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Priceline Hotel: Priceline treatment


alovejones
By alovejones,
in

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This question comes up frequently that i'll type my thoughts again for anyone else following along...

 

It is too easy to 'blame' a 3rd party booking for poor treatment:

 

Hotels are in the hospitality business, so generally speaking, they will do what they can to accommodate a guest's needs.  However, sometimes the hotel is just not able to accommodate the request, or the request is not reasonable.

 

For example, a guest may request two beds and the hotel may not have any rooms with that configuration available at the time of check-in (so simply not able to accommodate the request)... there's nothing the hotel can do but real easy for the guest to 'blame' that they booked thru a 3rd party.  Similarly, some hotels charge more for rooms with two beds (vs. one bed) and perhaps a room with two beds is available but the hotel asks for an additional fee (should be the difference in cost between the hotel's rate for a room with 2 beds vs. a room with 1 bed) but instead of understanding the situation the guest attributes this as a money grab by the hotel because of their 3rd party booking (not wanting to pay the additional fee when the hotel charges more for these type of rooms is an unreasonable request, imo).

 

I was once at at a hotel and overheard a guest checking-in that even though he booked directly with the hotel for a non-smoking room, all that the hotel had available was a smoking room.  Now this guest had booked direct so there was other company to 'blame' in this situation, but i would bet that if he did book thru a 3rd party, that would be the reason why he couldn't get the non-smoking room that he had booked.... so how can you really determine if some 'treatment' is the result of how the room was booked vs. the hotel simply not being able to accommodate the request?

 

With the above noted, there are hotels that will discriminate against customers who book thru 3rd party websites. Fortunately these are in the minority, and usually there are other things 'wrong' at the hotel as well, since this type of treatment usually comes from above, so a result of poor management, untrained employees (which comes down to bad management in hiring the wrong people), or other issues in forgetting that the hotel is there to service the guest (again, unreasonable requests excluded)

 

I will add that just as there are 'bad' hotels, there are also 'bad' guests who use the internet as an opportunity to complain in hopes of getting something for free in the future.  I've seen countless 'demands' on review sites where the little thing could be wrong and the person feels they are entitled to a full refund for their entire stay or a free trip in the future.

 

No matter how you book, if you have an issue at the hotel first speak to the front desk staff to see if it can be resolved, if not then speak to the manager, and if still not then call corporate headquarters... use the hierarchy and the correct 'chain of command' and most (reasonable) issues can be resolved to the satisfaction of everyone involved. :smile:

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

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