Price Line....and understanding the rules

[akruz]

I would like to do PL but do not understand the rules. Like when are you locked in for a mystery hotel and what if this is definitely not the place you want can you opt out. How to determine realistic bids especially in April. I see hotwire has mystery hotels, too.

Just on our cruise Apr 7, someone said 9 cruise ships leaving on that date. Our hotel is not prepaid but on hold.

thanks for helping the newbie on PL for future endeavours.

[cruzeluver]

Hello. Unfortunately we are not allowed to discuss specific travel agencies on here including online ones. Sorry.

[akruz]

OOPs. I should acquaint myself with some of the rule of this site.

[jdvmd]

I would like to do PL but do not understand the rules. Like when are you locked in for a mystery hotel and what if this is definitely not the place you want can you opt out. How to determine realistic bids especially in April. I see hotwire has mystery hotels, too.

Just on our cruise Apr 7, someone said 9 cruise ships leaving on that date. Our hotel is not prepaid but on hold.

thanks for helping the newbie on PL for future endeavours.

When you bid on Priceline or buy a hotel room through Hotwire, the purchases are final sale. No changes, additions, deletions, nothing. That is the beauty of priceline because you are saving money so you have to accept the terms. I have booked hundreds of rooms through Priceline and Hotwire. Please visit the Florida Ports of Call board for more helpful information. There is also a sticky with winning bids etc.

[Twickenham]

Hello. Unfortunately we are not allowed to discuss specific travel agencies on here including online ones. Sorry.

 

Just to clarify, we are not allowed to discuss cruise travel agencies. Discussions on booking sites such as Priceline, Expedia, etc. are allowed.

As the previous poster said, Priceline is a take-it-or-leave-it proposition. It also only guarantees a room for 2 people, so for your scenario (I believe you're 4 adults, right?), you would need to either bid on 2 rooms or take a chance on the goodwill of the winning hotel.

[6rugrats]

I would like to do PL but do not understand the rules. Like when are you locked in for a mystery hotel and what if this is definitely not the place you want can you opt out. How to determine realistic bids especially in April. I see hotwire has mystery hotels, too.

Just on our cruise Apr 7, someone said 9 cruise ships leaving on that date. Our hotel is not prepaid but on hold.

thanks for helping the newbie on PL for future endeavours.

I am not quite understanding what you are asking. Is this for a "name your own" price purchase? PL does not have "mystery" hotels do they?

 

If you use "name your own" price and win your bid, you are stuck. Absolutely no refunds for any reason.

 

If you want to learn to use PL, go to betterbidding.com and biddingfortravel.com and read up before you make an expensive mistake.

 

I have bid for many, many PL hotels and never been unhappy.

[LHT28]

I am not quite understanding what you are asking. Is this for a "name your own" price purchase? PL does not have "mystery" hotels do they?

 

I suppose bidding on a hotel in a specific area & star rating without knowing the hotel name could be classed as a "Mystery hotel" :rolleyes:

[sjcruiser]

Are you leaving out of Florida? If so, go to the North America Homeports, Florida Departure Boards and theres a lengthy thread on the online bidding process along with wins, etc.

 

I posted a link below for you.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=412923

[Marie51]

Hello. Unfortunately we are not allowed to discuss specific travel agencies on here including online ones. Sorry.

The discussion is about Priceline. This is not the same as mentioning a travel agent to book your cruise with. This is just a hotel room.

 

To answer the poster, you cannot cancel or change once you book with Priceline. You really never know which hotel you will get so if there is something you will not be happy with, then don't book with them. They guarantee a room for 2, so if there will be more than 2 of you in the same room you might not want to book this way as you may be given a room with only one bed.

[akruz]

I suppose bidding on a hotel in a specific area & star rating without knowing the hotel name could be classed as a "Mystery hotel" :rolleyes:

Yeah, that is exactly what I meant and yeah I am not good with the vocab lingo. But you are right that is what I meant.

 

It would be a way of doing hotels for me in the future and will have to start reading and doing.

Thanks

[Cruzin-K]

I just booked my San Juan hotel through Priceline and was very happy with what I got. However, I was prepared to be "stuck" at a less desirable hotel in order to pay the price I wanted to pay.

 

I booked a hotel in Hawaii through Priceline last April and it was pretty awful. I would have been better off paying double for a hotel that was halfway decent, but it was only for one night and sharing my room with a family of ants wasn't the end of the world :eek:

 

Just select the class of hotel you'll be happy with. Some of the threads on CC, plus looking at betterbidding dot com will help you figure out exactly which hotels are in the star category you want, in the city you'll be staying in.

[LHT28]

They offer hotels where you can pick the hotel of choice it is just the "NYOP" (name your own price) option that you have no idea of the hotel until they accept your bid

 

Non refundable/changeable so do you homework on better bidding first

[akruz]

Thank you to all who posted as it was quite enlightening! I feel for me at this time it would not be the way I would go but I will venture out in the future as many have done well with priceline and others.