargain-hunters into potential repeat visitors at standard rates.

Keep rooms selling year-round

When a conference cancels or a storm rolls in, you need a fast outlet for distressed inventory. Bidding sites run around the clock, acting as a safety net that converts last-minute supply into revenue instead of empty space.

Key hotel bidding site benefits:

Hidden-rate flexibility – Protect your public BAR from discount fatigue
Off-peak room sales – Shift distressed inventory without blanket promotions
Wider market reach – Capture price-sensitive travellers hunting deals
Rate parity protection – Keep discounts invisible to other channels
Automation ready – push bids and availability through your channel manager

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Sync inventory across all properties and your chosen channels to maximise occupancy and revenue.

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How do hotel bidding sites work?

Hotel bidding sites work by following a straightforward process: loading rates, submitting traveller bids, matching travellers with hotels, confirmation (and reveal!), then payment and reporting. Curious to learn more about loading a hidden rate and seeing a confirmed reservation in your PMS? Here’s the typical flow in five simple steps.

1. Load hidden rates and inventory

You set a minimum price per room night and the number of rooms you’re willing to sell on each date. A channel manager turns this into a two-minute task across several properties.

2. Travellers submit their bids

Bargain-minded guests choose a destination, travel dates and star category, then enter the amount they’re prepared to pay.

3. The platform runs a match

Each bid is compared with your hidden floor. If it meets or exceeds the threshold, the booking is accepted instantly. If it falls short, the guest is prompted to raise their bid or try a different hotel.

4. Confirmation and reveal

Once accepted, the platform reveals your hotel’s name to the guest, sends a confirmation email and pushes the booking into your PMS. Availability updates across all connected channels in real time.

5. Payment and reporting

The guest’s card is charged by the platform, minus its commission. You receive the net amount according to the payment terms. Key metrics, such as bid success rates and average achieved price, appear in your dashboard for easy review.

Key takeaways:

Set dynamic floor rates for maximum control
Allow guests to submit offers and streamline the guest bidding flow
Sync confirmed bookings and availability across all channels through automatic PMS updates

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What are the best hotel bidding sites to get started on?

Quick facts about bidding sites:

Nearly 60% of hotel stays are booked online, so bidding sites place your rooms where high-intent guests already shop.
Properties that fine-tune their bidding tactics earn up to 60% more revenue per booking, proving that smart discount fences pay off.
Priceline and Hotwire hold about 70% of the opaque-rate market, making them the quickest channels to master for fast, incremental demand.

These five platforms dominate opaque‐rate bookings and give you a quick path to extra revenue.

Priceline Express Deals

The original bidding option in the US, where you upload minimum rates by star level and neighbourhood. Guests only discover your hotel name after paying, and the platform plugs easily into most channel managers.

Hotwire Hot Rate

Similar to Priceline but with stronger mobile traffic. Travellers pick a star category and zone, see the price, then learn the hotel name once payment clears, making it ideal for mid-week city stays.

Bidroom

Runs on a membership model, charging you a modest yearly fee instead of commission. Members always see at least five per cent lower prices than public OTAs, which helps you drive margin on lean dates.

HotelTonight

Best for last-minute stays within seven days of arrival. Its “daily drop” feature pushes unsold rooms to impulse travellers who value location over brand—perfect for urban properties chasing day-of pick-up.

Hoo

A newer entrant that lets guests haggle on the room rate in real time. You set a hidden bottom line, Hoo counters guest offers automatically, and the agreed price stays invisible to metasearch sites.

Key takeaways:

Priceline is a great choice for US guests and has a low pedigree.

Hotwire is perfect for those with a strong mobile-first guest cohort.

Bidroom uses a membership model so you can avoid constant commission – great for high volume hotels.

HotelTonight can help you fill up rooms within 24 hours.
Hoo enables guests to “haggle”, combining the excitement of an auction with a hotel room booking.

How to integrate hotel bidding sites with existing systems?

Running bidding platforms in isolation quickly turns into extra admin and rate errors. The answer is to plug them into the systems you already use every day so prices, availability and bookings move in sync. Start with these building blocks:

Channel manager: The linchpin that pushes hidden floor rates and live inventory from your PMS to each bidding site, then pulls confirmed reservations back. Look for direct connections to Priceline, Hotwire and the other platforms on your list.
Property management system (PMS): Keeps room counts and guest profiles accurate once new bookings arrive. With the channel manager acting as interpreter, your front desk sees updates in real time, avoiding accidental over-bookings.
Revenue management tools: Feeding bid-level data into your pricing engine helps you spot low-demand nights early and adjust floors across every property in one move.
Booking engine and integrated website: By holding your strongest public rates here, you steer satisfied bidding-site guests to book directly on their next stay.

Before you flip the switch, match room types carefully, test a handful of sample dates and confirm that cancellations flow back just as smoothly as new reservations. Once the links are live, you gain a closed loop where bidding sites drive incremental bookings without piling extra work on your team.

Key takeaways:

Connect bidding sites through your channel manager to cut manual updates.
Add bidding sites to your PMS to keep room rates and availability accurate.
Analyse the data from bidding sites to better understand low and high demand and adjust your strategy accordingly.