Priceline Hotel: 3* Buffalo-Niagara Falls (Downtown) Adams Mark

[Dove]

I had wonderful experiences of booking hotels on Pinceline before, but of course not this time for my upcoming trip to Niagara Falls, NY. I WAS ASSIGNED A LOWER STAR SCALE HOTEL AND IT IS NOT ON THE LIST!!!

For the first bidding, I tried $60 for the only three star hotel-Crowne Plaza Hotel in Niagara Falls, NY, and I was rejected. Therefore, in order to get another chance, I added Buffalo Downtown where there are no 3-star upscare hotels at all as listed on the website and I raised the price to $61. GUESS WHAT! I was given a hotel named "Adam's Mark " in Buffalo which looks terrible, and what is the rediculous thing is , it is not on the list of hotels availble either in Buffalo Downtown or Niagara Falls at the PRICELINE website!!!!!!!

Of course, I called the customer service and they appologized for what had happend and then tole me "BUT WE COULD NOT DO ANYTHING" and I had to cancel this reservation (because the hotel is one hour's driving away from Niagara Falls) and I was charged one night's hotel fee as well as the service fee , which amounts to $72 or so. I was told i could get $25 back if I book another hotel on their website again.

How can I trust them again?!!!

P.S. I wrote a complaint e-mail to their general manager and I have not received any reply yet!

What should I do now?!

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

Please list the dates of your stay above so that we can complete your topic title and we'll then add our comments.

[mrxow]

I am sorry you are upset about getting a hotel you didn't want.

However...

When you added a zone, you indicated to Priceline that you would be ok with getting a hotel in that zone.

There is more one three star hotel in downtown Buffalo. Any hotel could possibly be on the PL bidding system. Many hotels that participate in the bidding system do not show up on PL's retail side. Priceline does not say anywhere, and most anyone here could tell you, that a hotel you might win will not necessarily be listed anywhere on PL's retail pages. The Crowne Plaza is not the only hotel you could have won in Niagara, either. The hotel you received is a 3* hotel on PL's scale, not lower than 3*. And it appears to be 20 minutes from Niagara Falls, not an hour, unless there is some nasty traffic in that area.

Priceline would not be able to exist if they allowed people to add any zone they want indiscriminantly, then had to field complaints and make refunds to everybody that wasn't happy with a hotel that matched the star level and zone they agreed to stay in.

I realize you are a new member here, so I don't know if you have looked at this board before this happened, but what you experienced was easily avoidable. Certainly ask questions next time and things like this won't happen.

How can you trust them again? This seems like a really silly question when they lived up to their end of the deal and you got what you agreed to. This situation is entirely due to your lack of understanding of how Priceline works. You can absolutely trust Priceline to give you a hotel in a zone you pick at or above the star level you specify. Absolutely, every time, you can trust them to do that. You cannot "trust" them not to give you a hotel that isn't listed on their retail side. The retail side and bidding side are separate.

What should you do now? First you should post your win information so other people using this service can learn from your situation. We need to know the dates of your stay. Then we can explain to you how to avoid this in the future and how to get a hotel you want in the zone you want. It is highly likely you will still save money booking through PL versus going direct, even when you add in the $47 you will be out.

[Dove]

Thank you for your information. MRXOW. Maybe I didn't get what the following link says? But I did follow each step.

Priceline Re-Bidding Explained

Anyways, may I have some ideas about how to bid the Crowne Plaza in Naiagara Falls, NY for one night on April 28 ? How much should I bid ?

[thereuare]

Please list the dates of your stay above so that we can complete your topic title and we'll then add our comments.

Did you 'win' the Adams Mark for a one nite stay, 4/28?

[Dove]

Thank you for your quick reply. I won the Adam's Mark, but I called the customer service about how to cancel it and asked them to send me some information about the details of cancellation. AND it turned out that they cancelled it for me . So now I had to book another one. Anyway, I don't drive, therefore I'd like to select a hotel colser to the falls.

[mrxow]

We still want to know what day you made your booking (we realize it is now cancelled) and for how many nights. This information helps people that actually want to be in downtown Buffalo. It's a you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours around here. :)

Since you are asking for one night on the 28th in Niagara, can we assume that is what you got in downtown before you cancelled it?

[Dove]

Got you finally. I thought you needed the date of the trip! :)

I bid on April 3rd for one night's stay in Niagara Falls on April 28 and ended up in getting Adam's Mark in downtown Buffalo at $61.

I am still working on getting the three star Crowne Plaza close to Niagara Falls.

[mrxow]

Ok, thanks for that. The moderator will adjust you post title accordingly so other people will be able to easily understand what you won.

Now, first of all, you need to know that while the last nine wins reported in your zone have been at the Crowne Plaza, two years ago, people won the Sheraton 4 Points. This link should take you to search results which show a lot of the 3* wins reported in your zone. Now you see why we wanted all that information? Aren't you glad other people posted their wins? Don't worry about the Holiday Inn listings - that is what the Crowne Plaza used to be called.

http://www.betterbidding.com/index.php?act...wntown+-amherst

Somebody won your hotel last April for $45. Someone also won the hotel last month for $45. You, however, already bid the zone and know that you did not get it at $60. So that is probably a good place to start. The retail side is offering your hotel for $116 on your night.

When you start your priceline bidding, ignore the retail stuff or take the direct link to the bidding side. Click on each zone INDIVIDUALLY and see which ones do not show 3* or above as an option. When I just checked, there were two zones that met this criteria. Downtown was not one of them! :) These are the zones you can safely add for rebids. You cannot win hotels in these zones.

So pick your starting price for the Niagara zone and see what happens. Then raise your bid and add one of the free rebid zones. If you want an extra rebid, start the whole process over from the beginning on a fresh Priceline homepage, raise your bid again and pick Niagara and the other free rebid zone. If you still haven't got your hotel, Bid Niagara and both rebid zones. Do the same thing in 24 hours until you get what you want.

Make sure to use the site's PRICELINE links and post your win info.

[audreydoll]

Just FYI, but when you switch from Priceline's retail product to the "name your own price" section, Priceline displays the following message as a warning that you may receive a different hotel:

Please note: The hotel we find may or may not be one that you saw on the previous page(s).

[thereuare]

It appears that you tried to use PRICELINE's "retail" product to determine what you will get thru the "Name Your Own Price" product. It is mentioned in our PRICELINE FAQ that you can not do this, and in addition, as audreydoll points out above, PRICELINE even gives you the following message:

The hotel we find may or may not be one that you saw on the previous page(s)

If my understaning of the events is as described above I think you are VERY lucky to have had this reservation cancelled since the error was your own (and perhaps you might want to 'retract' the complaint email you sent, although it's not really clear who you sent that to)

If you want to try PRICELINE again, you first need to understand re-bidding. See this link: Priceline Re-Bidding Explained and confirm with the board the two re-bid zones that you have when bidding 3 stars in this area. If you don't understand it after reading the previous link let us know and we'll break it down further for you.

Lastly, since you say above that you don't drive, are you able to accept a hotel anywhere with the shaded boundaries of the Niagara Falls, NY zone?

[Dove]

Hi, thereuare.

You are right!!! I used the retail side! That's my fault. :)

Thank god, I have got what I want now-the Crowne Plaza hotel at $61.

Thank you for your help.

Thank all the participants here.

[thereuare]

Glad you now have the hotel you wanted... can you please start a NEW TOPIC and share the details of your win with the board.

Please remember to use these PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links to begin your travel purchases.

Thanks.