How does priceline work?

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.

"Stephen Clark" wrote in message
...
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.


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.

"Stephen Clark" wrote in message
...

Someone has suggested that I use priceline to book hotel
rooms in the US but I'm not sure how it works.

You provide the following criteria:

The area(s) of your destination city you would consider staying in.
Your check-in and check-out dates.
The calibre of hotels you'd like.
How much you're willing to pay per night.

Then it searches.

Should it find a hotel matching your criteria, then it charges your credit
card automatically and you're booked for your stay. Note that unlike
bookings made directly with most hotels, when you book with Priceline, your
room(s) are paid ahead of time for the duration of your stay. The hotel will
only need a credit card for incidentals.

Should it fail to find a match then you're given a chance to broaden your
search criteria and try again.

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. "

This message is displayed right before the results of the search are
reported to you via your web browser. You should also receive an e-mail with
a URL to the webpage showing the results of your search.

What I would like to know is who is accepting the
price - me or the hotel?

You name the price, the hotels can either accept or reject.

I would like to have the final say - after reviewing
the hotels on offer on review sites (eg tripadvisor) and
the price.

Then you need to avoid priceline as once you've given it your search
criteria, if it finds something, your only recourse is to swallow the
charges and book something else somewhere else.


I suspect priceline will not tell me what the hotel is until
I've committed to it.

That is correct.

Hope this helps!

Richard

You might want to try Hotwire. The prices are a little higher, and you
still don't know the name of the hotel, but sometimes you can figure it out
from the amenities list they provide.

"Stephen Clark" wrote in message
...
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.

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.

I think it's too late for that.

miguel
--
Hit The Road! Photos and tales from around the world: http://travel.u.nu

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.

--
Harry Dodsworth Ottawa Ontario Canada
----------------------------------------------------------------

priceline.co.uk is for UK folks.

"Harry Dodsworth" wrote in message
...

I think the questioner is posting from Britain. If so, priceline may
not be available to him.

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.

--
Best
Greg

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.

--
Best
Greg

"Harry Dodsworth" wrote in message
...

I think the questioner is posting from Britain. If so,
priceline may not be available to him.

He could always try http://www.priceline.co.uk/

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.

The whole idea behind Priceline is that you don't know what you're getting
until you've already commited yourself to paying. In order to accomplish
this it needs to ensure that you've supplied valid credit card information
before your request is processed, since your credit card will be booked if
it finds a hotel that matches your search criteria.

In other words, if Priceline is asking for your CC info, then you haven't
made a bid yet.

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.

How far did you take the idea of dummy data for your address? I also live in
Canada and have used priceline successfully for hotels a handful of times.
When asked for my credit card billing address, I give my street address and
city but CA/99999 for my state and zipcode and I've never had a problem.

Alternately, maybe you mis-entered your credit card data?

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 suspect you made a mistake entering data somewhere along the way. Though
I've never used them to book a hotel _in Canada_ I've booked a few in the
US, using a credit card issued by a Canadian bank with a Canadian billing
address and have never had any problems.

Richard