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I know many of you here use Priceline to get hotel rooms.  Have any of you used the Price chop on Priceline?  A few days ago I booked a room in Nashville, TN.  I spent a lot of time checking room reviews and I saw that many of the hotels were completely booked.  After a good hour of trying the name your own price and failing to get a room, I did the Price chop. 

After driving for 9 hours, and through several hard down pours, we finally pulled up to our hotel in Nashville.  It was after midnight and we were so tired.  The receptionist said she hadn't received any reservation in our name and they were booked solid!  I was very unhappy!!!  I produced the paper work that I printed off the computer showing her I did indeed have reservations.  She told me that they had run out of rooms a day before we even placed that reservation.   We were left to try to figure out what to do to get another room during a time when so many events were taking place and the hotels were full to capacity. 

The receptionist started calling around for us (which I appreciated) and we had to take a room at a Best Western (I would call it a "tired" Western).  For many years we were living under a super tight budget and we had to take crappy rooms because they were cheaper and we needed to save money.  I have reached my limit for doing that and try to get a nice room that I don't have to worry how old and filthy the carpet is, or think about how long ago the bedspread was washed. 

Has this happened to any of you?  I thought Priceline guaranteed their rooms.  This has now happened to us 2 times in Nashville.  I might think it was the hotel's fault except I have experienced this with 2 different hotels in the same city.  Have any of you contacted Priceline with a problem before?  I will be calling them tomorrow and through the magic of the internet (Facebook, google+, Twitter, AFI) people will know about it if I am not compensated in some way.  The social media is a great way to spread bad PR for companies if they fail to do what they advertise.   It can also be used to show appreciation for good companies, as well.  

I found this at the bottom of their opening page  -  With our Best Price Guarantee, you can be sure you're getting the lowest rate at top-notch hotels - even at the last minute.

What do you guys think?

Attention traveling Artists! (or anybody needing a HOTEL room)

If you have to hit the road to participate in art shows, fairs, festivals, gallery openings, seminars, conferences, or any other reason that requires an overnight stay...

...this card trick is for you.

Combine the cost-saving benefits of using Priceline.com...

...with the additional tool of TheBiddingTraveler.com.

Assuming you like saving money and getting a decent stay for a great rate then you are probably already a big fan of Priceline.com...notwithstanding the quirky, punching pitch-ster, William Shatner.

TheBiddingTraveler acts like an Ace-in-the-hole to give you the advantage during on-line negotiations.

They aggregate all the recent winning bids (and the rejected bids) for specific hotels, giving your bidding strategy the edge.  Kind of like getting to peek at the other guys cards.

Other sites claim to offer this information but I particularly like the simple navigation of this web site.  On the first visit it was easy to use and aligned with the same 'definitions and formats' as Priceline, for hotel ratings, zones, and maps.

Beyond the option of manually entering your bid, you can also choose a nifty Autobid feature.  Simply enter your lowball bid and your 'final offer' highest bid...you can leave the table and let The Computer play out the hand for you, thereby 'managing' the different timeline rules Priceline has for re-bids.  Autobid starts low and automatically raises it in increments until a bid is accepted or the final offer is rejected.

Consider the combination of Priceline and TheBiddingTraveler and you really can get winning hands of 60%+ off normal hotel rates. Hey, a 3-star Hyatt Place in Birmingham for the low $40's/night ain't too bad.

Sort of tickles the left-side of my brain...my wife the artist, just says..."make sure they have good beds".