Priceline.com
Name-your-price hotel cost barely below normal rate with large markup

I put a hotel bid in for $60/night, for 3 nights and Priceline accepted it. Naturally, they added the always vague "taxes and service fees", in this case, $31.87 for 2 nights. Total amount for three nights $211.87.

Upon arriving, I found that the normal room rate was $65/night. Not much of a deal (since the commercials routinely hint at 50% off). Upon checking out, the hotel apparently goofed, printing out the amount they had charged Priceline: $162.87 which included taxes of $17.49.

That's a 33% profit! A bit steamed, I called Priceline and they admitted that their business model is based on an average 30% mark-up. Hey, I'm all for companies making a profit, but considering that it would have been cheaper for me to contract directly with the hotel, I know I won't ever use Priceline again!

Company: Priceline.com
Country: USA
Site: priceline.com

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