Don't use PRICELINE!!!

[Tinkerbella001]

I know lots of people have used them with no problems, myself included. But on our most recent trip to the world I found out what kind of company they really are.

We booked 3 rooms for 2 nights near the beach on our drive home. When we got to the hotel- it was NASTY!! We are not picky by any means. I took pictures of the filthy room, filthy sheets with hairs all over them (NO JOKE), rust all over everything metal, a cockroach and the floors looked as though they had not been vacuumed in a long time. All 3 rooms were like this. Also, the door locks were broke on 2 of the rooms. There was laundry hung over the railings, chairs outside of doors and beer bottles by the chairs.

I immediately called PRICELINE to tell them. I was advised to call back on Monday morning to discuss with the right department about getting a refund. We went elsewhere and paid for yet 3 more rooms for 2 nights. For over 6 months I called them continously. They were trying to reach the manager to VERIFY MY COMPLAINTS!!!! REALLY?! Did they think he was going to say "yea, my place is a ****hole, so what?" I submitted a complaint with my Disney Visa company, and they said since PRICELINE was "attempting to fix the issue" by repeatedly calling to get the manager they would not be able to help. Finally- just last month when I called they told me the hotel had changed ownership in February and there was NOTHING THEY COULD DO. I would think a big company like them would be willing to refund my $ to save face, but they told me they didn't care how many times I posted this. So here is my plea....DON'T use them! You can get good deals on the other sites (Expedia, Travelocity, etc). Yes..you may have used them before with no problems, but if there was a problem they will not have your back.

BTW- Now the Visa company can't do anything because it's been longer than 60 days. Even though it was well within that time frame when I first contacted them. That's right, I am out several hundred dollars due to using PRICELINE. STAY AWAY!

 

[M4travels]

Sorry, won't stay away from them because of your bad luck. Have used them plenty of times with never a problem and I'm not going to stop now.

 

[DisneyLover83]

I have used them many times and so far not a problem, I keep waiting for something like this to happen to me! I have read very similar complaints many times.... it makes me nervous! What star level was the hotel "supposed" to be? I always try for a 3.5 or higher in hope this won't happen to me!

 

[Tinkerbella001]

Sorry, won't stay away from them because of your bad luck. Have used them plenty of times with never a problem and I'm not going to stop now.

I have also used them for MANY years with no problems. I just always assumed they (or any company) would guarantee the satisfaction of their guests and the properties they offer. Surely they had been alerted to the condition management had this hotel in, but still offered it.


This is exactly why they could care less about me, or any customer for that fact!! I sincerely hope that you never have an issue, because they will not stand behind you.

I only hope that I can save at least 1 person from this headache!

 

[kimberh]

Where was the Hotel and what was it rated? We stayed at one similar to this in the Daytona area, not due to Priceline, we were tired and just stopped late one night. It was a nightmare. Didn't even want to get in the bed it was so bad.

 

[spiceycat]

disney visa is chase.

chase is know for this.

never use chase on priceline or anything else that you might have a problem with - they are NEVER on your side.

get a cc from a CU they will be on your side.

 

[RussN]

Sorry, won't stay away from them because of your bad luck. Have used them plenty of times with never a problem and I'm not going to stop now.

ditto...

sorry to hear about the op back luck. If it was a chain hotel you may want to try calling their corporate headquarters or the franchise owner.

 

[Upatnoon]

Sorry for your bad experience, but I have saved THOUSANDS with priceline and stayed in many fabulous hotels I would of never been able to afford without it. I will continue to recommend it.

You can have a bad experience with any business or product, that's just how it is sometimes.

 

[eeyorethegreat]

Did you take and send photos to Priceline and to your credit card company. I'm really sorry things didn't work out. I have never used Priceline. I have used Hotwire with no issues. For anyone who gets into a bad hotel, take photos of the room and property to bak up your claims.

 

[eeyoremommy]

The OP's experience is why I have always been afraid to try Priceline. I have read all of these great experiences that others have had, but I am afraid I'll be that one that doesn't have a good one. I would almost rather pay a little more to have a better shot at "knowing" what I am getting. I am so sorry the OP had this experience.

 

[VAN]

I've only used Priceline a couple of times and have been extremely happy.

We did, however, only go with the 4-star hotels. $110/night in NYC!!

I can't imagine you are talking about that much money if you used Priceline. How many stars was the property and what was the bid that was accepted?

 

[ohionola]

I don't really see a point in using priceline. If I am going somewhere on vacation, I will spend a couple extra dollars to know where I am staying. I have even found that if you search, you can usually get as good of a deal or better than priceline. The only time that I actually saved a decent amount of money was with an international flight and saved $200.

 

[JessGWI]

I am sorry to hear of your experience, no one should have to experience hotel conditions as you have described. I used to work for Hotwire.com as a Supervisor for customer care, and I must say that while its a different company, many of the booking policies are very similar. I do have a few questions, that may, or may not be able to aid you. You mentioned that you notified Priceline from the hotel, but did you also address these concerns with the front desk manager or ask to be moved to a more acceptable room? If you didn't thats probably why Priceline was hesitant to give you a refund, although that doesn't excuse them from doing so. You are always better off to try and work with the hotel themselves first, then the company you booked through, and as a very last resort option, your credit card company.

You mentioned that you had pictures, were they ever submitted to Priceline for review? I can't speak for Priceline, but Hotwire has a clean/comfortable room guarantee, I would assume that Priceline has something similar. If you have pictures showing that room conditions weren't acceptable, I can't see how they won't provide you a refund, especially if you paid to go elsewhere. Key to getting that though, is that you actually checked out of the room. 95% of the time, if I wasn't able to give a refund to a customer because of room condition, it was because the hotel showed that they never formally checked out of the property. And even then, they still got compensation in the form of a website credit. How did we know that they didn't actually stay there then? I'm by no means trying to suggest thats what you did, I'm just trying to give the other side's view.

And lastly, I know you feel that the hotel would just simply deny, deny, deny any problems, but I will tell you thats simply not true. Most would be surprised at how honest most hotels are in regards to bad experiences that customer's have had at their property with a third party booking agency. Why all the honesty? Hotels get a HUGE amount of bookings from companies like Priceline, and are much more willing to work with the agency to work out a refund then they are to possibly lose that meal ticket, trust me.

I think that if you checked with the hotel about another room, notified Priceline from the hotel, checked out, stayed elsewhere, and submitted evidence of those conditions, and Priceline won't refund you, that we may not be getting the entire story.

 

[iwrbnd]

Would Expedia or Travelocity handle it differently?

 

[Tinkerbella001]

ditto...

sorry to hear about the op back luck. If it was a chain hotel you may want to try calling their corporate headquarters or the franchise owner.

That is an excellent idea! It was a chain hotel, so I will do that. It's really no wonder it changed ownership.

Yes, I took pictures and attached them to the emails. I went to the hotels website directly before I purchased it, and the price was in the "average" range. It also had good reviews on Priceline, which is what makes me the maddest.

I wouldn't care if it were only $5 we're talking about. I was screwed by all 3 companies (Priceline, Chase and the hotel). That is the bottom line...

 

[Tinkerbella001]

JessGWI- yes to all of the above. There was no hotel manager on duty. It was late on a Saturday night, and there was a 20-something kid manning the front desk. He gave us the keys to 2 other rooms, which were not any better. One of them had a utility type shower taking up the whole back of the room. Yes, we checked out, I informed him we were NOT staying there. He said the refund would have to come through Priceline. That's why I called them RIGHT THAT MINUTE!!! The agent told me I would be able to get a refund.

I got a business card for the manager and the front desk guys name. Priceline "attempted" to call him everytime I called them, but he was conveniently never there and never returned their calls.

I attached my pictures and the receipt for the other 3 rooms (at a nearby hotel) for 2 nights that we paid for. I would have rather slept in my car than stayed there, if there were no options.

 

[lovetoscrap]

You might want to check out the Travel Troubleshooter on CNN http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/travel.troubleshooter/index.html He is well known in the Travel Industry. His first advice is to always use emails, and he has many email addresses on his website to help you contact the right people. But you can also submit your story and see if he can help you out.

 

[JessGWI]

Just a thought, but if you sent them via email, Priceline may not have received them, you may try calling to verify someone has actually looked at them. Many companies can't except graphics as attachments for security.

Was Priceline's only reasoning for not giving you a refund that they couldn't verify with the hotel? If so, your pictures will substantiate your claim. I'm also puzzled that they keep trying to reach out to the hotel after its very clear that they aren't going to be responding. Its not up to the hotel to refund you, its up to Priceline. Priceline took your money, not the hotel. Sadly, the hotel is getting its money either way, but if Priceline's partner didn't fulfill the promise that Priceline made to you, you should be getting your money back.

Its frustrating for you, I have no doubt, but its frustrating for me that Priceline isn't taking action. Maybe you just got a rep that didn't know what they were doing, or was not empathetic by nature. I would start by verifying that your pictures are attached to your open case, and if not, I would request an address of where you can mail the pictures to. Someone needs to look at those. If they have them and are sitting on their laurels, I really would not take no for an answer. This isn't a "rules are made to be broken" refund request, this is a serious service issue. If you aren't getting any luck with a regular rep, I would ask for a supervisor. I'm sure you have requested as such before, but like I said, if it was this bad of an issue, I would not accept their response, and would keep escalating, its not appropriate for every situation, but like I said, you're not trying to break rules, you're trying to get what you paid for.

I have checked Priceline's site, and could not find ANY information on a clean room guarantee. Yikes. Still doesn't mean the end of the road for you, what category hotel did you book?

 

[Gr8t Fan]

Sorry to hear about your troubles with Priceline. We've used them many, many times without incident and have saved a ton of $.

We did have a problem with a room last summer - when we checked into the room they told us the water would be off from 11pm to 2am. Didn't seem like a problem, so we checked in. During the night the fire alarm went off several times, a loud, screeching alarm that woke everyone up, because they were soldering the pipes and the smoke set off the alarm. By 7am the water still wasn't back on so I called Priceline, they called the hotel and a refund was issued.

 

[A Mickeyfan]

This happened to me once with Priceline, but I do still use them. I just do not bid on lower star levels anymore. I had "won" the Holiday Inn Nikki Bird just before it was shut down and taken over by another company. My room was horrid. I did the same, complained to Priceline and got no where. I complained to Holiday Inn, sent them the pictures as well... and got a full refund.. even the little extra that Priceline charges.
To be fair, I have also had a bad experience on Disney's property too... and yes, I did get money back. I felt they should have moved me & they didn't. I rec'd 20% off my bill..
Do I still stay with Disney, yes, & do I still use Priceline... yes.. Things like this do happen with other companies. It is sad that it does, but it does...that is the "real world"