My grandmother often joked with me as a child saying, "you better be rich when you grow up...because you have VERY expensive taste!" And although I would chuckle with her as she threw her head back and laughed heartily, I probably didn't truly understand what she meant. Yet, of course, she was correct in that I grew up to appreciate luxury and quality. Yet, I don't think that you have to be wealthy to achieve that winning combination.

My secret exposed

I hardly ever pay full price for a hotel. My mom, who is a money-saving ninja taught me some tricks many years ago that I'm now passing on to you!

One of my best travel tips is the gambling of travel! I use the Name Your Own Price and Express Deals functions on Priceline.com for hotels and rental cars. Let me take a second to brag. A couple of weeks ago in Phoenix, I paid $77 for a hotel that was $199! Like...what? I've also paid around $9 for a rental car in Philly. You're probably asking...now if you can save that much, why doesn't everyone do it? My guess is that most people probably don't know how to properly navigate (I'll teach you that below) AND there is a bit of risk involved. Here's what you're working with:

Pros: You can save LOTS of money; you can end up with a 4.5 or 5 star hotel that wouldn't typically be within your budget; and you can be more flexible with your trip, not having to plan every single hotel in advance (freedom is the name of the game).
Cons: You don't know what hotel you've bid on until your bid has been accepted and your credit card has been charged; you can't cancel or switch the reservation; you may have to attempt multiple times before an offer is accepted; and you can't collect hotel points.

So, there's a little bit of hoping and praying involved while waiting for that winning bid to come through...but it certainly pays off and I've had nothing but wonderful experiences.

The Health Spa with an indoor/outdoor pool and eucalyptus steam rooms at the 4.5 Star Fairmont Chateau Whistler in BC, Canada.

To help you reap the same money-saving benefits, here are my Priceline.com 7 Keys for Success:

1) Go to Priceline.com and type in the area that you're looking for. Then, use the filters to narrow down to a smaller area within the city (the map view helps) and choose the 4 and 5 star hotels from the filters. Sometimes, you'll find that there's only one 4 star or 5 star hotel in the area. This bit of information comes in handy later because when you're naming your own price or grabbing an Express Deal, you know what you're getting yourself into. For instance, in Richmond, VA, the only 5 star hotel is the Jefferson Hotel. So when bidding on a 5 star in Richmond, you know you're going after the Jefferson. Easy enough, right?

2) Once you have an idea of which hotels are at the star level and the location you're looking for, examine the customer ratings on each of the hotels and then check out the "express deals." You can often figure out what hotel is listed in the "express deals" based on the customer ratings (ex: if the Hilton is the only hotel with a 9.0 customer rating and the express deal says it's for a hotel that has a rating of 9+, then you know it's the Hilton you're bidding on). Now that you know how much the express deals are, you're ready to start naming your own price to see if you can get an even better deal!

Sometimes the Express Deals are worth grabbing. They'll sometimes offer steep discounts in advance whereas the name your own price is best served the day before or the day of your stay.

3) Then scroll all the way to the bottom of the page to check out where it says under "Hotels" and "Rental Cars, "See Winning Hotel/Rental Car Bids." Here you can see what other people have successfully bid on the area for the star you're looking for. It gives you a good baseline for what amount you can bid and expect have accepted.

4) When you name your own price, you aren't quite sure which hotel you're going to get. This is where some risk is involved. I wouldn't recommend staying anywhere less than 3.5 stars (I'm mostly a 4 to 5 star type of gal), so start with the 4 to 5 star hotels and then go to 3.5 if you can't get them for a price you're looking for.

5) So now that you've done your research, you're ready to come up with a bid. Don't be afraid to bid low! I like getting hotels for 40-60% off! The catch is that you'll require time in between bids UNLESS you add another filter. And, that's usually the deals you get when you bid the day before or the day of. If you get your bid rejected, you can add in another area within the city or another star rating. This will allow you to place another name your own price bid.

6) Be sure to create an account and log in. This sometimes allows you to "unlock" better Express Deals.

7) If you HAVE to be in a specific location for an event and want to gamble with the name your own price "risk," be sure to have a backup plan. I don't get too nervous about doing the day before or day-of bids because I'm typically open to changing up the location if needed. But, having a backup plan of staying with friends/family, checking airbnb or vrbo, or even booking at a hotel that has a flexible cancellation policy helps to give you better peace of mind in executing this methodology.

Please leave a comment to let me know any questions you have and keep me updated on your wins and money-saving trips!

Happy Bidding/Saving/Luxury! <3