Priceline.com Becomes 1st Major Online Travel Agency to Offer $25 Bounty as Part of its 'Big Deal' Hotel Price Guarantee

NORWALK, Conn., March 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- After leading other online travel agencies in eliminating airline booking fees and slashing hotel reservation fees, priceline.com (Nasdaq: PCLN) is at it again.  Today, priceline.com became 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.

Priceline.com is calling the promotion its Big Deal Hotel Price Guarantee and here's how it works: Between now and 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.  For full details on the Big Deal Hotel Price Guarantee, visit http://travela.priceline.com/promo/big_deal_days.html.

"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.  "Priceline.com Name Your Own Price® hotel customers can save up to 50% off the published prices found on other major online travel agencies.  Our Big Deal guarantee drives that message home with an exclamation point."

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% of the priceline.com customers saved at least 50% over competitors' published nightly rates.  All rates and prices used in the comparison excluded taxes and fees.  

Priceline.com also announced today that, to help customers get their own big deal, it is dramatically expanding its Winning Bids content area.  Winning Bids allow visitors to see successful Name Your Own Price® hotel bids recently made by other priceline.com customers.  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.  

"For the next few weeks, priceline.com is drawing back the curtain and showing thousands of winning bids for hundreds of cities around the country," said Keller.  "This level of bidding assistance has never before been available on priceline.com."

To see the Big Deal Winning Bids section, visit http://travela.priceline.com/promo/big_deal_days.html.

Here are some examples of recent Winning Bids recently made by priceline.com customers for major cities around the country.  Actual prices and availability is not guaranteed and can change at any time.

• Miami, 3 stars, Coral Gables/Coconut Grove, from $90/night.
• Chicago, 3 stars, North Michigan Ave., from $70/night.
• Las Vegas, 3 stars, Las Vegas Strip vicinity South, from $64/night.
• Washington, DC, 4 stars, Convention Center/Capitol Hill, from $90/night.
• Phoenix, 4 stars, North Scottsdale, from $125/night.
• Dallas, 4 stars, Downtown, from $80/night.
• San Francisco, 4 stars, Union Square East, from $100/night.
• Boston, 4 stars, Copley Square/Theater District, from $100/night.

Priceline.com's Big Deal Guarantee complements the company's current TV, print and online marketing campaign that has William Shatner (aka The Priceline Negotiator) teaming up with "Big Deal," a 520-pound sidekick who explains to hotel managers why accepting priceline.com customers' Name Your Own Price® bids is a smart business decision.

Priceline.com is an industry leader in increasing savings for traveling consumers.  In November 2007, priceline.com became the first major online travel agency to eliminate booking fees for all domestic and international airline tickets.  Then, in July 2008, priceline.com became the first major online travel agency to slash booking fees on its published-price hotel rooms.  Priceline.com also is known for being the only major online travel agency to offer a sunshine guarantee for its vacation packages in 2008 and is the only major online travel agency to offer hotel rooms, airline tickets and rental cars with the  Name Your Own Price® service.

About Priceline.com® Incorporated

Priceline.com Incorporated (Nasdaq: PCLN) www.priceline.com provides online travel services in 32 languages in over 90 countries in Europe, North America, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Included in the priceline.com family of companies is Booking.com, a leading international online hotel reservation service, priceline.com, a leading U.S. online travel service for value-conscious leisure travelers, and Agoda.com, an Asian online hotel reservation service. 

Priceline.com believes that Booking.com is Europe's largest and fastest growing hotel reservation service, with a network of affiliated Web sites. Booking.com operates in over 76 countries in 25 languages and offers its customers access to approximately 78,000 participating hotels worldwide.

In the U.S., priceline.com gives customers more ways to save on their airline tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars, vacation packages and cruises than any other Internet travel service. In addition to getting great published prices, leisure travelers can narrow their searches using priceline.com's TripFilter advanced search technology, customize their search activity through priceline.com's Inside Track features, create packages to save even more money, and take advantage of priceline.com's famous Name Your Own Price® service, which can deliver the lowest prices available.  Priceline.com operates the following travel websites: Travelweb.com, Lowestfare.com, RentalCars.com and BreezeNet.com. Priceline.com also licenses its business model to independent licensees.

SOURCE Priceline.com Incorporated