Online Travel Booking and Bidding Agencies - Priceline is going to the Dogs

I'm now fed up with Priceline. Today I bid and got a Ramada in in West Ft. Lauderdale for next week.

I went to the Ramada Web site to find there is a $10 resort fee for this hotel. Priceline allows a hotel to charge you an addition mandatory fee for your accepted bid when you get there, and they call this a 'resort fee.' Not many do it but now its starting to snowball.

Hardly a resort area, This Ramada is next to a Mall on the Western border of Ft. Lauderdale. Since Priceline allows hotels to basically increase your bill for the room once you get there, Priceline is no longer a level playing field.

Not only that but on the Ramada web site this same room is offered for $35.99. So I called Priceline and pointed this out to the agent. Priceline offers to refund the difference if you don't save money. However, the Ramada clumps this $10 fee in with their taxes, so the taxes fee is $55.84 on their web site vs. Priceline's taxes of $26.73 (which includes Priceline's own fee).

So the Priceline lady sees the Ramada's grand total is $199.80 vs $178.83 for Priceline's grand total. Therefore no refund for overbidding.

Of course she was too dumb to understand that I'm getting conned by both Priceline and the Hotel. My real total price is $178.83 PLUS $40 more when I get there = $218.83 vs. the $199.80 anybody could get the room for on the Ramada web site.

HELLO PRICELINE!!! You're killing your own business by allowing some hotels to raise the rates after your bid is accepted. In the past there have been very few hotels pulling this con, but for me it's happened twice in a row. Last week I booked a room on PL in Kissimmee to avoid the resort fees around Disney. I was on the EAST side of Kissimmee 15 miles from the Disney gate at an ex-Day's inn now remodeled and called Clarion who also charged me $10 a day 'resort' fee when I got there.

Perhaps the way to use Priceline in the future is to mentally subtract $10 from what you think is a reasonable bid. If you get accepted (unlikely) then be prepared to pay $10 more when you get there. If they don't have a resort fee, they you pocket the $10 you had planned on paying.

Of course you won't win many bids on Priceline, but psychologically, it better for your mental health.

What extras do you get at this property with the resort fee?

I did a Hotwire stay this week in Lake Tahoe and was hit with a $10 resort fee, but they did spell out what it included:

The hotel charges a $10 per day fee allowing for in-room bottled water, daily newspaper delivery, use of pool and work-out facility, admission into blu and Opal nightclubs (special events excluded), unlimited local phone calls, valet parking, and incoming faxes. This is an automatic non-refundable charge.

OP,
You are not alone in crying foul to priceline.
I was charged with a resort fee for a stay in Vegas. Didn't bother to protest b/c I knew it would be useless. I simply take my biz elsewhere where there is more transparency.

FWIW,

Pricelined a hotel a couple of months ago for Hartford airport, and came up with a decent place on a very short notice. Nothing special, but cheap, and no resort fee. Ditto for Seattle, but a most excellent Hyatt Place by Oklahoma City Airport :D

That said, while this is no doubt good info for the budget traveler, we have a dedicated Online Travel / Bidding Forum, so I'm moving the thread there. Please follow the discussion there.

EmailKid
Budget Travel Moderator

Looks like hotels are following the airline industry with it sleazy scam of adding ''fuel surcharge'' to fares and rolling them in with taxes. Taxes and fees should only be things paid to a third party like government, not retained by the seller for itself.

Such fees are common in resort areas and pretty much the entire state of Florida. I understand your fustration, but for your future transactions you need to consider more research prior to purchase.

There are many websites that allow you to hedge your bets with pricelines and other opaque booking sites. They even allow you to narrow down the offerings to a reasonably accurate listing of specific hotels which sell through priceline in a given zone or star rating. You then research those hotels and take the resort fee into consideration prior to bidding for the hotel.

Hindsight is 20/20, but in this instance the charge is neither new nor uncommon. It's like blaming the Italians for incorrectly making Pizza. They just do it that way.

I went to the Ramada Web site to find there is a $10 resort fee for this hotel. Priceline allows a hotel to charge you an addition mandatory fee for your accepted bid when you get there, and they call this a 'resort fee.' Not many do it but now its starting to snowball.

Hardly a resort area, This Ramada is next to a Mall on the Western border of Ft. Lauderdale.THe only mitigating thing here is that all guests are charged this fee. There have been some reports of some hotels asking ONLY Priceline guests to pay so-caled "resort fees", bot not asking standard-booking guests to pay the same fee.
Having said that, this location is hardly what I would call a "resort area" (State Route 7 and Commercial Blvd.) - it's more of a slightly-economically-depressed strip-mall suburban area that is nowhere near any tourist attraction that I can think of.

IMHO, Priceline should not accept any property that charges resort fees unless it is classified as a "Resort" (rather than a normally star-ranked property).

Paying a resort fee for a Ramada is insane. As mentioned above, priceline could refuse to allow resort fees for non-resort properties. Even better, they should include all resort fees in the bid price. I'm kind of surprised they get away with this (it's been going on for years, apparently without the knowledge of the OP). What if the resort fee becomes $50/night?

Not only that but on the Ramada web site this same room is offered for $35.99. So I called Priceline and pointed this out to the agent. Priceline offers to refund the difference if you don't save money. However, the Ramada clumps this $10 fee in with their taxes, so the taxes fee is $55.84 on their web site vs. Priceline's taxes of $26.73 (which includes Priceline's own fee).

So the Priceline lady sees the Ramada's grand total is $199.80 vs $178.83 for Priceline's grand total. Therefore no refund for overbidding.



From Priceline's terms & conditions of their Best Price Guarantee program:


Priceline's "Best Price Guarantee" applies only to the room rate and does not include any charges for Taxes and Service Fees charged by priceline or similar charges by any other online service.

What was your pre-tax bid price per room per night w/Priceline? I'm assuming it was more than Ramada's $35.99 rack rate? If so, you ARE entitled to a refund of the difference per the terms and conditions above. I would contact Priceline again and remind them of their own contractual terms and conditions.

Although I agree a resort fee at a Ramada in the area you describe is ridiculous, you do check a box agreeing with Priceline's terms & conditions when you place your bid. When you go through the bid process, click on the taxes & service charges link which reads:

Depending on the property you stay at you may also be charged (i) certain mandatory hotel specific service fees, for example, resort fees (which typically apply to resort type destinations and, if applicable, may range from $10 to $40 per day), energy surcharges, newspaper delivery fees, in-room safe fees, tourism fees, or housekeeping fees and/or (ii) certain optional incidental fees, for example, parking charges, minibar charges, phone calls, room service and movie rentals, etc.. These charges, if applicable, will be payable by you to the hotel directly at checkout. When you check in, a credit card or, in the hotel's discretion, a debit card, will be required to secure these charges and fees that you may incur during your stay. Please contact the hotel directly as to whether and which charges or service fees apply.

Again, I agree the resort fees you paid are ridiculous, however that's a Ramada issue that Priceline has no control over. On the other hand, if your pre-tax daily bid rate was more than Ramada's $35.99, then Priceline owes you a refund for the difference under their price guarantee program.

The hotel the OP is referring to is notorious. Am a frequent traveler to FLL who uses PL on cars and hotels and has to avoid making 2* bids for that zone to get around the possibility of being stuck there.

It has a "sister" hotel in Orlando with the same problems: unrenovated dump, + resort fee that becomes "hidden" under Priceline. Got put into that one in Priceline and it was awful. Enough so to motivate me to do a Trip Advisor review with pics. Other Trip Advisor reviews have also been scathing.

If Priceline isn't going to have more transparency on resort fees, then it at least needs a process to de-list the bad actors (especially since they ALREADY do post-stay surveys). And when you've got cities like LAS, MCO and FLL with a lot of competition near the bottom, doing a resort fee to allow for accepting room-rate bids at a lower price becomes a form of bait-and-switch trickery. If a 1* or 2* hotel is charging a resort fees then that's probably the real motive: appear cheap but not really be.

Whether they welcome them or not, I think it's appropriate to keep the complaints coming, both to Priceline and third parties.

Of course she was too dumb to understand that I'm getting conned by both Priceline and the Hotel. My real total price is $178.83 PLUS $40 more when I get there = $218.83 vs. the $199.80 anybody could get the room for on the Ramada web site.

I think a good rule of thumb is to start questioning use of Priceline if it can't save at least 30% from rates with more flexible cancellation policies. I usually go for close to 50%. Unless there are extenuating circumstances (e.g. hard to find hotel rooms at any price from bad supply/demand situation and you have to go), Priceline doesn't compare well if it's in the same ballpark as the hotel's rates.

Biddingfortravel.com has info on some of the bad-actor hotels. They try to list hotels by PL zone and also have a reviews section. TripAdvisor has a big database of reviews.

A common trick is to try Hotwire first, see what prices you get and then make that the highest bid you'll do on PL.

Priceline overall has been very positive for me, but there have been a few lemons to show the model isn't perfect.

I think a good rule of thumb is to start questioning use of Priceline if it can't save at least 30% from rates with more flexible cancellation policies. I usually go for close to 50%. Unless there are extenuating circumstances (e.g. hard to find hotel rooms at any price from bad supply/demand situation and you have to go), Priceline doesn't compare well if it's in the same ballpark as the hotel's rates.

It really depends on each person's tolerance for the unknown, how much savings is important/worth it to them, etc. I find it hard to give a blanket rule of thumb for savings using the opaque sites. But if that is a good rule for you, it works...for you.

Biddingfortravel.com has info on some of the bad-actor hotels. They try to list hotels by PL zone and also have a reviews section. TripAdvisor has a big database of reviews.

One HUGE disadvantage of Trip Advisor reviews is that many reviews are from one-post wonders. I always click on the reviewer's screen name and if they have only 1-2 posts and all are hotel reviews with 1* or 5* I totally disregard them immediately. Just me but reviewers with such strong opinions and just one or two reviews often means they have a vested interest and are not objective reviews.

A common trick is to try Hotwire first, see what prices you get and then make that the highest bid you'll do on PL.

Be sure to compare total costs including taxes and fees for both, not just the initial per night price.

John

Seems on of the other common situations leading to Priceline complaints besides the OP's is when someone wants to do a hang-the-moon special trip with a significant other and bids 5* or Resort on PL. Often their bids aren't really lowball, so they'll expect a lot but not get it.

What extras do you get at this property with the resort fee?

I did a Hotwire stay this week in Lake Tahoe and was hit with a $10 resort fee, but they did spell out what it included:The hotel charges a $10 per day fee allowing for in-room bottled water, daily newspaper delivery, use of pool and work-out facility, admission into blu and Opal nightclubs (special events excluded), unlimited local phone calls, valet parking, and incoming faxes. This is an automatic non-refundable charge.

Hotels add resort fees as a money grab, not as a benefit for the consumer. The hotel tries to justify the resort fee by providing a list of amenities, most of which other hotels offer for free (and the hotel might, too, if they didn't boast a resort fee to begin with.)

The key indicator is that the hotel charges everybody, so you pay more whether you use the features or not. IMHO, such charges should either be included in the rates or offered as a package option.

Does anyone ever travel amtrack throught the midwest.
I am looking for a promo code for the california zepher, nebraska to colorado

Welcome to FT, dvech! There is a dedicated Amtrak forum on this site, including a long thread with discount promo codes, you might do best if you checked that one out.

I just got the Hyatt Boston for $75 a night all inc. Mon & Tues nights.I am hooked on priceline. I bid very very low and stick to the 3-4 star formula &
hardly use the counter offer.

After being "upgraded" to 2 really crappy rundown Holiday Inns I am avoiding P/L for a couple of months unless there are no Holiday Inns within 100 miles.

MisterNice

I don't like the resort fees either (and was hit by one once in SJU), but priceline has saved me hundreds of dollars this year and I am very thankful for the name your own price feature.

I don't like the resort fees either (and was hit by one once in SJU), but priceline has saved me hundreds of dollars this year and I am very thankful for the name your own price feature.

Same here, I can't stand the hidden resort fee they stick on you and then can't explain why its there

After being "upgraded" to 2 really crappy rundown Holiday Inns I am avoiding P/L for a couple of months unless there are no Holiday Inns within 100 miles.

MisterNice

I only bid for 4-star hotels:
-never got a bad hotel
-not a lot more $$$ than 3-star
-I have more free bits (some areas don't have 4-star hotels)

After being "upgraded" to 2 really crappy rundown Holiday Inns I am avoiding P/L for a couple of months unless there are no Holiday Inns within 100 miles.

MisterNice

I don't blame you. that is the worst. Luckily, that has only happened to me once and it was quite a while ago.

It would seem a fairly simple thing to bundle in the resort fee for Opaque bidding services like Priceline - so that one is comparing apples to apples - and truly receiving the lowest price for a property at a given star level in a given zone.

Three out of seven of my recent priceline hotel stays have included resort fees. Five out of seven have included internet fees. Two of seven had parking fees. I'm cranky about it. I would like to mark check boxes as I make my bid, saying that I want a room, internet, and parking -- then have the amount I pay, match the amount I agreed to pay in the bid.

Of course, as others have said, overall priceline has been very good for me. But the unpredicable fees, sometimes an additional 40% of the price you bid, are certainly annoying.... It's annoying enough to make a person surf around the internet reading [and making] cranky posts, by golly.

Amenities like free parking, free breakfast and free internet are avoided by guests who don't use those services. Many hotels, particularly higher end hotels, charge for those amenities. This becomes an issue when a customer bids on a 2.5 hotel (which typically include some of those amenties) but get upgraded to a higher star level. Customers bidding on 4* and resorts shouldn't assume they'll be getting free internet or free breakfast.

This isn't the same as a mandatory resort charge. PL tells us to "name our own price". I'm not sure how PL can justify a non-refundable reservation under a "name your own price" program but then allow a hotel to add a mandatory resort charge. I think the hotel should be required to load all mandatory resort fees into the PL rate. I suspect this is a class action suit and/or consumer affairs review waiting to happen.

Three out of seven of my recent priceline hotel stays have included resort fees. Five out of seven have included internet fees.

FliesCasually, could you please name some of these hotels, especially the ones that charge resort fees? TIA.

It seems that this should be looked at by the various federal and state agencies that investigate consumer fraud. I suppose enough complaints will have to occur until that happens.

If the customer chooses a resort, maybe the addition of fees isn't so problematic, but for an ordinary hotel to add on a "resort fee" to a supposedly prepaid Priceline bid would certainly result in a complaint to the relevant agencies by me. Priceline ought to be doing something to address this issue. So should the hotels.

Amenities like free parking, free breakfast and free internet are avoided by guests who don't use those services.

Yes, these are optional services. However at the time I'm bidding I'll know which services I need, and I would welcome a check box asking for the options I'll require to be included in my bid price. Me, I wouldn't care about breakfast, or a swimming pool, being available at a hotel....

FliesCasually, could you please name some of these hotels, especially the ones that charge resort fees? TIA.

Resort fees were from Pepermill Reno, Lake San Marcos Resort, and Hard Rock Las Vegas. One does have "resort" in the name, but I was bidding for hotels. Resort fees were from 7 to 9 dollars.

And in all cases the accomodations were fine, overall I feel I paid a bargain price, and will use priceline again. It's just a petty annoyance of the sort that starts one ranting on the internet....

It would seem a fairly simple thing to bundle in the resort fee for Opaque bidding services like Priceline - so that one is comparing apples to apples - and truly receiving the lowest price for a property at a given star level in a given zone.IIRC, Priceline claims that their system cannot handle more than two itemized cost items over and above the room rate - the tax and their fee.

As an example, this is why secondary taxes (such as the New York City occupancy tax, which is over and above the sales tax) are not included in the quoted PL bid price, and must be paid when checking out.

I personally have had good luck with priceline, but resort fees for non resorts aren't legal, even under priceline's terms.

You should write Priceline with a copy to the state attorney general and to the Federal Trade Commission if it's really not a resort. My guess is that if you can reach someone high up enough in Priceline, they'll refund your "resort fee" and warn the hotel.

It's one thing to charge resort fees in Hawaii or other resort hotels. Quite another to charge them at non resort hotels.

IIRC, Priceline claims that their system cannot handle more than two itemized cost items over and above the room rate - the tax and their fee.

As an example, this is why secondary taxes (such as the New York City occupancy tax, which is over and above the sales tax) are not included in the quoted PL bid price, and must be paid when checking out.

PL should just make the hotel include the resort fee in whatever rate they load into the GDS system and then "waive" the resort fee for PL guests.

I have been in places that I bought through Priceline where the resort fee was optional and it included specific benefits - if you asked. Usually, the resort fee specifies what it provides and you may want to ask to opt out. The fact that the place is a resort and they want a fee for the facilities that they have in place should be challenged. You can complain to the hotel chain about the practice if the property management will not negotiate. I have only seen the charges at resorts. A fine counterexample is the Prince Hotel in Honolulu, which is as nice as a resort and has a Waikiki shuttle, and no fees (4* Marina District).

As a point of reference to the OP's hotel, I happened to have a medical appointment somewhat near the hotel earlier today, so I made a little detour and drove by to have a look.

As I stated before, the hotel location (on State Route 7) is an area of run-down strip malls. The neighbor on the right is a self-storage warehouse, while on the left is a produce market with an unlabeled warehouse behind that. Immediately opposite SR7 is a pawn shop (with another pawn shop and an adult bookstore another block further north).

The hotel buildings are comprised of single-story buildings in front, with a rooms block on the left (maybe four or fivr stories tall). They look like aging buildings, albeit with a semi-recent coat of paint.

That this hotel deigns to label itself a resort seems laughable, at best. Granted, I did not see the inside, but isn't an attractive, enticing locale and setting part of the ambiance one would associate with the word "resort"?

If Priceline allows properties of this type into its program, they are going to have more and more unhappy customers such as the OP. Maybe PL feels that they gain more in the "churn" of newcomers than they lose in disgruntled formerly loyal customers .......

This could be the second time that Ramada and Resort have ever been used in the same sentence.

The first one was, "my last resort was to stay at a Ramada"

If the OP isn't saving huge money on priceline, then they aren't doing their homework on bidding.

There are priceline forums out there that will spell out exactly what to bid.

I have stayed in 4* rooms all over the country, and I save at least 50 percent every time off the regular rate. Sometimes its 80 or 90 percent.

I have stayed in Hyatt's, and similar quality 3* hotel rooms all over the country for 20-30 dollars per night.

Priceline does warn you of resort fees before you bid in a resort area.

I save thousands of dollars per year, honestly I could not afford to travel if not for priceline.

If Priceline allows properties of this type into its program, they are going to have more and more unhappy customers such as the OP. Maybe PL feels that they gain more in the "churn" of newcomers than they lose in disgruntled formerly loyal customers .......

Yeah, this is a very, very bad practice to condone. I've been annoyed for years about paying the resort fees at "resort" class properties, but at least there it's a relatively inconsequential percentage of your tab. It's really only a problem when there are 2 resorts, and one loads a $70 priceline rate and charges you a $20 resort fee, while the second hotel has a $75 priceline rate and no fee. Unless the first hotel is nicer, you're hosed.

But if non-resorts start charging resort fees, the possibility of being hosed dramatically increases. There are typically several priceline hotels in the 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 star range loading prices between (say) $35 and $50. Other than conscience, what's to stop a hotel from shaving a few dollars off their loaded rate and then adding a $10 or $15 "resort fee"? This is, obviously, the profit maximizing strategy for accepting priceline bookings.

It would be very simple for priceline to stop this nonsense. They're probably reluctant at this point to tell resorts that they can't charge resort fees, but it would seem very much in their interest to tell properties NOT classified as resorts that they can't charge priceline guests these fees.

I think any flyertalker running priceline would see the wisdom of such a business strategy. Yet, given their past behavior, I'd bet money that priceline is too tone deaf to realize what's best for them AND their customers.