Priceline not for Canadians!
 

As I have flights booked for a one month stay in Thailand starting in January and seeing many posts about people successfully bidding on BKK hotels (e.g. Marriott Resort & Spa $47) I decided to go through the process with priceline to bid on a hotel. Imagine my disappointment to find out that unless I provide a U.S. address as it appears on a credit card statement, I cannot bid or otherwise use the services of priceline. I've sent them 2 emails and received 2 replys both with the same theme, "We are unable to provide you with the information as to why we do not allow people to use our services from Canada". I've ordered products from the U.S. on my Visa before, and obviously I'm going to be paying in US dollars, so what's the big deal?

Does anyone have any comments or a way around this? Thanks

Just a suggestion, but did you try priceline/Asia or UK?
Go to priceline.com and at the bottom on the left side there are 2 links for the foreign pricelines.
Hope it works for you.
Good luck and have a great trip!

would you consider opening a credit card in the usa?? i understand the address business, but a us card should work ok??

I found the whole Priceline thing complicated, having to give Crad details in advance. I tried the HK one and was rejected, perhaps that's because I live in Thailand.
In my opinion alhtough I do not doubt that sometimes you can get a particular deal there are plenty of cheap hotel rates and deals available from other suppliers. Try to go for local agents as they have sometimes the best deals.

There have been some posts on this board by other Canadians who have used the U.S. based Priceline site successfully by making up a zip code and formatting it to look like a U.S. zip code. Apparently Priceline doesn't verify the zip code when processing credit cards, otherwise this method wouldn't work.

It's quite possible to bid on priceline.com with a Canadian credit card, if it's Mastercard or AMEX. See http://www.biddingfortravel.com and http://www.betterbidding.com for more details on how to set up your address.

You can also bid at http://www.priceline.com.hk and http://www.priceline.com.sg with Canadian details with no fudging at all necessary. It's easiest if you set up a profile first. Those sites only take VISA or Mastercard.