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When you book hotels through a third-party vendor, you’re essentially trading flexibility for a lower price. For example, Priceline offers what they call a Priceline Express Deal where you can book a hotel room for up to 60% off its advertised price, but the catch is that they won’t tell you exactly which hotel you’ll be staying in at the time of booking. Instead, they only give you a general map of where the hotel is located and an assurance that the hotel is a “trusted partner” of the company; you don’t find out what hotel you’re in until after you’ve actually booked and paid for the room.
How to reveal Priceline’s hidden hotel names
Thanks to a Google Chrome extension created by redditor u/currentpangolin, though, you can find out the hotel being offered. By using the extension TravelArrow, you can uncover the name of the hotel Priceline is offering you via their express deal before you book it. TravelArrow uses its algorithm to predict the hidden hotel being offered by cross referencing hotels in the listed area with amenities listed on the Priceline posting.
Reddit user u/emotionalchungus positively described their experience using the app, explaining, “found the name of a Priceline express deal on my trip to SF and scored a sweet five star resort for my stay. I was deciding between two ‘hidden name’ five star hotels and if I didn’t find out the name beforehand, [I] would’ve picked the crummy one.”
The extension should help save you from some of the anxiety of booking through a third-party vendor. You’ll be able to look up hotel reviews, of course, but also cross-reference the price listed on the vendor’s website with the price listed on the hotel’s to see if you’re really even getting a good deal. Whether the advertised listing holds water or not, you’ll probably thank yourself for taking the uncertainty out of the equation.
