What is the point here? Priceline derives income from collecting more than they give the hotel. They try to induce higher bids at every turn - not to help the hotels. Their agreement is to match the bid to the nearest set price below the bid that meets the star and location request. Then they keep the difference. If someone infiltrates the system to make it so that they don't get this difference, they lose their major revenue stream. This does not affect the hotels.
No. The major revenue PL got is not the difference you're talking about. The major revenue is the difference between the minimum bid and what PL give to hotels. Betterbidding and BFT have been there for years and a lot of people are already bidding the price very close to the minimum bids. What we did is only to tell you where the minimum bid is. The major revenue PL got is not affected. The difference between customer's actual bid and the minimum bidding price (or you can call it overbidding) is the extra money PL got out of their major revenue.