Nothing like paying full price for a hotel room you never get to sleep in!
!!! Punish priceline for their poor policy - save your money and make direct reservations!!!
Travel brokers made sense when they first came out, but with the overwelming abundace of middlemen driving prices down, direct purchase prices have fallen and most-often match or beat broker prices, while having much better customer contracts and better customer service.
Holiday Inn Express in Palm Desert offers the same price for their rooms as Priceline's lowest offer, so why did I bother? Because that day H.I.E.'s website wasn't processing credit cards for some reason.
Over to Priceline I went and paid for a room for 2 days with a Kingsize bed. I was coming in late on my check-in date and called the hotel to notify them I would be late. When we arrived the following day, not only had our room had been rented to someone else, but I had still been charged the full fee for the entire weekend. Please understand, my entire reservation was cancelled, but no money refunded, not even a partial. All kingsize bedrooms were taken at this point, my only option if I wanted a bed to sleep on was to pay full price AGAIN, this time for a twin bed room ON TOP OF the price I had already paid for the Kingsize room that was rented from under me.
Below is the fine print where Priceline buries their inethical profit margin.
* Guarantee Policy: Reservation is guaranteed for arrival on the confirmed check-in date only. If you don't check-in to the hotel on the first day of your reservation and you do not alert the hotel in advance, the remaining portion of your reservation will be canceled and you will not be entitled to a refund.
RE: "IN ADVANCE" - Interestingly enough, I did inform the hotel of my late arrival and I did it IN ADVANCE, and when I did, no mention was made that when I would arrive there would be nothing waiting for me. What their fine print fails to mention is what exactly "IN ADVANCE" means. Where is teh line drawn? When all is said and done, it means they can take your money and give you nothing, not a very ethical business practice.
An ethical business chooses between
A. Charging a customer for services provided.
B. NOTcharging a customer when NOservices are provided.
Priceline is trying to slip in "C" here and it is a Scam.
I contacted Priceline to resolve this. I offered A or B. No concern was given nor offer to rectify the situation. No compesatory refund, no compesatory accomodations. Nothing.
The Better Business Bureau sent the next letter, which again was brushed aside by Priceline. It seems they are well trained and comfortable with taking money from cutomers while providing no service.
Do not encourage this behavior. Boycott priceline till they change their policy.
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