New Wording of Counter Offers?

[Will]

Perhaps this is old news and I'm the last to know, but it seems PRICELINE has changed the wording of their counter offers:

We Have A Great Deal For You!

We searched hundreds of options to find your hotel room, however we can't accept your offer of $110 per room, per night. Your credit card has not been charged for Request Number xxxxxx. During our search we found a hotel room available for $235 per room, per night. If you are willing to accept this new price, you can get your hotel room right now.

Normally you are required to change additional items (add zones, star level, or dates) in order to try your request again. However we are able to extend this one-time opportunity to you because of the zone, quality level and dates you requested.

Act fast - Hotel inventory is constantly changing and these rooms are subject to availability. To accept this new price just review your offer details and follow the steps below.

This is also the furthest out I've ever got a counter offer, they usually seem to hit when your $10-$20 out.

P.S.: I know my bid was a low ball in this case and had almost no chance of being accepted

[WillTravel]

PRICELINE has several different versions of their counteroffer language. This one below tends to be used when the suggested price is much, much higher. I've also only seen this sort of response for a European hotel bid. Were you bidding for a European hotel room?

[Rhine-and-Roses]

I've had this wording several times, and yes, always on European hotels. I believe every time I was able to get a room for a good bit less than their counter offer.

[Will]

This was for bidding in NYC, first time I've seen it.

[girlofloyalty]

I got a counteroffer after trying to bid $58 for a 3* in Philly for this weekend. The wording was similiar, but said I had to increase my bid by $17. They gave me the box to re-enter my bid. I tried to rebid $62. PL said gave me a sentence in red up at the top of the screen that said my re-bid had to be at least $17. Not going to happen with a decent hotel on hotwire being $74.

(And, yes, I did go through the provided PRICELINE links.)

Oh, there's the lingo:

Try Again Right Now

We searched hundreds of options to find your hotel room, however we can't accept your offer of $58 per room, per night. Your credit card has not been charged.... If you are willing to raise your price by $17, you can try the same request again right now.

Normally you are required to change additional items (add zones, star level, or dates) in order to try your request again. However we are able to extend this one-time opportunity to you because of the zone, quality level and dates you requested.

[dahammer]

I have seen this same lingo, if you enter an amount less than the "raise your bid amount" you will be turned dow. You can often undercut this by closing your browser, and re-accessing via the PRICELINE links on the board (and thank you for doing so!! :) ) adding a rebid zone, submit the new bid less than the $17.

By The Way, what HOTWIRE hotel did you get in Philly?

[wwtraveler]

I've had this wording several times, and yes, always on European hotels. I believe every time I was able to get a room for a good bit less than their counter offer.

I'm trying Priceline for the first time to bid on a european hotel. How can one turn down the counteroffer the safest way to avoid what some priceline users have experienced? ie, their credit card was charged the full amount of a high counteroffer even though they never agreed to the counteroffer.

As I also have read, it's impossible to win a fight over the charge once it's on your CC account!

[dahammer]

I'm trying Priceline for the first time to bid on a european hotel. How can one turn down the counteroffer the safest way to avoid what some priceline users have experienced? ie, their credit card was charged the full amount of a high counteroffer even though they never agreed to the counteroffer.

As I also have read, it's impossible to win a fight over the charge once it's on your CC account!

wwtraveler, Welcome!

Please post the details of your bid, include the zone, your last bid ammount, the dates of travel, star rating, and we will comment further.

[bestcorp]

Never experienced anything like that with priceline although I am a fairly new "travel bargain hunter" :)

[irobot]

Never experienced anything like that with priceline although I am a fairly new "travel bargain hunter" :)

I just recently saw wording like this for a US property (Columbia, SC, specifically). It was when I had used the "extend your stay" option. PL didn't accept the original accepted price, but came back with a higher one - with that wording.