Priceline's confusing car response

[iahphx]

I bid for a car rental on priceline yesterday (something I rarely do, given the weakness of their car program) and I got a strange response. Instead of sending me a typical message like "sorry, we could not accept your offer, here are the rates from our partner" the response page just reads "more rental car options." It's a direct link to lowestfare.com, which seems to scan the ordinary CRS links to compare rent-a-car prices. But nowhere in this response does priceline bother to tell you your bid has been rejected! Now, admittedly, you can figure it out by supposition, but when you give someone a credit card number for a non-refundable bid, you don't want to have to "figure out" the status of your bid. Shame on priceline for making it unnecessarily confusing.

BTW, I kind of think they should just close down the car program. You can't even get a 10% savings (usually it cost MORE to rent cars from priceline!), which is a rotten value equation for not getting to choose your own company and being stuck with a non-refundable, non-changable reservation.

[thereuare]

Well i just had a conversation with another board member that i don't 'push' the board's affiliate links enough... maybe Priceline is at the opposite extreme and we should each take a lead from each other? I'm sure they're trying to make sure that their purchases of these other websites and third party ventures pay off for them... but it is possible to push too far. Perhaps they're trying to make sure that the unsuspecting user actually clicks thru to LowestFares (i'm sure 'click-thru rates' of rejected bids are monitored very closely and helps justify their purchase/investments in these other sites)

Remember that users of this board, and those that seek it out, are the 'bargain hunters' of the net. There are many people that don't do nearly the research we do in order to find the best price (how many think that the 'special rate' they get from Expedia or Orbitz, or prices from Hotels.com, are the absolute best prices for hotels).

Part of the problem (IMO) is the $5.95 fee. For a one day rental $6 added to your bid would surely eat up any savings.. even $3/day for a 2 day rental or $2/day for a 3 day rental ends up making a significant difference. Perhaps this product is best for rentals of 10 days or more (where the fee amounts to about .50/day)

I don't know the percent breakdown of their car rental business, but i'd suspect it's at least 10-15%, which still represents very significant revenue and i doubt there is any thought to shut it down anytime soon. As well, every product that they deal with (air, hotels, and cars) is cyclical, so although the car rental product may not be very competitive today, it may be next month, next year, or somewhere else down the road.

[iahphx]

I think a lot of what you say is true. There's certainly a sliding scale of "affiliate marketing," and priceline has foolishly slid too far when they fail to initially inform customers that their bids have been rejected. It almost seems like they need a regulatory agency to remind them of some basic rules on how to deal honestly with their customers.

I also think it unlikely they'll shut down the car function because it probably costs them little to maintain it, even if "most" travellers know its useless and don't use it. Unfortunately for priceline, their model only works if the industry players find is useful for unloading heavily discounted distressed inventory. For whatever reasons, much of the hotel industry doesn't mind dumping unsold rooms into this channel. The airline industry tried it originally, but seems to have come to the conclusion that it is more harmful than helpful. The car rental companies never embraced it, and they don't seem likely to start.