cleverduck

Thank you for all the responses. There is a fundamental disconnect between how you folks look at this situation and how I perceive it. To a person you all proclaim your dislike for resort fees and how underhanded they are and then you all turn around and support the system with further transactions. Do you think that Priceline and Hotwire or any company or any politician for that matter cares in the slightest about your indignant words of complaint when your actions are contradictory. It would be the easiest thing in the world for these companies to require their partners to structure there bid acceptance based on a final - all in price. Why don't they just do this?, because they all know they can nickle and dime you fine folks and though you talk a good game in the end you won't actually vote with your feet. The other common theme in your responses is that you are still ahead of the game because of the great rates you get and that you've learned to live with being locked into a transaction without knowing how much it is going to actually cost you. The father of a friend of mine once shared with me a PRICELINE EXPRESSion his father had brought from the old country. " Always deal with an honest man, a dishonest man has more ways of cheating you then you have of protecting yourself". You all deserve the system you support and none of you have any business complaining. So though I have no sympathy with you, I do feel sorry for the hotels who have to play the crooked game as it is laid out by these bidding sites. They'd loose a lot of business to their competition hiding their true prices behind these dishonest resort fees if they didn't structure there bid acceptance in the same way. And, I really feel sorry for the hard working desk clerks who are left to try to explain what the heck a resort fee is for to tired and irate travellers when the truth is that its a dirty little trick dreamt up by the folks in marketing. The really scary part in all of this is that although you know what's right and wrong, you keep selling your soul off imperceptible bit by imperceptible bit until you left looking around wondering why you can't trust the political and business leaders you created. I wish you all good luck. I'm travelling a different path.

You're nuts. You're saying that any priceline hotel can hit you with an extra $40 per day, call it a resort fee and that the priceline system has so much as a shred of integrity left in it? Your tone is condescending and unwelcome, your manipulation of my posting shows this website to be a poorly disguised shill for these companies, imo.

Details of my win Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites Universal / Intl. Drive 8214 Universal Blvd Orlando, FL 32819 407-581-9001 Star Rating: 3.5? Orlando zone 9 2 rooms - 1 night Check in: Saturday, February 20, 2010 Winning Bid $44.00 per room

I recently used PRICELINE to book a hotel room with Holiday Inn in Orlando. Upon checking in I was told that the negotiated price the price that I pre-paid and could not be revoked was not in fact the final price. There was now an extra "Resort Fee" that I would have to pay. After a day of travel I was tired, my 5 year old was tired and I didn't have any fight left in me. It was a small amount less than 3 dollars per room per night but that is not the point. If a hotel can tag on extra mystical charges as they please, what is to prevent them from adding on more substantial charges next time. The whole PRICELINE.com system in my opinion breaks down at this point because if you try to take it up with PRICELINE after the fact you will be ignored without so much as the courtesy of a "we-got-your-email" type of response. Priceline failed to respond to my complaints despite my attempts to contact them twice over the last 3 weeks. I will never use PRICELINE.com again.