*Just know: The Consumerist and JustAnswer are unrelated companies; as much as we want you to have a good experience, we have no control or responsibility for what happens when you leave our site and use JustAnswer.
Claiming Priceline's Invisible Best-Price Guarantee
Is Priceline's low-fare guarantee hard to claim, or is Ace just bad at navigating websites? When the airfare for his Christmas travel flight fell, he hadn't anticipated it. Well, okay, they have that guarantee thingy - he could just claim that and get the $41 difference between the lower fare and what he had paid. Right? Right, but only if he could figure out exactly how to do that within 24 hours. The clock was ticking, and he missed the deadline.
More »
Priceline Upgrades You To Reportedly Bedbug-Infested Hotel
Ordinarily, it would be a good thing if Priceline upgraded your bid for a 3.5-star hotel to a 4-star bid. This sometimes happens when a classier hotel accepts your bid. It wasn't much of a bonus for Lissa, though. She wanted to avoid a certain 4-star hotel because user reviews in various places complained of bedbug infestations, so she bid only on 3.5-star establishments. Of course, this bid landed her at the allegedly infested hotel. It took her several hours of customer service hell to get out of the situation, which is still better than being chomped on by bedbugs.
More »
Antics Of Rude, Shirtless Dude Score Me A Free Hotel Room Upgrade
Regular readers of Consumerist probably know that we do occasionally write about
"bad consumers," those few who bad apples whose behavior makes things harder for the rest of us. But we don't often see examples of good, sensible consumers actually benefiting from others' idiotic antics. This is one such story.
More »
Hotel Issues Refund, Priceline Keeps All Of The Money
Wynn could use the services of a Priceline negotiator. He booked a stay at a Marriott through Priceline, but due to some confusion, the hotel put the price of the entire stay on his credit card. The hotel promised Wynn a refund of the incorrect charge, and didn't end up charging Priceline for the hotel stay, either. That was incredibly nice of them, but leaves Wynn with a problem: Priceline still charged him, and simply kept all of the money.
More »
Priceline Restores Insanity, Moves Hotel Reservation To Different City
Priceline has a very different understanding of what a "hotel reservation" is than Shane does. He and his wife and children planned to take a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Washington, D.C. to attend this past weekend's Rally To Restore Sanity And/or Fear put on by comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. They reserved a hotel room in a close suburb, near a Metro station, correctly assuming that traffic would make driving into the city a bad idea.
More »
Look Out For Hidden Resort Fees When Booking Rooms
Kevin is annoyed that Priceline's "Name Your Price" feature fails to take resort fees into account. In his case, such extra charges tacked on $19 a night to the $45 he agreed to pay for his room.
More »
Priceline Really Doesn't Want This Guy's $244 Back
Andrew tells Consumerist that he received a refund of $244.16 from Priceline.com after canceling a hotel reservation. That part isn't the problem. The problem, from Andrew's point of view, is that Priceline never charged him for the now-canceled hotel rooms in the first place. He doesn't hate free money, but wonders whether Priceline will finally notice their mistake and sic a collection agency on him sometime in 2012.
More »
Priceline Promised No "Young Renter Fee," But Avis Says Pay Up
When Lauren reserved a car rental through Priceline last week, she checked out the fine print to see if she'd have to pay any age-related extra fees, and according to Priceline what she bid would be the total price. Now Avis is telling her Priceline is wrong and she'll have to come up with more money at the rental counter.
More »
Holiday Inn Manager: If You Book Through Priceline, You're A "Bad Customer"
Discount travel websites can provide amazing discounts, but can also make you a second-class consumer of sorts—particularly in hotels. Jesse learned this the hard way when he booked a stay at a Holiday Inn in a major American city. He tells Consumerist that he reserved his room through Priceline, and called the hotel to make sure that his reservation would include two double beds for the four people traveling. He checked in to find a single queen bed in the room. His mistake? According to the hotel manager, being a "bad customer" who booked through a third-party site.
More »
How Does Travelocity's New Service Compare To Hotwire & Priceline?
In a move to compete with Hotwire and Priceline, Travelocity has gotten into the deep-discount, semi-blind hotel booking business with the introduction of their new Top Secret Hotels service that promises savings of up to 45% on three and four-star hotels.
More »
Priceline.com (NASDAQ: PCLN) is company that operates a commercial website that helps users obtain discount rates for travel-related items such as airline tickets and hotel stays. The company is not a direct supplier of these services; instead it provides comparative pricing from an assortment of service companies. It is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut, United States. Priceline was the brainchild of venture capitalist Jesse Fink and of digital entrepreneur Jay Walker; the company's origins were closely tied with Walker's company Walker Digital. Hong Kong company Cheung Kong Holdings later purchased a significant portion of Priceline's stock.
