Priceline Roulette

Priceline's map of Seattle, Area 14 demarcating "Downtown-Pike Place."

Dearest Google Researcher,

Here's one of my bad experiences that you can learn from.

Priceline is a hotel discounter.  But not just a simple discounter--you have to bid blindly on a hotel of a certain quality in a defined geographical area.  You do not know the name of the hotel until after you have paid for it (non-refundable).

Summary of my rant: Do NOT bid for a 4* hotel in Downtown - Pike Place Seattle on Priceline.  Do not trust Priceline.

This is my sad story.  Of how I played Priceline Roulette and lost.  I say "sad" because that sounds better than "angry" which is a more accurate description of my state of mind.

I have been using Priceline to buy hotels since 2009, loving the savings and gaining some white hairs in the process.  The first time I used Priceline I was a nervous wreck, sweaty armpits, shaking... and this only being a slight exaggeration of the state I was in.  I mean, there are no refunds!  You don't know which hotel you're getting!  I do use Bidding for Travel, the Bidding Traveler, and Better Bidding to know how to operate the system and to guess what hotel I might be granted.

There have been very good and very bad experiences among my 14 Priceline hotel purchases.

In a few cases I've ended up at a hotel that is currently undergoing renovations.  So they must have resorted to Priceline to continue to move room inventory while the restaurant was being rebuilt, or the entire first floor being renovated.

And once I ended up in the wrong city!  In 2010, I found myself in at Hotel La Jolla by the Shores, 45 minutes away from where I intended to be, near Legoland in Carlsbad.  This was because the La Jolla hotel was in the "North County Coastal" area when I wanted "North San Diego" for the San Diego area.  When I was bidding, I must have been tired and only saw the opening word "North" when selecting the area.  This double name confusion has since been corrected by Priceline as I notice today that the North San Diego area no longer exists.

The other con to using Priceline is that hotels use Priceline as a way of selling off some of their less desirable rooms.  You know, the ones with a view of the parking lot, or facing the loading zones with the trucks going beep beep, or beside the freeway.  You, dear customer, are paying 30% less, so we'll give you a 30% less nice room.

Now for today's rant.

I bid on a 4* hotel in Seattle in the "Downtown - Pike Place" district.  Bam, I got the Silver Cloud Stadium, located at the very southern perimeter of the area "14" shaded above in the photograph.  Technically, it is considered "Downtown" as part of Pioneer Square, but really since it is a 25 minute walk from the centre of the action, I don't know how you can consider this downtown.  When you pay a premium to buy a downtown hotel, you expect to be within walking distance of something.  Shopping.  Restaurants.  Not to be in the middle of an industrial area surrounded by vast tracts of lands in stadiums.  For the Silver Cloud Stadium, you need to take the hotel shuttle to get to the real downtown.  If I wanted to take transportation to go downtown, I would have saved my money and stayed in Bellevue, which is a mere 15 minute drive across the water.

Worse yet, in July 2012, this was a 3.5* hotel.  The last time I checked, this was not a 4* hotel.  I was not expecting to get it.

Just so you know it's not me who is angry to get a non-downtown non-4* hotel for a downtown 4* price, here is a selection of rants by others just in the last few weeks, all on the Priceline site itself, so you know that Priceline knows that people are pissed at this misrepresentation:

October 26, 2013: "Yes. I did not sleep because of the noise in the room the first night due to trains in the area. Location it's horrible.
I am completely shocked that you rate this hotel with 4 stars. The room quality, location regarding noise and I can't believe you called this a downtown hotel. I've used priceline for a long time and due to this experience I will probably not use you again."

October 18, 2013: "Hotel room was NOT of 4 star quality. The grout in the bathroom was disgusting - not clean at all. No upgraded amenities like other 4 stars that I stay at (JW Marriott, Ritz, Kimpton, Starwoods, Hyatt). Satellite TV kept going out. Wifi worked only intermittently. Rooms were small On the plus side - the lobby was clean."

October 18, 2013: "Location was misrepresented by Priceline. I selected Seattle- Pike Street. Seattle Stadium was definitely not Pike Street."

November 1, 2013: "Not up to the Priceline standard for hotels in the 4-star category. Very sketchy part of town surrounds the hotel. Not really a part of the downtown core as represented."

October 26, 2013: "The accommodations were not 4 star quality. Room finishing was old and the space, even in a suite, was very confining. The location may not fit into other categories, but this was not "downtown" - a fairly important misrepresentation from the site."

October 17, 2013: "Rooms seem dated, furnishings seemed old, and it just didn't feel like a 4 star hotel compared to the other 4 stars on the list. Also, unless you're attending an event at Safeco or Century Link it's not a great location for downtown.
Very nice staff, rooms are adequate, but feel dated. Location is not where you expect to end up when selecting a downtown option with Priceline."

October 16, 2013: "I do not consider this the downtown area of Seattle."

October 15, 2013: "This hotel is 3-3.5 stars at best. It is in a poor location, except for the sporting stadiums, rooms are small, lobby and lounge area very mediocre. Probably would not stay at this hotel for this price."

October 15, 2013: "I did not like that Priceline has included the Seattle Stadium area in the "Downtown" selection. It is not in the downtown shopping area.
The hotel was fine. Clean and nice staff. Just not downtown Seattle. Will no longer recommend Priceline to my friends as I have done for several years. "

October 10, 2013: "They charged for parking. $25/night.
Hotel in SODO district. Not downtown. A bit misleading as Priceline needs a SODO location in addition to downtown."

October 10, 2013: "It was supposedly "downtown", Pike Street area. It was NOT, no matter how you try to spin it. For this reason, I won't be using the Priceline service in the future. It can't be trusted."

October 3, 2013: "The location said it was pike place. It was not but that would be error on priceline I guess not the hotel. They did have free shuttle to make up for that mistake."
September 30, 2013: "High parking costs, just did not feel like a 4 star hotel.
It was clean and nice but not a 4 star hotel. More like a 3 star. Parking was unreasonably high priced at $25 a day."

September 30, 2013: "This is NOT a 4 Star Hotel. It was 3-3.5. I travel quite a bit and have stayed at 4 star hotels recently in Seattle (Grand Hyatt) and there is no comparison. Nice Hotel, just not 4 star."

September 29, 2013: "Beware when booking! Priceline identifies the hotel as Downtown but it is NOT. At least a mile walk to anything worth seeing. The hotel is disappointing for four stars. Loud refrigerator, loud Mechanical units. Free shuttle has limited usefulness.
The location is terrible unless you are going to a sports events, and is of poor quality for a 4-star hotel."

Priceline executives: are you listening? Do something about this.

As for myself, I am going to avoid using Priceline.  People are frightened enough that they don't want to use Priceline.  This kind of unwanted surprise isn't helping things any.

You know, I warned you Priceline that if you were not going to listen to me that I would write in my blog about it. This has been going on for more than a year and you have heard from many of us. Stop cheating us.