Priceline should cover resort fees
Not because of ethics, but because of business reasons. If I may have to pay additional mandatory resort fees I am really guarantted nothing. There could be a legitimate but outrageous resort fee like $100. If this is out of my budget, then I am screwed. Either pay up or waste the money I have already spent. Also since you can't specifically exclude a resort from your bid, there are no guarantees for anybody. I could bid for a two star hotel in LA and end up wit a resort with some outrageous resort fee that I can't afford.
Priceline has gone to a lot of pains to makes sure that customers can be sure of what they are getting. I can be one hundred percent sure that the hotel will fall into a particular location. Priceline has even included taxes, so that there is no uncertainty. Granted you can't be sure that a four star is really a four star but that is a matter of opinion and you can not even be sure on expedia, orbitz etc. You may know the hotel but is it really a four star like expedia says. You can at least be sure that you will have your own room and own bed.
Priceline is built on the principal that your price is guaranteed. The resort fee jsut ruins that gaurantee however. If I can only afford 100, and I'm bidding in a resort area, I can really only bid 80 even if I am well informed. A 20 resort fee is not uncommon. Now if there is a hotel willing to accept a 90 dollar bid and doesnt charge resort fee, priceline loses my business.
The solution is so simple too. Just raise the bid price needed by the resort fee and dont charge the resort fee. Priceline should enforce a policy on partner hotels that they can not charge a resort fee to priceline customers. If they want to demand a higher bid price, fine.
I'm surprised that hotels which get a lot of priceline business dont start lowering their bid prices and charge a mandatory fee. They would get a lot more bids accepted and get more business, while still getting the same rate. If resorts can charge a mandatory fee, why cant regular hotels. Hotel fee could cover elevator, lobby, pool etc.
Parking and phone charges are different because they are optional. priceline has made clear that those are not included and you either live with that or dont use priceline. If you want to say that the rate is not guaranteed either, than priceline becomes much more useless.