jishaq Posted February 27, 2008 Report Share Posted February 27, 2008 Sorry, tired, don't have time to write this up neatly, but here's my bidding strategy.1) SR zone, $62 bid. Rejected.2) SR + Sonoma, $68. Rejected.3) SR + Sonoma + Fairfield. $74. Rejected. ** TRY AGAIN 24 hrs later **4) SR zone, $80 bid. Rejected.5) SR + Sonoma, $86 bid. Accepted!Came out to be $86 + $18.33 "taxes and services" = $104.33Best rate on Hyatt's WWW: $144 + $16.09 = $160.09. I got a 35% savings!Curious why Priceline's "taxes and services" was $18.33, whereas booking on Hyatt.com the tax was $16.09. Sounds to me like Priceline is nefariously getting a cut. Link to comment
dahammer Posted February 28, 2008 Report Share Posted February 28, 2008 nothing nefarious about it, Priceline is a for profit company trading on the NYSE. Priceline's actual fee is typically more than that because they often don't pay the full bid price to the hotel. After all, Bill Shatner has to get paid, right! :) Before you check out, check your folio through the in room "movie" channel and you might see the actual room and tax that Priceline remits to the Hotel. Link to comment
jishaq Posted February 28, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 28, 2008 I guess they do have to make money, but I would rather have them be up-front about it. Perhaps they've done their homework and realized that people would be less likely to use their service if they explicitly indicated "Priceline fee." Now that I think about it, this seems to be the model that most other online travel systems use too, so I shouldn't be all that surprised. I consistently save 35-60% on the best-available room rates using Priceline and Better Bidding, so I probably shouldn't complain. :) Thanks.-Jeff Link to comment
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