5 Things to Know When Booking Through Priceline.com

Here is what you will see when you go to the Help Center at Priceline.com

Welcome to Our Help Center

We pride ourselves on two things — getting you the best deal for the things you need and providing excellent service.

This is my first dealing with Priceline.com, and I was excited to try them out.  I had tried previous companies in the past, like Hotwire, and been completely happy.  This time I was choosing Priceline because they had a little better price.  When it's about getting the best price, you shop clear to the bottom dollar.

I had used a service (ie Travelzoo.com) that sent me to Priceline.com.  At Travelzoo.com you choose your dates, city, number of people in your party, the whole works.

When I completed my reservation I realized after 2 phone calls that I had booked a room that the Hotel does not even list or advertise.  The reservation office didn't even know they had these rooms because there are so few of them.  Wow, I got suckered in.

I tried to call Priceline.com, but guess what?  There is no way to talk to anyone.  I tried with 2 different numbers.  I finally started emailing them.  They basically said sorry, there is nothing we can do, just call the hotel and they will fix it.  The hotel said you have to deal with Priceline.com we can't help you with this matter.

Wow, now that is great customer service.  You book it, we take your money, end of story.  Had I booked it straight through the hotel I would have gotten it taken care of in an instant.

Here is what you need to know about Priceline.com
1.  Customer service will not help you cancel a reservation.  As a matter of fact they will tell you over and over that it cannot be canceled even though you can see that it can be.  Keep looking and digging.
2.  They do not allow you to select how many people will be staying in a hotel room.  That's right, check it out yourself.  If the hotel includes breakfast there is no way to guarantee you will get the correct number of vouchers.  Let alone getting the right number of beds.
3.  Priceline.com has contracted with other companies like Travelzoo, ebates, kayak and so on, that allow you to choose how many people in your party.  What they don't do is guarantee that request be met.  Although you don't know that at the time of booking.
4.  You will never get to talk to anyone to discuss what happened or how it happened.  I have emailed them several times and each time I get a response from a different person sending out a canned message.
5.  They are only the middle man and they really don't care about customer service.  They don't operate the hotel, or rental cars or any of that.  You book and that's it. There is no customer service that they can offer.  I am not angry about this, just pointing out that you need to take care of yourself, please refer to #1.

Oh wait!  Make that 6 things:

6.  It's NOT cheaper.  That's right, I thought I was saving a ton of money and it turns out cutting out the middle man and going straight to the Hotel would have been cheaper.  I know this is not always the case, but it was this time. Why I didn't call ahead of time, I don't know.  BIG FAIL on my part.

So did they pride themselves in those two things?

Getting me the best deal – NOPE
Providing Excellent Customer Service – The canned emails, although similar and repetitive, were nicely written, but offered no solution only much confusion.

Here are 2 different emails I received from them.   They don't even know how to resolve it, because they are the middle man and they don't offer resolve.

Your confirmed hotel may be able to switch your bed type, based on availability. If you would like a
specific bed type, you may contact the hotel directly.
Any changes will be based on availability and are granted at the hotel'sdiscretion.

Followed by the next email that said this:

Please do not contact the hotel directly, as they cannot make
changes or cancellations to pre-paid reservations under any circumstances; it
must be completed online.

We apologize for any inconvenience; however, we are unable to
change your reservation in our system.

Needless to say we won't be using Priceline ever again.  We will be using Hotwire for sure, especially since I found the little trick to know what Hotel you are booking.