Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Lesson Learned

I recently booked a motel room in Woodville through Priceline. I seemed to have been under the impression that Priceline secured the best possible prices—was I wrong.

I booked the room in late June for July 15th. When I arrived at the motel they asked for me credit card. I explained that I had already paid through Priceline and was told that was only to “hold” the reservation. When I received my credit card statement Priceline charged me in June, the motel in July so I called Priceline. The charge from the motel was thirteen dollars less.

The girl on the phone at Priceline took all the information and said she would turn it over to one of their “specialist” and that I should have an answer within five working days—already not very impressive. So I called the credit card and they immediately disallowed the Priceline billing.

Today I received my answer from Priceline and was told that the motel was refunding their billing. I replied back that was not satisfactory and asked why I was being billed thirteen dollars more from Priceline than I had been by the motel.

Tonight I got a reply that Priceline could not refund the difference. I replied thinking them for the reply and noted that in the future I would avoid booking through Priceline. Actually when speaking to the credit card company I distinctly got the impression that I was not the only complaint about Priceline Just thought I would mention this as a heads up since most of you do more traveling than I have been doing in the past.

I’ve got a room booked in Bastrop for the Texas Photo Fest in Smithville but it is through Expedia. I think I will call the motel and see what their price is if I go direct and leave out the middle man. At least it will give me an opportunity to see if I want to go with Expedia in the future. I can assure you this is a one and only time with Priceline.

2 comments:

  1. thanks for the "heads up". i have used priceline for years and am not aware of this ever happening to me. most motels ask for your CC for any incidentals. and most rooms are far less than i would have to pay if i just walked in and asked for a room. sorry you had this bad experience! write another post and let us know how your expedia experience goes.

    ronnie and i leave friday for indonesia. he will be doing research at the institute of technology in bandung for the next 10 months. so it's excitement mixed with apprehension about being that far away for that length of time. but it should make for lots of new photo ops!

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  2. Jan, thanks for the post. You people that travel. I'm planning on getting to Conroe in the near future.

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