We recently met friends in St. Petersburg FL for lunch and ended up staying much longer than we anticipated. Because we had a three hour drive home, we decided to book a local hotel instead. I contacted Priceline online and saw that a hotel right down the street from where we were eating (The Renaissance Vinoy Resort Hotel) had a 'best price' of $112 per night. But when I clicked on the Priceline's Vinoy link, all that showed up were rooms from $269 and up. So I contacted Priceline via phone to see what was going on. The person I spoke to gave me a ridiculous price and explained that the closer to the booking date, the higher the price. Now, I think "Big Deal" would have a problem with that explanation, since he says unused rooms lose a hotel money and even a low rate is better than no revenue at all. So we called a La Quinta Hotel directly rather than go through Priceline and got a great room a few miles away.
In the past year I have gotten out of the habit of using Priceline because they are never reasonable in their bid acceptance and then make the customer wait 24 hours before rebidding. I don't have time for that foolishness... Wise up, Priceline... We are all going elsewhere because of the lack of customer service, bad info, and idiotic bidding policies.
0 comments