Priceline.com also reported today that the average published rate for a 3-star or higher hotel in the U.S. for New Year's 2009 is $129, which is slightly less than last year's average published rate of $132. "With room rates in many cities still under pressure, a New Year's getaway is an exceptional value," said priceline.com's in-house travel expert Brian Ek.

For those in search of even deeper savings, there's priceline.com's Name Your Own Price(R) hotel service that can save up to 50% over published hotel prices. With Priceline's Name Your Own Price(R) hotel service, customers pick the dates, part of town, hotel star level and price they want to pay for their room. If that price is accepted by a priceline.com partner hotel, the booking is completed and customers receive their hotel details.

Priceline.com's Top 50 Destinations list is the definitive guide for those who want to find the crowds - or stay away from them on the New Year. To compile the list, priceline.com looked at a sampling of more than 30,000 Name Your Own Price(R) hotel room booking requests made by priceline.com customers for the New Year's holiday. Because the survey is based on actual booking requests, and not on consumer preference polls or votes, priceline.com believes its annual survey is one of the more accurate predictors of New Year's travel trends. Also, by focusing on hotels instead of airline tickets, the priceline.com survey is able to include the travel intentions of consumers who will drive to their destination.

"This year, a handful of cities and destinations were the big winners in the sweepstakes for New Year's revelers," said Ek. "The Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area captured 7 spots on the list, while New York City and Los Angeles/Orange County each took 6 spots, and Las Vegas was named 4 times. The growing strength of New Orleans as a tourist destination was also evident by being named to the #5 and #8 spots on the list."

Priceline.com's Top 50 New Year's Destinations

    1. Las Vegas, Strip Vicinity South
    2. New York City, Chelsea Area
    3. New York City, Times Square/Theater District
    4. Miami, South Beach/Ocean Drive
    5. New Orleans, Downtown
    6. New York City, Empire State Building Area
    7. Atlanta, Downtown
    8. New Orleans, French Quarter
    9. Orlando, Sea World/International Drive/Convention Center
    10. Fort Lauderdale, Beach Area
    11. Las Vegas, Strip Vicinity North
    12. Orlando, Disney Maingate
    13. Key West
    14. Orlando, Lake Buena Vista/Downtown Disney
    15. Maui, Wailea/Makena
    16. Oahu, Waikiki Beach
    17. San Francisco, Union Square West/Nob Hill
    18. New York City, Madison Square Garden/Convention Area
    19. Fort Lauderdale, Downtown
    20. Puerto Rico, San Juan
    21. Chicago, Millennium Park/Loop/Grant Park Area
    22. Las Vegas, Near Las Vegas Strip East
    23. Chicago, North Michigan Ave./River North Area
    24. Oahu, Waikiki Marina Area
    25. San Antonio, Riverwalk Area
    26. Fort Lauderdale, Ft. Lauderdale/Airport North
    27. Miami, South Beach/Collins Ave. Oceanfront
    28. Toronto, Downtown Toronto South
    29. Newark, Meadowlands/Jersey City
    30. Sydney, City Centre
    31. Boston, Harbor Front/Aquarium
    32. New York City, Midtown East
    33. Los Angeles, Central L.A./Hollywood
    34. Atlanta, Midtown
    35. Miami, Miami Beach
    36. Los Angeles, Central L.A./Beverly Hills/West Hollywood
    37. San Diego, Downtown & Harbor Island
    38. Paris, Eiffel Tower/Port de Versailles/Montparnasse
    39. Seattle, Downtown/Pike Place
    40. Rome, Central City
    41. Los Angeles, San Gabriel Valley/Pasadena
    42. Boston, Copley Square/Theater District
    43. New York City, Downtown/SoHo/Financial District
    44. Las Vegas, Convention Center
    45. Miami, Coral Gables/Coconut Grove
    46. Los Angeles, Central L.A./Airport
    47. Amsterdam, City Centre & Museum Quarter
    48. Miami, Downtown
    49. Orange County, Disneyland/Orange/Garden Grove
    50. Orange County, Disneyland/Anaheim

Priceline.com said it has hotel rooms www.priceline.com/hotels/, vacation packages www.priceline.com/vacationpackages/, cruises www.pricelinecruiseoutlet.com, airline tickets www.priceline.com/flights/, and rental cars www.priceline.com/rentalcars/ available for those wishing to celebrate the New Year in a special place. Several last-minute New Year's deals are available at priceline.com's last-minute deals service www.priceline.com/pricebreakers.

In addition to its broad selection of published-price travel products, priceline.com enables customers to save even more by using its Name Your Own Price(R) services for airline tickets, hotel rooms and rental cars. Hotel customers can view Winning Bids http://www.priceline.com/promo/nyop_hotels.asp a new feature that shows recently successful Name Your Own Price hotel bids for hotels in different star levels in cities around the country. Winning Bids suggestions are available for rental cars http://www.priceline.com/promo/rc_nyop_splash.asp. And air travelers can check out priceline.com's Inside Track feature, which offers bidding tips, best days to fly recommendations and more http://travela.priceline.com/insideTrack/flights/.

And, for those New Year's partygoers who find themselves stuck in town without a hotel room, there's always Hotel Negotiator, the new iPhone app from priceline.com. Need a room fast? Shake the phone and the app will go find all the hotels in the immediate proximity. Need bidding help? Shake it again and it retrieves winning bids for hotels in the area. Bidding can be done right through the iPhone. Booking published-price hotel rooms can be done online or by calling priceline.com on the iPhone. To see the demo, visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yhn5N7xcFOw.

About Priceline.com(R) Incorporated

Priceline.com Incorporated (Nasdaq: PCLN) www.priceline.com provides online travel services in 29 languages in 78 countries in Europe, North America, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Included in the priceline.com family of companies is Booking.com, a leading international online hotel reservation service, priceline.com, a leading U.S. online travel service for value-conscious leisure travelers, and Agoda.com, an Asian online hotel reservation service. Priceline.com believes that Booking.com is Europe's largest and fastest growing hotel reservation service, with a network of affiliated Web sites. Booking.com operates in over 70 countries in 24 languages and offers its customers access to over 73,000 participating hotels worldwide.

In the U.S., priceline.com gives customers more ways to save on their airline tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars, vacation packages and cruises than any other Internet travel service. In addition to getting great published prices, leisure travelers can narrow their searches using priceline.com's TripFilter advanced search technology, customize their search activity through priceline.com's Inside Track features, create packages to save even more money, and take advantage of priceline.com's famous Name Your Own Price(R) service, which can deliver the lowest prices available. Priceline.com operates the following travel websites: Travelweb.com, Lowestfare.com, RentalCars.com and BreezeNet.com. Priceline.com also licenses its business model to independent licensees.

SOURCE Priceline.com

http://www.priceline.com