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Priceline Hotel: Resort San Antonio (West) Radisson Hill Country


betsybug
By betsybug,
in

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Bidding for a relative and need two rooms - it's Michigan spring break but not spring break in Texas. The tickets are bought.but we can't get hotel rooms.

Much to my surprise, all the PL 4* hotels for Downtown-Riverwalk on this board are SOLD OUT! All the known PL 3* hotels for this zone are SOLD OUT except for Crowne Plaza. The rate there is $111 for first two nights and $135 for next two nights pre-paid. The Crowne Plaza availability makes my bidding limit $115.

The San Antonio CVB - and I - have no idea what has caused the hotel shortage. There are no conventions, events (Fiesta starts on April 15), or local spring breaks. We are baffled.

Is it worth trying to bid with sold out rooms? And does anyone out there know why San Antonio is SOLD OUT for those dates?

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Hotwire does look like a better option. I've identified the 4* at $95 as the St. Anthony Wyndham. I think the 3* at $59 is the Holiday Inn Market Square - rest. pool, laundry. That's a long walk to the center of the Riverwalk but I'm checking with my relatives.

I'm going to bid the 3* Riverwalk on PL hoping to get the Crowne Plaza for less than the $111 rate for that hotel because any of the 3* in that zone on PL are good.

I'll post the results here.

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Post this is a "win" and please help me get out of it. I was "upgraded" from a 3* to a Resort in a zone miles from Downtown San Antonio. My relatives do not want to stay there. I may be stuck with my bidding mistake and have to pay the $763.

Resort San Antonio-West Radisson Hill Country

$80 4/2-4/6

No. Rooms: 2

No. Nights: 4

Offer Price: $80

Subtotal: $640

Taxes/Fee: $123

Total: $763

I bid up to $100 for 4* in DT-Riverwalk without success. I opened a new bid at 3* for DT-Riverwalk. I showed four re-bid zones for 3* including SA-West that had no 3* or 4*. When I added SA-West - that I knew had a resort- I was upgraded to it.

PL refuses to refund although it admits that it has no specific warning about a resort upgrade in its contract. It admits resorts do not have a star level. This is the only clause PL cites in its Terms and Conditions:

Priceline.com will book your reservations in a property

with an equal or higher star level than you requested.

I think I have a chance with the credit card company to challenge this given the contract - and I printed all my bid screens. Any other ideas? And should I post the warning about resort upgrades on the general questions topic?

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I am posting this bid so this board will add this hotel to the list. The lowest rate on hotel web site is $149.

I was bidding for relatives who only want to be downtown. This zone was added as a free re-bid on a 4* hotel at a higher bid price than $80 and was not awarded. I immediately started a new bid of 3* with this zone added as a free re-bid. This resulted in this unwanted "upgrade". According to PL this means this resort has the equivalent amenities to a 3* hotel. If it's such a great resort then how come it wasn't considered equal to a 4*?

I got 2 rooms for 4 nights for a total of $736. That's too high a cost to pay for a booking that PL did not warn I could receive.

I will post my resort upgrade in the general section at the top of the board.

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In San Antonio PL upgraded my 3* bid to a resort in the SA-West zone. This was a bid for relatives who only want to be Downtown-Riverwalk. I used the San Antonio-West zone as a free re-bid.

The total will cost me over $700 if I can't get a refund from PL or successfully challenge with my credit card. My relatives will not stay at this hotel and PL won't let me put any of my other Texas family in those rooms in their place. The relatives I was bidding for feel guilty but may stick me with this mistake and pay $400 more for a Residence Inn downtown. Yes - the last time I bid for them- but I cannot afford the financial hit. See these links for the bid history. Radisson Hill Country Riverwalk Sold Out

My ground for refund/credit card challenge is that PL did not disclose that a resort was an upgrade for any star level bid - much less for a 3* bid. I had no idea a resort could be awarded without the resort option being selected. I have excellent evidence for the non-disclosure in my bidding pages - that I printed out - and PL Terms and Conditions.

I checked my bidding history. On my 4* bid page the 4* and Resort boxes were checked. On my 3* bid the checked boxes were 3* and 4* - no resort option was even on the screen. I kept copies of all bidding screens. After this disasterous upgrade I checked the PL Terms and Conditions. This is the only one about upgrades that I found and the only one the PL telephone customer service agents could find:

Hotel Star Ratings  Priceline.com will book your reservation in a property with an equal or higher star level than you requested.

PL supervisor admitted to me that resorts have no "star level". She rationalized the upgrade this way: "We will upgrade you to a resort if it has amenities equal to the star rating you bid."

Please help me. I know I have a solid case for a credit card write-off. But I prefer to get PL to refund this. So please answer these questions:

(1) What is my most effective strategy and complaint target at PL to get the refund that I believe I am clearly entitled?

(2) I have never requested a PL refund before - so what retaliation can I expect from PL if I get this refund?

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I don't believe you have any recourse. You should understand by now that Priceline claims to give you the highest rated hotel available. You've been around a long time and have seen plenty of upgrades. Should a resort be 0 stars?

You claim elsewhere that the riverwalk area is sold out. How did you expect Priceline to magically come up with a room if the hotel websites can't?

Let's try a litmus test. Suppose, based on the fact that the hotels are indeed sold out. Suppose further, Priceline made a mistake, like you did, and "awarded " you a hotel. Suppose further that the hotel "awarded" told priceline there was a mistake, they would not honor the reservation and were cancelling it. What would your response be? Would you say, "oh, that's ok. Mistakes happen." Because this is what you expect from Priceline.

I may be wrong but I think you'll have a hard time getting either Priceline or your credit card to help you as all sales are final. You agreed to that. And you have been around both boards long enough to know what a free rebid zone is. And isn't. Priceline doesn't tell you about those in their terms and conditions. Yet you figured it out "on your own."

Caveat Emptor.

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Bidding mistakes don't deserve a refund. Unfair business practices do. The resort option can be selected by the customer when bidding the SA-West zone. It cannot be substituted by Priceline without warning. This is called in the legal world a "bait and switch". It's illegal to substitute without notice one quality of goods for another. PL warned about upgraded star levels. There is nothing said on its web site about fitting Resorts into the star level tiers.

The bigger question is how why did PL award me a resort on a 3* bid when (1) it did not award it on a 4* bid minutes before in this zone when I bid a higher price than $80; and (2) the PL bidding screen did not check the resort box - only the 3* and 4* boxes?

I think this was an error by PL - maybe an honest error - and not by me. Yes, I knew or should have known that a 4* could be upgraded to a resort. But not a 3* upgrade to a resort. PL never told me this could happen and I have never seen a reported resort upgrade from a 3* on this board or on TOBB.

As for why I bid 4* anyway when my preferred zone was sold out - I have seen PL bids accepted (rarely) in sold out conditions. I bid 3* in my preferred zone - plus the re-bid zones - because I knew at least one 3* PL hotel was available in my preferred Riverwalk zone. I was hoping to get it or another comparable 3* hotel.

$700 is too much for me to pay. I don't want my relatives to feel guilt tripped into staying 15 miles from the Riverwalk. I have to contest this with my credit card company. Unless PL can prove I agreed to accept a resort hotel, I have a good case.

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You're entitled to your opinion, but i think most on the board are going to disagree with your position regarding this situation.

I'll also add a friendly reminder to all of our users that without user support we can't exist to help and/or provide a platform to discuss customer issues that arise.

Please use this HOTWIRE and these PRICELINE LINKS: HOTELS, CAR RENTALS, and AIRFARE to begin your travel purchases

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I used the San Antonio-West zone for a free-rebid for a 3* Downtown-Riverwalk bid. The West zone has no 3* or 4* but it does have two resorts that come up on Priceline - Hyatt Hill Country and Radisson Hill Country. My 3* bid was upgraded to a resort in the West zone. Because of the number of nights (4) and the number of rooms (2) this is going to cost me over $700. I was bidding for relatives who don't want to stay that far from Riverwalk.

PL has denied a refund over the phone. I am going to protest with my credit card based on PL not disclosing the possibility of a resort upgrade on this bid. My grounds are:

1) PL Terms and Conditions do not warn of upgrades to resorts. It only says you can be awarded a higher star level. PL supervisor admits that resorts have no star level.

2) My 3* bidding screen did not show that I bid for a resort. The screen listed all the star levels. Only 3* and 4* were checked by Priceline or me. Fortunately, I printed that bid screen.

There was a resort option shown on the bid screen when I unsuccessfully bid a 4* in that zone minutes earlier. The resort box was checked by PL on the 4* bid. This 4* bid, by the way, was higher than the $80 I bid later for the 3* - and yet it did not result in getting the Radisson Hill Country.

I will keep you updated on the refund. For more details check this link to my bidding history that led to mt getting a resort on 3* bid.

Radisson Hill Country

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All Priceline bidders should read this post by Betsybug above:

It is a timely reminder to all of us how easy it is to end up with something we don't want. Bidding any zone with a higher level than we want can result in an upgrade. In theory you could bid 1* get upgraded to Resort, have to pay resort fees, compulsory valet parking, etc and end up worse off than paying retail for the 1*!!!!

Also, if you bid for friends or relations, as many of us do, insist that you bid USING THEIR CREDIT CARD not yours. To put yourself in a position where you are saving them $$$, but they leave you holding it if something goes "wrong" is just allowing yourself to be used.

:) Pirate

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Betsybug,

As far as your dispute with Priceline is concerned I have to say you took your eye off the ball for a moment and suffered the consequences. An upgrade is possible at any time and really you could have suffered for even more money if the previous bid for 4* had been upgraded. Bad luck, but you have bid enough to know how these things work.

What is really disgraceful, and where I sympathize with you totally, is that the people who you were bidding for are prepared to leave you to field the problem. If they truly are going to pay $400 more for a Residence Inn downtown it doesn't even make sense. The Radisson is a much nicer property, Hill Country is beautiful this time of year, and $400 will go to pay taxis downtown if they want to party at night.

The moral is, only ever bid for third parties if you use their credit card, never your own!

:) Pirate

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betsybug, sorry to hear of your bad experience. If your relatives won't use the room, I wouldn't give up on using it yourself or having someone else use it. Just phone the hotel and explain that so-and-so in your family party will be arriving ahead of the relative, and you would like to add so-and-so's name to the reservation. My only caveat is that you'll have to get some sort of written proof this has been done, obviously, or so-and-so might be left out in the cold in yet another stroke of bad luck.

Or perhaps your relatives would be kind enough to check into their room, even if they won't use it themselves, and then give the keys to the other relatives. That seems extremely reasonable.

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First you wrote:

"Yes, I knew or should have known that a 4* could be upgraded to a resort.  But not a 3* upgrade to a resort. PL never told me this could happen and I have never seen a reported resort upgrade from a 3* on this board or on TOBB."

A day later you wrote:

"I had no idea a resort could be awarded without the resort option being selected."

First you say you knew a resort could be an upgrade, then a day later you posted you didn't know. I think you are trying to blame others for your mistake.

I hope your relatives help you.

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