Priceline.com ( ) is a commercial website which helps users obtain discount rates for travel-related items such as airline tickets and hotel stays. The company is not a direct supplier of these services; it is similar to a web portal, providing comparative pricing from an assortment of service companies. It is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut, United States. Priceline is the brainchild of venture capitalist Jesse Fink and of digital entrepreneur Jay Walker; the company's origins were closely tied with Walker's company Walker Digital. Hong Kong company Cheung Kong Holdings later purchased a significant portion of Priceline's stock.
It first gained prominence for its Name Your Own Price system, where travelers would name their price for airline tickets, hotel rooms, and car rentals. The price would be compared to undisclosed prices in the Priceline database, with the purchaser knowing the location and name of the rental car company, airline, or hotel only after the purchase had gone through, with no rights to cancel. (According to the web site, the no-cancellation no-refund policy is because Priceline offers the price to the hotel, airline, or car rental agency with the promise that the service would be sold and the seat or hotel will be filled, or the car will be rented.) Priceline's cut of the proceeds was the difference between the price an individual named and the price charged by the service establishment. More recently, it has moved to a more traditional model where travelers are presented prices and are also told the name of the establishment. Travelers can still choose to name their price but the number of participants in that program has significantly diminished.
Priceline.com also experimented with selling gasoline and groceries under the Name Your Own Price model in 2000, at the height of the dot-com bubble, through a partially owned affiliate, WebHouse Club. Priceline also got into the online auction business with Priceline Yard Sales, where individuals would use the Priceline system to haggle for various second hand items and trade them in person. Priceline also sold long distance telephone service and automobiles under the Name Your Own Price model. All of these experiments were terminated in 2002. Another experiment, the Name Your Own Rate system for home loans, continues under a license with EverBank. In 2002, Priceline licensed its “Name Your Own Price” travel system to eBay.
Priceline returned to its original focus on travel products, such airfares and rental cars, with the addition of cruise sales and a special emphasis on hotel bookings in its commercials. During November 2007, Priceline “permanently” eliminated all booking fees on published airfares.
For years, Priceline's official spokesperson was William Shatner, who agreed to do the spots for free in exchange for stock in the company. The arrangement turned out to be quite profitable for Shatner, who sold much of the stock shortly before its value plummeted in the dot-com bust. An early ad campaign featuring Shatner had him belt out popular songs in spoken word, in the style of his album, The Transformed Man. He was "replaced" in 2004 by his Star Trek co-star, Leonard Nimoy. Shatner still appeared in spots for Priceline, running into Nimoy as his replacement. When that campaign ended, Shatner again became Priceline's sole spokesperson.
