[cornishgirl]

Two questions:

1. On the Priceline UK site, some hotels have star ratings while others have diamond ratings. If I bid on, say, a 3* hotel, might they give me a 3-diamond hotel instead? Some aren't rated at all, so am I correct in thinking these wouldn't be considered in a bid?

2. Also, just to confirm .... if I bid on a 3* hotel, and one isn't available, I might be offered a higher rated one -- but not a lower; am I right?

Appreciate all the great info. on this board.

Thanks.

[ufjoe21]

1) Priceline only uses star ratings, if you see any other rating system it's not part of selecting your hotel (it's to help you that's all), the hotels you see available on the priceline site aren't necessarily hotels that will come up through Name Your Own Price, so don't base your bid on that

2) correct

[thereuare]

Just to clarify... priceline will actually look for the higher star rating first at the amount your bid, and then if unsuccessful, look "down the star rating chain" until they reach the minimum star rating that you selected. So if they do find a higher star rated hotel than the minimum level you selected, you're not "offered" it... the room will immediately be booked for you for the nite(s) you specified.

[cornishgirl]

Thanks for the quick replies; very helpful.

One other thing: I wanted to bid on a 4* in a zone but am given the possibility of only 3* and 2* categories--even though Priceline has 4* hotels listed in the zone in question. I wonder why that is.

[dahammer]

are you referring to the "shop and compare" feature of Priceline? The hotels shown in here don't always participate in the "name your own price", or "opaque" side of Priceline.

[cornishgirl]

Yes. ah, OK -- that explains it.

Thanks.

[jedikiah]

The Priceline UK retail side sells guest houses as well as hotels. The classification scheme for guest houses in most of the UK was diamonds until January 2006. .Now everything is stars, although of course a 4* hotel is not the same as a 4* guest house. The same scheme is now used by the AA, RAC, VisitBritain, VisitScotland and Wales Tourist Board but until all properties have been assessed the old diamond ratings linger on.

However, it seems that already a 4* guest house has 'leaked' into the name-your-own-price side as a 4* hotel, from a post elsewhere.