NBSPGMEMBER

I do not use Priceline often, however in this case I will use Priceline. So I was wondering... I'm not looking for members benefits (upgrade, breakfast, points etc...) but just the best service & room while using Priceline. In other words, which hotel chain treats Priceline guests the best?

wharvey

I use Priceline a great deal and honestly have to say I have never noticed any difference in treatment as a Priceline customer vs a non-Priceline customer. Both Hilton and Mariott have also recognized my status and gave me benefits.

You will find people who say they get smaller rooms or get snubbed by staff.... but I have never seen it.

Bottom line.... I know I am getting a steal... so I would not let "treatment" bother me.

Non-NonRev

The Terms and Conditions of all of the major chains exclude Priceline and other opaque-channel bookings from being eligible for points and for elite benefits.

Having said that, like wharvey, I have on random occasion received points and/or benefits. The general consensus is to not expect points/benefits, but to be pleasantly suprised if they materialize.

One nice thing: Hyatt, Marriott and SPG will give points for some incidental items billed to the room (restaurant, room service, for example), but Hilton does not.


Again I agree that this is the case 99.9% of the time - but it DOES happen on occasion (my most frequent example was the Kansas City Airport Hilton, which always put me into an accessible/handicapped one-double-bed room in a noisy corridor, at times when the remainder of hotel was virtually empty).

At other hotels, I have been placed on concierge floors, given rooms with nice views etc - even once a $600 per night ocean-view suite for a $95 4* Priceline booking. On almost every occasion, treatment from the front-desk staff has been exactly the same as when paying a standard rate.

B1

All hotels should try to treat a customer as well as possible. Priceline bidding removes your chance to select one, so it makes no sense to try to make a plan. I have had excellent treatment as a Priceline guest from the major chains that participate. Priceline expects hotels to treat their customers as well as possible. Things can go wrong no matter how you book your stay.

azepine00

Not exactly. Hyatt guarantees all elite benefits on PL stays. No points or stay credit though.

Non-NonRev

Thank you for the catch - I do recall hearing Hyatt Diamonds state that their benefits (amenity, etc) WERE honored (as a Hyatt Plat, I don't think I would get anything, although I do apprecate getting the points for my breakfast and Internet use).

mbstone

The following niceness ratings are based on the chain or property's willingness to accommodate bed/smoking preferences, other preferences such as connecting rooms when traveling with children, and the lack of attitude or condescension.

Recognition of status or giving of points is NOT counted in this list, because it is rare, and we've contractually chosen to take a monetary discount on the room rate instead -- even though there's no rationale for denying points for $ spent on incidentals.

1. Hyatt. Memorable stays include the Hyatt Tamaya Resort near ABQ; the former Hyatt Lake Las Vegas Resort, and the trés-kid-friendly Hyatt Regency Anaheim near Disneyland, whose sales manager posted to BFT to extend a special welcome to PL guests.

2. Marriott/Courtyard/Residence/Fairfield. With rare exceptions, successful PL bidders are treated as welcome guests at Marriott properties, and the status you earned spending the boss's money is fairly often respected, even though your own money goes to PL. A recent exception was the Courtyard on Green Valley Parkway in the LAS Airport zone where not only was a bed type request flatly refused in the empty hotel, my experience dealing with the desk staff was outright scary.

3. Starwood/Sheraton/Westin. While status is generally ignored, which is OK with me, in every other respect PL guests are generally welcomed.

4-6. Hilton/HGI/Doubletree/Hampton, La Meridien, Radisson, ditto. Bring your own cookies at Doubletree.

7. Wyndham. Resort-fee hell and cursory service.

8. Homestead/Extended Stay America. They treat everyone like dirt, not just PL guests. Expect to pay extra for a decent bed, and don't expect maid service every three days like the rack-rate people get. Of course, the rack-rate people would be in a 4* property instead of a 1* property for the same price if they knew how to bid.

9. Holiday Inn. With a few rare exceptions, most Holiday Inns will make a special effort to put you in a ha-ha room that stinks of smoke or that would otherwise be unacceptable to a rack-rate guest, or any guest for that matter.

There are a few others, but I've covered 90+ percent of 2.5* and above properties that you are likely to win on PL NYOP.

Non-NonRev

Brilliant post by mbstone - an agreeable mix of valuable and accurate information, seasoned with a dash of acerbic wit ^

My only addition would be to mention Omni Hotels. Omnis tend to be gracious, upscale properties which extend the same treatment to PL customers as to any of their others. Additionally, they honor Omni Select benefits - this is not a points-earning program per se, but instead offers a free beverage amenity, delivered to your door in the morning. At some properties, this amenity can be enhanced by a inexpensive add-on snack - at the Omni San Francisco, the add-on was a breakfast burrito (for about $3.25) that was fresh and delicious, and large enough to serve as breakfast (even for my well-fed appitite)

Many Omnis also offer free highspeed internet access, unusual for 4* properties and a nice moneysaver!

NBSPGMEMBER

Wow, great elaborate report! Thanks! However, I guess I'm in trouble since I got a Doubletree property.

ralfp

In my last two Doubletree stays (Hotwire) I got the cookie, free breakfast, and more. I'm HH Gold, but these were my first two Hilton stays in over a year (over two years if you exclude PL/Hotwire).

wharvey

Same here... on stays just last month.... and those are some good cookies!

BearX220

While my anecdotal experiences aren't too far out of line with mbstone's Canonical List -- I've had some of my best PL stays at Hyatts on crazy-cheap (sub-$40) bids, and I was treated like garbage at a Homewood Suites -- I just don't think there are brand-wide attitudes to PL guests.

I think the attitude, if there is one, takes root at the individual property and maybe even with the individual employee. I don't think there's a memo from Holiday Inn HQ ordering reception clerks to stash PL guests in the "ha-ha" rooms, for example.

Nor do I think Starwood properties are consistently kinder to PL'ers; I was just at the Sheraton Centre Toronto on a PL stay and the clerk loudly announced that I was a Priceline guest, then assigned me to a dinky shoebox of a room on a low, noisy floor that opened right onto the elevator bank. It's all in the luck of the draw IMO.

As for there being "no rationale for denying points for $ spent on incidentals" -- even though I would like them and occasionally get them, I strongly disagree. The points are dispensed for rewarding loyal behavior, which is the one thing a Priceline guest hasn't shown. You're there totally by chance, you could just as easily be in the Hilton / etc. down the street, so I hardly think you're entitled to loyalty perks.

GUWonder

Marriott and Hyatt hotels all have honored my elite status on all of my Priceline and Hotwire stays as they would on a paid stay for the same nights as much as I could tell.

Hilton hotels have not all honored my elite status on all of my Priceline and Hotwire stays as they would on a paid stay for the same nights and have even been downright nasty about it. Some have given me the benefits -- more used to give me the benefits -- but a substantial proportion of stays they provide no benefits whatsoever and even place me sometimes in what I would recognize as the worst unoccupied room on premises.

Starwood hotels usually don't honor my status benefits on such stays but sometimes they do -- but they've never been nasty about it.

Radisson hotels seem to honor most benefits on most of my stays of this sort but sometimes it's very hard to tell.

InterContinental properties seems to have honored my status as they would on directly booked stays.

GUWonder

Those who use Priceline and Hotwire to book package stays are picking identified properties and may be showing loyal behavior that the hotels fail to recognize and reward.

I think that a failure to provide points for incidentals on such stays is not a customer-friendly approach -- I'm not even sure it makes business sense when such a customer might be more willing to run up incidental charges if they were to earn points.

Starwood provides points for incidental charges even for those not staying on premise.

Hyatt has been known to do the same thing of providing points for incidental charges too. They both have provided me points for incidentals when staying on a prepaid rate booked through Hotwire or Priceline.

henryf

BEAR

You must have been singularly unlucky. At my last Sheaton Centre PL stay I received two rooms on high floors upon request. The wonderful Lake view double went to the kids..my wife and I faced the city in a large king. Guess it depends upon the CSR at the desk