saint82

Used Priceline to bid on a hotel in Center City Philadelphia on Saturday, May 19th. The only acceptable area that I picked was downtown.

My offer was accepted at the Marriott Residence on Penn Plaza. I printed out the reservation.

I rearranged my schedule, packed, drove 100 miles, filled up the car, found downtown parking, only to be told that the hotel was oversold!

Called Priceline, and they would send me to another hotel BY THE AIRPORT (11 miles away by Mapquest). That is not walking you to another hotel. I looked on Pricelines website and there were other hotels in downtown Philly available that night. I also am totally unfamiliar with the airport area.

If you bid on a Manhattan Hotel, can Priceline "walk" you to a hotel by Newark Airport for the same price? Is this a tactic that Priceline uses to fill up unused hotel rooms at undesirable locations at center city prices.

If I had wanted to stay out by the Airport, I would have chosen it as an option. And anyone can tell that the airport hotels go for about 50% or so of the downtown hotels. I asked Priceline how I was going to get back and forth from the airport to downtown. That was my problem. Does anyone smell bait and switch?

Well after a number of calls and assurances that they would get back to me, which of course they never did, I did receive a notice that they will refund my money. (in a billing cycle or two, even though they took the money instantly) Isn't that grand? What about the unnecessary trip? What about the 200 miles traveled? What about the gas? What about parking?

This is criminal. Priceline is a farce. I did not change my travel plans. I fufilled all the requirements and I got royally screwed!!!!!

What are my option here? Can anyone assist me. Thanks in advance.

WillTravel

The hotel is the entity at fault here. They oversold, and their responsibility was to put you in an equivalent hotel, and (most likely) refund your night's stay and pay your transport costs. Have you complained to the hotel about your treatment.

Priceline can't control the hotel's misdeeds directly.

BearX220

I agree. Priceline is innocent! The hotel, once it agreed to the terms of the Priceline deal, has the responsibility of providing you with a room -- not Priceline. So if they were oversold it was the hotel's, not Priceline's, responsibility to "walk" you to an equivalent property at the hotel's own expense. This would be the case whether you booked through Priceline, Expedia, or the Marriott website.

It sounds like Priceline tried to do what they could, and actually went way beyond their real obligation (alternate hotels; refund offer). In actual fact, once Priceline has brokered the deal, they're basically uninvolved. You should have escalated this to the hotel's management, stood your ground, and gotten them to treat you like any other "walked" guest.

saint82

The hotel (Marriott) told me that I had purchased the room through Priceline, which I had. I was standing there at 8:30 at night after having driven for more than two hours, and there were other hotels available, but neither Marriott or Priceline were acting responsible. Both of them directing me to the other.

I didn't know what to do, but get back in my car and drive another two hours plus home. What about the rules that they are supposed to walk you to another hotel? I feel like I should file a police complaint.

By the way, I have been traveling over 20 years, mostly with Continental airlines, and I have very few complaints. It's not that I am a complainer. It is that I was screwed.

787

Why did you call Priceline??? I did not even know Priceline had a phone number.

It was the hotels responsibility at this point and they would be responsible for getting you another room.

Edit: I was posting my question the same time the OP was answering.

BearX220

The proper thing to say would have been:

"You sold me a room and I've paid for it, so now finding me a room is your problem. I understand that hotels sometimes get oversold. But it doesn't matter whether I bought it through Priceline, the Marriott corporate site or your own desk -- we've already done the deal so I'm afraid you have to make good. Will you start calling comparable properties in this area, or should we call the manager to work this out?"

End of speech. Now just stand there. But there was no real point in calling Priceline.

mikew99

Let's be sure not to beat up on the OP here by saying "you should have done X, Y, and Z". Yes, I would have held the hotel accountable, but not everybody is a travel expert! IMHO, he did the proper thing to get his booking agent (Priceline) involved.

If it really was the right thing for the OP to stand his ground against the hotel, couldn't Priceline simply tell him that? Or perhaps Priceline could have called the hotel to broker some arrangement for the OP? I don't buy that Priceline can wash their hands of the booking; they are the experts here and should have known exactly what to do!

Actually, I am surprised that Priceline didn't do more to find suitable accommodations for the OP. Has anybody recently researched what the official Priceline policy is on walking a customer?

BearX220

As Priceline doesn't do the walking -- the hotel does -- Priceline has no reason to accept responsibility for it.

I'm not jumping to the defense of Priceline or anyone else here, but Priceline is not the responsible party. They may take an interest in helping a customer just to be nice, but they're not the party to turn to.

Priceline buyers, like every other kind of traveler, get bumped off planes and out of rental cars and hotels every day. Do you honestly expect Priceline to (A) be able to stop it and (B) try to make things right for every bumped customer?

Travel providers dump inventory to Priceline to be sold off at bargain rates. The sales model is Priceline's sole contribution to the stewpot. If that inventory doesn't materialize when the buyer does, the provider is on the hook, pure and simple.

zachary

I've been in the OP's situation before and I remember being pretty upset. However, when I thought about it, here's the bottom line:

1. You get a hotel room for free.
2. Although you wind up in a different zone than then the one you bid in, or the one that you were interested in, you get it for free.
3. Oh, did I mention that you get a free hotel room?

Now, I'm sure there are circumstances where the free room doesn't seem like enough, those are going to be few and far between. In this case, I have no idea why the OP wouldn't have made the trip if he had known in advance that he was going to get a free room by the airport. Maybe there's a good reason.

As others have said, there's nothing priceline can do to prevent the hotel from walking you, except that the hotel has to give you a comparable room for free.

mikew99

You might in fact be correct. I understand that Priceline doesn't do the walking, but I don't quite understand that Priceline is not a responsible party in the matter, either. I was thinking that Priceline would be acting as a travel agent in this case, so I would have expected them to do more. For example, if Priceline had alternate inventory available, I would have expected them to make that available to the OP. That doesn't mean that my expectations reflect reality, though.

mikew99

Can't speak for the OP, but I can understand why a free hotel room might not be "worth it." More often than not, I'll limit myself to more-expensive downtown locations so that I can walk everywhere, even when a cheaper aiport location is available. (I would never stay at SFO as an alternative to downtown SF to save money!)

Also, depending on the market, a free hotel room might not compensate for costs in getting to/from a downtown location where you want to be. Having to take cabs and/or drive & park kind of ruins the whole experience!

saint82

You are sadly in error. I wasn't offered anything at all for free. They still were taking my money and telling me on the phone that even though they had not gotten me a room that it was non-refundable. I was standing on the streetcorner with my lugguage while they were telling me this. The ONLY way I am supposedly getting my money returned is after numerous phone calls and talking to innumerable people. They charged my card, and were going to keep the money, and saw no problem with that at all.

All I know is that I followed every direction. I did everything I could. If I had cost either Marriott or Priceline anything, I would have found that charge on my credit card. Yet, they cost me plenty, and they act like there is nothing they can do about it, and I should just suffer in silence.

Why are they able to pass on charges, but I am just supposed to absorb them with a smile?

There was no error here on my part. It was between Priceline and Marriott.
Selling you a room that doesn't exist and then trying desperately to keep your money is fraud, no matter how you look at it.

BearX220

The cost of the make-good hotel room should be borne by the overbooked hotel, not Priceline. The overbooked hotel has been prepaid for a room it's now unable to produce, so they've got their money and should use it to make the customer happy. If Priceline makes good, it's producing two hotel rooms for the price of one, while the overbooked hotel is producing zero rooms for the price of one.

jayer

When you are tired and its late optimum strategy does not cross your mind. I understand that, so this not a criticism of the orignal poster. Given a room at the airport or an argument I' might just do the same thing. But, I would suggest they escalate now to the hotel GM and if needed Marriott, and report the results. I am under the impression that in many states the obligation to find you an alternative lodging is a legal obligation incumbent upon the hotel. At the very least it is standard practice for a Marriott.

I've booked hundreds of Priceline stays and been happy with 95%, found 4% disappointing but liveable, and 1% sucked, which is at least as good as my conventional bookings. The only time I've seen anything like this happen was a downmarket claptrap in Houston that was all I could get after Hurricane Katrina. Some poor guy could not produce a copy of his reservation. They were givng everybody the story that their computer was down and they would not admit anyone who could not prove they had a reservation. (He tried to fix their computer, only to give up and drive off to find his old college roomate and his wife who hated him; an evening I'm sure all three enjoyed). He gave me the same speech, but for once I'd saved a copy of the printout because it was an odd goofy-looking 2* I'd never been to before. (He looked really stunned and then checked me in). If it were a Marriott I doubt I would have considered it necessary.

buffy888

I am surprised Priceline is offering any reimbursement at all as they are in no way responsible for this problem. Hotels manage their inventory and are able to close out Priceline rates in the system at any time - they allot a certain number of rooms/rates to Priceline - Priceline cannot overbook a hotel unless the hotel did not manage their availability in the system properly (in which case it is not truly Priceline overbooking the hotel, but rather the hotel overbooking the hotel). Priceline does not get all of the money from these reservations - the hotel is receiving revenue from their Priceline bookings; the hotel should not be able to wash their hands of this situation.

As others have mentioned, the best option is to take this up with the hotel and/or Marriott customer service. At the hotel directly, you could try the Reservations/Revenue Manager or Guest Services Manager (a.k.a. Front Office Manager) first; if they do not resolve to your satisfaction, then it needs to be escalated to the GM. If still no satisfaction, then Marriott customer service would be the next choice.

If you looked on the Priceline site and saw availability at other hotels in your bidding area that night, that does not mean other hotels had availability through the "name your own price" program. Going through the main Priceline site and just checking general rates is looking at regular availability, not availability through the bidding process. (If you could readily see what hotels were open for the "name your own price," that would take away from the "opaque" nature of the bidding system.)

As a former Revenue Manager at different resort properties plus a Revenue Consultant at the corporate level, I am appalled that this hotel pawned this off as somehow being Priceline's responsibility rather than their own error. Many hotels purposely overbook as part of their yield/revenue management strategy (and it can be a valid strategy if done with skill and prior historical data, overbooking a set number of rooms based on several factors), but they need to be prepared to face the consequences if they did not handle their inventory correctly. More than likely they were holding a reservation for you and a reservation for someone who a) is a regular guest and/or b) paid closer to rack rate and the front desk staff thought it would be less difficult to send you elsewhere than have to deal with the other guest(s). Sometimes it is just a matter of which guest shows up first.

I am sorry you had to experience this situation. You were not in fault in the least but you are having to deal with all of the repercussions of the hotel's mistake. That is not fair and the hotel absolutely should honor their reservation commitment to you by taking care of you now in regards to reasonable reimbursement.

I am no longer in the hospitality industry, but use Priceline frequently for hotel stays and have been happy with almost every single experience. I hope that in the future you might be able to try them again and have a much better result. My husband and I just came back from a few days out of town and we were talking about how Priceline has really spoiled us as far as rates. We stopped for the first night halfway between home at St. Louis - stayed in a middle-of-nowhere town at a budget chain and paid $59 (when we walked in, they initially wanted $70). Very basic hotel, nothing fancy, just a place to sleep for the night. We booked through Priceline and paid $48 for the Hyatt Regency in downtown St. Louis - nice property in historic Union Station, great room, great stay - for the next night.