I have had some good results with Priceline, but this experience bordered on a scam.

We traveled in Washington state the week before Labor Day. When our plans changed to come back early, we booked an early morning flight for Monday, Labor Day, and several days ahead of time, I went on line to Priceline to look for an airport hotel for Sunday night. I bid ONLY on the airport zone. After a bid of $40, I bid $45, with level 2 and 1, I was awarded the Red Lion. On Sunday night we arrived tired from a day of driving and ready to eat and sleep until our early morning wake up call. Imagine our surprise upon arriving at Red Lion SeaTac when we learned that Priceline had put us in ANOTHER Red Lion, this one near Boeing field several miles away. We called Priceline from the SeaTac Red Lion and the operator admitted that the other Red Lion is NOT in their Airport zone. She agreed to refund our money. However, because the Boeing field Red Lion is a franchise and the SeaTac one is corporate, they would not cooperate to give us the lower price. We were too tired to argue for long and accepted their lowest rate, $89 for each of the two rooms we were occupying.

I don't know if there is any way that people can avoid this kind of a mess. Granted, Priceline gave us a refund, but we wound up paying nearly twice what we had planned, and could have gotten another hotel for less through Priceline if they had assigned us to an airport hotel, as we requested. A very distressing situation.

Vera

Priceline booked us at the Hudson in New York during their first year of operation (2001) at $135. Upon arrival we discovered they were running an introductory special for $95. Of course we had already prepaid. What a ripoff!

Vera - Just curious, how would you know there's even a Red Lion at SEATAC? Wouldn't you look at the name of the hotel you've won and its address? Shouldn't you have noticed Priceline's mistake and called them then? Something's not adding up.

sgorces - The "correct" way to use Priceline is to check out the rates of all the hotels listed in your zone/level on Biddingfortravel, and then bid something LOWER than that price. You can't blame Priceline because you decided to bid high.

BTW, I agree with Sheryl's reply to your post on biddingfortravel. The Red Lion Boeing Field is actually within the zone of Priceline's map.

You should consider yourself lucky that Priceline will refund you!

Seems like it would have been MUCH less of a hassle to just stay at the decent property a few miles further away and TAKE THE FREE SHUTTLE to the a/p the next morning.
Why was this such a problem?

isn't boeing field just 5 minutes from the airport?

I'm confused--why would this "border on a scam"? Isn't that the way Priceline works. You bid on a zone (and you can see a map of the zone before you bid) and a level, and then you take your chances on which hotel you get within the zone/level. Once you win, you get the name of the hotel. Did they tell you you'd won Seat-Tac (which is level 3, anyway, I think) and then it turned out they'd booked you at Boeing?

Yes, Boeing Field is just a short distance to the airport.

I guess the part that confuses me is what did your confirmation say? Surely it didn't book you at "Red Lion" without a specific one mentioned and without an address? It sounds to me like your reservation was for one and you drove to the wrong one? Sorry, I don't get the problem. And yes, they are only a couple minutes from each other. What's the problem here?

Plus, the OP was definitely overpaying for a 2* hotel on Priceline. There are many successful $42-45 bids for 3* Airport zone, getting the Doubletree, Hilton (nice hotel I've been!), Radisson or the Red Lion Seatac.

Bidding for 2* there doesn't make much sense. With 3*, one can get four free rebids. Hard to overpay a 3* for that zone.

I also wonder what the OP means by "after a bid of $40, I bid $45". I don't think there's "free rebid" for 2* in the Seattle area.

I'm guessing Boeing Field *is* considered in the "airport zone" by Priceline. While this post is a good warning for others that you really need to pay attention when bidding for hotels like this, I certainly do not think this "bordered on a scam" the fact that you did not pay attention to the address of the hotel you bought.

Beware Priceline's zone names. The actual area attached to the name may include areas far from the named location. Double check everyting before you bid.

I guess it is woe to anyone who dares to criticize Priceline!
Contrary to the answers to my post, I am NOT a complete idiot. rkwan: I DID look at Bidding for Travel and knew the prices and the winning bids for the Seatac area before I bid. Patrick: Yes, I looked at the address on the winning bid, but it meant nothing to me, since I'm not familiar with the Seattle area and the bid did NOT identify the Red Lion as Boeing Field Red Lion.
I have since checked Mapquest and the Red Lion site map and because they show different street names (don't identify all the streets on the map) I cannot swear as to whether Boeing is inside or outside the Airport zone, but the employee of Price Line said it was outside the zone, so I would assume that is the best information available.
Some suggest the hotels are so close (5 minutes) that I was foolish not to just go to the Boeing Field one. According to the Red Lion hotel site they are 12 minutes, according to traffic, from Seatac, and according to the desk clerk at Red Lion they are 20 minutes away. At any rate, we were, as I mentioned, very tired and probably not as sharp as we should have been when we decided to stay at the Red Lion SeaTac (after Priceline agreed to refund our payment). We were thinking about that early morning departure.
I don't understand rkkwan's comment about my bidding high. My bid of $45 was what people were getting a 3* hotel at Seatac for according to biddingfor travel. I only went to 2* after being rejected for 3*.
Guess the gist of all this is that priceline can do no wrong.

Vera

If you have read biddingfortravel.com, you'll know that one of the 2* hotels at Seattle Airport zone is "Red Lion Seattle South at Boeing Field". Look at it. And that's exactly what you got. And I am sure that's the hotel on your winning bid.

How in the world would you get yourself to the other Red Lion at Seattle airport, thinking that was your hotel is simply beyond me.

And did you bid $40 for 3*, got rejected, and then bid $45 for 2*? If so, you don't understand how to bid smartly on Priceline at all.

Everybody on this board as well as a member and one administrator at biddingfortavel.com have told you what you've done wrong. But no, either you cannot understand the process or you cannot admit you were wrong.

The Red Lion Boeing Field is definitely in the Priceline Sea-Tac zone, and only 5-7 miles from Sea-Tac.

If you had studied BFT before bidding, you would have seen the Red Lion Boeing Field listed as as a 2* possibility. And, you would have known better than to increase your bid AND add "level 1" when rebidding. The advice is ALWAYS to start a new bid for a lower quality level with a lower bid. I'm also curious as to why you did not stick with the 3* and try adding the FOUR free re-bid zones, one at a time, while slighly increasing your bid? If I understand correctly, you bid $40 for a 3*, but knew that recent winning bids were $45?

Also, the Priceline confirmation ALWAYS includes the name and address and local phone number of the hotel AND a "VIEW MAP AND DIRECTIONS" link.

I find it astonishing that you got a Priceline representative on the phone on a Sunday night who agreed that the Red Lion Boeing Field was not in the Sea-Tac area and agreed to refund your money.

And, I'd be very interested to know exactly how you drove to, and then determined that you had driven to, the wrong Red Lion. The "address meant nothing"?

I think it is unfair to accuse Priceline of a scam and mislead others. The folks at BFT are pros with Priceline. Too curious that you posted the exact message here, omitting "I don't know if there is any way that people can avoid this kind of a mess", and it was pointed out that you should have checked the address, so here you say "the address meant nothing to me".

<Guess the gist of all this is that priceline can do no wrong.>

That was absolutely NOT the point of my reply, anyway. I have never used Priceline because I am not savvy as to how it works.

There's no way that Boeing Field is 20 mins. away from SeaTac. And blaming Mapquest doesn't seem reasonable to me, or blaming Priceline because you didn't understand the address and location of the hotel you bought.

Sure it is great to let people know that they need to be VERY careful bidding for discount hotel rooms... but your post comes off as bad mouthing Red Lion and calling Priceline a scam, that's simply not how I see your situation.

If you are going to say something is bordering on a scam, you should be prepared for a little analysis. You made some mistakes, and now you are trying to blame someone else. You got exactly what you bid for. That you showed up at the wrong hotel is not Priceline's fault.

I guess, I'm still confused as to how you ended up at the wrong RedLion. If you looked at the address and drove there, then surely you knew you were going to the wrong address. If you took a taxi and told him the address on your confirmation, then he would have taken you to the correctly booked hotel. So how in the world did you find a RedLion that was NOT on your confirmation?

I'm not a fan of Priceline either, but this has nothing to do with your criticizing Priceline. It's just that I can't figure out why you went to a different hotel than what was on your confirmation. If you had gone where they booked you, problem would have been solved as you still were quite close to the airport and you would have been at the right place for the price you booked.

And I sure can't figure out how if you looked at the address of your winning bid and went there (via mapquest or any other means) you ended up at the wrong hotel. This just plain doesn't make any sense.

The real plus here is that somehow they credited you for a hotel that WAS in the area you bid, even though you went to the wrong hotel. Seems to me like you came out smelling like a rose considering it was your mistake.

No one has addressed the issue that has me really confused:

How is it that the Priceline operator "admitted that the other Red Lion is NOT in their Airport zone." if everyone here is saying that it is, in fact, in the airport zone.

Wouldn't you think the Priceline operator would have known the difference???

Actually I think several of us have addressed that issue. Both Red Lions are clearly in the airport area and if someone really did refund her money because the Boeing Field one was in the "wrong" area, that person simply made a mistake. That's why I said, the poster came out smelling like a rose for getting her money back when Priceline booked her in her chosen area, but apparently made a mistake when she called.