cornellalum

Colin,

Your allegations are without merit. You have no knowledge about my prior Priceline.com booking and complaint history. In this thread, I have posted that I have contacted Priceline three times:

1) on the night of my arrival
2) first email to Priceline to reach their Executive Services
3) second email to Priceline requesting a full refund instead of a 50% refund

Please refrain from making baseless conclusions about my value as a customer. At the very minimum, I have notified Priceline.com of the issues at the hotel. Hopefully, with complaints from other consumers, they will somehow come to their senses and require the hotel to offer higher quality rooms to PL customers.

cornellalum

I'd like to thank most of you for your contributions to this thread. I have decided not to continue the CC dispute. Even though I may have disagreed on certain points, the help from FTers in formulating and directing a complaint to Priceline's Executive Offices was instrumental in my obtaining an acceptable resolution.

Thanks again!

lo2e

The right move, IMHO! ^

I also agree with B1 that it could have been mosquitos (or is it mosquitoes?), which are VERY prevalent in all parts of New England in the summer, especially at night.

BEAV

Congratulations on your success, even if only partially in your opinion.

I think this thread proves a few things...

1. Speak up when you're assigned a room in the condition the OP described.
2. Go through the email system at Priceline to get your complaint channeled properly.
3. Don't utilize the front-line call center employees to try and resolve a situation such as this. Remember, they read from scripts and aren't necessarily hired to think! (I'm generalizing here, obviously)
4. Don't automatically think because you purchased from Priceline you're stuck with an unacceptable room without recourse.

jayer

Discretion is the better part of valor. Taking half a loaf and going home is the prudent decision.

You should normally get a form e-mail from Priceline asking you to review the experience. Tell it like it was, without going overboard and sounding impossible to please. Overwhelmingly my Priceline experiences have been positive, but I have a few very negative. In at least most cases, I returned the form and the hotel(s) in question seems to have been dropped or downrated, but after some passage of time.

Perhaps your success has been better, by my disputing credit card charges has been less than a sure reversal, both with Chase and Citi issued cards. Their position is if the merchant or hotel swears it was a legitimate charge they get out of the middle and don't take it off the bill. Its not the automatic it once was.

catwings01

Just wondering, how many people in your family stayed in this one room and what kind of beds the room had? It occurs to me that the "upgrade" fee the hotel wanted to charge you was to move to a larger room - sounds like you used PL to book a room for more than 2 people and am wondering what impact that had on your unhappiness with the property?

lewisc

I wonder the same thing. The hotel would have been within their rights to insist a family of more then two pay to upgrade to a larger room. PL guarantees double occupancy and two twin beds qualifies.

It sounds like a classic PL room, a room that's too small to be rented conventionally. OP is still entitled to a clean room but the hotel might not rent out this room enough to bother fixing it up.

EDITED TO ADD. It doesn't matter what price or how often the hotel rents that room. It still should be clean and free of mold and mildew.

cornellalum

We had 3 people in the room. We anticipated the scenario of getting a room with two twin beds, so I brought a sleeping bag along to sleep on the floor. We were fine with the size of the room -- I'm totally okay with sleeping on the floor, but the cleanliness of the carpet was a concern.

I've been to certain hotels/motels where I was slightly concerned walking barefoot, but I did so anyways since it looked okay. This was the first place I avoided walking barefoot since the carpet looked dirty. So I placed one of the comforters on the floor and then put my sleeping bag on top, which made it better.

Our primary desire was to get a cleaner room. With the limited number of rooms available on July 4th, and the state of the corridors and the room, we didn't think that was possible. Upon reflection, we probably could have been clearer to the front desk about our concerns, but I doubt the front staff would have responded favorably -- it was the General Manager who agreed to Priceline's negotiation for a refund.

lewisc

You're missing my point, the hotel would have been within its rights if they told you the maximum occupancy of your room is two guests. You could have been given the choice of paying for an upgraded room or not being allowed to check in (and not being given a refund). A hotel doesn't have to allow a family to be over the room occupancy even if they're willing to sleep on the floor.

Given the circumstances a refund of half is more then fair, the hotel could have thrown you out and kept your money.

If your main concern was a dirty carpet you could have asked the hotel to vacuum and maybe even shampoo the carpet.

edited to say Hotwire allows a customer to specify the number of guests (up to 4) and you'll be given a room that will accomodate the number of guests you indicate. Priceline only guarantees double occupancy, customers with more then 2guests are at the mercy of the hotel.