Very BAD service, no person you can talk to in customer service with any number. Everything is all menu-driven, and there is no transparency into what constitutes the service charges, which were hidden at the time of the booking. Total rip off
On SmartCustomer, businesses may not offer incentives or pay to remove reviews. Read more about our Review Guidelines and the process we have against fake reviews.
If you want to pay outrageous amounts then go to this website!
If you go onto the website and see a GREAT deal... you will soon find out it is just a catch to get you to spend more!
I called them and the package for two was suppose to be 500 dollars and they set it up and then it was o it went up 11 dollars so I said that was fine... then it jumped all the way to 723 dollars because suddenly in about 2 seconds it had become unavailable.
Needless to say when I asked about it they had no answers were extremely rude to me and said o sometimes the internet may be wrong we have the MOST updated prices... HAHAH then I continued to check out the website because they told me maybe the website was slightly slower and it was still the same price for a week after o and I just looked and still there!
I however went to a different website. Got a round trip direct flight, free baggage, 5 nights in a hotel, two free day trips, and money back gurantee for nearly half the price and am completely satisfied!
Don't let these people trick you
I was only trying to book a vacation for my birthday and was treated like CRAP!
I Have used Priceline for several reservations and, until now, I have been satisfied with the service. I have not felt fooled or deceived in any way. This past weekend I bid on a hotel room in Downtown montreal. I was taking my wife and kids there for the weekend to enjoy the city.
I first put a bid on the room but it was not sufficient. The website advised then to increase the bid by $20 and the request was accepted. I was then surprised to see that i had TWO RESERVATIONS MADE FOR THE SAME BID IN THE SAME LOCATION (DOWNTOWN MONTREAL). When I called priceline, they told me that the reservations were not cancellable, refundable, ect. And that I basically had to pay the two different hotels.
It is obviously extremely enraging and frustrating to be charged twice in the first place and the lack of response from priceline was even more disappointing.
Why would I make two separate requests for the same dates, locations, at the same bid price? Why would priceline.com process two similar requests for the same customer at the same bid price?
Their system is highly prone to system errors, honest mistakes, and their inflexible policy does not provide any safety measures to consumers.
I booked a refundable flight, and tacked on a rental car. Then I realized I didn't need the rental car and tried to cancel. Unfortunately, it only said in the fine print that the rental car could not be canceled, even a month in advance.
The fine print said that the rental car could not be canceled if you purchased with the "Name your price" plan. I was never asked to name my price or told I was purchasing with the name your price plan, so this basically seems like a scam. To top it off, it says nothing about the car being non-refundable until you're almost done with the payment (I went through it again to verify this)
This seems ridiculous to me, because other sites like orbitz and yahoo travel allow you to completely cancel rental cars up to 24 hours in advance.
The agent tried to get me to just suck up the loss, but I got angry and asked to speak to their manager. Eventually, they told me I could only cancel the rental car if I also canceled the flight, and payed a $36 fee.
No way to cancel the rental car without canceling the flight?! You gotta be kidding me. It's not like the rental cars come attached to the plane.
They talk about how great their negotiator is in their ads, but instead of him negotiating for you, it's more like you're negotiating against him.
Stay away from this site. Use orbitz or yahoo travel, which both have much better customer service, and allow rental car cancellations.
Be careful with Priceline.com! I booked a hotel on 9/16/2010 for $343. After that I never received any confirmation emails. Two days later, I called them but was told the booking on 9/16/2010 was not found in their system so I decided to make another identical reservation on 9/18/2010. When I checked my credit card bill two days ago, I saw the booking on 9/16/2010 was charged. Priceline.com refused to issue any refund. Their attitude is:"We made a mistake but you have to pay for it!" Their customer service is a disaster, very unhelpful and rude.
I will never ever visit their website again. They are just a bunch of cheaters.
On September 15,2010, I used Priceline.com to book a hotel room. My hotel receipt was for $121.55. Priceline charged my credit card $151.26. I entered into agreement with Priceline to provide a hotel for the "BE$T PRICE GUARANTEED". Priceline not only failed to meet their guarantee, but they also proceeded to charge me more than the actual cost of the hotel. I was traveling on business and turned-in my expense statement using the hotel receipt. I just received my credit card statement showing Priceline charged my more than the cost of the hotel room and it is now too late modify my expense statement and recover my costs. I called Priceline's Customer Service and explained the situation and was told they could not refund the difference because I had agreed to the price. I explained I agreed to the price based on Priceline's guarantee. Priceline failed to provide the services I paid for, which is a guarantee I can't get the room for less. If Priceline does not fulfill their advertised guarantee, I will spend a great deal of my spare time posting this story online and in many, many service reviews on Priceline.
Here is Priceline's response:
Thank you for taking the time to send us an e-mail. We understand that you have been charged more by us than the hotel for your reservation at the Best Western Grand Canyon Squire Inn and would like to receive the difference in rates according to our Best Price Guarantee.
We apologize; however, your claim for the Priceline Best Price Guarantee can not be accepted.
In order to qualify for the Priceline Best Price Guarantee, we require that you contact us within 24 hours of purchase and prior check-in. The reason we ask you to do this is because prices are constantly changing, and it's important that we have the ability to compare pre-check-in pricing.
You can review our guarantees on our website at www.priceline.com.
Please click on the Help link at the top of our home page and enter the word "Guarantee" as a search topic.
We apologize for the inconvenience and hope you find this information helpful.
Sincerely,
Amit L.
Customer Service Specialist
If I would have received my credit card bill within the 24 hour window, I could have responded, but from responses I've received from Priceline so far, it would not have made any difference.
My cousin bid for a hotel at priceline (around $70) and when he got to the hotel he realized the hotel price was much cheaper (($57)
Always check hotel prices and compare.
Be aware of scumbags who like to trick you
Counter strategy when using Priceline.com: sure they say that once you make a reservation you cannot change it, but years ago, I discovered how to deal with this sort of nonsense. I had a client who ran a bridal store chain and after working with him saw that his customers could not trust him; he'd keep their money anyway he could if they didn't like a gown they bought from one of his stores. He confided, though, that if his customers used a Visa card he was pretty much at a loss if they complained to the card company. What it comes down to is this: if Priceline books you with a dirty motel, which they recently did when I selected their hotel, just phone up your Visa issuer and say you decline to pay, that the hotel you discovered reading reviews, or whatever, is not what it should have been. Priceline may well have charged your card immediately after you make the reservation, but as long as you actually don't stay at the motel you should, judging from my experience, get the amount refunded. Maybe even if you do stay but find the hotel deplorable you can get a refund. Visa will say that will suspend the charge while they investigate, and may require that you write a letter explaining what was wrong. I'm sure you can abuse the system and Visa may not be well disposed if you do this a lot. I believe once I tried the same with another credit card company, which would not accept my decline to pay declaration.
I like the idea that you can name your own price on this site. That makes me check them out whenever I'm looking for a hotel stay.
HIDDEN HOTEL FEES! USERS BE WARE!
I booked a room with The Village Lodge at Mammoth on 5/17/2010, Request Number: 138-197-692-57. My billing came out to
Room Subtotal: $416.25 (USD)
Taxes and Fees: $54.12 (USD)
Total Room Cost: $470.37 (USD)
While at the resort, I did not incur any additional charges like ordering room-service, order pay-per-view, or take linens etc. When I checked out of the hotel, they charged me a "resort fee" of $68.25.
I called Priceline customer service, they claimed that this fee is an "incidental charge" and cannot be refunded. This is the first time, out of tens if not hundreds of online hotel booking, domestic or international, where I was charged additional hidden fees at the end of my stay. While $68.25 isn't going to break the bank this time, I have no way of knowing that next time I book a hotel with priceline, I won't be stuck with a hidden fee of hundreds or thousands of dollars.
This is a horrible website and the business model is to make fool of innocent customers and sucking money out of customers. NEVERE EVER ENEV GET INTO THIS PRICELINE WEBSITE
TERRIBLE return & exchange policies. It's basically all sales final when they don't explain fully how their site works. When you bid on an area, you get shafted when it's not what you want. For example hotels. They make the area just big enough to include shady hotels so when you name a low price, you get the shady piece of $#*! hotel instead. No exchanges. You're stuck going to that $#*!ty hotel.
I've used the site a couple of times. It could be better, if it was a little more forthcoming with information, like what hotel we're actually bidding on. Compared to similar sites, I like it better.
I too had one (and believe me ONLY one) bad experience with these clowns. It's all hype and no substance. Those ridiculous commercials only exist because Bill Shatner got buried to the elbows in the original stock offering back in the late 90s before the "dot com" bust happened.
FIND your hotel somewhere like hotels.com. Take a little extra time to CALL the hotel and handle your OWN booking. Same thing with the airlines. You just have to ask for a special rate and they almost always give it up. For airlines, there are promotional priced seats (ask them for a "Q" status seat) on every flight. They are limited but you can score them pretty easily. I have traveled extensively and seen almost every trick in the book, and know a few myself. I also recommend avoiding this site, it will not perform as advertised.
Priceline is a scam... Buyer BEWARE!
I bid $180 per night on Priceline Name Your Price for a 4 star hotel in Miami in May 2010. I was given a reservation for the Sonesta Bayfront Hotel. When I looked up the standard room rates on line for the exact dates, I discovered that $180 is the standard room rate for this hotel. I complained to Priceline Customer Service and was told that Priceline does NOT guarantee discounted hotel rates. I was told that Priceline ONLY guarantees that the reservation cannot be changed or cancelled or refunded under ANY circumstances whatsoever.
Therefore, I am now unable to change or cancel my hotel reservation after paying the FULL standard room rate under deceptive business practices by Priceline. Priceline no doubt benefits financially at my expense (under the guise of being a "discount" website.) BUYER BEWARE!
I am a little experinced on priceline so this review is to help you gain some knowledge on how to make this website and features work for you.
First if you know you need a hotel, always and I mean always use the name your price feature. This feature allows you to choose say a 4 star hotel and offer a set price for that hotel in a certain area. IF any of the hotels are willing to accept your price you pay for it at that time.
We book a 3.5 star hotel in downtown Miami about 3 months before our cruise and saved $300 on the hotel for 2 nights. We told it our dates and what area of Miami we needed a room in and offered our price. It ran our price and matched us with a great hotel for our price.
We also was able to book our plane tickets right on the site. Sure we paid the same price as we would about anywhere but the fact that we did both the airline and hotel all on one website was really nice.
I have never had a bad experience with this site and think if you use it right you can find it useful. Good luck.
They quote you one rate for a hotel before you bid, then you find out that the hotel you booked in Los Angeles, where you ABSOLUTELY need a car, charges@$20.00/night for parking, and they also charge another $20.00/night for a small refrigerator in the room to preserve my medication. Those NECESSARY and NOT INCIDENTAL fees effectively doubled my nightly rate. Fee for services which you cannot do without are not considered incidentals.
When I called and told the agent that these NECESSARY fees were NOT disclosed to me before I booked, and that they constituted false advertising and bait-and-switch, and I asked that my reservation simply be moved to a hotel which does not charge for parking and a refrigerator, I was politely told that I was SOL, and to "read the contract" on the website.
They are basically hiding behind a bottom-dweller-shyster-lawyer-written contract instead of doing the right (and simple) thing and making a customer happy.
You may win now, my PRICELINE friends, but karma is a Beehatch! Out there somewhere, there's a bigger dog than you, and one day I KNOW he'll make you his $#*!, and I'll be there front and center to gloat!
HORRIBLE! HORRIBLE! HORRIBLE! RIP-OFF! This site is terrible i went to use it based on the fact that i could bid a lower price on a hotel. We didnt save anything and got a hotel with bad reviews. I have a family of four priceline gave us one king size bed in a smoking room. They don't care when you call. This site should be closed down. Itdoes nothing for people except to cause migraines. The only good thing about the hotel is there were no bed bugs. Use expedia or hotels. Com. Stay away from these evil disgusting people. I don't think the devil himself would do this to anyone.
Don't buy anything from Priceline. If you need customer service, you will be out of luck. At best, you will get third world customer service.
Be very careful if you bid on their "name-your-own-price" system
For hotels!
What typically happens is, there are hotels that are lousy/filthy that no one
Will normally go to, and these hotels will take you up on your bid.
Think of it this way. Priceline mixes in a whole bunch of bad apples
With some good apples, and offer them to you for bidding. You will
Never pick a bad apple yourself, but if you bid on Priceline,
They will sneak one in, and you will be stuck with a non-refundable
Bad-apple.
It has happened to me twice. I'll be darned if I go to Priceline again.
Here are some user reviews one one hotel (the first two are from Priceline, the
Third from Yelp):
* Unloading car and was asked about buying drugs.
* Bathroom appeared as though someone had used it prior to my check in.
* On the downside though, the room was GROSS. It smelled mildewy and there
Was ketchup (I think) all over the walls and on the door.
The good news is, the reviews are reflective of the hotel's condition.
Priceline says they have accurately classified these as 1-star, 2-star, what have you. However, such a hotel is below any standard-of-service, and shouldn't even be in their system. They shouldn't get even a zero-star:-)
We wanted a 3 star hotel but had to keep down grading to what they called a two star hotel. While reviewing their choice we discovered to our horror the horrific reviews. We would not allow our dogs to stay at this type of hotel. Priceline would do nothing to help us, even after we called the hotel and they would allow us to cancel. Priceline would not allow us to cancel, upgrade or help in any way. WE WILL NEVER USE PRICELINE AGAIN!