changing a priceline reservation date with the hotel
 

Has anyone ever tried to change the date on a non-refundable priceline hotel reservation directly with the hotel? I have a one night reservation and, sure enough, circumstances have changed and I'd rather stay the night before. I'd never dream of asking priceline for the change (I can't imagine they'd allow it), but what if I contact the hotel? They're still getting paid anyway, so if they have room, why not be nice to the customer?

Any experiences with this?

From previous discussions, what some hotels have done, in order to handle this type of thing in their recordkeeping systems, is to give you a comp night for the night you are there, and then check you in as usual for the night you are not. That way, it works out the same for the hotel in terms of revenue.

Whether or not the hotel manager will be flexible enough to work with you on this, is a different issue.

I have done this once.... you have to deal with the hotel directly.

Priceline will NOT touch this....

Just talk to the hotel reservation people.... and explain the situation... sure, if they are reasonable and not sold out on the date you want, they will be accomodating.

Just back it up with email confirmation.

William

Thanks. Once I'm 100% certain I want to try to change the rez, I'll call the hotel manager and see what happens.

I'm not terribly optimistic because the "paperwork" might get in the way of common sense. Last year, I was in a Residence Inn by Marriott and "corporate" had assigned me a certain room type for my priceline stay. When I got there, I preferred a different style room, which actually cost less if you book direct (basically, I wanted a downgrade). The manager on duty couldn't figure out a way to put me in the less expensive room, even though he wanted to help.

So I can only imagine the difficulty of getting "the computer" to change the date!

I was stupid and didn't double check my check-in dates when I booked on priceline.

When I caught it, I called the hotel (Sheraton Centre Toronto) to see if I could change it. I told them that I booked on priceline but put in the wrong dates. He tried changing it but told me that they were sold out on the nights I wanted.

A few minutes later, I tried calling again to see if I could get a credit or something, but I figured I'd trying asking for a date change again. A super nice young lady helped me out was able to change the date.

She gave me a confirmation number so hopefully I won't be out of a place to stay on my vacation in 2 weeks.

Moral of the story: keep trying if all seems lost.

Hope that helps.

Actually, you can sometimes change it with priceline. They won't do it if your plans change and you just want a new date, but if you bid on the wrong dates because you just had it wrong in your head or something, what they will do is allow you to cancel the original reservation for $25/night (or something like that), provided that you rebid for the new dates. Then, if you win on the right dates, you can get some portion of that cancellation fee back. I can't remember the exact figures and there are a number of restrictions to make sure people can't cancel just for fun, and it's probably harder to do if you catch your mistake several weeks after your booking rather than immediately, but priceline does have some limited means of dealing with this sort of situation.

This is correct, the prices sound about right. It is hard to do but better than nothing. They call it a "one-time exception". I did it once about 5 years ago and once 2 years ago so no telling if it is still in place for sure.

In both instances I had no luck at all dealing with the hotel directly although that definitely sounds like the way to go.

Thanks, fatfrog -- your strategy was the winner. :)

I first tried calling the hotel to see if I could move my stay up by one day but got nowhere (the agent was nice, she just couldn't do anything for me).

So I called priceline and said I made a mistake -- could I change the date? Sure enough, they offered to cancel my 1-night reservation and apply the proceeds (less a $25 charge) to a new reservation. I then had to rebid for the correct night (they give you as many tries as you need, provided you meet all the rebidding rules) and then call back to get the partial refund.

I wound up with exactly the same hotel on my new arrival date. :) It was worth the $25 change fee to me.

Not sure what the fee would have been on a multi-night stay. But this is a good trick to know if you need to change the date on a reservation.

I have had this same experience. Booked the wrong date by accident (or zone), called Priceline and asked if I could rebid. They said I could rebid a different date (or zone), and, if successfull, would refund the original reservation less a $25 service charge. If for any reason I wasn't successfull booking the new date or zone, then my original reservation would remain non-refundable and "as is".

To make a blanket statement that Priceline "won't touch it" is simply not at all the case.