I have booked many rooms in US and Canadian cities via Priceline.com. Never had a problem until now. While searching for a solution to the problem, I discovered this forum. Anyway, let me begin. I made several bids over a 2-week period for a 4* Boston (Boston Common - Theater District) hotel. Started with $90 and got rejected. My final bid of $155 was accepted. ($155 per night for a 3-day weekend stay, checking in on Friday 1/20) The hotel that I received was the 4-star Omni Boston Parker House which was in a very nice downtown location. When my husband and I checked in around 7pm, the front desk clerk was extremely friendly. When she learned that we were in Boston to celebrate our anniversary, she congratulated us and wished us a great time in Boston. Then we went up to the room. As soon as the door opened, my first thought was "Houston, we have a problem up here"(Apollo 13). :( The room was EXTREMELY small. Normally, that wouldn't be a problem, since we rarely hang around the room and prefer to explore the city instead. The hotel is just a nice place to sleep. Unfortunately, the bed was also extremely SMALL. It was so small that when my husband and I lie on the bed, there was only 2 inches of space left on either side of us. My husband is slim 6-foot 180-pound guy and I'm only 5-foot-4 130-pound. Out of curiosity, I measured the bed using my carry-on case, which I knew was exactly 22-inch x 8-inch. The mattress was 52 inches wide and 72 inches long. (72 inches is exactly 6 feet, which is my husband's height... when he had his up against the headboard, his feet were sticking out by about half inch) Needless to say, it was uncomfortably small. I'm sure only two small adults, or two high school kids, can fit on the bed. Edit: I just went to the my kids' room and measured the mattress on their bunk beds. The single mattress is 39 inches wide. This means the mattress at the Omni hotel room was only 13 inches wider than a child-size bunk bed. :( We went down stairs and asked if there was a larger room(or at least another room with a larger bed). The same front desk clerk who was friendly 5 minutes early became very agitated. She started lecturing us about how the room was exactly what their contract with Priceline specified: room for 2 people. She appeared to be 5-foot-6 and 150-pounds. I asked her politely if she would feel comfortable in that room with her husband/boyfriend. She replied "probably not, but then I would not book through priceline" :( She did offer to "upgrade" us to a room with a queen bed for $50 extra per night. I felt it was unreasonable and turned it down. The manager(or night manager?) came over and said that we needed to book directly with the hotel next time if we want a room that two people can sleep comfortably in. I do understand that Priceline makes no guarantee of bed size or type, but this was ridiculous. We gave up and decided to go back to the room. At that moment, my husband got a call from his office so he went off to a corner to talk business. I just walked around the front desk area. After a few seconds, I overheard the manager and the clerk saying "don't worry about it, they are just another couple of cheapskates that wanted to cheat us by getting deals off Pricline..." (exact quote which I will never forget) I was so tired at that point, I didn't feel like confronting them. When my husband was done on the phone, we went back upstairs. After tossing and turning for half an hour, my husband gave up and let me have the bed to myself. He called housekeeping and asked for an extra blanket and sheets. The houskeeping was super fast and came over within 2 minutes. The lady asked if we needed to have the bed made again or something. We told her that it was so that my husband could sleep on the floor by the foot of the bed. She looked amused but said it wasn't the first time someone complained about the size of the bed. To sum it up, my husband spent three nights on the floor thanks to Omini Parker House cheating Priceline and us. From now on, I will avoid bidding for 4-star hotels in downtown Boston using Priceline because I do not want to end up at Omni Parker House again. (on the other hand, if I was only staying by myself, then the room is fine.... or not... because it was still $155 a night on Priceline) By the way, Bettebidding.com is a very nice website. I'm just sorry that I haven't heard of it until now. It was probably because I've never had problems with hotels booked on priceline. In the last year alone, we've booked 14 stays on Priceline. (plus 9 or 10 stays on Hotwire)
