Priceline Hotel: 3* Orlando (Lake Buena Vista-Downtown Disney) Holiday Inn Sunspree

[Astroboi]

I was bidding on 2.5*, but ended up with an unfortunate upgrade to this 3*...which also happens to be a "resort". I'm very disappointed as there will be an additional $8.99+tax resort fee that I'll have to pay on top off the negotiated price. This is very significant and I feel that this type of fee should be included in the Priceline fee. What prevents a "resort" from charging whatever resort fee they want after they get your reservation?

I called Priceline and of course they answer was that they cannot do a thing. I am seriously considering having my credit card company reverse the charges as I did not have the option to opt out of a resort.

[yellowdog]

Thank you for sharing your result with the board!

Enjoy your stay.

Have in mind that there are also 2.5* hotels that also will charge you a resort fee.

Please use the site's HOTWIRE and PRICELINE links to start future purchases.

Yellowdog.

[Astroboi]

I wasn't aware of this resort fee until now. I think that it's completely unacceptable for these websites to allow a hotel to charge a separate mandatory fee on top of the agreed upon auction price. It's misleading and undermines the bidder's ability to budget properly for their stay. All mandatory fees should be covered. I don't have an issue with consumption type fees like a drink from the bar, a room service meal, long distance calls or parking. I feel ripped off!

[yellowdog]

Sorry to hear that you see it this way. But how would the fees be uncovered when you don't know the outcome for your bid? And regarding the resort fees is this stated very clear under Important Information on the second page.

These charges may be mandatory (e.g., resort fees) or optional (parking, phone calls or minibar charges) and are not included in your offer price.

Please use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases.

Yellowdog.

[Astroboi]

Sorry to hear that you see it this way. But how would the fees be uncovered when you don't know the outcome for your bid?

Very simple.

- The resort fee for this hotel is $9.

- Priceline accepted $51...let's say that this happens to be their threshold.

Priceline could have made their threshold $60 to take the resort fee into consideration. Priceline doesn't pocket the fee, it would've been incorporated in their cost by the hotel. This way bidders will only have to pay exactly what they bid. I'm lucky that the resort fee was $9. I see other complaints where the fee was $30. Now imagine how much that can change the affordability of a hotel.

[thereuare]

While i agree in a perfect world it would be 'very simple' as you state, but when you're dealing with thousands of hotels, and each uses a different back-end computer system than the next, it's not as simple as you state... at the front-of-house hotels would need to have a system in place to differentiate which guests still need to pay the resort fee and which guests already have it included in their rate (and remember that hotels are receiving reservations from over a hundred different sources). In the backend there may not be an input area to add in additional fees, and what if there is more than one fee-type (resort, occupancy tax, tourism fee, etc) and it needs to be separated for bookkeeping purposes.

I'm mostly in agreement with you and have always stated my option that any mandatory fees should be included in the room rate for all reservations, but hotels have begun to separate (and lower) room rates and add on additional resort fees, but until they're combined into one at the hotel level, i don't see them being combined for PRICELINE bidding.

As with any service, if you can't accept their terms of use then don't use that service, but fortunately the savings we usually see with PRICELINE, even after including in any additional resort fees, is better then most deals we can get elsewhere. If PRICELINE doesn't work for you then you could try HOTWIRE which now often shows an approximate resort fee for the property in the 'know before you go' section. HOTWIRE usually costs a little more than PRICELINE, but knowing the resort fee ahead of time can help you budget accordingly.