Hotel booking with Priceline

rebs

I posted this on the UK travel board, but I think it might be better to have posted here :-

I have just booked a 3 night stay in London using the Priceline 'name your price' option.

I have used this before a few times and always been happy with the results, but this time I'm not so pleased. What I have got is a booking for serviced apartments rather than a hotel.

Has anyone been successful in getting a refund from Priceline? I did try calling, but they weren't having any of it - as far as they are concerned, it's a hotel and I am locked in and cannot get a refund as per their T&Cs.

The hotel stay is for 3 nights starting this Thursday (24th July) - I booked it last Thursday.

I have disputed the transaction with my credit card company and sent them our evidence regarding what I see as the discrepancy between what I contracted to purchase and what I actually got. However, the transaction has not been cleared on the credit card account as yet and they won't investigate until the payment has cleared.

Any thoughts? Anyone have a view as to what a legal definition of Hotel might be? Would serviced apartments be considered a Hotel?

Poppie68

rebs wrote: »

I posted this on the UK travel board, but I think it might be better to have posted here :-

I have just booked a 3 night stay in London using the Priceline 'name your price' option.

I have used this before a few times and always been happy with the results, but this time I'm not so pleased. What I have got is a booking for serviced apartments rather than a hotel.

Has anyone been successful in getting a refund from Priceline? I did try calling, but they weren't having any of it - as far as they are concerned, it's a hotel and I am locked in and cannot get a refund as per their T&Cs.

The hotel stay is for 3 nights starting this Thursday (24th July) - I booked it last Thursday.

I have disputed the transaction with my credit card company and sent them our evidence regarding what I see as the discrepancy between what I contracted to purchase and what I actually got. However, the transaction has not been cleared on the credit card account as yet and they won't investigate until the payment has cleared.

Any thoughts? Anyone have a view as to what a legal definition of Hotel might be? Would serviced apartments be considered a Hotel?

Did you not 'Check your request' before confirming or read the reviews and information before hand and at the checking stage.
Priceline do also stage clearly that if a reservation is made by using 'name your price' you cannot cancel as Priceline do not have that ability to do it..the booking and payment is already with the Hotel etc.

rebs

Thanks for the reply, Poppie.

I couldn't check any reviews etc as the name your price option does not let you see the hotel until/unless the bid is successful.

Yes, I agreed to accept any 4* hotel in the area I selected. Which I would be happy to do.

My complaint is that I don't believe that serviced apartments are hotels. IE I agreed to purchase a hotel stay, but have not got a hotel stay. Does that make sense?

wealdroam

rebs wrote: »

Anyone have a view as to what a legal definition of Hotel might be? Would serviced apartments be considered a Hotel?

Oxford Dictionaries defines hotel as:

An establishment providing accommodation, meals, and other services for travellers and tourists, by the night.

Does your serviced apartment meet that?

OlliesDad

Out of interest, what is it about a serviced apartment you are not happy about?

I have stayed in a few apartments and have found them great.

rebs

wealdroam wrote: »

Oxford Dictionaries defines hotel as:

Does your serviced apartment meet that?

Yes, I suppose by that definition it does. There is a bed and a small cafe - other services could be the wifi.

What's the difference between a B&B and a hotel? By the definition, all B&Bs would also be hotels but I think most people in everyday conversation would make a distinction between B&Bs and hotels?

rebs

OlliesDad wrote: »

Out of interest, what is it about a serviced apartment you are not happy about?

I have stayed in a few apartments and have found them great.

Yes, I have stayed in apartments and been very happy (particularly with the extra space), but sometimes it is specifically a hotel that I want.

The main issue in this instance is that there is no daily housekeeping at the apartments - a weekly service and since we are only there for 3 nights we won't get that.

lucy03

rebs wrote: »

Thanks for the reply, Poppie.

I couldn't check any reviews etc as the name your price option does not let you see the hotel until/unless the bid is successful.

Yes, I agreed to accept any 4* hotel in the area I selected. Which I would be happy to do.

My complaint is that I don't believe that serviced apartments are hotels. IE I agreed to purchase a hotel stay, but have not got a hotel stay. Does that make sense?

Although these things are always subjective IMO there is a substantial difference between what you expected to get, and what you received. Others may disagree of course, but if you booked a 4-star hotel I'm not sure how the key requirements in service can be replicated in serviced apartments.

I suspect the best course of action is to tell Priceline again that you haven't received the band of accommodation you expected when making the order and so this isn't acceptable to you.

The problem is that they appear to be in the US and that might make legal action impractical. If they were in the UK I'd personally not use the accommodation, tell Priceline this was the case so that they could inform the serviced apartments and take action in the small claims court.

OlliesDad

Is Priceline a UK company? I can only find a US site with a US phone number?

rebs

They are a US company, but do have a page of numbers for calling from overseas (outside of the US). The price was quoted in GBP and I paid in GBP.

http://www.priceline.com/customerservice/customerservice.do?question=ext(intl_phone_numbers)&jsk=364a050a334a050a20140722125833fc4020223334&plf=PCLN

There is an 020 number for calling from the UK.

Yes, I am not sure of the legal position with regards to their operation within the UK?

I have made plain to Priceline (in email) that I do not think they have supplied what we agreed to.

I have also registered my complaint with my credit card company and sent them evidence of the difference between what I agreed to and what was offered.

It is not going to get resolved before Thursday, so I guess I will have to decide whether to chance the credit card company ruling in my favour and so not go, or just accept it and go and stay there. Once I stay in the property, any claim I might have will be over.

InsideInsurance

rebs wrote: »

What's the difference between a B&B and a hotel? By the definition, all B&Bs would also be hotels but I think most people in everyday conversation would make a distinction between B&Bs and hotels?

I dont think it is as black and white as that.

There are certainly some things that are hotels and there are some things that are B&Bs. There are a lot of small hotels/ large B&Bs which are somewhere in the grey area.

Indeed, looking at one hotel booking site if you select only B&Bs a fair number of them have "Hotel" in their name.

I would have a look for the definition of a 4* hotel in the UK and then highlight which aspects of this the proposed property fails to reach and thus did not meet the request.