Priceline Isn’t Perfect
Our time in Hawaii is done, and – after a stopover in Seattle – we’re on our way to Prague. We’re halfway through our mindful mileage run and, similarly, about halfway to earning our airline “status” for next year. Things are going well, very well, and we’re having a blast. Mostly.
By now you probably know that we were on a mission when we were in Washington D.C. a couple of weeks ago. What you don’t know is that we had a hotel stay from hell and are in a bit of a fight with our often-glorified-here Priceline peeps. See, things aren’t always perfect in NVR-land. So, pour a drink, sit back and read about what happens when the NVR Guys hit a bump in the road and when your “name you own price” hotel experience on Priceline goes down the toilet. Here’s the scoop.
The problem
As it turned out, our Pricelined D.C. hotel was just a few blocks from a metro station. Score! As we got within about 2 (long) blocks of our hotel, we began to hear a huge uproar – drums beating, people screaming, etc. Wouldn’t you know… the epicenter of the ruckus turned out to be our hotel. What?!
As we learned the full details of later, The hotel’s employees were striking due to conflicts with a change in ownership and management. Well, that’s sort of an understatement, but I’ll get to that later. For now, you need to know that, after standing across the street plotting, we decided to head in to see what the hell was going on. Our first clue regarding the sour series of events that would follow, should have been that no one at the hotel acted like anything was happening. Of course, it’s in their best interest to remain in business-as-usual mode, but talk about the elephant in the living room. We checked in, got up to our room and immediately gave each other the WTF look.
The dilemma
So there we were in a room directly above the cacophony outside. We sat there with all sorts of conflicting emotions. For starters, we’re really sensitive to labor issues, so we were pissed because we had prepaid (required with “name you own price”) with no ability for a refund. We were irritated that we’re not trust fund kids who can say “screw it” and head to a different hotel; we were in no position to forgo several hundred dollars in hotels costs. More than anything, though, we knew that we were in D.C. to exercise our passion for advocating for the voiceless, and we didn’t want to be self-indulgently consumed by our – in the big scheme of things – trivial reality. So, what did we decide to do (as we raised our voices to hear each other over the circus outside)? We bolted out the door to drink and deliberate.
Over a few drinks – and the most memorable karaoke ever – we decided to stay put and firmly focused on why we were in D.C. in the first place. That sounded great until, after a late night and just a few hours of sleep back at the hotel, we were awoken by the drums and the screaming. Shortly after, we learned that, due to the labor shortage, the restaurant was closed; the hotel was, essentially, in survival mode, and we were paying the price.
The complaint
Gratefully, we were positively distracted by our whirlwind of activities. After a couple of days, though, things were still a mess. The chaos continued, and employees stayed resolute in their determination to act like nothing big was going on. This made us feel insane, particularly when they reluctantly allowed us to change rooms in an effort to get away from the noise. As far as we were concerned, the hotel was failing miserably and Priceline had broken their implied contract with us. At the pinnacle of frustration, I gave them a call and, after negotiating a hellacious phone tree, argued the following:
- Because this hotel had changed ownership since we “blind” purchased it, it is not necessarily of the same category we bid for.
- There is no restaurant, which Priceline guarantees a hotel will have.
- We are not in a safe environment. Actually, we’re in the middle of a small-scale riot – made evident each time we enter/leave the hotel.
Surprisingly, Priceline was somewhat sympathetic. However, they were not really helpful. They only agreed to call the hotel to ask for a refund of unused nights. After that, they say we would be on our own with no help in providing other accommodations. I hung up to “think about it” and we decided that was simply wasn’t acceptable. We did not get what we purchased, and Priceline is responsible for it.
We decided to focus on our advocacy work and deal with the still-escalating mess more completely later. We did move to a different hotel at the tail end of our visit.
The resolution
When we got to Hawaii, I sent off a quick e-mail to Priceline, re-explaining the situation and hoping for some further understanding on there part. I was expecting the worst.
Within three days, we received a response saying that they had researched the problem and would offer an immediate 25% refund. That’s a good sign, given that we consider this to be only the beginning of the process. We’ll see what happens next. We’re still in travel-like-crazy mode, so we need to plot our approach for pursuing this further. We find that companies can tend to gear things so that it’s easy to “not bother” with problems. Difficult phone trees and unhelpful people don’t deter us. We’ll keep you posted on how this unfolds.
For now, the point is this: travel is not perfect and neither is Priceline. Heck, it’s stories like ours that keep people from using Priceline in the first place. I can’t say that I blame them; there is a heightened degree of risk.
As is the case with everything in life, we can’t control what happens – we can only control our response. Deeeeep breath.
OK – onward and upward. The next time you hear from us we’ll be coming to you from destination #3 – Prague!
How do you handle it when your travel plans don’t go as hoped?
OMG! What an experience you guys had. I would be pissed too, and do everything I could to keep the heat on Priceline. I understand that when you go for the deal, you can get burned….but your hotel experience was NOTHING like what you’d expect through the service.
I’m not sure that this would have helped, but I often call hotels that I’ve booked on Hotwire (which I tend to use more than Priceline) in advance. I’ll request a higher room or one away from the elevator. Sometimes the front desk tells me that they can’t do anything about it because I’m a (cheap) customer, but often they will accommodate small changes. I’ve even gotten upgrades before!
I did get a refund from Hotwire once because the hotel had changed ownership and I found out there was a huge noisy construction site in front. But it took some wrangling (this was when I worked at a newspaper so I couldn’t tell them I was in the travel industry). They don’t give refunds easily.
Thanks for your take, Chris! We’ve had better luck with Hotwire (one time they even gave us a FULL refund for a minor issue), but Priceline is usually cheaper and a great experience. Not this time though.
I can’t believe that the hotel pretended that there was nothing wrong. Shame on them! And I would’ve been even more pissed at the noise in the morning — I’m a light sleeper. :>)
Hopefully your other activities in Washington were less chaotic and more productive!
Light sleeper, heavy sleeper, comatose, dead. Wouldn’t matter. These people were LOUD!!!
Our travel plans are always going awry, and I think the single best tip I have for anyone is to maintain a sense of humour. I do this by imagining the funny story I am going to tell about this catastrophe in the future.
that sucks, i hate being in such situations lose- lose
I can’t wait to visit Prague vicariously through your experience. Cannot wait to go there. It’s been on my mind for so long!
I’ve never used Priceline, but these kinds of customer service situations seem to occur sometimes no matter how you made your reservation. Good luck in getting this happily resolved!
Very true. With Priceline, though, you lose out on a lot of leverage by prepaying 100% upfront.
What do we do? Well we would do what you did first – have a few drinks!
I am with you and hate when people/companies don’ do their job or live up to their service. And I fully pursue callign them on it – with mixed success and sometimes its a pick your battles thing when you weigh the time youspend pursuing it.
Very admirable that you stayed focused on your mission and seemed to keep a good attitude – the only thing you can do with things you don’t control.
I have hesitated to use priceline for this reason. I can take risks but not easil with something like this.
Love how you chose to respond guys!! Perfect ending to the story.
Ok first thing first – thanks for the word “hellacious”. I’ll be using it.
As for the rest, I must admit I laughed (sorry!).
A riot/demonstration by the hotel staff – that is sooo not what you want to see as you approach your booked and paid for accommodation!
Funnily enough K and i are in a bit of a tagle with a hotel at the moment – if it turns out badlky i might post about it (imagine that – some actual travel information at alotofwind.com)
Have a blast in . Good luck on the vegetable goulash hunt.
Ok first thing first – thanks for the word “hellacious”. I’ll be using it.
As for the rest, I must admit I laughed (sorry!).
A riot/demonstration by the hotel staff – that is sooo not what you want to see as you approach your booked and paid for accommodation!
Funnily enough K and i are in a bit of a tangle with a hotel at the moment – if it turns out badlky i might post about it (imagine that – some actual travel information at alotofwind.com)
Have a blast in . Good luck on the vegetable goulash hunt.
Honestly, we couldn’t help but laugh ourselves. Imagine our horror when we hear the ruckus and say “what poor SOB is going to have to listen to that all day?” Only to realize seconds later that it is going to be us. That is pure comedy.
Oh my god on the spelling mistakes – in order I meant “badly” and “have a blast in Prague”.
Lordy, Lordy. I know the frustration quite well. It’s hard to keep cool in these situations, but somehow the more you have to put up with, the more you can put up with. I guess traveling so much teaches us to roll with the punches.
Seriously, this is unacceptable. Priceline’s hardline stance on no refunds, and then giving you a paltry 25% is laughable. Are they not human?
Don’t be taken advantage of.
Would you mind calling them. You seem outraged enough to really be effective!
I’ve never used Priceline and it’s things like this that stop me from doing so. Plus, I like to know where I’m staying before paying for it. Maybe I just have control issues. LOL
At least you finally got some kind refund and hey, a great post to boot. =)
A great story is always a silver lining! We were recognizing that it would be good story even in the midst of it.
I know exactly where you stayed! There have been labor protests at that property since January, sometimes with a giant rat (a symbol of the labor protest group I guess?). I’m not sure when you made your reservations, but that seems like the type of thing Priceline should be aware about.
Kudos for sticking up for yourselves, I think a lot of people would take the 25% and cut their losses! Good luck with the negotiations and have fun in Prague!
I’ve always been a little nervous of using Priceline for hotels because I like to know where I’m staying before I pay. I love them for car rentals though. I wonder if you would have had the same issues if you had booked directly with the hotel. Since it appears they were not easy about giving refunds, maybe they would have also been sticklers about sticking with the 24-48 cancellation notice rule and made you pay for the first night regardless. I hope it works out for you guys and you can get your money back! I can’t believe the hotel employees acted like there was nothing going on. lol!!!
It really was kinda surreal. We were looking at one another like “is this really happening?” I mean, hotels will put a note in your room if they are going to clean the windows or if pay-per-view is going to be out for 5 minutes in the middle of the night. But someone outside the hotel yelling “SHAME SHAME SHAME” through a bullhorn as you enter… that goes without a mention. Crazy!
Wow! That really sucks! I’d be conflicted too, but would insist that I get some sort of compensation from Priceline. They usually are pretty good about it though. One time in Palm Springs they put me in a hotel with all sorts of trashy people yelling at the pool and I got a voucher for my next purchase with them
I just laughed out loud at the idea of a bunch of trashy people “literally” yelling at a pool… That would certainly call for a refund!
If you don’t mind my asking, what parentage of your rate did they “return” via the voucher?
holy crap! I totally agree that you have to take a few deep breaths and calm yourself down… but wow- that phone tree and the crap hotel, loud music… Bob would have to handle that phone call because I would have been ready to kill someone! (And, I’m a pretty peaceful person usually!!)
Glad to hear things are trying to get sorted out- can’t wait for the update from Prague!
Woohoo – Prague! Sorry to hear about the Priceline fiasco.
Jason
For some reason, I’ve always been hesitant to use Priceline. I don’t have anything against them per se but they were never a sight I gravitated toward. I guess I like to know what I am getting. And sadly, I think this discourages me from using Priceline even more.
Great read, interesting to see how it will pan out! It reminded me of something I read awhile back about someone staying at a hotel during a strike, except they paid full price! Here’s the link if your interested.
http://boardingarea.com/blogs/onemileatatime/2010/05/14/review-andaz-west-hollywood/
First time reading, will be tuning in….
Thanks for stopping by, David! I will check out that post. I want to see if they went as crazy as we did
Well done on getting something out of them! There is no way you should have to put up with that without any kind of refund!
Luckily we haven’t been unfortunate enough to experience anything like this yet, but our last hostel did have a tarantula the size of my hand in the bath room!
OK – you need to write a post about that!
Oh no! I’ve never used Priceline before, but good to know this is one of the risks. Hope the rest of your trip goes better and that you have a fabulous time in Prague.
That is pretty crazy that the employees were doing that. The new boss must have really sucked…
wow! having a glimpse into how your hearts work, i can imagine the inner conflict so clearly! really sorry you had this going on when you were on a mission for greater good! think it’s a testament to what fantastic “soldiers” of goodness you are that you were able to keep such a level head about it. think it’s key to resolving issues like these too. folks have to WANT to help you when they ultimately hold the key.
thanks for sharing this- think it’s important for us to know the risks of getting the great deals and see great reaction modeling in affect!
Yikes! What an awful situation to find yourself in (both the hotel experience and having to cross the picket line).
It’s hard to know how much effort to put into getting a refund – we had a truly horrendous experience with a hotel chain in CA a few years ago and did everything we could to get a refund for the one night we stayed there. Jumping through all their hoops and writing countless letters and talking to MEAN mean people ended up being almost as bad as the original nightmare.
It finally got to the point where we were working on principle and just couldn’t let them treat us so poorly….. the $100 didn’t matter, but dammit if we were going to give up!
Exactly! And you tap into an important issue. The entire situation stressed us out (not just the Priceline side of things). We work in HR, so the labor/management conflict was both interesting and saddening. And, generally speaking, we’re such peace-chasers that upheaval of any kind isn’t something we’re great with.
“How do you handle it when your travel plans don’t go as hoped?”
Do the best I can in a bad situation.
Last summer we got stranded for a day on a teeny island in Panama due to a massive storm. Fortunately, we had internet access and I was able to juggle and cancel reservations for the rest of the trip because we’d lost a full day.
I’ve had very good luck with Priceline in the past, but I try to remind myself of the pitfalls when I do it.
I also try to mitigate the potential for problems by not staying in anything less than a 4 star (PL rating) hotel. That might not have helped here though!
I commend you for your calm.
I’ve come close, but I’ve never actually used Priceline… A 25% refund isn’t enough — I hope they ultimately give you more!
I have only used travelocity and expedia so far. Both were good experiences. I don’t think that I will use priceline now.
And I agree with @travelogged, you deserve more than a 25% refund!
Wow now they could have done a lot better than that. Great that you were close to the metro but employees on strike thats just crazy. I never use priceline the prices my be good but i like knowing where im going to be located.
Since the hotel stay was a bust, I hope your advocacy project was a success! That would be the real silver lining in it all.