The Death of Priceline's Name Your Own Price Is Likely Drawing Near
Skift Take
Booking Holdings is still making considerable money from Priceline.com's bidding service for hotels. But the service has outlived its usefulness, and will likely fold within a year or two. Take a look at how Priceline.com markets other ways to book hotels on its site. Enough said.
Priceline.com ended its Name Your Own Price bidding service for car rentals Monday, as it did for flights in 2016.
When Priceline.com debuted more than 20 years ago, it was the only way you could book a flight on the site. Users would specify when they wanted to fly and submitted a fare they would accept, and then Priceline.com would approve or reject the bid. The customer would only find out the identity of the airline if Priceline accepted the offer.
With the demise of Name Your Own Price for flights and cars, customers can opt to use Priceline's Express Deals feature, which presents discounted rates with no bidding required. Customers learn the name of the airline or car rental company only after they book the deal.
For now, there are no publicly articulated plans for Priceline.com to end Name Your Own Price for hotels, which is a larger business than was the bidding feature was for flights and car rentals.
"Priceline isn't going to speculate publicly on the future of Name Your Own Price for hotels," said spokesman Devon Nagle. "There are no plans to sunset it for hotels."
But the handwriting is on the proverbial wa
