watch for an announcement on the main priceline website, e.g. they had similar refund notices on their webpage for people during the hurricane season last year
I saw today some lady asked about her son having a Priceline reservation and he's over 18 and she wanted to know about the age policy....
so instead of Sheryl saying "techincally if you're not 21, they have a right to not let you son check-in.........but in most cases hotels won't make a fuss unless it's a very fancy hotel or if you cause trouble..........and sometimes if they do gripe about the age you can slip somebody some cash or point out the fact that a credit card will guarantee the room for incidentals if they still don't trust you, or to cut off pay features to the room"
for example like we did HERE at BB:
BUT instead she says "Just because your stay is prepaid, that doesn't give you a license to break the rules"
that's terrible!
then the poor lady asks anybody else for their experiences<<<<I'm sure that just bought her a one-way ticket to being banned
:)
that link requires a membership, try this ONE instead
after you get your win, if you won't be arriving till late at night just call on the phone and check-in so you don't lose your room
people check-in late all the time, as long as you take the right precautions you should be fine
nothing can stop you from trying, but you might not have a lot of luck winning if priceline disagrees with you about star rating
work your way down
because if you bid on 3*, you're accepting 3* but if it's not available you'll accept anything higher then 3*
usually you start a brand new bid if you need to try a lower star level and when you do yes you usually try a lower amount
never going to happen, you can't just call a hotel and tell THEM what you're going to pay!
just go to savingsbarn.com and click the HOTWIRE link
No, the Resort Fee is not part of what you paid. Typically you pay it upon check-out and the Resort Fee is $13 per night.
when she gets mad she doesn't get into public fights, she just deletes their posts and bans them
This has always been the 'issue' and what makes the typical non-BetterBidding user scared to try Priceline... and in my opinion none of the above changes that.
I think most who have replied to this thread are in agreement, but where i disagree and the problem i have with this thread is this quote:I don't believe that the above is accurate and it implies "not happy with your hotel, find it rated lower and priceline will be forced to refund your money" which i think is very far from accurate and a very BIG leap to take from what the above priceline policy actually states.
as for the exact hotel, I just made it up as an example........
like I said before the language isn't clear EITHER way, this is all somebody needs to make a case for a refund..............when the credit card companies aren't dealing with fraud and it's online the only way they can side with the customer is when the exact language of the contract/rules online aren't clear
I had a similar situation with some online sites where I wasn't defrauded out of my money, but wasn't satisfied with my product either and the online retailer refused a refund but I took a screenshot of their refund policy, which they had changed shortly after I had asked for a refund, before they made the change and it was very similar............the language was vague, although it didn't clearly side with my view, it didn't clearly side with the retailer's view either, so this is what won the case for me
this was for something fairly cheap that I fought hard for, if somebody is spending hundreds of dollars on a vacation for them and their families and believe they've been swindled I have no doubt they would fight just as hard
all I'm trying to say is that this is a new addition to the rules, and PL may be getting more then they're bargaining for...........personally I don't know when I'll be able to make a PL reservation anytime soon so it doesn't affect me that much
"compared other sites", what if there's vast discrepancy between PL and another site......that leaves grounds for the customer to be displeased........this is why a person would ask for a refund and rightfully deserve one IMOCompared other sites, check. Doesn't say matches. Just compared.
mmm I actually missed that......They do not guarantee that their star ratings match. If you would have continued searching their FAQ, you would have seen this:
well actually, this opens up a bigger can of worms then!....because the 2 statements are contradictory to me at least
thanks lowballer, I agree with priceline ratings 90% of the time too.....but there seems to be a lot of people who aren't as luckyufjoe makes a good point. The law supersedes Priceline's FAQ. How much wiggle room is in Priceline's star ratings, and how much force this "guarantee" really has, is a matter of valid debate.I'm OK with Priceline's ratings maybe 90% of the time. But they're not perfect; I stayed at a blatantly misrated 3* just a couple weeks ago. It would reflect well on PL to stand behind their ratings and respond to complaints.
right, but if the contract has contradictory statements then you can make a caseThat statement was not an attacking or sarcastic statement. If he had provided his friend a complete picture of the facts, they possibly would have came to a different conclusion.
You are entering into a contract with priceline when bidding. They clearly do not guarantee that their star levels match other services.
If PL is unwilling to lay out a recourse available to customers when a hotel is misrated, what exactly makes it a "guarantee"? My complaint here is not with anyone's opinion in this thread, but with PL. If it's not a guarantee, isn't it unethical to for PL to call it that? People are OK with this?
I just checked whether AAA guarantees its ratings. A 2005 TourBook states: "When you find your room is not as specified... you should be given the option of choosing a different room or finding one elsewhere. Should you choose to go elsewhere and a refund is refused or resisted, submit the matter to AAA/CAA within 30 days along with complete documentation..." "As specified" presumably means conforming to everything printed in the TourBook such as amenities and diamond level.
A legal contract is two-sided. Both buyer and seller have obligations. And generally, if the seller contradicts himself in the contract by saying "star level is guaranteed" in one place and "star level is not guaranteed" in another... then the buyer pretty much wins any disputes.
exactly!
Most of us frequent PL users have stayed in misrated hotels by now. (If you haven't, consider yourself lucky.) Most of us know of zones to stay away from and levels not to bid -- thanks in part to this board. Doesn't this taint the PL experience? Wouldn't PL be more useful if we had a more consistent idea of what a 3* was?
Finally, while it's fair game to point someone to a link or posted FAQ answer a question or support one's point, statements such as "If you would have continued searching their FAQ, you would have seen..." come across as crass and remind me of That Other Place. PL's Web site is not the easiest to navigate or completely digest (I think this is a bit intentional on PL's part), and usually we're nicer here. Something like "Elsewhere in their FAQ, it states..." would have been friendlier. Others may disagree, and I'm cool with that.
:)
We've seen the All-Star hotels (Disney hotels) coming up thru priceline recently.....anybody else excited to see Disney participating with priceline?
"compared star ratings assigned by other rating services"
this is where they might be getting into more then they're bargaining for.....
say I ask for a refund based on this and priceline refuses, all I have to do is provide my credit card company with that specific quote to secure my win
I will admit the language is a little vague....so not everybody will see it the same as me
I love priceline and have never been disappointed by priceline's ratings, unlike Hotwire
I showed the line to a friend of mine in the legal world, and they said they leave themselves open to problems by phrasing it that way
personally, I'm a little sad.......I haven't made a priceline reservation for 7 months :)
I recommended to my friend to use priceline, but they've never used their credit card online before so they were asking me a zillion questions about what kind of guarantee they will have about the whole experience and they were just skeptical of priceline in general, so I was getting stuff in writing for them and noticed this new addition for hotels:
Quality Experience Guarantee
Just because you're saving a lot of money on your hotel stay doesn't mean you're sacrificing quality. We guarantee that you'll always purchase a quality hotel when you Name Your Own Price
nice to see Disney properties coming up!
great rate!!
wait, I'm confused, if you got it for $73 and say that you didn't save as much as your usual discount of half price......that means the going rate would have to have been less than $146....let's call it $120 and you're saying you could stay for $60 normally
well normally the going rate for the Gaylord is quite expensive....I can't see what it was for 4/1 but for this week it's $200 and up for the rest of this month.......and if you were getting a half price discount you'd be paying more like $100 which is actually more expensive then people typically get the Gaylord on here....
unless the going rate for the Gaylord was far below $146 for 4/1? (doesn't seem likely to me but maybe I'm wrong)
a good place to mention such things would be in the Hotel Reviews forum or check tripadvisor.com
Priceline reservations can't gurantee bedding type, smoking preference, etc. The best thing to do is upon check-in ask for it but they might not be able to accomodate you. 50/50 shot but that comes with the territory of using priceline. If you book directly you can request bedding and smoking preferences and supposedly have a gurantee (but that's not alway true anyways!), etc. but of course it's much more expensive.
^ lol, yep but I do admit I used them ONCE before and it DID save me money, but my point is it only saved me a few dollars below direct booking rate
I can't seem to get into the Universal-SW zone, it instead goes back to the Dowtown zone. It appears some zones work and others don't.
Say I go from Downtown to Lake Buena Vista, then the other zones I have to choose from changes as well which is crazy!
Thereuare if you noticed this tonight, maybe this is a very recent change to Hotwire (i.e., maybe since yesterday). So perhaps they're not done working out all the kinks. I think the interface is bad, but as for not loading the correct zone that's a problem with the website that will likely be reported by anybody who tries to look for an opaque hotel. Even when it is fixed, still the interface is silly and is enough to drive a person away from their site for sure. Next time I need a reservation I definitely won't be using HW.
Thereuare, it appears you enter your city:
e.g., Orlando, FL
and hotwire selects some region for you (seems to come up with downtown area first)
and lists opaque hotels in that region (downtown)
then scroll down and it says "Still shopping? We've got great deals nearby:" and that's how you can view the other zones in that city (Airport, Airport West, Altamonte Springs, Universal)
it does seem like a really bad idea though
I've never been a fan of Hotwire because their star ratings are inflated and people never seem to save much money, I prefer priceline anyday.
to the original poster: I made a mistake in saying you're locked in at the winning bid price if you use the "add a night" feature, the price can definitely be different
Add me to the TOBB *banned* list!
in Off Topic: Run of House
Posted
here's another act of her bitchiness:
somebody posted an unhappy stay recently at the Nikki Bird that they think Priceline shouldn't call it a 2.5* hotel and it was just awful
so Sheryl replies:
"Thanks for the heads up.....It's unfortunate that it took this for you to start posting.....Will you start posting your bids at the time you obtain them?"
:)