Priceline Hotel: Express deals - guest ratings

[Arthien]

Hi, I'm new to all this and hoping someone here can help.

I searched on Priceline for 5* hotels in Venice (Italy), and narrowed the zone down to Venice itself, which showed only 12 hotels available for the dates I had chosen.

I noticed on the 'Express deals' list that there was a 5* hotel deal showing, which had a guest rating of 9/10.

As the list of 12 5* hotels only contained 1 with a 9/10 guest rating, is it safe to assume that this the same hotel as on the 'express deals' list?

Also, are the express deals any good, as a general rule? Priceline shows the 5* deal as being 50% off, but it is likely I'd get a better deal by bidding instead?

Thanks in advance for your help!

[AaronJB]

Welcome to Betterbidding. :)

The guest rating is the number and above. If you are seeing only one hotel that fits all of the amenities, star rating and guest rating in the zone, then it is likely that property.

You could likely get a cheaper rate via bidding but you would have to be willing to accept any of the hotels in the zone at that star rating.

HOTWIRE: most expensive, but you are given the most details and it's possible to make an educated guess as to which hotel(s) the listing could be.

PRICELINE Express: usually cheaper than HOTWIRE and it is possible to make a guess, but the amenities that PRICELINE Express usually offers are usually "common" - it's not unusual that a listing could still be 3-4 different possibilities.

PRICELINE bidding: cheapest, but you have to be willing to accept any hotel given the specifics (zone, star rating) chosen.

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

[Arthien]

Ok that's great, thanks! I was a bit concerned because I read elsewhere that the hotels used for the express 'hotel not named' deals aren't necessarily the same as the hotels shown on the standard listings. I've just had another look and there are actually 2 out of the 12 listed hotels rated 9/10 or above, but if the express deal is either of them, that would be fine by me. Thinking ahout it, I'd be a bit annoyed if the guest rating changed for the same hotel shown on both the express and standard deals though, as that would feel a bit misleading, so fingers crossed it's one of the ones I think it is!

[AaronJB]

Definitely keep us updated and let us know if you have additional questions. If the listing does show 9+ as a guest rating, that's certainly an excellent overall review score and should give you some comfort on the purchase.

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

[thereuare]

The 'retail' side of PRICELINE (where hotel names are shown) and the PRICELINE EXPRESS side of priceline (where hotel names are not shown) DO use a different universe of hotels, there is a lot of overlap, but some properties participate in one side of their service but not the other, and vice-versa (and some may participate in the bidding side but not either of these two other sides of their service). However, if you purchase a PRICELINE EXPRESS property with a minimum user review rating, and you do see that same property on the retail side, the user review rating would be at least the value indicated from your PRICELINE EXPRESS purchase.

You can't consider the 'retail' listings to be a finite set of the possibilities for the PRICELINE EXPRESS offerings (just as they are not a finite set of possibilities that you may receive when bidding)

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