Originally Posted by thesilb
I disagree generally with the original post, and agree more with iahphx.
Quite often when I see a good deal, I forward it in email to friends, family and colleagues. Though clumsy in nature, this is no different than the very "fare alert" service created by flyertalkers - it is push information versus pull information. So in the case of La Quinta, I actually assisted numerous people to book (because most people are very leary of using Priceline and do not believe they will "get that exact hotel"). Though I note I only had one booking for myself - 3 nights for 2 rooms for me, wife & kids. However my activities led to the booking of over 80 room nights. Contrary to the OP, I'm not sitting around feeling guilty that I "ruined things"
I agree that it's not so much multiple bookings but the aggregate number of nights because of the speed at which information is disseminated these days.
Additionally, I disagree that these deals are pulled quickly. For the La Quinta deal, I booked my first reservation on Saturday night and my last reservation for a co-worker on Tuesday morning. During the deal, I discussed with a number of people that Priceline/La Quinta must be asleep at the wheel. I think it's difficult to claim an error when the supposed error has been going on for over 36 hours and then wait a month to notify the customer.
Similar for the Hilton Osaka deal was outstanding for an extremely long time while the Hilton Tokyo deal was shut down quickly. For the Travelocity Japan trip, Travelocity knew of the flaw in their systems months before it was widely broadcast and then after the deal was pulled reload rates for some hotels that had the same error which people then booked.
Ultimately, these errors are made by the travel provider and they bear a lot of the responsibility for ensuring they have the proper controls and monitoring in place to prevent or minimize these errors.
It's also disingenous for Priceline to weasel out of an accepted binding contract, but they're merciless when a customer makes an error. A lot of my resentment towards Priceline is associated with this dual standard they've applied.