Priceline Hotel: 4* San Francisco (SOMA-Moscone Center) InterContinental

[longyan]

Does Priceline intentionally assign lower-priced hotels to higher bids and thereby give the 25$ price guarantee on the Name Your Own Price?

First about my bid:

San Francisco: May 7 to May 9, 2011

Going with my fiancee so wanted to try and get an expensive room with deep discounts: Put in 210$ bid

'Won' the Intercontinental which I knew was priced at 170$ - 40$ less than my bid.

I called and made a claim and was given the difference between the 'winning' bid and the regular price quoted elsewhere on Priceline and a 25$ cash-back and a 50$ voucher for my trip.

So rather than get an 'up to 60% discount' I ended up with a 7.5% total discount on the Intercontinental and a voucher.

How can Priceline in their right mind tell me I 'won' a bid when I could have bought that room at the Intercontinental at a price that is 40$ lower on the Priceline website? I assumed that by bidding higher than the list price of certain hotels I would not be given a winning bid there - turns out I was wrong.

It smells like Priceline would do this intentionally because now I basically gave them near full price at the Intercontinental (12.5$ off per night is peanuts - what if it had been a longer stay?).

I have tried repeatedly to have my reservation cancelled because as I stated, I was willing to spend 210$ per night for a better room - but Priceline customer service keeps telling me that's impossible and that they have done nothing wrong. This sucks!

[scottlevin]

Frankly your strategy makes no sense. Which hotel were you HOPING to win? None of the 4* hotels on the PL list for San Francisco were retailing for more than $210. Why bid more than retail?

The hotels for which a $210 bid would be a DISCOUNT are places like the Ritz-Carlton, St. Regis, Mandarian Oriental, Four Seasons... These hotels NEVER do Priceline. You could call them 5* hotels.

If you had wanted a 5* hotel you should have just paid retail. Priceline is for getting 4* hotels at a discount, i.e. the Intercontinental at $115 (a more appropriate bid). Frankly, I'm surprised that a $210 bid on Priceline was even accepted

[Colfax]

In the future, if you want to overpay to exploit a money back guarantee, use Hotwire, where you get double the difference.

I noticed today that Hotwire no longer doubles the difference. If you overpay Hotwire just refunds the difference now.

I assumed that by bidding higher than the list price of certain hotels I would not be given a winning bid there - turns out I was wrong.

It's possible the Intercontinental was the only 4* hotel in SOMA zone that gave Priceline inventory for your dates, so they had nothing else to give you. If a $500 hotel had given Priceline rooms for $200 you would have won that, not the Intercontinental.

Sorry it didn't work out as you planned. Hope you have a good stay anyhow.

p.s. Intercontinental is one of the better hotels that comes up in Priceline's SOMA zone. What were you hoping to win?

[longyan]

First of all, no need to shout with capital letters, I'm not deaf. Secondly, I had absolutely no intention of exploiting a money back guarantee - if that was the case why would I even write a post in here? I would just collect my 25$ and be happy that my exploitation strategy succeeded. What was I hoping to get? Yes, W, Mandarin Oriental or similar. They are not called 5* on Priceline so why should I? And how could I know they never do this kind of thing? If Priceline was honest about their concept, they would have rejected my bid because no appropriate hotel matched my price and I could have adjusted accordingly. What if I hadn't checked against the retail price for the Intercontinental? Then I would have paid 80$ more than retail - oh yes, stupid me, why did I try to exploit the money back guarantee.....

You may be a seasoned veteran but I am not. I even asked Priceline to cancel my booking and I offered to forfeit the 25$ and the voucher and then I would have gone and bought a 200$+ room retail. They wouldn't let me which I frankly find pretty infuriating! But maybe that's just me. A lesson learned nonetheless.

[thereuare]

longyan,

Welcome to BetterBidding!

See this thread for a further discussion on this subject: Don't Bid Higher for a Specific Hotel.

Feel free to ask the board for help before bidding for your next hotel stay.

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

[Colfax]

longyan,

Sorry it didn't work out. If you ask in advance someone here is happy to give advice.

I know you're new to Priceline and the board and you might not know about the Hotel Lists. The list shows every hotel that's been reported at each quality level and zone. You can see what's come up and decide if you want to bid those qualities/zones or not.

California Priceline List

[scottlevin]

The Mandarin Oriental is a 5* on Priceline.