Complain about a product or service

Priceline - Hotels

Thai of Arlington, TX July 9, 2009

I booked a hotel using "Name your price" method on Priceline.com. On the day of my check in, said they have not received my iternary from Priceline.com so they can't check me in. After 2 hours later and talking to 2 reps from Customer services before Julio. I was told by Julio that he would call me back once he booked my hotel. He didn't call back after booking the hotel using the same credit card on file. On my 4th call I got Nash from Customer relations on the line. Nash doesn't not show any effort to understand my frustration and keep telling me about the contract. Both rep didn't understand my frustrations not able to check in my hotel and missing dinner plan. Spending 3 hours talking to priceline on my cellphone. I also get charnged twice for one hotel i cannot check in and another charged from a hotel that Julio booked for me. Is this how priceline operates? wasting 3 hours of my time, missing my dinner plan, and charged me twice.

ann of commerce, MI July 5, 2009

Priceline hotel booking is very DECEPTIVE. My offer was accepted by Affinia Suite Hotel, which I assumed a suite can accomodate 2 adults & 2 children. Upon arrival, Affinia informed me the room I booked thru Priceline is one bed guest room. For two beds I have to pay upgrade fee. I could have book directly at 4 stars Marriott or Sheraton in NY city at the price I paid thru Priceline & upgrade fee at Affinia. Affinia Hotel is shabby 3 stars at its best, old room and furnitures that have seen better days. FIRST AND LAST TIME I USED PRICELINE TO BOOK HOTEL

Rick of San Antonio, TX June 23, 2009

Used Priceline for years and was satisfied. I buy cancellation insurance and can't cancel. They WILL NOT honor my request. 105 for one night.

Brenda of Hanford, CA June 15, 2009

My reservation was for a 3 star hotel which is was. The Holiday Inn in San Diego...problem was the room was barely a 1 1/2 star. What a rip off. After the Priceline "deal" and then parking, I could have stayed at a 2 star, paid full price and been better off. As I've read in other complaints, this is typical. There is no recourse once you hit "accept offer".

Julie of San Diego, CA June 11, 2009

This was the first time I used priceline, and I will never use it again. I was bidding on a hotel in Vegas, and after my offer for 85 for a 4 star hotel was met with an offer for 99 I accepted. Once I accepted, the name of the hotel appeared, which was the Westin. A link to the hotel website was provided, and upon going to the Westin's website, I found out that I could have gotten a room straight from them, without the priceline fees, for 89 a night.

I feel like priceline totally scammed me. When I called priceline to complain (and got the run around from several people) and finally got a supervisor on the phone, he proceeded to tell me that he could no longer do anything since we had already completed our check out. Since then, I have been reading many, many complaints about priceline on the internet.

James of Celebration, FL June 5, 2009

I called Priceline customer service to ask about the newest promotion "Bring a friend get 100" All you have to do is book a trip for 2 rooms on the same credit card and they give you a coupon for 100.00 to use on future bookings. The rules clearly state the qualifications. The qualifications are many, but simply put, all I had to do is book 2 rooms on the same credit card by June 15th, 2009. I did that. But after reading the rules for the "rewards program" I also discovered that I should have been earning rewards all along, but have not been credited for ANY of them. After calling customer service they told me that I would have to book that trip "after" June 15th, and it clearly states on the website BY JUNE 15TH.

Also they couldn't even pull up my account to see all of the previous trips I've booked to see what rewards I've been entitled to. I also asked to speak to a supervisor because I felt that the person I initially spoke with "Daniel" and he couldn't speak English very well. So I felt that if we could get someone on the phone who speaks good English that he/she would also understand English. But I got a guy named "Andy". Although he spoke English very well, he spoke with a very heavy accent and wasn't getting the concept of my argument with Priceline.

Barry of Lexington, KY June 3, 2009

Booked a 3 star hotel for a night thru priceline.com. After reservation is completed, access to comments by priceline customers that have stayed at the hotel is available. Unfortunately for me all the comments were bad. The hotel has a old and a new wing. The rooms in the old wing are dirty, moldy, smelly and in need of repair. The new wing is ok. Priceline customers ONLY get the old wing. Calldc Priceline for help. Explained about the two wings and all the comments about the old wings being in horrible condition. Priceline did nothing. They said "we stand by our rating of three stars" no explanation of complaints vs rating. Priceline said that if we did not want to stay there because of the mold it was our choice, but they would not cancel the reservation. When we explained that the hotel was very willing to move our room to the new wing for a substantial increase in rate a kinda bait and switch Priceline did NOTHING. When I suggested that the hotel likely got a 3 star rating by presenting just the new wing and requested priceline to investigate, Priceline refused.

Gabrielle of Huntington Beach, CA June 2, 2009

My brother died of pancreatic cancer on 4/15/09. It was very sudden an dunexpected. He is/was also a career Naval officer and is entitled to being buried at Arlington National Cemetery. I had a chance to see him before he died, but since it was last minute, it was very expensive for us. So, after he died that week and once the family had a date set for his internment at Arlington, I had to book flights and rooms again and was hoping to save some money since we had just laid out a small fortune to get there at the last minute to say good bye to him.

So in late April, I booked 2 rooms in DC for me and my husband and another room for my daughter, for July 26-August 1. My brother is being interred on July 29th. My daughter works for Homeland Security and received a reassignment which does not enable her now to go to see her uncle being buried at Arlington. I called Pricelne to try and get a credit back for the extra room which my daughter will no longer need and they would not work with me at all. I made the reservations under great duress and this is the final straw. My daughter is very upset already that she cannot see her uncle interred with the highest honors accorded a military officer, but she is in service to her country as well and understands that. However, Priceline kept on refusing to help me out.

I told them that honestly, nobody in their right mind would book a trip to Wasington DC in late July if they didn't have to because it is so hot and miserable. My husband and I are still going for the ceremony, but now I will have 2 rooms paid for and only one will be used. Priceline said to call the hotel. The hotel said they couldn't help because Priceline has the money (so they couldn't credit me back) and so, it was out of their hands. I am sure that since nobody will be using that room, that the hotel will rent it out and they will get double the room fees.

I just want credit back for the extra room for a week. The airlines is working with me and I was able to cancel the plane reservation for my daughter, albeit I did have to pay a change fee and they did give me credit and not a refund. All I wanted to do was honor my brother for his service to his country and let my daughter experience her uncle's ceremony.

Nigel of Plano, TX May 29, 2009

I was a recent first-time customer of Priceline. My recent atrocious experience in booking a hotel room in San Francisco and the subsequent interactions with Priceline’s inept, ineffective and “sorry-excuse” for a customer service team has ensure that I will never use Priceline’s service again. I have chosen to write this message to highlight my issues with Priceline and to warn potential travelers to stay away from Priceline.

My nightmare began when I decided to give Priceline a try based on a recommendation from a friend. I went to the Priceline website on Thursday night (5/21/09) and made a 100-per day bid for a room in 3-star hotel in San Francisco over Memorial Day weekend. Within a minute of submitting my bid, I received a message that my bid was accepted by the Holiday Inn Golden Gateway hotel in downtown San Francisco (by the Civic Center).

On the Saturday morning (5/23/2009) on my way into San Francisco, I decided to give Holiday Inn Golden Gateway a call to check on the hotel room configuration (twin sharing or king/queen size bed). I spoke to the hotel representative who informed that my Priceline confirmation number was invalid and that there were no more rooms available. Confused and worried but still confident that Priceline would be able to straighten this confusion, I called the Priceline customer support number. Spoke to customer reservation specialist named Crystal and she called Holiday Inn Golden Gateway to find out the problem. She got back to me, explaining that she did not know why my confirmed reservation was not valid. She also mentioned that the hotel was overbooked and that Priceline can only give me a refund. I told that this was NOT ACCEPTABLE. I had a CONFIRMED reservation (not a “tentative”, not a “maybe” but a “CONFIRMED” reservation). I told Crystal that I expected a call back in an hour for a status update because I was on my way into San Francisco and I needed someone from Priceline to be on top of this.

At 12.15 pm, there was still no word from Crystal or any Priceline representative. I decided to call Priceline again. Spoke to another representative, Layla or Leila. I told her that I needed to talk to Crystal as she was helping me. Layla explained that there no way to transfer the call to Crystal and that she would help me instead. I had go through my issue with Layla again and had to wait while she contacted Holiday Inn Golden Gateway (which had already been done by Crystal). After 20-30 minutes on hold, Layla got back to me – giving me the same explanation as Crystal: Priceline does not know what happened to the confirmed reservation, the hotel was overbooked and Priceline can only provide a refund. Again – I explained my position: I am IN SAN FRANCISCO, I do not want a refund, I needed a hotel room. I told her that I do not really care where the fault lies but I am holding Priceline responsible because I received a confirmation number from Priceline. Layla said she would call me back.

Later in the afternoon, Layla called me back that she had tried contacting the Holiday Inn Golden Gateway’s “sister” hotels and can get me a room for 180. I was fine with that as long as Priceline pays the difference (80). She told me that I needed to pay 180 for the room and that it was not Priceline’s policy to pay for difference in the hotel room charges (even if it was Priceline’s mistake in the first place). I drove the point home that my accepted bid was confirmed for 100 which was what I have been charged and was willing to pay. I also mentioned that this mistake was ultimately Priceline’s fault and since it was Priceline’s responsibility in providing the confirmation, Priceline would need to ensure that I get a 3-star hotel room for 100 (the bid that was accepted by Holiday Inn and confirmed by Priceline). Layla was adamant that there was nothing Priceline can and will do except provide a refund. I told her that I wanted to speak to her supervisor. She refused – explaining that I would need to go to the Priceline website and escalate my complaints there. After a few choice words (in the heat of the moment), I accepted the refund under protest. There I was – stuck at the Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco at 6.30pm on Memorial Day weekend without a hotel room (despite having a Priceline confirmed reservation at the Holiday Inn Golden Gateway).

I was very lucky to have some good friends in San Jose and drove 40 miles to bunk with them. I wonder what kind of MICKEY MOUSE operation is Priceline running? One that strands their customer in the middle of a foreign city, with a confirmed hotel reservation that is not even fit to be used as toilet paper and utilizing customer support resources from the Philippines who can’t even speak English well or slow enough for Priceline customers to understand (though they seemed very good at saying “Sorry”). Priceline and Holiday Inn were given a chance to go above and beyond to help a customer in need, a customer through no fault of his own was left in a lurch by Priceline and without a room by Holiday Inn BUT BOTH PRICELINE AND HOLIDAY INN FAILED MISERABLY.

I have been wondering if there has been some form of racial profiling from Priceline and Holiday Inn, especially with my Asian last name. How convenient that my confirmed reservation would mysteriously disappear or given away to another guest. I also found it convenient that a more expensive room (180) would be made available to me while Priceline and Holiday Inn refuse to honor the 100 confirmed reservation. Perhaps the racial profile had Asians at a higher income bracket who could afford more expensive rooms. I sincerely hope not but I shall be looking more into this.

I have emailed the entire Priceline and IHG (parent company that owns Holiday Inn) management team. What I got as a response was another pathentic apology call from Paula (some executive communication resource). Stay clear of Priceline. Rubbish, useless, horrible are key words to decribe this pathetic company.

Ramona of Baton Rouge, LA May 27, 2009

My family needed reservation for a hotel in Jackson TN for my nephew's upcoming wedding. It was suggested we use Priceline to try and get a good deal on hotel rooms. I entered the infomation asking for a room for 4 adults. After going through the form I submitted it. I guess I should have found out about this place first but I assumed(incorrectly)that I would be given the option of accepting or rejecting the offer. Imagine my suprise when I was notified they had made a reservation for me at a hotel, for 2 nights for 2 adults in the room.

When I called the Customer Service number the woman who answered the phone seem to speak very little English when I explained to her that what I entered was a room for 4 adults she put me on hold and came back 20 minutes later to tell me sorry you still have to stay a this hotel because we don't cancel reservation or refund money. I guess I'm suppose to have my 2 daughters sleep in the car.

When I e-mailed them to explain why I was so upset they sent a reply that had nothing to do with my e-mail. I will never use this company again and will tell everyone I can not to use it. I still do not understand why you are not given the option of refusing or accepting the offer made.

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