Well I agree that this isn't exactly a matter of life and death. But it certainly would cause me to question doing business with priceline(or this particular hotel - it is not clear to me where the mistake was) if they can unilaterally cancel reservations while binding you to the reservation.

And happytrails - it doesn't sound like it was "impossible" for the seller to deliver - more like they didn't want to. That's a big difference.

At the very least, this is a bad business practice.

tom42 - So, don't do business with priceline. I said this on the SWA thread, and I'll say it again. If you don't like a company's policies, don't do business with them. If enough people share your view, they'll change their policies. In this case, enough people appear to disagree with you that priceline is happy doing business just as they are doing it now.

I also agree with the others who said mistakes happen! Sometimes airlines or hotels post incorrect rate information and sell tickets or hotel rooms at that rate before the mistake is caught. Depending on how many tickets/reservations are sold and at what ridiculously low price, sometimes the seller decides to honor the mistaken price as a good will gesture. Sometimes they choose to cancel the reservations to save money. You can choose from there whether this action makes you want to stop doing business with them, but that doesn't mean there is any legal liability involved.

If a hotel kept your money and refused you a room, that would be an entirely different story. They said they made a mistake and refunded the money. End of story.

"But it certainly would cause me to question doing business with priceline(or this particular hotel - it is not clear to me where the mistake was) if they can unilaterally cancel reservations while binding you to the reservation."

OP said they booked the room through Priceline's regular reservation system. That system (unlike the Name your price system) does allow cancellations, albeit for a $25 fee. It's in plain English on their website, so before someone argues that I'm incorrect, go to their website and look at the terms for a regular reservation. OP was not bound to the reservation except at the risk of losing $25, and those terms were clearly outlined at time of booking. What's the problem?

I don;t think there's any way you can "force" them to honor the contract. You can call the hotel directly - and do speak to a manager - and see if you can get them to honor it.

If they don;t you culd take them to small claims court. But - as someone mentioned you really don;t have a cause of action unless there was some loss involved - ie they canceled the day before you left and your only recourse was to take a much more expensive hotel since that was the only thing available. In that case you might be able to collect the difference between your reserved rate and what you had to pay.

But is this really the situation - and is this enough to go to court over?

If you call the hotel and they won;t cooperate I would just find someplace else.

jlm - I don't do business with priceline. And I agree with most of what you said, except for the statement about legal liability. Whether there is or is not, depends on the situation.

In any event, I don't know who would bother pursuing anything here absent some extra-ordinary circumstance - it would be easier to just reserve another hotel room.

Nytraveler gave the best advice.

Just curious. How did you determine that nytraveler gave the OP the "best advice"? Nothing against nytraveler's post, but what exactly was said that was better (or significantly different) than other posts?

Made me think of Regis and Kelly's awards. That post deserves a Relly!

To satisfy your curiousity starrsville, I found nytraveler's post the best because she (or he):

1. offered a practical step the poster could take if she wanted to pursue - call the hotel directly.

2. told the poster what the next step could be - small claims court - and correctly told her that she didn't really have a cause of action if there was no loss

and

3. concluded with what everyone here seems to agree - that if the hotel won't honor it, she should just book another hotel.


I hope this explanation satisfies you.

The Relly goes to nytraveler!

I don't know what a Relly is.

I do not do business with Priceline, and I've never had the OP's problem.

In this instance, if Priceline gave me no satisfaction I would turn to the hotel (from which OP claims to have a confirmation) and then to my credit card company.

It is they who have the answer to this muddled transaction.