"Gotcha, sucker!"
expedia all the way, best prices, decent customer service, and you get what you pay for.
of course they don’t have Captn Kirk as a spokesman.
"Gotcha, sucker!"
3 points regarding your situation:
1. I have used Priceline for hotels regularly for at least 2 years. Priceline’s terms of service clearly indicate that if you want more than one bed (or if you have other special requests) in your Priceline-booked hotel room, you will need to call the hotel directly and request it after you finish your Priceline transaction. Sometimes the hotel will want to charge an extra $10 to guarantee an extra bed, but in about 75% of those cases they “forget” to charge you the extra amount when the time comes.
Just in case, however, our kids always have sleeping bags squirreled away in the luggage.
2. You complained that Priceline’s “Name your own price” rate was more than the hotel’s advertised price on their website. My question to you is why you “named a price” greater than what the hotel was charging on their website? When I name a price I usually get the room at about 50% of their advertised rate on their website.
3. I think you don’t know how to use Priceline. To maximize savings on Priceline hotels you can review the information available on BiddingForTravel.com. Their Hotel FAQ is a great summary of how to use Priceline.
When I look for rooms for 2 adults and 2 children, the search returns king-sized bed rooms, usually with pull-out couches that I supposed two kids could sleep in.
There are only a few hotel chains that regularly have two queen beds, and I use them exclusively.
I probably pay too much for my hotels, but at least I know what I’m getting.
While I’m not disputing what you did or didn’t do Priceline or any online outfit can print out your original reservation request showing the transaction in detail.
Also some things to keep in mind. Many 1st class hotels, especially historic/grand hotels have specific room types only that they offer to the discount online outfits like priceline. In my case, when I was working in a historic grand hotel with 8 different room types, I offered only smaller, non view rooms with 1 queen sized bed only to priceline’s inventory. We purposely made sure there was no doubt about what was being offered. We even described the room as not available for extra beds/cots. More often than we cared to experience the guests would arrive with a family of 4 and demand a view room with two kings or two queens and claim that is what they booked. We ran into so many disputes with priceline that for awhile we withheld inventory from priceline as their marketing was affecting guest expectations beyond what the hotel could even deliver.
Often hotels will give in and upgrade when possible but that creates more problems in the future when that can’t happen or when the guest books again and doesn’t get what they want. It’s a reflection on the hotel. This is also why many 1st class hotels won’t join the 1/2 price programs out there. Guest think they’ll get the fabulous suites in the brochure when they book the least desirable room. For those who know what they booked they’re often disappointed in the product offered in the reduced rate programs and don’t rebook in the future. Many feel ripped off and discriminated against and approach the desk ready to do battle, absolutely convinced that the hotel was going to put them in a closet when actually that is what was offered under the program. Most, if only many, won’t rebook anyway unless they can get the same rate so hotels are not really capturing loyalty from these programs. Thankfully I am retired now and don’t have to deal with these programs anymore but as a hotelier I didn’t enjoy working with these companies and guests who refuse to read and accept the rules and have unreasonable demands and expectatons.
When I retired we had stopped giving inventory to priceline and dropped participation in all the booklet (1/2off programs)
Sorry it didn't work out for you but go back and read the agreement. The contract clearly says the room is one standard room and can accommodate two adults. There is no place to enter "two children" on the agreement. I use priceline 1-2x a month. I have mostly had good experiences. I also use expedia, hotwire and the specific hotel site. I like priceline because it created competition and has resulted in cheaper rooms than there were 20 years ago.
My advice to everyone is to read the fine print. And remember, you get what you pay for. If priceline had a good customer service staff the prices would be a lot higher. Next week I'm staying at the LAX Westin for $60 a night. Not bad.
I love Priceline. Booked my honeymoon with it and consistently get very top notch hotels, even on busy/sold out weekends, for a fraction of the price of other specials.
Have used it about 20 times from coast to coast.