Elliott S.

I've had many dealings with them, most of the time negative, but this last one was the last straw. Among the many concerns I've had with them was their lack of transparency in the fees for their site and the hotels they advertise through Priceline Express. I've rented 2 hotels through them that lacked any mention of a $22+ parking fee per night, which only told you once you agreed to purchase and pay for the hotel. When I contacted customer service, not only did they not show any empathy, they completely brushed it aside and said "there's nothing I can do." So what they may advertise as a $80 hotel turns into $100 due to fees and taxes and then an extra $22+ for parking per night. So it advertises as $80/night and you pay $125/night.

However this last time, that was it. I'm a student at UTMB in Galveston, and had to drive up here to escape the flooding and hurricanes. I had nowhere else to stay and was on a tight budget, so went for a 2.5 star hotel. This place is not anywhere near a 2.5 star and they should not be offered to any guests. The least horrific part first was that there were many dead cockroaches in the bathroom. Okay, whatever, the rest of the room seemed clean, so I tossed them in the toilet and went about my day, I'm not very high maintenenced. The entire night was a disaster.
#1 - The neighbors were slamming the door the entire night coming in and out and yelling at each other. When I went out there to see what was going on, it was quite obvious to me that there was some type of drug activity going on.
#2 - Looked out the window when I saw sirens, police would periodically monitor the parking lot throughout the night because there were sketchy looking figures everywhere...
#3 - If you looked directly across from my room to the neighboring motel, you would see some of the tenants from the hotel I was staying out walking over there, purchasing drugs from a guy standing outside of his door (they'd give money, he would duck in grab it, and then bring it back out - so damn obvious).
#4 - Looked out about 4:00am because I heard a bunch of voices outside my window. 4 people were hot wiring a mini-van. Called the police and they responded eventually.
#5 - All throughout the stay multiple people would walk up to the housekeeping staff saying they left their keys in their room. They would just let them in any room without double checking. I saw the same woman go into 3 different rooms asking 3 different members from the housekeeping staff to open the door. I then went to yelp to look at the reviews and saw multiple complaints of people having stuff stolen from their room. Well there's your reason.
7am came around with maybe an hour of sleep and I got out of there as fast as possible. No way was that place a 2.5 star worth $75 / night. Took it to Priceline and they basically said "thanks for letting us know, we'll take it into concern when we renew our contracts." No empathy, no 'let us make it right', basically just a SOL, you're out of money, a restful stay, and we didn't even provide you with a safe place to stay for your money.

Goodbye Priceline, you are worthless, lack transparency, and have horrible customer service. I'd rather spend more of my small budget on a company with morals and transparency that puts their customers first.