pisistratus

Hello,

Here is the situation. Travelling from TX to CA, stopped in Lordsburg, NM. Around 10:30 PM, opened priceline app, found Hampton Inn, booked it. After booking it, realized that it is in Deming, which is an hour away going back. Called priceline immediately, they tried to get in touch with the hotel management but to no avail. Said we should try again in the morning.

Booked a different hotel in Lordsburg, spent the night, called in the morning, Priceline said there is nothing they can do, no refund whatsoever. Asked about a voucher or a coupon for next stay. Nothing at all. Not from hampton, not from priceline. Called hampton directly, but the management is not available.

Frustrated because basically paying over a hundred bucks for the services did not received. What can be done here? Since neigh hapmton nor priceline budge, will dispute with priceline visa card. What else can be done?

Thanks in advance!

isle-hawg

This is a pitfall of using 3rd party sites for booking, and why I book all my reservations directly with the airline/hotel/rental car but use sites such as priceline sometimes to show me what hotels/rental cars are best value. It makes it much more direct to resolve when there is an error or special request.

Your contract is with Priceline, not Hampton since you booked with the former. It doesn't hurt to call the hotel and politely explain the mistake that you made and ask for consideration in assisting you with a refund. You might make out, but Hampton is not required to do anything for you being a now show. You could also try calling another agent with priceline to see if you get a different (better) result. Lastly you could dispute the charge, but from what you wrote it is a valid charge. No show fees are legitimate fees per the terms and conditions.

Hippster

Did you not try the hotel directly the night of? I'm not sure you are going to like the ultimate answer, but by all means try management at the hotel directly when they are available. I know from reading this board that many properties go by the book with 3rd party reservations so you may get shown the fine print again about bookings and no shows, but it never hurts to ask. You might see if they will let you stay there going back the other way (if you are) as a compromise.

mikew99

Curious, I've never booked using the Priceline app, but did Priceline somehow misrepresent the location of the hotel or perhaps its cancellation policy? I'm trying to figure out how you came to book this hotel without first understanding the above.

eponymous_coward

Don't you mean "frustrated because I screwed up making a non-refundable purchase on Priceline"?

http://www.priceline.com/customerser...orks/hotel.asp

Nobody is under any obligation to make you good on your mistake. If they do it's a customer service gesture, aka "being nice when they don't have to".

I don't see that you have a case to make on disputing the purchase. If I bought a $100 lamp and dropped it outside the store in the parking lot (a mistake), the store doesn't owe me another lamp, and I wouldn't be able to legitimately dispute the purchase... how is what you did different? You screwed up and didn't want to drive an hour because of your mistake, and spent more money to make up for it. How is anyone responsible for this error other than you?

Doc Savage

Yes, Priceline does misrepresent the locations of hotels and you can get screwed if you are not familiar with the area. I suspect this is what happened to the OP. He put in the town he wanted a hotel in, and Priceline came back with that town and "nearby" towns, and he didn't realize they were giving him something an hour away. He found a Hampton Inn, knew the chain was good, and booked it, then looked on a map and saw how far away it was. Priceline and other sites often misrepresent how far away those places are, even if you notice it's not "in" the town you search for. They say "18 miles" when it's a 45 minute drive.

OP, you should fight Priceline for this type of misrepresentation, not the hotel. Good luck, but I think you probably won't get any satisfaction.

Often1

Unless OP can demonstrate that he was given a room at a property which did not meet PL's t&c, he is going to lose his CC dispute. If he initiates too many baseless disputes, his CC issuer is going to dump him because processing those is time-consuming and expensive.

What's odd is that OP used PL at all. The property seems to have directly bookable rooms for $80-90/night, so it sounds as though PL was a bad deal for him anyway.

Water under the bridge for OP, but when this stuff happens, pick up the phone and call the property ASAP. It's the property's decision and if you call within 10-15 minutes, you might just connect with someone kindly disposed. If they say no, watch you tongue as you may want to call back and speak to the manager the next day and the last thing you want is a note from the clerk who took your call the night before.

buddahas

You did receive a service. You booked a specific rate and priceline delivered.

The fact that you refused to stay there is entirely your problem.

Frankly, I find the dispute part particularly revolting.

Some people are incapable of taking responsibility for their actions.

PayItForward

Totally nothing to do with Hampton. PL owns the contract and Hampton has nothing to gain by helping a guest of PL. Disputing the charge would likely not result in anything other than establish a record that you make unnecessary disputes. You might try to appeal to PL and hope they give you a future credit but really unlikely.

IsleOfMan

While I agree that the OP is likely mostly or completely at fault here, I'd personally probably attempt all avenues SHORT OF a CC dispute to get something back, but know that anything received is a concession and not deserved. A CC dispute is indeed taking things too far and the fallout might be worse than the recompense, especially if it's not the first denied claim.

jeffandnicole

Using Priceline, I looked up Lordsburg, NM. I eventually saw the hotel. The hotel name was Hampton Inn Deming. Priceline really couldn't have made it more clear the town where the hotel was located. Heck, driving West from TX to CA, the OP would have already travelled thru Deming less than one hour prior, and I'm pretty sure the highway would have had well-marked signs for Deming Exits, not to mention numerous billboards for various Deming businesses.

Hampton has no reason why they should give you any money back. You booked with Priceline. After Priceline takes their commission cut, they give the rest to Hampton. Let's say you spent $100. Hampton doesn't even get that entire $100. There's no reason why they should give you back more than they got from your booking

Actually, in this case, none of that may be true. The OP booked a hotel. The OP doesn't demonstrate he has even heard of the hotel chain. As far as we know, it may have been the cheapest hotel available when he looked up hotels on Priceline.

(I remember being in a Hilton when a customer was complaining about the price of the breakfast buffet, which he thought was complimentary. He said within earshot: "I am a frequent visitor of the establishment". If he was, he would've known the buffet wasn't free. As it was, I'm sure he didn't even know the hotel he was at. He probably booked it on Priceline, and only cared about the price; nothing more.)

The town name is within the name of the hotel. The OP never bothered to look it up on a map...until he booked the hotel. The map link is easily available on the screen where he could've looked at it before booking. As pointed out above, he even travelled thru the town just an hour before (actually, it's less than an hour. The OP is slightly exaggerating the time).

Mileage is generally not going to change, but times will due to congestion, construction, accidents, etc. That's why you almost always see distance posted in mileage. Nothing unusual there.

You are right though that the OP isn't going to get any satisfaction. When that reservation was made, the room is booked for the night. We don't know if there were 100 rooms available or 1 room available, so the hotel couldn't sell that room to another person.

This is clearly on the OP, and he is out the $100.

RoyalFlush

Lordsburg and Deming are separated by 60 miles.

File a complaint with the consumer protection division of the office of New Mexico State Attorney General Hector Balderas.

Preferably, a snail-mailed hard letter.

These companies (OTAs) need cease their shady practices.

When I search OTAs for a lodging accommodation in XYZville Town, I'm not searching 60+/- mile radius.

brkandjfk

I don't think we have enough facts to understand whether the information displayed is a problem for the transaction or not... (i.e. The presence of "check nearby" could get it done if 'nearby' is defined as within x miles.) One assumes that the legal team of Priceline has vetted the language used and it's likely sufficient to protect their interests.
Edit to add: (I am unfamiliar with the Priceline app... does the "sort by" selection afford the opportunity to sort by distance, starting with "preferred" or similar?)

Having said that... the one thing I always get a bit confused with is this...
Where did the idea that you can dispute a charge for something like this come from? Is this based on a complete misunderstanding of the FCBA or something else? I'm not trying to hijack the thread (nor belittle the OP), just don't understand this ideology.

Kacee

If you don't believe you got what you paid for (i.e., a hotel room in Lordsburg) that would be a legitimate basis for a dispute ("quality of goods or services").

I am not advocating a dispute here. This was user error and while it's nice when merchants give us a break in these circumstances, Priceline has no obligation to do anything. And of course Hilton has nothing whatsoever to do with this transaction - the sale was by Priceline.

farnorthtrader

"Quality of goods or services" is not a valid chargeback reason. Such a reason would be cause for civil action, but not a chargeback through the card company. They are not in the business of judging the quality of goods and services. Factual misrepresentation is a valid chargeback reason, so if Priceline told the OP that the hotel was in one location but it was actually in another location (which Priceline has had to refund for before due to their mistake), that would be an acceptable chargeback reason, but if there is a map that correctly identifies the location on the website, there is no basis for charging it back.