Priceline Hotel: 4* Los Angeles (Beverly Hills - West Hollywood) The Hotel Wilshire

[more88]

4* Beverly Hills - West Hollywood

Bidded on 5/22/2013 for 10/03/13 - 10/06/13 stay

Starting Bid: $110 accepted (effectively $103 used the $7 coupon code)

Looks like a new hotel in this zone as I couldn't see this hotel previously reported for Priceline.

Very excited about this winning bid!

[yellowdog]

Welcome "officially" to BetterBidding and congratulations on your success!

Thank you for sharing your result with the board :)

Also thanx for the addition for this new property to the BetterBidding Priceline Hotel List

Enjoy your stay.

Please use the board's PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links to begin your purchases and searches

Yellowdog.

[more88]

Thanks! :)

I was bidding (although far in advance) in this zone for weeks now. Just the day before I went up to $165 for the same zone and stars.

[more88]

When I emailed the hotel for a confirmation of my stay I found out that the hotel Wilshire never received a booking from Priceline. Of course I contacted Priceline immediately.

Priceline told me that the hotel was overbooked due renovation. I told them that I find this at least a bit odd because this hotel opened September 2011. (I found out later that the hotel is still bookable at the Priceline.com website)

I was told that the hotel was booked through Tourigo (apparently a sister company of Priceline) and that they transferred me to the Millennium hotel. Without consulting me!!

As a found out later the Millennium hotel is located in downtown LA and has not so great reviews. (The hotel Wilshire is located in Beverly Hills and has great reviews)

I told the customer support representative that this is totally unacceptable and that I expect a solution from Priceline since I made a reservation at Priceline. Internal problems between Priceline and Tourico are not of my concern. I was told that they will try to find a solution and that they will contact me later.

It seems to me that hotel is bookable and Priceline doesn’t want to acknowledge my reservation. This and the fact that they transferred me to a random hotel without consulting me worries me a lot.

[thereuare]

Sorry to hear you are dealing with this issue, but fortunately situations such as this are infrequent.

To check if the hotel has availability i would check the hotel's own website, as PRICELINE is only showing the information they get form their supplier (in this instance Tourico) and simply passing that data along. Also, even once notified of the issue, it may take a few hours for any changes to appear on their website (unless you actually try to book it at which point you'll be given an error that it is no longer available)

Luckily there is time between now and your arrival that hopefully PRICELINE will come up with a solution that is acceptable.

Good luck and keep us updated on the situation.

[more88]

Thanks thereuare,

Since I'm a big fan of the bidding at hotels concept, I really hope that Priceline come with a good solution. I also do not want to leave this forum ;) Oh well, there always is Hotwire...

The thing that really bothers me is that they transfered me to a lesser hotel in an less expensive area without even telling me... Priceline blames Tourico even though Priceline is responsible.

I contacted the hotel and it's still bookable. Maybe not from the Tourico inventory, but it seems like a good solution.

I now just have to wait 3 to 5 business days... I'll keep you updated.

[thereuare]

Priceline blames Tourico even though Priceline is responsible.

PRICELINE is likely responsible in the sense that you are their customer and you made the purchase thru them, so they need to assist/resolve with the issue, even though the 'error' probably lies with Tourico making inventory available that they no longer had.

Hope a solution that works for everyone involved can be found, did they give you an idea of when you would hear back from them?

[more88]

That's exactly what I mean. As a Priceline customer I do not (have to) care who the suppliers of Priceline are and what diffuculties they have with their inventory. Furthermore I don't care who's fold this is. The only thing I expect from Priceline is that they find a proper solution. As I never had any other problems with Priceline I have high hopes that they find one.

The customer support representative told me it could take 3 to 5 business days for them (Tourico) to find an aternative. When it takes that long it must be a really good one. ;)

[more88]

Small update:

The hotel Wilshire told me that the hotel Wilshire isn’t fully booked nor is there any renovation planned for that period. Because they feel bad about this situation, they even offered me a discounted rate for that period. (not as low as my winning bid)

I am now fairly sure that is a mistake and that it will be corrected by Priceline. I just have to wait a few more days…

[AaronJB]

Thank you for keeping us updated - hopefully everything will be sorted out in the next day or two.

[more88]

After more than an a hour on the phone, I was told that there weren't any other options than: 1) Accept the Millennium hotel in Downtown LA or 2) Accept a refund.

Told the customer support agent that both weren't an option because a) The Millenium hotel is not a 4 star hotel and B) the hotel is not located in Beverly hills. Furthermore i told them that there wasn't a problem in the first place because the hotel Wilshire isn't overbooked.

I suggested again that they could transfer me to a any 4 star hotel in Beverly hills. I was told that because I already transferred to another hotel they couldn't transfer me again! They moved me without consulting me in the first place!!!

That was the moment I gave up... I asked them for a refund and asked them to cancel all my 12 other reservations. To my surprise they agreed to do that.

After a while I was told that they couldn't cancel my other reservations because they were NYOP reservations. My NYOP reservation at The hotel Wilshire was cancelled without a problem though...

I totally lost confidence in Priceline and the customer care department of Priceline in particular. In my opinion, this is not how your treat loyal customers.

Sadly I will have to move my business to the competition.

[thereuare]

Sorry to hear you couldn't reach an amicable solution... at least you have plenty of time to find alternate accommodations (although i understand that wasn't the point).