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Priceline Hotel: 5* Madrid (Around La Castellana) Silken Puerta America


jnash07
By jnash07,
in

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Hello,

I hope some of you more experienced bidders can help me. I recently bid for 5* Madrid, June 22-24, for 2 zones: Old Madrid-Bourbon Madrid and Around La Castellana (and definitely not East Madrid). My first bid was admittedly a low ball offer at $115 p/night, but to my surprise the bid was accepted for the Silken Puerta America. I had done the usual checking before bidding, including checking Priceline's hotel price list first, which listed that hotel in "East Madrid" at $109 p/night. I immediately called Priceline customer service, who were completely unsympathetic and said I should have checked their bidding map before I bid. Since the hotel is within the "bidding map" labelled Around La Castellana then the bid is valid and there is nothing further to discuss. They offered no explanation as to how the "bidding map" can differ from another map on the same site or how the same hotel can be listed in two different locations on the same site. How is it possible, or legal, to do this? Anyone have a similar experience with a more favorable outcome? The only option offered to me was to send a letter to the Senior Vice President of Customer Service via snail mail!

Thanks for your help.

JNash

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I can't say if this is what happened here, but hotel zones often change. So no list is ever up to date. If you take a close look at the Priceline maps, and then at Google maps, I think it looks plausible that this hotel is in Around La Castellana as it is currently constituted. See what you think.

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Welcome to Betterbidding.

Sorry to hear that the result is unexpected and a disappointment. The retail side and bidding side of PRICELINE are different and zones can definitely differ (and some hotels may participate on one side of the service and not the other.) In terms of bidding, you have to be willing to accept a hotel within the shaded zone selected on the bidding side. You can try calling PRICELINE again and plead your case, but they may have the same response.

Thank you for using the site's HOTWIRE or PRICELINE links to start your purchases and searches.

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I worked with the Priceline Around Castellana zone map and the map on the hotel web site. As near as I can tell, the hotel is in the shaded area of the PL Around Castellana zone. It shows on the Av de America mostly west ( and a little bit south) of the Cartegena Metro stop.

The areas of the Priceline retail side and the Priceline bidding side are often quite different, and as WillTravel mentioned the bidding zone maps change from time to time. The physical location of the hotel and the current (when you are bidding) shaded zone map from the bidding zone are what gets considered. The names of the areas from the retail side aren't considered.

I'm sorry to say I suspect you won't have any success on this one.

There have been a few instances when a bidder could demonstrate the received hotel was outside the bidding zone map. In those instances the bidder was success in getting a remedy.

That actually is an excellent rate for a 5*.

Romelle

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jnash07,

Welcome to BetterBidding!

Please start by reading your messages (as per the red box at the top of the page ;) )

Sorry, to see you received a hotel you didn't expect, but the 'problems' is that you used the "retail" zones at PRICELINE to determine your bidding zones (or to try to guess what hotel(s) you might get) and applied them to the "bidding" zones at PRICELINE. The two sides of their service use different zone names and boundaries, easily seen by looking at the 'retail' side where there are 7 zones within the Madrid area vs. the 'bidding' side where there are only 5 zones. The property you received has been reported to the board previously in the 'Around La Castllana' zone and is indeed located within one of the zones that you had bid... i'm not sure if PRICELINE will take any further action given the hotel located within one of the zones you selected.

Feel free to ask the board for help, and please use the requested PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links before your future purchases.

Hope you can make this property work for your needs and enjoy your stay.

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

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