We just came back from a driving trip where we used Priceline and “name your own price” for hotels on 3 separate nights. Only issue was the last night, where the only rooms they had when we got there had a single king-sized bed (there was a pullout sofa, so we put one kid on that and one kid on the sofa cushions on the floor). Not complaining about that; it’s a risk you take with that sort of booking method.
Interestingly, two of the three rooms, we were booked into smoking rooms; the third was at a non-smoking hotel. Luckily, both times they were able to switch us. At the last place, the clerk told me that all their Priceline rooms were smoking rooms. He told me that Hotwire gets their nonsmoking rooms.
Has anyone else run into that kind of thing when using Priceline? Do you know if it’s a corporate policy with Priceline, or might be a chain-by-chain policy?
The cost savings can be substantial… at the last place, we paid 55 dollars and a walkin at the same time was quoted 82 for the same room. We’ve also found that booking at the last minute can get us a much nicer room for the same money (e.g. last year we got a room at an Omni for 64 dollars when we booked the same day, the year before we made our bid a few days in advance and paid more, in the same town, for a two-star motor inn).
I’ve used it a few times, mostly for flights, and been happy with it. Last time, I wasn’t flying, my husband drove me, and I used it for booking a hotel room, which I’d never done with Priceline before. Previously, I’d been able to stay with my parents, but they’re in a nursing home now.
I originally got booked in a smoking room, up a flight of stairs. I can’t manage stairs and they didn’t have an elevator. I wasn’t told that the room was a smoking one, or an upstairs one when I booked it on Priceline. I followed up with a phone call to the hotel, and found out that the room didn’t meet my needs. Then I called up Priceline.
I think that they should let people know whether or not the room is smoking, and also whether the room is ground floor or if one has to hike up a couple of floors. These things can make the difference between a guest being able to stay in that room or needing to find another room.
Lynn - what a pain! We got stuck in a second-floor, no-elevator room once on vacation when I was injured and had a lot of trouble with the stairs.
Did the hotel, or Priceline, make things “ok” in any way? I hadn’t even thought of the disability-related issues with using the service; we, after all, could have put up with a smoking room if we’d had to (blech!).
I was annoyed with the apparent request for a smoking room, or the failure to disclose that this was apparently a default. I wish they had a way of at least putting a comment on the request.
My only experience has been using the “Name Your Price” feature for a hotel in Canada. Obviously, you do not get to pick, but the idea is to hone your selected area properly and pick your desired star level.
I’d always pick 2 1/2 star in Mississauga, ON and set $60 as my price. I’d almost always get it and never had a disappointing stay. A lot of hotels set invisible-to-the-user price floors and you’ll likely get the same hotel the next time if you set the same price (which always worked out in my favor, I liked the hotel).
You are charged many annoying taxes/fees, so a portion of the discount is lost to that, but it’s nothing major. I think the retail rate for my room was $95 or something in that range.
I’ve worked in hotels almost my whole life and there Priceline, Hotwire, Orbit or whatever do not reserve specific room types. The clerk at the hotel was simply lying or misinformed.
What happens is Priceline puts a number of rooms on temp reserve with a hotel. For instance if I’m the hotel revenue mgr (handles reservations) and I think I can’t sell 50 rooms. I may give 10 rooms to Hotwire to sell, 10 rooms to Priceline etc
I give a BLOCK of rooms, they are’t reserved officially but merely “taken off the market.”
As the hotel sells rooms it adds or subtracts from the block of rooms.
The thing is hotels give blocks of rooms they can’t sell themselves. This is why they are cheap. Customers who use Priceline, Hotwire or whatever get the “less desirable” rooms and this is right.
If a guests books through the hotel and pays $100 and you book through Priceline and pay $50, why shouldn’t you get the room by the elevator, or have no choice in smoking/non-smoking.
Of course you give the choices to the guest paying more. That’s only right. That’s the idea, you’re getting a deal because you’re willing to take less.
This is why if you have any special needs you need to book directly though the hotel. That way they can accommodate you correctly
Yeah, Priceline managed to find a room on the first floor for me. We had wanted two queen beds, but got a single king sized bed. It’s hard for us to sleep in the same bed, because our body rhythms are different.
As it was, I generally took a book to the lobby in the middle of the night, and read for a while, because I can’t sleep for more than a few hours at a time, while Bill needs a good eight hours of mostly uninterrupted sleep.
Oh, I don’t have any problem with having less choice and I do recognize that this is the tradeoff. We’d even have put up with a smoking room if we’d had to - I was just puzzled at the statement that the hotel only puts smoking rooms up for Priceline.
I found on Priceline’s website that they will help out if the room is unacceptable from a disability standpoint. But if I had an issue such as Lynn mentioned, I’d probably do as you said and go directly to the hotel, or at least use the regular online booking process.
My problem was that there was no way of telling if the room was on the first or second floor, or if the hotel even had an elevator. Other hotels had noted which floor the room was on. I think that this particular hotel just didn’t bother to mention it.
We use Priceline’s “name your own price” for hotels in the Baltimore area frequently. We just about always need a room with two beds instead of one King bed, because mudgirl is almost always with us. So I tend to book the room, and then call the hotel right away and tell them I just booked, and request the kind of room I want. They have just about always accommodated me, but when they say they can’t be sure we’ll get a room with two beds, I take that opportunity to reserve a rollaway bed.
We’ve gotten $200.00/night rooms for under $100.00/night on a pretty regular basis.
I just used Priceline’s “name your own price” to get a hotel room in New York City in a couple weeks. I got the Sheraton Brooklyn for $110 a night (pre-tax); the regular rate is $300/night. Sites like Bid for Travel and Better Bidding have lists posted of possible hotels so you can get an idea of what hotel you might get in the area and what others have bid. For example, there were only 2 3.5 star hotels in the Brooklyn area that people reported receiving, so I was pretty sure I’d get either the Marriott or the Sheraton. I’m really happy with what I received since apparently it’s a new hotel and is close to several subway stops. I’m going with my sister so hopefully the hotel will give me a double room but I realize that it’s not guaranteed.
I’ve also used it in DC but I got impatient and didn’t get such a great deal, Montreal, and London where I also got an awesome deal at a Hilton for $85/night.