Priceline Hotel: 4* Fort Lauderdale (West Ft. Lauderdale - Sawgrass) Bonaventure Resort and Spa

[Ydweiss]

Hello,

Yesterday, I was successful in winning a bid for a 4* hotel in Fort Lauderdale for 11/28 - 12/3. The bid was for $76. I got the Bonadventure Resort in Ft. Lauderdale. My problem is that on Saturday I need to be within walking distance of a synagogue. There are no synagogues even remotely close to this hotel. In your experience, do you think a religious reason is a good enough reason to get out of my commitment?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

Sorry to hear the location of this property doesn't work for your needs.

You can try calling PRICELINE and pleading your case, but i don't think they're obligated to accommodate your situation. PRICELINE (and HOTWIRE) reservations are for those that are flexible in your travel plans. Needing to be within walking distance of a temple would be a fairly stringent requirement in terms of acceptable location, one which wouldn't necessarily be a good scenario to use PRICELINE (or HOTWIRE)... although with the latter you could at least first take an educated guess as to the hotel being offered and then determine if it's within close enough proximity to a temple.

In the future you may want to use our sister site MAPS and HOTELS.com where you can find local temples in the area and then search by that address... easily seeing how much more/less it would cost to stay closer/further away or to go up/down in star rating.

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

Good luck pursuing this with PRICELINE, let us know how you make out.

[Ydweiss]

So I called Priceline and they were no help. I decided to call the hotel and the nice lady I spoke to cancelled my reservation for me and told me that now Priceline will refund my money if I explain to them that my reservation has been cancelled. She assured me that this happens all the time. Will this work?

[AaronJB]

PRICELINE reservations are very rarely allowed to be cancelled. You'll have to call PRICELINE and see what they say and likely have them call the hotel to try and confirm if they are willing to work something out.

[Adeleg]

I am Jewish and sympathize with your situation, however you have to understand that ALL BIDS on Priceline and Hotwire are final, and that they are under under obligation at all to refund you, and I would be surprised if they do. If you have special needs as you do regarding Shabbat, you need to purchase the hotels that you need directly, and not use sites where you do not get to choose, or you need to take insurance (but be sure to read the insurance fine print as well)

[Ydweiss]

I am happy to report that Priceline has refunded my money. No problems at all. We spoke to the hotel manager and she made a note and cancelled the reservation. Then we called Priceline and Priceline called the hotel and confirmed. Yay!!

[AaronJB]

Glad you were able to work things out with the hotel and PRICELINE. Please let us know if you decide to rebook or consider using HOTWIRE (which allows one to make an educated guess as to which hotels are showing, which would result in at least a better chance - if no guarantees - on knowing location.)

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