Travel gurus call Priceline’s deals opaque fares, because you can’t see the prices. Of the three times I have used Priceline, I have been deceived twice. The first experience was successful – I used the website to find and book airfare. The next two experiences were both to book a hotel room, using their “name your price” feature. You don’t get to pick the actual hotel, but rather offer a price to hotels matching your criteria for location and quality. The one accepting your price is where you’ll be booked. In both cases Priceline first displayed a number of and their rates, and then offered a link to “name your price” if you weren’t happy with the displayed rates. A prominent disclaimer informed that you do not have a choice in which hotel accepts your price. It would stand to reason, however, that your offer would be submitted to the hotels listed on that page. Yet in both instances I was booked at hotels never before mentioned or listed on Priceline. This is deceptive, and frankly a form of consumer gouging. It is akin to any other form of bait and switch – whereby a consumer is shown one thing, as if to represent what shall be delivered, but then is given something entirely different.  Furthermore, when I checked the website of the hotel at which I was booked, I found that their advertised rate for the same night and same room was $10 less than what Priceline got me a “great deal” on.

Do you see how the scam works? If I show you several high-quality, brand named, televisions…and tell you to place a bid, well naturally you’ll come up with a price based on the percevied value of the choices presented to you. The broker, Priceline in this case, takes your bid and colludes with an inferior version of a similar product, and then comes back to you and says “congrats, your bid was accepted.” Of course it was, and the margin is split between Priceline and the provider of the inferior product. I’ll be avoiding Priceline until they become more transparent in how they do business.