Mark, those of us who use PL all the time know that they do not quote hotel prices, so we have no idea where that $270 is coming from.

Perhaps you're thinking of the text near the space where you enter your bid. It does not specify a hotel price, it says, "Median retail price for a x-star hotel in _____ (city) is $___ . Name a lower price, or click here (link) to shop and compare prices."

You probably haven't scared off a lot of people, since this thread consists mostly of experienced users with their own stories about successful PL bids. But thanks for giving us the opportunity to spread some PL education.

mark, you have to be shrewd to get that 40%, as others have said. Nothing stops you from bidding $500 for the hotel if you wanted to, and your offer would be accepted. If you do your homework and IF you are bidding during a period of low occupancy for that hotel, you can get a good deal.

You have some valid points though. Priceline's star system is a joke. It is their own system and what they call 4* is often a 3* in other books. They do not physically check any hotels, and rely on them to provide their own information. Nothing stops a hotel from lowering their star level too. if they wish to remain opaque. (The only 4* in a zone might do that simply so people can't bid 4* in that zone, knowing they will get that hotel, as was the case for a while with my DH's hotel in Tampa.)

You are correct about their customer service as well. I'm amazed you even got through to a person, whether or not they could speak English. They must have somehow improved that aspect of their operation as that didn't used to be the case.

If you got out of this deal with just losing a deposit and not the entire X nights stay, you are very lucky indeed. That didn't use to be the case either. You bid it, you got it, and tough luck to you if for some reason you can't keep those dates!

Priceline bidding is complicated...you do need lessons as everyone has indicated. Try it again sometime after reading in biddingfortravel.

"Well all of you that keep suggesting "research"....that must be the only word you use each day from preventing your brain to think!"

"What a stunning response...the clarity in which is truly moving!
A poet perhaps? where dear sir does your incredible wisdom come from?"

"For those of you that continue to say I made an error, you obviously do not have any sense of logic."

"If you people cannot see the problem here then obviously there is no further point in debating facts with your emotional support of a rip off specialist."

Insulting those who disagree with you does not lend support to your argument.

You have to do your research before buying, anything. Did you check on biddingfortravel.com or betterbidding.com?

Priceline has saved me a bundle over the years.

Once I even called a hotel to see if they could give me a better deal than PL, the clerk told me it was a great deal and go with PL.

"The only 4* in a zone might do that simply so people can't bid 4* in that zone, knowing they will get that hotel,"

Just want to point out, as BFT does, that those hotel lists are based on voluntary reports. New hotels are added to the lists on a regular basis, so you might get a hotel that wasn't even listed. Zone boundaries also change once in a while, and occasionally as noted above, the star rating of a hotel will change.

L84SKY, apparently you missed the places where mark indignantly insisted that he should not need to work, er, research, in order to get his PL deal.

It seems the real issue is what kind of customer service a corporation provides when there is a problem. The fact that Mark99 wasn't able to speak to a supervisor and discuss the problem with a chance to resolve it is not good corporate policy.

nanabee, Priceline is non-refundable booking at a significant discount. For years, there was NO customer service. The booking process is clear to remind you several times throughout the booking process that THERE ARE NO REFUNDS - THIS IS A FINAL TRANSACTION.

That is the way Priceline operated when everything was "name your price". I imagine customer service came into play when they offered a Hotwire type option.

IMO, expecting "customer service" from Priceline a la a hotel or other chain's toll free # is folly.

If you want full customer service provided by Priceline, you'll get higher prices along the way to support that. I'd prefer to get the deal and accept my mistakes (if any) along the way.

nanabee, but the fact remains that the problem that mark99 wanted to discuss with customer service was simply a matter of his own mistake and ignorance in using a system without having any idea how it works or doing any preparation. Why in the world should any company hire a staff of customer service reps to handle people who don't even bother to read the basics on their websites?

By the way, unless I'm mistaken Mark99 has never told us what hotel he's talking about. But there is something fishy about ANY hotel in Miami Beach that would be billed even as a three star that NEVER has a rate of $270, which he insists it doesn't. There is something very, very fishy here. I'm willing to bet if he told us what hotel he did get, it would answer a ton of questions for many posters. What's more he never tells us what WAS wrong with the hotel, which I assume he DID stay at. Does anyone else find that strange?

Mark, please remind us again about your crackpot belief that cell phones incur roaming charges when people simply leave them on without using them. I think that would help others here understand a lot better where you are coming from and why it's pointless to try to reason with you.

Sounds like you've had good luck with Priceline because you're a savy "buyer" and know the rules. Those like Mark who don't, have found out the hard way. It is certainly buyer beware with some corporations.

nanabee, are you speaking to me? If so, you are way off base. I've only used Priceline once and was not terribly happy about the final results. Yes, it takes some planning and it is somewhat difficult. But even I think it is laughable to do what he did without even looking at what hotels would be covered and without looking at current prices for those hotels first. Who in their right mind would bid anything at all BEFORE checking to see if any good hotels had specials for that date. How in the world did he pull a bidding price out of the air without looking first to see what things were going for? Would some one go to an auction and start bidding without ever having seen what the item he's bidding on sells for normally? Often you CAN find something better online. If he had bothered to do that, he never would have bid a price higher than was currently being offered by hotel websites. There is NO WAY to blame anyone but Mark99 for what happened in THIS case.
If Mark99 has EVER read a single post about Priceline, or if he had bothered to go to bidding for travel, or if he even bothered to read Priceline's own website, none of what he's complaining about would have happened. It is that simple.

Anonymous, You're right I missed that.
Ah, well then, it’s an interesting lesson. You can either spend the time doing the work at the beginning or spend the time grumbling in the end.

I, for one, see mark99's point. Just because users have learned that Priceline routinely attempts to mislead by gerrymandering maps, quoting meaningless median prices, and making customer service unavailable does not make it OK to do all those things.

It seems to me that many of you are blinded by your own cleverness: you were able to avoid being taken advantage of, so anyone who doesn't must be a sore loser.

Personally, I read Bidding for Travel's advice, and advice here, and studied Priceline's website, and decided Priceline makes it way too easy to make a mistake. That's not exactly a scam, but if Airborne can't claim it cures colds, why can Priceline claim it saves you money? I know, not the same thing, caveat emptor, yadda yadda yadda!

Biddingfortravel only list one 4* hotel for Miami Beach zone - The Palms South Beach.

Tripadvisor considers it a 3* hotel, and rated #44 out of 196 hotels in Miami Beach.

Expedia says it's 4*.

Travelocity says it's 4*.

Hotels.com says it's 4*.

Orbitz.com says it's 5*.

I think if that's the hotel, it's hard to argue it's rated wrongly as a 4*.

- mark refuses to give the name of the hotel

- We don't know the dates so even if we DID know the hotel, we couldn't verify the normal rates

- at least twice, mark mentions things that simply do not exist on the "name your own price" pages. "A Garden View room" (where does PL say anything about what sort of room you will get?) and the normal rate for that hotel is $250. Since this type of info is not provided on the bidding side of PL . . . .

He either did not use the Name your own price feature - or is not telling the whole truth about what happened when he did . . . . .

And, as disjointed as his rants are, he has the nerve to complain that the CS person used broken English?!?

This is an unfortunate situation but there's alway a risk with 'naming your own price' on Priceline. I couldn't help but wonder, the same thing MileMarker asks, what else did you change besides price? You had to change either location or stars to up your bid.

I use pirceline all the time but I always check to see the usual hotels awarded, and check what the best rates I can get at those hotels (comparing on kayak, check the hotel website for special deals or AAA rates, etc). Then I usual bid no more the 2/3 of the best rate I can find elsewhere.

Priceline does show some of the hotels in their star categories in the regular booking option, so between that and biddingfortravel, it's easy enough to get a good enough idea of what hotels are awarded at what star values.

If I wasn't comfortable with the listed hotels I wouldn't bother with Priceline.

Well, it must not have been the Palms, since they routinely charge over $400 for standard oceanfront rooms (not suites) -- not that Priceline would have gotten him one. And they clearly have no such option as "garden view" anyway. Interesting points from janis, showing us that mark99 is clearly not telling us the whole story -- as what he says the site said, it does NOT say. Do you think we'll ever get the "real story" here?

"Do you think we'll ever get the "real story" here?"

No, because according to him, he's made his point and we are all just logic challenged dolts.

Oh, please let Mark go and worry about other stuff on here..like ADS!!!!

There are dissatisfied clients in every business. For example, many hate Southwest for not assigning seats. Or there are mixed reviews of the same restaurant or hotel on TripAdvisor. Or...

I am sorry it happened to you, but if Priceline was a scam, it would be out of business long time ago.

Maybe if you file a complaint with either your credit card company, or Better business bureau they will be able to help you?