Online Travel Booking and Bidding Agencies - PlanetFeedback's Priceline letters

http://www.planetfeedback.com/sharedLettersList/0,2941,104475-53-0-0-20-0-fb_date-desc,00.html
I thought some of you might find these interesting.

Interesting....

I read through ~25 of the letters. A couple of things keep shining through:

1) PL has really inept customer service. This isn't necessarily surprising - I've dealt with it myself. PL needs to staff a US-based call center where the route to a human is well-documented.

2) The strategy of rating properties based on checkoffs on an amenity list is biting them on the butt. People seem to have widely differing perceptions of what a given star level means.

3) PL frequently doesn't know what the heck is going on at the properties, including how smoking and bed type requests are being handled, how the property is maintained, etc. I'm not entirely sure it would be beyond the pale to require each PL property to get a visit from a PL inspector 2x yearly *or*, in the case of a franchised location, submit a copy of their franchisee inspection reports (which, I assure you, are anything but kind).

4) Collecting on the price guarantee isn't easy.

But the big one: people are expecting PL to break their ridiculously well-disclosed rules about refunds and changes. While the death of your Weimeraner/heart attack of your boss/change of your travel plans is sad/tragic/annoying, I'm not sure what in the PL T&Cs gives people *ANY* shred of hope that their change/refund/cancellation request has a snowballs chance in Hades of being accomodated - it certainly isn't the text...

PL is, in fact, a terrific example of TANSTAAFL. If you need deacronymization, perhaps you shouldn't play.

=0)

Eric, Evil PL User

I think the biggest issue Priceline should deal with is the star rating system... there needs to be some uniformity so that the customer really knows what to expect.

One user brought up a good point... how can Priceline rate a specific property at 5*, while their sister company, lowestfare.com, rates it 4*. I can understand different companies having different criteria to rate properties, but companies under the same umbrella should certainly have the same system!

I enjoyed reading what people expect Priceline to do for them to resolve the situation:

-refund my money even though i stayed at the hotel multiple nites
-fly us 1st class for our flight segments
-"since you charged my card, i didn't have funds available to pay my Direct TV bill, so i'd like compensation for that as well"

As a consumer, I accept all the points that have been madeabove. Having said that, I have booked close to 125 nights on Priceline with no problems.

I have not encountered the star problem personally. A couple of times I got accepted by the wrong hotel!That is part of the game. I do know that there is a problem with 4* vs 5*. Priceline is trying to correct the problem by seeking comments after each stay.

All in all, it is a terrific product. It has saved my company thousands of dollars.

A lot of people are not savvy travelers and they seem to getting into a lot of trouble with the rules etc. They have a choice. Pay the rack rate!

The "star problem" is pretty simply distilled, to me: the quality of a hotel is not strictly a function of amenities. Quality of housekeeping and overall facilities design/maintenance play large roles.

I would not under any circumstance allow a property to remain as a 3 or 4 star if there were a measurable number of negative comments on the quality of the housekeeping or the "wear and tear" factor of rooms and public spaces - the checklist of amenities might get a property to a given star rating up front, but over time, user feedback has to be taken into account, unless PL wants to start fielding inspectors. I have definitely had stays at the 3 star level in properties that would not merit a AAA 3 Diamond award, and would be pushing it for a 2 Diamond. I have had far, far fewer stays (and as a percentage, near-zero) from relying on AAA ratings that have been so grossly misrated. Given that AAA uses a more comprehensive set of standards than just an amenities checklist, their ratings are generally more reliable than any of the online sites. Personally, I'd love to see both PL and AAA implement a 3.5 star level, as there is too much variation in 3* as it is. The ratings problem works the other way - I think Courtyard By Marriott properties are generally quite decent, but it's very, very rare for PL to rate them over 2.5 stars, which is unfortunate, as they're better than the low end of the 3*s.

I don't have any special insight into how PL rates hotels, other than that provided in their published information and the packages they use to recruit innkeepers into the fold. I'm just a guy who spends a lot of time in hotels by the nature of his work, and can, in seconds, tell you what the AAA rating of a given property is without ever setting foot out of the room. Partially, this is because I'm great at finding fault in the work of others - it's also partially because I've dealt with AAA rating as more than a user of TourBooks, and I'm intimately familiar with a major franchisor's property standards.

Eric

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by VibeGuy:
AAA uses a more comprehensive set of standards than just an amenities checklist, their ratings are generally more reliable than any of the online sites.</font> Interesting - I had long ago concluded that AAA's Diamond ratings were in fact derived from an amenities checklist.

The AAA (and Mobil) ratings levels are shown here (http://www.fineliving.com/fine/deconstructed/episode/0,1663,FINE_4137_13224,00.html); I think this is the same text that appears in the front of the TourGuides. True, there is an implication that there is an accompanying level of service that goes up as the Diamond rating goes up, but I thought that to be somewhat coincidental - also that in many cases the Diamond rating is based on a hotel's self-reporting of amenities and service.

Your expereince suggests otherwise. Is there someplance where AAA clarifies the derivation of the ratings (other than the vague wording repeated on the above site)?

AAA fields inspectors as well as relying on self-reporting, and while amenities (including, of all things, a padded-vinyl or leather-covered Guest Services Directory) count towards the Diamond rating, for consideration towards higher rating levels, inspectors examine a percentage of rooms in the property, selected at random, for cleanliness, overall condition, construction quality (including sound damping) and a number of other factors. While amenities generally do get you to a particular Diamond level, unless the rest of the hotel is up to the operational standards for that level, you won't get the Diamonds, and there's no way around it. If I recall correctly, there are also amenities that, if absent, would automatically keep you out of a given level, but it's been a couple of years since I saw the revised list. Many of the features that have become common in the industry over the last 20 years have been as a result of changes in the AAA program.

Here's a brief published introduction to the Diamond rating process; it's not comprehensive, but it gives you a vague idea of what it takes to be a 1 Diamond and how additional services and operations quality combine to create a rating.

Eric, Not An Employee of AAA


[This message has been edited by VibeGuy (edited 10-09-2003).]

Mobil Guide has a tougher criteria than AAA,but I believe both have certain "necessities" to reach a certain number of stars/diamonds. With Mobil,for instance, you can't have any maid-carts in hallways (pantries only) and the hotel must have a gift shop to be considered for 5 stars.

Enlightening; thanks.

VibeGuy, did you intend to include a link where you wrote Here?

I've done a couple dozen Priceline stays without any problems with the service. (Granted, I've run into snooty hotel clerks that look down their noses at my Priceline reservation, but that's another story.)

The star ratings for Priceline haven't bothered me. I usually look at the specific candidate hotels in the zone I'm bidding - and then go to other sites to see how those hotels rate star-wise. Sometimes I'll read the reviews. If I can't live with the "worst" hotel for that rating/zone at the Priceline rate, I consider bidding the next level instead. AAA or Mobil opinions matter to me, but I don't expect that their star level will always match Priceline.

(As an aside, isn't Priceline tighter on the stars than Hotwire? i.e., a Hotwire 3* might turn up as a Priceline 2.5*...)