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Priceline Hotel: Is there a better way than priceline?


lindsay972
By lindsay972,
in

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I have had great success with Priceline.com and getting cheap hotels ($50 3* in San Francisco, Salt Lake & Chicago), but I heard a suggestion recently that I might have better luck calling the hotels and talking to the manager. They said if you tell them that you know they work with priceline/hotwire and can neg. a better price since they would be getting all the profit and not having to share with priceline or hotwire. I was just wondering if anyone has tried this method? I am planning a trip to Las Vegas for Nov. 11-14 and was thinking of trying this with the Venetian hotel since they use priceline.

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Welcome to BetterBidding!

Please add the details of your previous wins to the board in their respective forums.

While your question above may (although not likely) work in some small hotel in a small rural city, i don't think you will even be able get the right person on the phone at a hotel like the Venetian in a major city. Add to this that the Venetian is sold-out for your dates above and your chances decrease even further.

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

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I actually have gotten an even better deal: FREE! Consolidated Resorts has been advertising on the radio here in Dallas free "second honeymoon" 4 day, 3 night stays for a hotel/casino on the strip if you go listen to their 120 minute timeshare presentation for a new resort on the strip. It's annoying to have to listen to a salesperson for 2 hours, but hey, it's worth the at least $300 I would have to pay otherwise. I just had to pay a $99 deposit that I will get back once I go to the presentation. I just called to make the resevations and they had a hard time finding a hotel with open rooms for my weekend (there must be something going on 11/11- 11/14), but she did finally find me a room at the Flamigo. Here's the phone number if anyone wants to try it out: 1-800-233-7085. It's only for married/committed couples that are between the ages of 26-67 and make over $50,000.

It has been a while since I have traveled anywhere, but here are the hotel deals I have gotten on priceline....

Salt Lake City, UT - $50

Courtyard by Marriott (Summer of '04)

Foster City, CA (nice suberb outside San Francisco) $50

Courtyard by Marriott (Summer of '04) *VERY NICE, BEAUTIFUL COURTYARD!*

Chicago, IL - $50 (Michigan Mile)

Tremont Hotel (July '02)

Do they do priceline anymore??

Downtown Chicago - $65

Hilton (Oct '04)

Downtown Dallas, TX - $50

Hyatt Regency *NICE* (Jan '04)

Downtown Cincinnati, OH - $65

Westin (Jun '05)

Memphis, TN (on the river) $65

Marriott (Jun '05)

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  • 4 weeks later...

That company is also advertising in the Los Angeles area using Tanya Roberts, one of the 007 girls, as a spokeswoman.

A few of my co-workers called in for the free rooms and balked at the deposit request.

If you don't mind me asking, if the trip is free, when do you get the $99 back, or is it a "handling" fee?

Not sure what your dates of travel are, but I regularly get $20 room offers from places like Palace Station and the Sahara through their player's clubs and I hardly have any points with them! I think in December I have a 5-night stay booked, Th-Tu, and the total cost is $50 plus a pesky $4.95/night "resort fee".

p.s. I did a google search too and came up with this 2004 article: http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/200...s/24229596.html

************************

Looking to see how far I can make 4.95 days of vacation go...

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  • 8 months later...

It's a scam - stay far away.

Priceline is reputable and stands by its commitments.

Always remember - if it sounds too good to be true IT IS.

I've been dealing with Priceline for years now and I trust them unquestionably.

PS - I'm surprised the managers of this board allowed an obvious advertisement for that company to be posted here.

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PS - I'm surprised the managers of this board allowed an obvious advertisement for that company to be posted here.

I didn't read the searches above on the merrits of this company, so i'm not sure if they talk about "outright scam" (as in you won't get your free nites) or if it's 'typical' timeshare scam stuff as in "they said i needed to listen to a 90 minute presentation but i couldn't leave before 3 hours".

This board is moderated (and you should see some of the stuff that lasts about 3 seconds! :) ). The OP above didn't seem to have a self-interest in promoting this offer so it was permitted to stay... as were the remainder of the posts/comments warning of timeshares and the like. There are some legitimate offers of free nites for listening to timeshare presentations (and a LOT of non-legitimate offers), we're not in a position to comment on this one in particular so we prefer to let users make the decision for themselves.

We are often in a catch22 situation as allowing such a thread on speculation of a scam can cause a user to get sucked-in, but by removing it we have those who believe "I know how to say no to a contract, i want to give it a try to get my free nites, and therefor this board is moderated too heavily." As a result, we chose to let the post remain along with the warnings and it is 'buyer beware'.

If this is an outright scam please let us know and we will remove this thread, but otherwise we'll continue to allow users to decide for themselves.

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

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 11 months later...
It's a scam - stay far away.

I can't confirm that Consolidated Resorts (a.k.a. "Soleil Mini Vacations") is a scam or fraud or not, but I can confirm that they are definitely iffy, so you want to be careful.

They pay celebrities (in my case Roseanne) to endorse them on radio, saying something like "I [the celebrity] have arranged with [my agent whatever] for the first 50 callers to get tickets to [my show, etc] and a free stay in Vegas, call the following number [insert 800]". If you call, you're told you've "won" and then they cleverly offer an extra night and/or gas money etc in exchange for listening to a presentation.

Then comes the kicker: they need a small (refundable) deposit (in my case $129). Supposedly you get this back *if* they can schedule a weekend for you *and* if you show up, etc.

It's a classic bait-and-switch; I'm embarrassed that I fell for it.

In my case, I wanted written information from them. Despite them calling me several times, and always promising to send me material, they never did. Gee, maybe because that would make them susceptible to local state as well as federal mail fraud laws??

I'm currently disputing the charge thru my credit card company.

My *theory* is this: it's the usual timeshare "scam" (which is more of a "con" than a scam, basically enticing you to overspend on a vacation home), but they've figured out a clever way to lower their marketing costs. They know the bulk of people they talk to will never actually show up for the deposit, and if they do, they're a potential customer, so it's a win-win. Plus, by positioning it as a "free trip with show tickets", they can entice clueless celebrities (Scientology-style) to implicitly endorse a timeshare operation. That's the clever part, really. Lots of free radio publicity with clueless radio talk show hosts etc who think that they're just interviewing some celebrities.

So on the whole, pretty slick. My *guess* is that if you are careful and patient, you can navigate this and end up with a few free nights of hotel in Vegas.

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I actually did the Consolidated Resorts thing when I first moved to Vegas(as a way to scout homes and jobs)

I was actually impressed. I was leary of course especially of the $99 deposit.

The hotel was not nice. But it was on the strip. The presentation was one hour with breakfast. It was nice but I was not tempted(especially since I was moving here)

I received 2 tickets to a show, 2 buffet tickets, $100 slot play, the hotel, and when I called to complain about the hotel, they gave me a $100 Shell gas card.

I received the $99 back within a week.

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  • 9 months later...

Very positive experience....

I did their timeshare deal a few thanksgivings ago .... just like the original poster, it was a tough weekend to book and yet they were able to give us 3 free nights @ Hooters.

Alan Thicke was their spokeperson ..... we had no problem getting our $99 deposit refunded and they stuck to their word on all the freebies .... $50 gas card, slot credits, buffet and show etc.

Only pitfall ... the "90 minute presentation" actually took more than 3 hours if you include getting shuttled from your hotel, walking tour, presentation and after you finally say no they hit you with "this is just a quick survey" where they slash their prices and start the sale pitch all over again.

But 3 hours for 3 free nights on a long weekend in Vegas = :)

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  • 6 months later...
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