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RIP: The Priceline Negotiator, and focus on opaque hotel deals

January 24, 2012 | Online Travel

The Priceline Negotiator has become very strongly associated with the priceline.com brand and the concept of negotiating to get a deal on a hotel room. By refocusing on the alternative option (booking a hotel at a pre-negotiated rate), Priceline.com is moving away from the value proposition that made it a household name, and a huge success.

Updated: Priceline send us the following information:

"Priceline is not moving away from Name Your Own Price, and will continue to offer this highly popular service. What we're doing in our new ad campaign is calling attention to our published-price hotel service, which has grown to move than 200,000 hotels in over 140 countries."

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James T. Kirk will live forever in the minds of Star Trek fans, but The Negotiator is dead after plunging off a bridge in a bus in the process of saving a family.

In a press release, Priceline.com's CMO Brett Keller explained, "The Priceline Negotiator has become very strongly associated with the priceline.com brand and the concept of negotiating to get a deal on a hotel room. However, priceline.com customers don't have to negotiate themselves to get a deal. Without bidding, they can choose from over 200,000 quality hotels around the world, with thousands of them on sale every day at rates we've negotiated for them."

To drive that point home, Priceline.com created a fiery end to The Negotiator's life. "We know that The Negotiator has a lot of fans, and we hope that everyone understands this was something that just had to be done," Keller added.

Get the full story at Econsultancy

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