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Question regarding hotel overbooking and/or lost reservations


marie623marie
By marie623marie,
in

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New to using Priceline's bidding process and as a chronic worrier I have some questions. I know if I win a bid that I need to confirm the reservation independently and directly with the hotel, but is overbooking or mysteriously lost reservations a problem? If we did get to the hotel only to find out there wasn't a room for us because of either of these situations, what recourse do we have? I know that normally and ideally the hotel should "walk" us to another hotel with a room, but does this actually happen and would we be SOL and have to pay whatever price they decide to give us for the new hotel? Thanks for any insight.

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I've had "walking" happen, but not on a Priceline reservation. Once I had booked through the hotel site, and another time through another booking site. Both times, I did as well or better, so I had no complaints.

If you are concerned about your reservation, after making it with Priceline, you can wait a day or two, and then telephone or email the hotel to confirm they have it. If you know you will be arriving late, I recommend emailing and maybe phoning the hotel that day so that they know to hold the room for you.

It's very rare that this will be a problem, and if it is a problem, it's not likely to be due to Priceline.

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There definitely are the occasional instances of PRICELINE and HOTWIRE customers being walked, but it's a rarity overall. If it happens (again, rare), you should be given transportation to a comparable hotel within reasonable distance and, depending on the length of the stay, first night is often free.

Please use the site's HOTWIRE or PRICELINE links to start your purchases and searches.

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As a PRICELINE / HOTWIRE customer, you stand a better chance of NOT being walked. I have worked at a few different properties, and anytime we had to walk a guest, it was never a priceline/hotwire customer. Why? Because the room is prepaid. Do you really think the hotel wants to deal with the headache of trying to refund PRICELINE / HOTWIRE and then have them try to refund you? No. We would much rather just not charge someone who has a reservation but has not paid for the room. You would think the hotel would want to keep the money of the person with the regular reservation, but its just not worth the accounting nightmare!

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  • 2 weeks later...

What is PL or HW's obligation in this case, either legally or by their customer service plans?

I have friends who booked rooms with HW back in September, for a stay at the end of this month. Today they get a call from HW, the hotel is overbooked, and the reservation cannot be honored. They were offered a room at another hotel, different brand, but run by the same franchisee. It's nearby but in a different zone, a half star higher on HW ratings, but lower on many other sites' ratings and alarmingly worse reviews on TripAdvisor, and different amenities (for example, no comp. b'fast). They were told if they agreed to the switch, Hotwire would give them $25/night coupon towards a future stay; if they declined, they could get a full refund. The problem is, the city is now quite literally sold out for their dates.

They are attempting to escalate with the hotel, the franchisee, the national chain, and with Hotwire, but so far, not having any luck.

Advice?

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  • 3 weeks later...

Swag

What hotel was this? I've just had the same happen to me and I've been offered a lower star hotel, or a refund. If this is happening with the same chain of hotels, it's worth raising awareness of it.

On Hotwire we choose a hotel based on its amenities and on its price at that particular time. To be given the choice of starting again at a later date is not fair, as prices have often gone up by then, or the choice may be more limited. To be asked to accept a lower rating is just plain wrong.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I just had this happen-- Westin Reston Heights (reston, VA)

I won a 4* hotel and was transferred to a 3.5* hotel with no compensation. They also charged $250 on my credit card with the promise it would be debited back since that's the "only way they can do things." at least it wasn't a bigger downgrade and I've contacted PRICELINE, not sure if they'll do anything about it though.

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  • 4 years later...

I've never been overbooked but I did have a situation where the hotel "lost" my reservation. Apparently i wasn't the only one. The front called priceline and got the information about my reservation and 30 minutes later I got my room. Apparently same thing happened for the next guest. This is one way to overbook!!

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