Priceline Hotel: 4* London (Bloomsbury - Marble Arch - Kings Cross Station and British Museum) Holiday Inn Bloomsbury

[elyagout]

I would like to speak about my first booking with priceline. When i booked under (name your own price) option, i expect to have a deal with no less than 30% from other websites (booking, hotels, expedia ..etc), however i recieved a booking of the hotel with no discount at all. The total price they gave me was higher than the price in other websites with 70$. After having a chat with their customer support they refund me 70$. At the end, when i had the deal i didn't got any deal ! and i had the same price in booking, hotels, and priceline normal website ! Also i didn't choose my hotel. Their customer support said that they will refund me with any difference with the price the day before check in !

Any suggestion or help for my matter

 

The price was 170$

the hotel is Holiday inn Bloomsbury

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

 

Please reply to this thread with the dates of your stay so we can add this information to the topic title and enable your win to correctly appear in the Priceline and Hotwire Calendar of Wins and Priceline Maps.

 

I'm sorry to hear that you didn't receive a deal on your hotel, but when naming your own price, you are the one who sets the amount you're willing to pay, not PRICELINE, as they will simply try to see if they can find a hotel that will accept a room for your dates of travel at the price you specify.  So let's say you (for whatever reason) bid $500 per nite for this trip, PRICELINE will see if they can find a hotel that will accept this price (which i'm sure they probably could have) and charge you that amount.  It's your responsibility to ensure that the amount of your bid would be a 'good' price for a hotel of that star rating for your dates. 

 

Besides the historical information on the board, if you use our BiddingHelper.com you can see what HOTWIRE is charging for a hotel of that star rating in the zone, see what PRICELINE EXPRESS is charging for a hotel for that star rating in the zone, as well as our new IS THIS A GOOD PRICE feature which will show you regular rates of hotels of the same star rating in the area... if you had used any of these tools you would have likely seen that the amount you were naming was too much, which would have prevented this overbid.

 

There are also strategies that you can use when placing your bid that will enable you to make multiple bid attempts within the same session, and allow you to start your bidding at a low amount and gradually increase, which ensures you get the lowest price possible.

 

In the future feel free to ask the board for help before you purchase and we will try to help you land a more satisfactory outcome.

 

Please remember to return to BetterBidding and use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases... or thru our sister site MAPSandHOTELS.com for your regular rate purchases.

[elyagout]

Date 29 April to 5th May

Holiday inn bloomsbury

 

There will be no future attempts for me on PRICELINE anymore

I'll go for Hotel.com in future

 

Thanks & Regards

[thereuare]

Thank you for the additional information.

 

Of course it's your choice if you choose to not use PRICELINE again, but i would suggest not writing them off so quickly as there can certainly be significant savings by using the 'opaque' providers.  For example i just did a quick search for your dates and the 'right' amount to bid would have been in the $100-$125 range.  If you do decide to try them again, in the future, ask the board for help and i'm confident we can help you land a more satisfactory deal (or you could also consider HOTWIRE as another 'opaque' option).

 

If you choose to only book thru traditional booking channels in the future, you may want to give our sister site MAPS and HOTELS.com a look as it offers once of the best user interfaces, making it easy for users to see how much a hotel will be in their ideal location (or at their ideal hotel) and how much more/less it would cost to go up/down in star rating or to stay closer/further from their ideal location.

 

Hope you enjoy your upcoming London trip.