Priceline hiding reviews to keep a star level?

[KC-Matt]

In the past, PL has edited some reviews to remove mention of the situations many here refer to as being "pricelined". These are often apparent by the gaping hole they leave in the review by just cutting that portion out leaving the rest, no matter how badly the edit skewers the flow.

This situation is somewhat different and I am curious if what I have noticed is happening to any other properties & zones. The last review showing on PL for the Radisson Hotel & Suites Kansas City DT is dated 11/16/2005. I myself have submitted two subsequent reviews on this property (all my reviews for other properties have appeared, usually about 1 month behind) and I have confirmed with others roughly 7 other submitted reviews, all negative, yet none of them appear and these are from early, mid and late 2006 as well as some in 2007. So my question is, why are reviews for this sub-standard property being held back?

A little further digging reveals that in this particular zone, there have been no reported 3* wins (checking both BB & TOBB) in the DT/Crown zone for properties other than this Radisson since July 2005 and that was for the Hyatt CC before it was upgraded to a 4*. Note that this property (Radisson) is a former DT and the last winning bid reported under the DT flag was mid 2005.

In this particular zone, there are only the following 3*:

Radisson Hotel & Suites DT

Marriott DT (last reported win in Jan 2005)

(note that on the non-opaque side, several other properties show in the Downtown-Country Club Area, but the name your own price side splits this into Downtown-Crown Center and Country Club Plaza zones leaving the properties above)

It is curious that PL stopped adding reviews for this property shortly after the conversion from DT to Radisson and that no one has reported winning the Marriott since Jan 05 (and the low # of reviews for this property on PL would seem to confirm the rare win at this property). Given that, it seems very odd that the Radisson has had no new reviews added since Nov 2005, especially the large number of wins reported for that property since. To add to that, I asked the Radisson directly (a close friend works there and deals directly with reservations as part of their duties) about their number of PL bookings and they are often a significant % of their occupancy.

So is PL intentionally keeping the reviews for this property hidden so that they can continue to offer it as a 3* in this zone since they cannot have just one property at a given star level? Given the awful condition of the property and the crap reviews it has received virtually everywhere, it would make sense that it would have to be removed from the 3* level if all of the reviews were to be posted. They were already at a 7 rating when the reviews stopped and the property has been dropping in quality since although the sleep number beds were a nice addittion, remarkably little else has been done and the elevators still contain the "pardon our mess while we upgrade" message that was there a year ago with no change in the actual condition of them. Add that to the numerous non-sleep number bed rooms that hotel policy puts PL customers into unless they complain and ask to be moved and a pattern is certainly evident. Now that the Aladdin (by Holiday Inn) has re-opened, this may place another 3* in this zone (unless they make it a 4* which I doubt), it will be interesting to see if this changes the dynamic of this zone.

Just curious if something like this is happening in other zones or peoples thoughts on this situation.