Getting Itemized Tax Amounts for Priceline Stays

[WillTravel]

Note: I posted a sentence or two about this subject a few weeks ago on TOBB. It was immediately deleted. I noticed people there are asking about this topic today, so I hope they see this here.

As we know, Priceline.com used to have separate line entries for the room price, the taxes paid, and the service charge. Now the taxes and service charge are combined together, and the service charge is "floating," so you no longer know how much tax you paid for a room. For many people who travel on business and need this information for tax and budget purposes, this is a problem. Some have said their company policies mean they will have to stop using Priceline.

However, there may be one way around this - use one or both of Priceline's two sites in Asia - Priceline Hong Kong and Priceline Singapore. Both of these sites do things the same way that Priceline.com used to do them. They list the room price, the taxes, and the processing charge as separate line items.

www.priceline.com.hk

www.priceline.com.sg

Things to notice:

* These sites only sell airfares that originate from the Hong Kong or Singapore airports (respectively).

* Use a currency exchange site, such as http://www.xe.com or http://www.oanda.com, to determine today's US dollar equivalent of the Asian currency you will be bidding in. Be extra careful when using a foreign currency.

* The prices and inventory seem about the same on the Asian sites as the US sites - but I can't be sure this is the case.

* Check with your company to make sure it's ok that all of the line items will appear in a foreign currency.

* The Priceline Asia sites allow rebidding after 24 hours, or you can raise your bid a specified amount and rebid right away. This is in addition to whatever "free rebids" are available for your zones. You can also bid on one site, and then rebid on the other site. Your Priceline.com bids are not affected by bidding on a Priceline Asia site.

* Priceline is an investor in Priceline Asia.