I have a confession to make: I'm a Priceline junkie. I kept seeing ads for it on television and finally decided to give it a try. I was going to Indianapolis for a few days and after seeing the prices of hotel rooms in the area, I wanted to try Priceline. Using the Name Your Own Price feature is incredibly easy and it ended with me getting a hotel room in the city for $45 a night. It was a very nice Extended Stay America complete with a friendly staff, nice rooms and even room service.
Unfortunately I haven't always had the same great experience. My boyfriend and I decided to use the website when we were heading off for vacation and booked a room through them. It was for thanksgiving weekend and we were checking in the night before the holiday. When we got to the hotel, they had no record of our reservation.
It turns out that Priceline has to send a copy of your reservation to the hotel through fax or email. Once they receive it, you can check in. Since they didn't have a copy, we couldn't check into our room. It took nearly an hour before they finally got through to Priceline and were able to get us into a room. I've also ended up paying too much for hotels that weren't worth the price. Once I made a reservation for a hotel south of Detroit. It turned out that the hotel was actually inside the city limits, there were stains on the bed, the toilet didn't work and I basically didn't feel safe. I wrote a letter to Priceline, but never heard back.
Priceline also has a number of problems that customers face on a daily basis, especially in regards to reservations. They offer hotels, flights and rental cars and they all let you name your own price. I attempted to book a car through Priceline once and was shocked at the fine print. It stated that on top of your rental, the company would charge you an additional $300 just to cover the rental. They didn't charge the same fee if you booked with them directly.
There are also problems with changing reservations when you bid on a price. If you want a flight out of a specific airport, you can't set the time. If you attempt to change the time, they can charge you huge fees to do so. It appears as though companies like working with Priceline because they want their spaces filled, but they aren't willing to work with the customers because essentially Priceline is their customer. It's an extremely odd situation. Despite all that, I have to admit that I really like Priceline. I haven't used it in awhile because I haven't done a lot of traveling, but when it comes to booking a hotel room, it's the first place I go.