Priceline.com Rodeway Inn - Choice Hotels Obfuscated Hotel Fees & Stold Reservation Monies Norwalk CT

My complaint is two fold: The Rodeway Inn in conjunction with Priceline.com has found a loop hole whereby they can obfuscate the room deposit fee in the website, so that it is not obvious to the buyer without first clicking out of the transaction page or expanding a link located outside the immediate itemized list of charges/fees, that by submitting the authorization to process the credit card payment, does NOT guarantee the fulfillment of all fees required to complete the reservation and thereby does not guarantee the reservation.

Priceline.com has streamlined the reservation process and makes it very easy to quickly book a room, but at the expense of not clearly disclosing all REQUIRED fees for a particular hotel. What works for one hotel in Priceline, clearly doesn’t work for all hotels. For example: If you book a room for Extended Stay tonight and you book another room at Rodeway Inn for the following night, both via Priceline, and let’s assume each hotel charges you the exact same amount of $60 in total.

Which as it turns out works out perfectly because all you have is $145. When you check-in to the Extended Stay all goes well, the clerk takes an imprint of your credit card but doesn’t charge you a deposit at check-in, you stay the night and sleep well. However, upon checking into the Rodeway Inn the following day, the clerk tells you they require a room deposit which you don’t have and shows you the door without a refund. So now you have no room and not enough money to find new accommodations.

My second complaint is this: with regard to the handling of the request to issue a refund. It was dealt with in an unprofessional manner and made me feel as though I was being strong-armed and robbed because the clerk tells me to take it up with Priceline and then Priceline tells me they have to call the hotel, which then denies the request and denies any consessision or any part of the reservation money already paid.

It seemed as though they have had lots of practice stealing money from people due to how effortlessly and routine it felt, not to mention their, 'oh well better luck next time,’ disposition.