Priceline Hotel: 3.5* San Diego (La Jolla) San Diego Marriott La Jolla

[BargainMamma]

First time bidding. Such a newb!

 

My emphatic apologies for not using link here. I promise to do this in the future!!

 

I started my bid on Priceline for La Jolla 4* @ $80.

Then, 3.5* @ $100.

Next, 3* @ $105. 

Last, 2* @ $110.

Offered Express 3.5* @ $118. Accepted.

 

Room Subtotal: $118.00
Travel Insurance: $5.00
Taxes & Fees: $23.84
Total Charged to Card: $146.84

 

Aok with reservation. Will improve next time!

 

Valerie

[AaronJB]

Congrats on your success and Welcome to Betterbidding. :)

Very nice win for this Marriott property! Hope you are looking forward to your stay.

 

Thank you for sharing your win and please use the site's PRICELINE or HOTWIRE links to start your purchases and searches.

 

Enjoy your stay.

[BargainMamma]

Thank you and good to hear it's a good win.

Will be using the site's PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links in the future!!

 

Valerie

[BargainMamma]

Ok, so I'm really IRKED right now. While researching the directions to the Marriott, I saw that Priceline is offering this deal for the Sheraton in the same area with the same stars!!

 

Room Cost:

avg. per room, per night

$109.00

Rooms: 1

Nights: 1

Room Subtotal: $109.00

Taxes:

$13.76We've chopped fees on this hotel.

Total Charges:

$122.76

 

This deal was not made available to me while bidding or with the Express deal. Apparently, as a newb, I assumed incorrectly that Priceline would make available to me the best deals via bidding etc. and that a search would not be necessary. I called and explained this to customer service at Priceline and they are adamant that this is not their problem. This is utterly horrible customer service practice and doubt I will be using Priceline again if this doesn't get resolved. 

 

Any worthwhile advice is welcomed.

I am going to work on canceling this purchase through my bank.

 

Valerie

[thereuare]

Just to clarify a few things...

To begin, your bidding strategy was not sound, as you lowered your star rating while increasing your bid price, which can often lead to an overbid, as discussed here: If You Lower Your Quality Level then Lower Your Bid Price.

PRICELINE EXPRESS is a part of priceline's service where the star rating, zone, price, and amenities of the hotel are shown but not the hotel name... based upon your description above i suspect you didn't purchase thru PRICELINE EXPRESS but received what we refer to as a counter-offer, where your bid was rejected but you were told "we couldn't find a hotel at $xx, but if you're willing to pay $yy, then we can get you a hotel right now".

Each side of PRICELINE ('retail', bidding, and PRICELINE EXPRESS) operates separately and hotels that participate in one side of their service don't necessarily participate in another side of their service. It's quite possible that PRICELINE didn't have any inventory for the Sheraton thru the bidding side of their service (only thru the 'retail' side of their service), for if they did, they would have accepted your $110 bid (since the price at the Sheraton is less than this).

While you might have a case if you won the Sheraton and paid more than the current retail rate, and PRICELINE does have a 'Best Rate Guarantee' in instances where somebody may overbid and pay more than the current 'retail' rate for the hotel they won, but as you're trying to compare the rate you paid for the Marriott to the rate for an entirely different 3.5* hotel, so this isn't applicable.

If you do decide to use PRICELINE (or HOTWIRE) in the future feel free to ask the board for help and we'll try to assist in obtaining a more favorable outcome.

Good luck!