The Lugano Experience

This blog is about being in Switzerland.  So, this post is a bit out of place, but I consider all of you my friends and I want to save you the uncomfort that I have had with this customer unfriendly company.  I will never use them again, and I want to make sure to encourage as many of you out there not to use them - if you do, please be aware that your vacation may turn out to be more stressful than staying at home and working…  In addition, let me say that I typically exaggerate to create comic results - I will try to avoid that in this post since I want to give a fair assessment of my experience.

I guess I should not be surprised that a company who uses a karate chopping William Shatner as their spokesperson turns out to be a complete pain in the butt.  (For those of you who don’t know, Mr. Shatner has a reputation for being a prima donna and I have a friend with personal experience to support this).  However, I am a bit surprised that they get away with what they do…

Issue 1:  Some time ago, my wife was going to AZ on some business (calling a yoga retreat “business” is a bit weird, granted).  So, in order to save a few bucks, we went to Priceline.  There were two hotels - a 3.5 star for $90 per night and a 4 star for $110 per night.  I recommended to Lena to take the 4 star - 20 bucks more wasn’t that big of a deal.  But since she was staying for quite a while, she argued, that would add up and she did not need such a nice hotel. 

When she arrived, the hotel told her the rate was $90 per night plus $20 per night in “resort” fees (and a bunch more for taxes which we expected).  She told them she did not want to use the resort services, but their response was that the fees are mandatory…  This effectively made the price of the room $110 per night which is what we could have gotten the 4 star hotel for!

So, we called Priceline to complain and their response was, ”It says in the details of the contract that you ’signed’ that you will pay for any fees the hotel may assess.”  I argued till I was blue in the face, went to the supervisor, called my credit card company, but to no avail.  Lena had no other place to go to, so we ended up having to eat the fees and pay close to $300 more for her stay than Pricline promised.

Bottom line:  Priceline can accept your bid for a room for $100 per night and take all your money.  This is all for a hotel that you have not seen and have no idea what if any fees are involved.  Then, when you show up to the hotel, the hotel can charge you any amount in fees.  There is no recourse.  If you decide not to stay in the hotel, Priceline will keep your money.  Then, at the end of your stay, you will have to pay the hotel for their fees. 

Issue 2:  Foolishly, we decided to try Priceline again.  Not for a hotel this time, but rather for a rental car.  We went online, bid for a rate, and pre-paid for a week long car rental.  Now, we are well aware that when we rent a car there are a ton of fees and elective insurance that gets charged on top of the rate that Priceline quotes.  We accept and expect that when we show up.

Unfortunately Lena was not able to pick the car up at the time she was supposed to.  The result:  Alamo cancelled her reservation.  Huh?!?  But we pre-paid for the car - you have our money.  Response: “Sorry, but we will rent you a new car for twice the amount of your original reservation, and we will not give you credit for the amount you have pre-paid.”

Again, a call to Priceline to explain to them that Alamo will not give us a car.  Their response “It says in the details of the contract that you “signed” that if you are late to pick up the car, the car company may cancel your reservation.”  You are now out of the money, and you need to rent a new car at full price from the rental agency. 

Bottom line:  If you rent a car using Priceline, and do not show up on time (within one hour), the car agency can cancel your reservation and you are completely out of luck - and you lose all the money you gave to Priceline AND you have to pay counter rates (that are usually 2x or more) for a rental car.

So, the BOTTOM LINE for me is that Priceline is much more concerned about getting your money than providing an honest service.  There “fine print” is deep and long, and usually it is made available to you at the last possible moment before you click the bid button. 

I strongly recommend that you NEVER use this company.  And tell all your friends to tell all their friends how their vacation may be ruined by unexpected hotel costs and missing rental cars…