A bait and switch on Priceline?

Q: I recently tried Priceline for the first time to make a hotel reservation in Pensacola Beach, Fla.

Its Web site provided a very good map of Pensacola that was easy to read. Since I have been visiting Pensacola for the last 19 years, I am very familiar with the city and knew exactly the area where I wanted to stay and had no reservations about choosing the Pensacola Beach zone that was one of the choices.

I specifically selected Pensacola Beach and made a bid for a room. The fist bid was rejected, so I increased the bid by $10, initialed the little box again and hit “enter.”

My second offer was accepted. But to my surprise, Priceline had added an additional area – Pensacola North – which is the least desirable part of town and has the worst selection of hotels. I immediately called its customer service number and presented my situation.

I was informed that I had entered a contract by initialing the little box and the reservation was absolutely non-refundable, non-cancelable or non-changeable. After at least a half dozen each telephone conversations and e-mails over the next few days, I am still stuck with a motel room in an awful part of town with a resort price tag.

I have done lots of research since then and have read countless dozens of similar complaints posted to various consumer-complaints oriented Web sites. After pleading my case all the way to the executive office level with no success, I now fully believe that Priceline deliberately added this zone without my consent to book a room at an enormously inflated rate for a one- or two-star hotel, and that there are probably hundreds of other consumers that get ripped off the same way.

Basically, what they have done is lost a potential repeat customer for the sake of a one time transaction. I am in sales for a materials handling company which sells forklifts and construction equipment. I can not imagine treating our customer base with such lack of respect.

– George Inderbitzen

A: Bait-and-switch tactics are all too common in the travel industry, and if Priceline is using them, I would certainly be the first to condemn it. But I’m not sure if the dot-com is guilty as charged.

I asked the site to review your file, and its records reflect a somewhat different version of events than yours. According to the Web site, this isn’t the first time you’ve used it. In fact, Priceline’s information suggests that you’re a savvy bidder who has made several bookings or attempted bookings in the past.

Priceline’s file also contradicts your claim that it treated you with a lack of respect. Before you booked the Pensacola hotel, it had already bent one of its rules on a hotel room purchase in another city. The site didn’t have to do that.

Did you get ripped off? That’s also subject to debate. Your first bid for a hotel in Pensacola for $49 a night was rejected. The second, for $59 a night, was accepted and booked at the Holiday Inn Pensacola. Room rates for the nights you requested were running between $49 and $79 a night on its own Web site.

“Priceline delivered exactly what Mr. Inderbitzen requested,” said spokesman Brian Ek. “His initial offer was not successful. In order to submit another offer immediately, a customer must change something other than the price, such as adding a zone or changing the star rating. We do not do that.”

Ek says his records show that you expanded your search by adding a zone, which gave you the reservation you now have in Pensacola. He offered to show me a screen shot – the proverbial smoking gun.

I know you must be disappointed, but I’m having a difficult time taking your side. You left out important details about your Priceline grievance when you contacted me – including the fact that the company had already waived some of its rules for you.

Next time you make a booking online, pay attention to the forms that you’re filling in. If it helps, de-select the option on your browser that fills in text fields automatically. That may prevent you from filling in a form you didn’t mean to.

After this article appeared, Inderbitzen responded: “Priceline’s spokesman Brian Ek was incorrect and didn’t present an entirely truthful response to this inquiry. I hardly call booking two reservations back to back, within 24 hours of each other, for consecutive nights, as making ‘numerous or attempted reservations.’ Making an educated bid for a room doesn’t qualify me a ‘savvy traveler’ either. Priceline’s notorious reputation for saying ‘no’ to customer complaints prevailed in my situation. If it had spent one-tenth of its efforts in saying ‘no’ to actually help correct this booking problem, I would have gladly used its site again. However, I have since used a more reputable travel site to make the balance of my journey and Priceline has only landed another black eye to the online travel industry.”

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

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