Social Media and Marketing

priceline.com says it has become the first major online travel agency to offer a $25 credit card refund to hotel customers who can find a lower price than what they paid on priceline.com.

Published: 08 Mar 2010

priceline.com says it has become the first major online travel agency to offer a $25 credit card refund to hotel customers who can find a lower price than what they paid on priceline.com.

The latest promotion, titled Big Deal Hotel Price Guarantee, works as follows:

Till March 31, 2010, if a customer books a Name Your Own Price hotel room and finds a better price up until the day before check-in, priceline.com will match that price and pay a $25 bounty. In addition, “customers with U.S. billing addresses will receive a $50 coupon good toward a future priceline.com vacation package”.

“We’re so sure we have the best prices of any major online hotel reservation service that priceline.com has decided to put our money where our mouth is,” said priceline.com chief marketing officer Brett Keller.

The company says it is also expanding its Winning Bids content area.

During the Big Deal promotion, priceline.com visitors can type in virtually any U.S. city they choose and see winning bids for the city's different neighborhoods.

In a recent internal study, priceline.com looked at Name Your Own Price hotel bookings for January 2010 in all star levels, and then compared those booked prices with the published rates available on Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz for the same hotels and dates. The survey found that over 40 percent of the priceline.com customers saved at least 50 percent over competitors’ published nightly rates. All rates and prices used in the comparison excluded taxes and fees.