How does priceline work?

"Gregory Morrow" wrote in
message . net...

PeterL wrote:

That's correct. You pick the region (downtown, uptown, etc.) and the
rating
of the hotels. You set a price. Once that price is accepted (by
Priceline), you are told which hotel. You can see a list of hotels in
that
area and at that star rating before you bid, so you'll have some idea as
to
which hotels are on the list.

You would not have a say after they accepted your bid. And there is no
cancellation. That's the price to pay for bidding. Check out
biddingfortravel.com to see what other people have been bidding at your
preferred location.


Or better yet for Priceline bidding info:

www.betterbidding.com

Or you can check out the travel bidding forum at:

www.flyertalk.com

There have been quite a few customer service "issues" with
biddingfortravel.com - search the bidding forum at flyertalk.com for
extensive discussion of why it's best to avoid that site.


I only use biddingfortravel for information on what others are able to get.
What are the customer service issues?


--
Best
Greg

In article ,
"Stephen Clark" wrote:

Someone has suggested that I use priceline to book hotel rooms in the US but
I'm not sure how it works. I've followed the 4 steps they provide in their
introduction and at the end it says:

"That's it! In most cases you'll have an answer in as little as 60 seconds
or less. Once your price is accepted you'll find out the exact hotel you're
staying in. "

What I would like to know is who is accepting the price - me or the hotel? I
would like to have the final say - after reviewing the hotels on offer on
review sites (eg tripadvisor) and the price. I suspect priceline will not
tell me what the hotel is until I've committed to it.

You AND the hotel accept the price. You make a bid, if the hotel accepts
the bid, you are bound to it. This is all spelled out on Priceline's
terms of service.

In article ,
"Stephen Clark" wrote:

Someone has suggested that I use priceline to book hotel rooms in the US but
I'm not sure how it works. I've followed the 4 steps they provide in their
introduction and at the end it says:

"That's it! In most cases you'll have an answer in as little as 60 seconds
or less. Once your price is accepted you'll find out the exact hotel you're
staying in. "

What I would like to know is who is accepting the price - me or the hotel? I
would like to have the final say - after reviewing the hotels on offer on
review sites (eg tripadvisor) and the price. I suspect priceline will not
tell me what the hotel is until I've committed to it.

You AND the hotel accept the price. You make a bid, if the hotel accepts
the bid, you are bound to it. This is all spelled out on Priceline's
terms of service.

(Harry Dodsworth) wrote in message ...
I think the questioner is posting from Britain. If so, priceline may
not be available to him.

Last year I tried priceline to bid on a hotel when I was going to
Quebec City. After a couple of rounds of bidding, I presumed I had
made a winning bid as the system asked me for my credit card information.
Unfortunately the address fields only allowed for US Zip codes.
I think a post on the biddingfortravel site suggested using State CA
Zip 99999 or some other dummy data. Unfortunately it seemed the system
checked my billing address against the data supplied (actually a
reasonable security check) as it said my credit card information was
invalid and refused to complete the transaction.
Oddly I subsequently got a few emails from priceline inviting me to
use the service again :-)

I did feel a little hurt that cheap access to Canadian hotels was not
available to Canadian residents! It is possible the policy may have
changed, I havn't bothered to try again.

I'm a Canadian resident and have successfully used priceline for years
using my American Express card and dummy data (ie CA for Canada and
12345 for a zip).
Some have reported problems with a Canadian Visa or M/C, however. One
great feature for Canadians using priceline for a Canadian hotel is
that "the system"
assumes you are American and doesn't charge the GST! Nice little
loophole, n'est-ce pas? JOHN

You might need to check that non-US people can use Priceline. I used to use
them....it was brilliant I have to say....but then when I tried to book a
hotel room from Australia, I couldn't do it, as they wouldn't handle CCs
with a non-US address.

To answer your question: once you make a bid, you are locked in. This is how
they get hotels etc to play. You put up your CC, and state the date,
location and level of hotel, and put up the price you want to pay. If a
hotel goes for it, you are committed.
I got a huge brand new comfy room in El Segundo once, on a LA layover, for
$20. I felt almost embarassed to be getting it for so little.

ant

You might need to check that non-US people can use Priceline. I used to use
them....it was brilliant I have to say....but then when I tried to book a
hotel room from Australia, I couldn't do it, as they wouldn't handle CCs
with a non-US address.

To answer your question: once you make a bid, you are locked in. This is how
they get hotels etc to play. You put up your CC, and state the date,
location and level of hotel, and put up the price you want to pay. If a
hotel goes for it, you are committed.
I got a huge brand new comfy room in El Segundo once, on a LA layover, for
$20. I felt almost embarassed to be getting it for so little.

ant