Hotel: "We've Got You Where We Want You"

For a recent vacation to the Bahamas, I used priceline to book a hotel. I made sure all of my family and friends knew about how little I was going to pay for a place on the beach. While I was researching the trip, I called the hotels directly and ask about specials but I could not find anything close to what I found at priceline. The price was nearly 30% lower from priceline than anywhere else.

Hotel consolidators, like priceline.com, negotiate advance purchase agreements with hotels. They buy in bulk and resell to consumers. Basically, they are brokers or middlemen connecting the producer to the consumer. Their business has exploded on the internet. They charge a modest fee in addition to the price that you are quoted or the price that you bid.

The hotel was fine and there were no unmet expectations regarding priceline's representation of quality or location. However, when it was time to pay the final bill, we got a few surprises. The hotel tacked on a maid service charge, a utility charge, and a special Bahamas hotel tax. By the time we added up the extra charges, the priceline price, and priceline's fee......you guessed it!......it was almost the same price as what I was quoted when I called the hotels directly! These charges were included in the direct quotes from the hotels themselves, but I didn't know enough to ask about them when I was shopping.

Priceline certainly did not tell me about the extra charges. It would not let me see the particular hotel I was bidding on; only after I purchased it, did I know exactly which one. If I had known the specific hotel, before I purchased it, I could have looked it up here, which is an excellent source to research any hidden fees a hotel might try to spring on you when you are their captive market at the front desk.

My guess is that the hotel industry is not satisfied with the changes in the hotel consolidator/internet delivery structure and they are inventing new non-negotiable charges and fees to make up for it. If you know where you are going, your best resource to expose hidden fees and charges are prior reviews of other consumers.