Priceline Hotel: 2.5* Sacramento (South Natomas) Springhill Suites

[Colfax]

Ouch! First time I've been unable to get weekend dates in South Natomas for $46 or less.

Also some Priceline strangeness. :)

Bidding for three nights---Fri/Sat/Sun---$50 for 2.5* in South Natomas, University, and Rancho Cordova zones rejected.

I dropped Sunday and bid for Fri/Sat.

$46 for 2.5* rejected in same three zones. $50 accepted at Natomas Springhill.

Then I tried Add a Night for Sunday and got the Springhill again at $50!

So why wasn't my single bid of $50 for three nights accepted? :)

Doing it in two bids I paid $6.63 more in Priceline fees than I would have if my three night bid had been accepted. I've written to Priceline customer service requesting a refund of $6.63 but haven't heard back from them yet.

Springhill Suites best rate is $99 all three nights.

[thereuare]

We've seen this a few times lately and i'd be very interested in hearing how priceline responds to your email (unfortunatley my guess is you'll, at least at first, receive the response that "taxes and fees are added to your bid....")

All i can think of above is that the hotel had 2 nites available for room type1 and the extra nite available for room type2... the system doesn't see this as one room available for all three nites and therefore rejected your bid.

Please keep us updated.

Thanks for the post and enjoy your stay.

[Colfax]

I contacted Priceline Customer Service via email and someone DID get back to me within 3 hours, as promised. They won't refund my $6.63 though. Here's the email I receieved:

Dear Mr. XXX,

Thank you for taking the time to send us an e-mail. We understand that

these are your areas of concern:

1. You would like to know why your first hotel room request for

Sacramento, CA was not accepted for all three nights together at $50.

2. You would like us to credit your account for $6.63 as splitting the

bid in two that caused to more to pay in fees than your single request

for all three nights would have accepted.

1. When you place a request, we search to see if any travel partner is

willing to release a reservation according to your specific travel

requirements such as dates, cities and price.

In some cases there are simply no itineraries available. In other cases,

there are reservations open, but the travel partners are not willing to

release them to us at your specifications.

In cases where we are not able to secure reservations, our travel

partners do not give us a specific reason as to why your request was not

accepted.

Please feel free to resubmit your Name Your Own Price request through

the Check Your Request section of our website.

If you do not want to Name Your Own Price again, you can select a

specific itinerary listed on our website that best meets your needs.

2. We apologize that we are unable to credit your account for $6.63

difference in taxes and charges for your both request. Our booking

system is linked to different online booking systems for different

products such as airline, hotel, rental cars, etc., just as any other

internet travel service or travel agency. There are occasional time lags

which impact real-time data availability. While it is very rare that

this happens, when our system does not have the exact tax amount due to

the real time data unavailability, it shows the maximum amount in taxes

that you could be charged.

Prior to submitting your request, we indicate the total charges that

will be applied to your credit card, including any taxes and service

fees. You will be charged the same tax amount that is displayed on the

contract page. If our system determines that the actual tax amount is

less than the amount shown on the contract page, you will be charged the

actual tax amount.

Rest assured, you will not be charged more than the amount shown on the

contract page.

We again apologize for the inconvenience and hope this information is

helpful to you.

Sincerely,

Vijay K.

Customer Service Specialist

========

My thoughts are either there was a glitch in Priceline's system or the Springhill imposed a two day maximum stay requirement this weekend. I've won three day weekends at the Springhill before and can't think of a reason why they'd impose a two-day maximum this weekend, but it's possible. Your "Two different room types" theory is possible too, thereuare.

To me the key line in Priceline's email was this:

In cases where we are not able to secure reservations, our travel

partners do not give us a specific reason as to why your request was not

accepted.

Even if the outcome was due to a Priceline glitch that sentence shifts the onus onto the hotels and relieves Priceline from having to provide an explanation.

I'm not going to pursue it further, not for $6.63. If this was due to a maximum stay restriction by the hotel I'm not entitled to a refund. I'll never know if that's really the explantion or if this was a Priceline glitch. I've already recouped 20 cents of the $6.63 by taking TWO chocolate chip cookies when I checked in. :)