thesqueegeekid

I would love to see the statistics on how many people buy the water bottles with the clearly marked price of "$too much$" ... but this is industry wide with the exception of Candlewood Suites and their 25 cent soft drinks, free movies or Baymont giving away free coffee and water to everyone. BUT if they are pricing everything for business travel, it make sense to 'milk the cow' some more. Hyatt's response in an article about their $4.25 bottles is that they offer free water to elites and the bottles are clearly price-marked ... essentially, a non-response. Phone calls $$$$$ I imagine, we will see major changes in the next few years as with everything, competition and consumer awareness will set in.

Another biggie of a difference in the new hotwire system is you no longer have to be registered or sign in to perform a search. This lets anyone off the street so to speak, come in and see what prices they have to offer. This is huge as many would have linked away not wanting to sign up for something before having a reason too. Hotwire for those that do not know PL is an amazing alternative for prices ... IF YOU are willing to gamble a little.

It was originally about just PL (thesis) ... but now that I have concluded I have no solution, or PL is not ready to tinker with other ideas and all our customer suggestions serve deaf ears... I am now taking a more general look at the whole industry. This summer I will travel or spend 90 straight hotel nights in Chicago, Philly, Boston, DC, MD, NJ, CT .... stringing together facts (cheaper than rent too thanks to PL). Funny, I would have had a lot less to do to get a job if I had gone to B-school 3-5 years ago. I have a strong background in restaurants so that is my 'cancelable back-up reservation' so to speak (LOL)!!! I wonder if PL could loosen up a little on their "no refund" policy ... is that part of their agreement with the chains??? Especially when in every other aspect of our consumer lives, we are treated by better and better customer service. Wal-Mart .... return anything for any reason. Also, if they can sneakingly offer their bonus money to boost earnings ... look at the stock today up 30%+ than they could at least sneakingly provide better customer service. They are making customers out to be idiots on every attempt to contact them or with their 'one time exception'. There are a million examples we have all read ... the lady at check-in who is given a hard time getting her room. I mean, PL MUST have an immediate response for this problem. She will never use PL again and tell 29 other people not too either. Willtravel, I see you are equally interested in hotel data and the hows and whys??

OK here is a statistic that blew me away... In all hotel rooms booked in the USA, the percentage of all guests that purchase pay-per-view adult movies is 40-50%. It took me a long time and much debate to see the reality in that number. Now, if you factor in that 80% of hotel rooms are booked by business'men' than the statistic makes more sense. The hotels as a practice do not show 'adult movie' on invoices and of course, companies paying travel expenses foot the bill. Marriott has taken some heat from this from his community and in the press as the owner/founder is Mormom. BUT after revealing that they earns millions in additional revenue ... why would they give it up. Omni is the only hotel company that has removed adult movies from all their hotels ... and I guess, there goes their 'business' customers over to the competition. With all the news about company scandals and 'fraudulent' numbers ... I am surprised they have not cracked down even more on travel expenditures .... in the end, once hotels have to post an adult movie as an adult movie on the bill, the revenue will fall and perhaps Omni will have the last laugh.

You are totall right theure, let also me add that ... catch-22 = failing proposition People will not bid let alone register until they know a reason too .... Hotwire smartened up in their system upgrade by allowing you to get prices without being registered. Before, you were stopped by the sign-in screen which scared off many users. BUT if we had the solution for PL we'd .... well, I'd be sitting there in Norwalk, CT in the head office making some cushy coin... (Got to keep digging). Another major flaw with PL is what happens after a customer gets an accepted offer and the emotions they have through. First they click on the hotel website link which is frustrating because PL only links you to the main Hotel chain website. Second, they check everywhere and anywhere else to see if they indeed got a good deal. We have all done this and can relate (of course before discovering the message boards). This is technically called "cognitive dissonance" where one re-assures themselves in a post-purchase situation. With PL ... they have not made this any better/easier with the hotel link, or even showing immediate prices from other sources to make the customer feel GREAT. Hence, the low 65% repeat customer rate.

PL/UK/HK ... are exceptional. I mean look at the bonus money offered by UK 10 pounds or about $15.9 US off per night. I have a friend in the UK who booked 3 nights in Chicago at the Oakbrook Hilton Garden Inn for a 5 pound bid ... total per night for three nights in US$ .... $12.50. I paid $27 including taxes and fees on PL/US for the same three nights. UK/HK/SG are trying very hard to build their business ... I still can't believe that PL was able to attract hotels overseas to offer low prices. The hotel industry blows my mind. The most fascinating of all is the posters on flyertalk who are paying $100's per night and relish their elite points ... BUT in their case, some company is paying and they get to blow all their points themselves. PL also can not work for the business travel as has been pointed out a million times over there.

Interesting info ... imagine having their call center in India ... why not, everyone should do it too. I wonder how they can still ensure the phone call quality in terms of connection and of course ... phone costs. These cheap calling cards we see now-a-days have zero costs as they use the internet .. hence, all the echos, and bad connections. I read your post on the other board and was trying to find an article I read once to respond to it ... I had google searched Priceline + secret + ???? ... and the article discussed how priceline actually chooses the hotel after the bid has come in, the margin required and than if not met, a secondary search at a smaller margin. If I find it again, I will post it (but I have to remember the actual search terms I used before). As to whether PL has affected Corporate bookings .... not a chance. In fact, PL would be much more successful if it were allowed to reveal how cheap their hotel rooms really are. If you look at ads online ... it says "so and so saved this much %" or "recently booked prices 3* NYC $115" ... they inflate the prices for two reasons ... one is to get people to bid higher and second, they are NOT ALLOWED to reveal their prices at all. In their agreements with every partner, they can not make attempts to steal away those that would have booked paying higher amounts. They can essentially only compete with other online discounters. They would kick A$$ by revealing the real deals like 3* Hyatt Regency Miami $27 ... This is going to be their downfall as how can they market their competitive advantage. My opinion is ... you and I would tell that many more people if we were rewarded for doing so. They must set up a referral bonus ... even something small like bonus money. PL/HK has just offered 2 free movie tickets if you refer 6 people ... now that is too low BUT something worthwhile. They are known for their word-of-mouth advertising but they need to speed things up a little or a lot because Expedia, Hotels.com and Travelocity are making huge gains. Hmmmmm the new company started by the hotel majors ... the name escapes me (travelweb.com I think) will also have a major impact once they start their campaign. As easily as PL is getting these deals from hotels, they can be taken away finishing up PL forever.

You have to remember one thing .. that PL as great as it is to us, still represents only 1% of the total hotels booked online. I read an article which mentioned that in some cases, PL has helped the 'off the strip', or 'out of town' hotels as normal drive by 'traditional' customers never reached them. By setting the lowest price on PL, they have increased there business significantly (which still may be only 2-10% of 'online' bookings). If only hotel revenue managers were that smart... In fact, not all pay that much attention to any one individual report. My cousin from the Holiday Inn, she has a 4* Hilton which accepts $30 (less than her price) so any bid pretty much ends up getting upgraded to the 4*. In the $35 - $40 range, there are two participating 3*'s that share the remaining few bids. As the minimum bid for a 4* is set by Priceline's system at $40, that Hilton does really well in the zone essentially cannobolizing the bids because naturally, knowledgable people start off there. As an individual owner, she feels the pinch of setting her price too low BUT the smart ones are area revenue managers of chains who see how even getting $20 a night keeps things moving, staff are employed and look at the 'marginal cost' of the night's stay (essentially nothing). An example of this is .... I believe the corp. name is Mayfair properties in and around New Jersey which sets the prices of their Radissons effectively to win the majority of the bids (in Princeton, Holtsville, Saddle Brook ... their hotels have recently been acquired and renovated and this helps them fill all the empty rooms). Prime which owns the Sheraton Meadowlands NJ, and is the franchisor of Amerisuites is a another perfect example as you can see, all area Amerisuites accept the same low of $33. When the Radisson started coming up again at $37, they dropped their price of the Sheraton to $36. So the PL reports help but only so much. Another interesting tid bit of info is that Marriott hotels and most others must do 3 'phone arounds' every day to all area hotels and find out the avg. rack room rate and occupancy. This list is than faxed to their head office for future pricing decisions. If anyone has any other PL/hotel related info ... I would love to have it as I am trying to finish my thesis on the this very subject!!!

I know that this system has recently changed where before, hotels were not even paid for no-shows and the charge to PL's Corp. master card was only billed after the stay. The only thing that has changed now is that the hotel gets a fee for no-shows. PL still pays after the stay has been confirmed by the hotel and for that matter, the payment comes in a month later. One of the added benefits to the hotels is that with their payment, they get a zone report which shows the relative PL activity for all the hotels in the zone. It is an incentive for hotels to sign up regardless of how they set their price and what inventory they offer (My cous. has a Holiday Inn that participates with PL).

I agree with your "hotwire is better" in certain scenarios but it leads me to a question. I have read where with PL when winning a 'suites' hotel, they have still offered guests an oddball typical room which some hotels have just a few of. In this case, it is tough to argue as our PL agreement simply promises a deluxe room. I read an example of this with an Embassy Suites in Secaucus, NJ. Because Hotwire displays the suite icon/ammenity, does this mean you are garaunteed the suite or can the hotel pull the same stunt on you??? I am assuming that with hotwire you have better grounds for disputing with the person at check-in.

Their repeat business numbers are still sitting around 65% and we can imagine the last round of bonus money helped their sales. Funny thing about PL, they have 'earned' their revenue from the minute our bids are accepted and they get to sit on the money until our actual reservation is complete before paying for it (which can be months away). The other online companies like Expedia and the market leader Hotels.com (both now owned by the same parent) had really strong earnings released a couple days ago. I still can not believe how well Hotels.com is doing there ads are cheezy and even their website ... but they at least show you what you get and have the most easily recognizable/memorable name. PL's own lowestfare.com will be interesting to watch over the next few quarters ... I think it has no chance.

BUT now it is a crap-shoot to find a city that it recognizes. I tired some of the same towns in Long Island, NY that PL offers and Hotwire did not even redirect me to something close by. BUT I do agree, that drop down took along time and Hotwire also has many more offerings in each zone like Meadowlands, NJ. BUT all in all, what is good is Hotwire when we get prices on PL that are 10 times better!!!

Hampton Inn & Suites or Springhill Suite ... my guess is Sprinhill as they require more than all other 2.5*'s. Just check the websites of both to see which gived the free breakfast.

Well if he's going to be busy deleting posts anyway... I just had a microwave dinner ... Stouffer's slow roasted roast beef with mashed potatoes BUT what is the point of the "slow roasting" if we are going to microwave the damn thing for 5 minutes???

Interesting to find out but it would take much more effort as with my Seattle rental experience, they tack on all the local airport specific charges etc. I'll do some fiddling with the numbers when I get freed up from school work!!

Thought this would be an intersting post (when you are on your way to your PL booked hotels). Free bottled waters and coffee for anyone anytime at all Baymont Inn and Suites. This is their attempt to get tired drivers to take a short break from their travels regardless of whether you are staying there. This also helps their image and creates awareness for your futures stays. The article also mentioned that drivers are often worried about stopping at "middle of nowhere" rest stops are gas stations.

A friend bid this today ... tried $30+10, than $35+10 and he got this on his last free rebid. Taxes were $7.12 Used one of the bonus money links posted by Azri on the board.

Thanks again, I just showed a friend over the phone how to bid for Quebec City, Canada and made him click through one of the bonus links.

You should be able to access it again .. as the last ones were re-usable. I tried a couple bids with the offer I grabbed and all were unsuccessful. I gave up anyways and the link from the board still showed the bonus.

I grabbed one near the bottom ... thanks. Please do tell how you pulled off so many of them as I am positive we will all be wondering the same thing.

I have to admit, I get a chuckle everytime I see the name "squeegee" in a response. Back in Toronto, I swore I would end up on the streets squeegeeing cars if I lost too much day trading ... hence the name!!!

3* Doubletree Jantzen Beach <<SP? $33 a friend went there recently. He booked a whole week so I am guessing they accept always. It is also fairly close to Portland. His sister also stops there often on her way to Cali and either gets it or the downtown doubletree .... she bids $33 and takes whichever comes up.

Make sure in your profile to select that you want to recieve special offers and promotions. Another trick is to open up different accounts with different emails. Set up the account, make a ridiculous bid and than thats it ... from past experience, those who use PL less than others get the bonus offer to get them hooked. Also, PL tends to mass email bonus offers before it reports quarterly earnings to boost revenue and the percentage of repeat business which it recently boasted to be in the 60% range. This is an improvement from where it used to be in the 30's% but I mean how can a business survive without high satisfaction and repeat business ... leads to questions like why the customers did not come back.

Actually this happened to me .... On my recent trip to Seattle/Vancouver, I got hit by a car in the rental car garage exactly 15 minutes after landing. It was an AVIS driver who did not see me standing there. So, after being rushed to the hospital, breaking my arm and crushing my foot, I had may records including a police report to show why I did not use my booked hotels rooms or rental car. Priceline said they would refund my money with a $25 cancelation fee per night.... but I had only paid $30 a night for my rooms leaving me with $5 refund. I told them where they could put their fiver. After a second phone call to a different person, she was kind enough to at least refund the rental car which I could not drive minus the processing fee of course. Being a sympathetic Canadian, it tool a lot to convince me but I have finally gotten a lawyer to take car of the matter against AVIS .... was told this is basically routine and happens all the time. Just wait for the generous check in the mail in about 6-9 months. The claim will also include the lost PL. On a happier note, the flight back was over booked and I got a $400 Delta voucher for waiting another day :)

(Typo should have read "rescue" in the subject) BUT than again, their 'rescue' was more of a big pain in the a$$...!!! I wasn't sure where to post this but thought it was interesting for other to read... A funny thing when I was bidding for Boston recently... by accident I clicked on the wrong dates and bid the week before and got accepted. I called customer service to explain and they were nice enough to give me a chance to correct the problem as one of their famous "one time exceptions". BUT and this is a big BUT ... I had to follow a specific set of rules which inluded: - have to bid the same zones and may add a zone but can not delete one - may not increase the star level just keep the same or lower it - can not decrease the price just increase - must start bidding withing 48 hours - must change either the check-in date, check-out date or both - fill in the required form and send it back to us If this was not completed as required, they would charge me their $25/night cancelation fee :) Man, that was incredible and plus, after bidding Boston, I had no idea which zones I had added in my free bids. It turns out, they knew and told me after I sent my confirmation that I had not included all the required zones (I left one out) BUT as a "one time exception" they pardoned me. Oh yeah, I had to lose just the PL processing fee. I did end up getting the exact same hotel for the same price for dates exactly one week later.