sy7

Priceline seems to charge a sliding fee based on the total cost of the hotel nights you are bidding for. The minimum fee (eg for a 1* $20 bid) tends to be $6-7. However, if you are bidding for 1 night at $200/night, the fee increases to >$10. I guess priceline figures that you can afford a higher fee if you are willing to bid at high prices!

Also, if you are bidding for 2 cheap rooms together at $50 each, the fee will probably be less than if you are bidding for one $200 room.

The fee you quoted seems high, so maybe priceline has recently increased the fee algorithm.

ozstamps

Thanks sy7

Well being a cheapskate the 100+ of PL rooms I have secured have all been in the lower end of the scale I guess.

And I thought (wrongly it seems?) that there was a flat PL fee per booking whether room cost you $50 or $500 a night. Like a flat $6.95 or $7.95 or whatever a booking.

Glad you pointed this out as I was about to look at Germany where rooms are not always so cheap.

chobby100

Used to be $5.95 per booking, but that changed to combine taxes and fees together. By doing this you can now never find out exactly what priceline paid for the room and in essence how much you "overpaid". Under the old system you could reverse engineer your taxes to find the exact amount PL paid for the room.

ozstamps

Yes, that's right, $5.95 was a nice flat rate. ^

This I got for Seattle Doubletree and clearly the base fee itself must be a lot more than $5.95 now:

Your Offer Price: $36.00
Number of Rooms: 1
Number of Nights: 1
Subtotal: $36.00
Taxes & Service Fees:
$12.44
Total Charges: $48.44

Does their fee really increase in $$$ on the higher priced rooms?

holtju2

IMHO at least in Europe they would be forced to reveal what is the amount of REAL taxes. I do not mind them charging a service fee but I should know how much it really is.

rove312

This topic has steered from what's in the header, but: when taxes and fees were first bundled in 2003, people figured it was something like the local tax rate + 2.25% + $4.50. For low one-night bids, it could have been a reduction from the previous $5.95. They've raised the fees since this, but they probably still mix a percentage and a flat amount. PL also pockets what would have been the tax on the amount of an overbid over their price. Some bids can cover several jurisdictions with different tax rates; presumably PL posts taxes and fees based on the highest tax rate possible in the zones and pockets the difference if you get in the place with the lower rate. PL may dip into their fee for some bids lower than their wholesale price.

Also, with some brands, I've had pretty good luck getting hotel program points for PL stays, and the number of points reveals the true PL rate.

jabez

Rove
You said what I was thinking("This topic has steered from what's in the header"). So I think it's time to closae this one down. People looking for the information that you are sharing may miss it, if they are not interested in the subject matter here.
Plus, this thread has gone all over the place.