Priceline Adds Air-Hotel Packages

Internet travel auctioneer Priceline.com (www.priceline.com) last week began offering vacation packages. They include air and hotel only.

Site visitors choose the hotel, the length of stay, dates and amount they want to pay for the trip, including air fare.

Priceline chooses the airline and flight and discloses them only after your bid is accepted (although it says it will ask your permission if the best itinerary includes more than one connection or flights that arrive after midnight). Like all Priceline products, the trip is nonrefundable.

Another caveat: Although Priceline says travelers get to choose “the exact hotel they want,” they are limited to a list provided by Priceline, generally major chains. For instance, for a trip to Chicago from June 5 to 13 researched last week, the site offered four hotels: a Hyatt, a Marriott, Courtyard by Marriott and a Residence Inn.

Priceline markets airline tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars and, since February, cruises.