It is a well known fact for frequent travelers that the best deals and fares for any given trip generally dissapear once you are less than three weeks from your upcoming trip.  Thanks to the internet and multiple travel engines this fact is quickly getting dismissed.

Most of the well known travel sites now have a last minute deals tag.  Even airlines have weekly deals that you can receive via e-mail.  These deals are valid for the week or two week period from the posting date and multiple restrictions can be found, from the length of the trip to specific days of the week in which you can start or end the trip.

What if I have a trip for a particular destination, lets say Los Angeles, CA, and I cannot find any last minute deal for the particular week/weekend that I want to go?  The common case, and if you are familiar with Murphy's law you should know what I'm talking about, is that the deal that you will be looking for will not be available for that particular time/destination.

Still, do not despair, in this particular economy not every hotel is full, not every car is rented and, believe it or not, airlines still work hard to fill out those planes.  For my last couple of trips I have been using a double approach to get each of these at very reasonable prices.  I will call my method the "hotwire-priceline double squeeze"

A final disclaimer before presenting it: This method will not work for everyone regarding Air tickets as Priceline will not let you see your travel times when you bid.  I will explain how to adapt the method once I get to that section

If you have not used them yet, Hotwire is a travel engine that allows you to find deals by showing you the price and some description for what you are looking for (hotel or car) but without giving you the name of the hotel or car company in advance.  For example if you are looking for a hotel in San Francisco for a specific date it will bring you hotels in different ranges or stars for particular areas of San Francisco.  For each type of hotel it will give you examples with well known hotel chains.  In the case of airlines, this site works on a similar way than the other ones.

Priceline, on the other hand, will give you the option of a traditional search, or will let you place a bid with the fare that you are willing to pay.  If you select to bid, you can enter the details of what you want (minimum stars for a hotel, type of car) and you will have to prepay to place your bid.  If your bid is accepted you will find out what car or hotel you got.  In the case of airlines if you elect to bid you will find the time of your flight only if your bid is accepted.  This can be a no-no for a lot of travelers, as you can get a flight as early as 6 am or as late as 10pm.

How does the double squeeze work? With Hotwire you can get a good idea of a price range for a particular hotel or car that you are looking for.  You don't need to commit/prepay to see the price (although you won't know what company you will be dealing with).  If you feel comfortable with what you are being offered you can go ahead and book it... or you can give your deal one more fair shot: Now that you have an idea of prices for hotels and/or car rentals you can switch to Priceline and see if there is a company willing to offer you a similar product at a lesser price!

Make sure you select the same type of options (stars and location for hotels, type of car for rentals) and put a bid somewhere between 10% and 20% below of what you found in Hotwire.  If Priceline does not accept your bid it will give you a counter offer.  Compare the counter offer with what you get from Hotwire and make your choice.  If you have time for your trips you can repeat this process once per day until you find a price that you are willing to pay, or you feel that the deal that you are getting cannot be beat.

Give it a try and let me know.  If you enjoy traveling like I do this will let you maximize your fun and spend the money that you are saving in little extras during the trip.