Disappointed Camper
Liked: The room was clean and had a nice appearance.
Didn't Like: My mother, aunt, and I booked all our rooms through Priceline for an 8-day roadtrip. Ramada Inn in Sioux Falls was our 5th night out, so the reservation for it had been made and paid for at least nine days in advance of the stay, which was on a Friday night.
We ran into a lot of road construction, then into two terrible rainstorms and were thrown behind schedule. When I realized that we would be late arriving, I called the motel to make sure that they had an all night desk clerk. They assured me that they did and our room would be waiting for us regardless of arrival time.
We were given room 204 and immediately got an ominous feeling when the door didn't even have a number on it. The card key worked, so we went in and the room
reeked of cigarette smoke, but worst of all, there was only a king-sized bed (for three adult women). While booking, I had been very careful to specify two double/queens
and non-smoking. (Priceline's agent had verified each as they were being booked, then read the entire list back before we got off of the phone.)
When we asked for the correct -type of room , the clerk (who was extremely nice) said that because of the weather they were booked solid and 204 was the only room left. It was almost midnight and still pouring rain, so we didn't have much choice but to try to
make the best of it.
She gave us a can of room freshner for the smoke odor. She thought there was a sofabed in there and came up to the room to check. There was, but it was so grungy and stained that it should have been condemned and set out on the curb for trash pickup. None of us would sleep on it. Thank goodness, I had an inflatable mattress in the trunk of my car and I ended up using it.
There was something wrong with the electrical wiring in that room. The bathroom light would suddenly go off and then just as suddenly come back on. The outlet for the hair dryer worked erratically, and the bedside lamp would mysteriously begin to flicker. We were afraid to use either one.
At check-out time, I complained to the manager about being given their worst room just because we had been late, and he tried to say that Priceline had booked that Kingsize for us. When I told him why I knew that was not true, he said that if I would call directly next time that he could give a better deal and that I would be sure to get the type room that I requested. He also offered to give us a discount voucher to use if we were ever through there again. What a laugh.
Our next night was in Missouri, and also at a Ramada Inn. It was nice, clean, comfortable and what we had asked for, but when we checked out, a lady who looked Middle Eastern, told us that if we had called directly instead of using Priceline that they could have given us a better price.
It seems to me that these motels are glad to use a booking company when business is slow, but if something unexpected drives customers in on their own and they can up the price of their rooms, they begrudge having to honor those reservations and even feel justified in downgrading those customers to the lowest possible point.
In summary, may I suggest that folks think long and hard before letting Priceline book them into a Ramada Inn. We had no trouble at all with AmericInn, Best Western, Quality Inn, or Hampton Inn motels.