Priceline.com Says the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas is Nation's Most-Popular 5-Star Hotel for Valentine's Weekend

NORWALK, Conn., Feb. 9, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Instead of a bouquet of flowers for Valentine's Day this year, priceline.com (Nasdaq: PCLN) customers seem more inclined to give their significant others a stack of casino chips.  In a survey of the most popular destinations and hotels for Valentine's weekend and Valentine's Day, priceline.com found that Las Vegas clearly held the winning hand.

The survey was based on published-price hotel reservations made through priceline.com for check-in between February 10-14, 2012.

Las Vegas hotels dominated the Valentine's list.  The most popular 5-star hotel in town for the romantic weekend is the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, Autograph Collection, while MGM Grand Hotel Casino, also in Las Vegas, is the nation's most-popular 4-star hotel.  The Hyatt Regency Chicago is the most-popular non-gaming hotel for Valentine's Week.

Other 4- and 5-star properties making the top 100 most popular Valentine's week hotels, according to priceline.com, include:

• Hilton New Orleans Riverside, 4-stars
• Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, Las Vegas, 4-stars
• Aria Resort and Casino, Las Vegas, 5-stars
• The Waldorf Astoria, New York, 4-stars
• Renaissance Dallas, 4-stars
• Hotel Nikko, San Francisco, 4-stars
• Hyatt Arlington, Arlington, VA 4-stars
• Grand Hyatt New York, 4 stars
• Wynn Las Vegas, 5-stars
• Caesars Atlantic City Hotel Casino, 4-stars
• Trump International New York, 5-stars
• Treasure Island, Las Vegas, 4-stars
• Hilton Hawaiian Village, Honolulu, 4.5-stars
• Loews Coronado Bay Resort, Coronado, CA, 4-stars
• Hilton Atlanta, 4-stars
• Hilton Minneapolis, 4-stars
• The Venetian, Las Vegas, 5-stars
• Hyatt Regency Newport Beach, CA, 4-stars
• Parc 55 Wyndham San Francisco-Union Square, 4-stars
• The Westin Michigan Avenue, Chicago, 4-stars

"Valentine's weekend and Valentine's Day can be great mid-winter getaway opportunities for couples who don't want to travel during the February 20th Presidents' Day holiday, when many families are traveling with out-of-school kids," said priceline.com's in-house Travel Ekspert, Brian Ek.

Priceline.com said it still has plenty of hotels, airline tickets and rental cars available for a long romantic weekend or quick overnight getaway.  Travelers can take advantage of priceline.com's ongoing published-price Winter Hotel Sale that runs through February 20th.  Stays at sale hotels must be completed by December 31, 2012.   For more information on the sale, visit http://pcln.com/wintersale

Priceline's published-price hotel service offers thousands of hotels in cities around the world.  The service has tripled in size over the past three years.  Many of the hotels recently added to priceline.com come from the broad international and domestic hotel inventories made famous by priceline.com's sister hotel reservation services, Booking.com and Agoda.com.

In addition to its industry-leading collection of hotels, priceline.com's published-price hotel service offers:

• Pay-When-You-Stay®.  Over 65,000 hotels in priceline.com's hotel service allow customers to reserve their rooms and then pay at check-out.
• Hotel Freebies®.  Are free breakfast, free Internet and free parking important?  Priceline.com's Hotel Freebies® feature shows, on average, over 200,000 freebies available at hotels around the world.  Customers can search specific cities to see which hotels are offering what freebies.  When a hotel is offering a freebie, the freebie also is shown right along with the rate in the hotel description.
• Hotel Satisfaction Scores and Reviews.  Every priceline.com guest receives a post-stay satisfaction survey.  Millions of reviews and scores from those surveys are collected and posted for future guests to review when making their hotel choices.  In addition to receiving an overall satisfaction score, hotels are scored on cleanliness hotel staff, location and dining.
• Priceline Hotel Negotiator Apps.  For iPhone, iPad and Android.  Travelers using these apps can check out the hotels around them and reserve their rooms at great rates, right up until 11 p.m. local time.
• Tonight-Only Deals®. This service, available as part of the Hotel Negotiator app for iPhone, iPad and Android, lets customers reserve hotel rooms for check-in that same night, at discounts of up to 35% off priceline.com's everyday published rates, with no bidding required.

And, as always, priceline.com customers who want the deepest discounts on their hotel rooms can use priceline.com's Name Your Own Price® hotel service, where they can bid on hotel rooms and save up to 60% off published rates.  Unlike priceline.com's published-price hotel service, customer who use the Name Your Own Price® hotel service do not know the name of their hotel until after their bid has been accepted and the transaction completed.

About The Priceline Group
The Priceline Group (Nasdaq: PCLN) is a leader in global online hotel reservations, with over 200,000 participating hotels worldwide.  The Group is composed of four primary brands – Booking.com, priceline.com, Agoda.com and TravelJigsaw – and several ancillary brands. The Priceline Group provides online travel services in over 140 countries in Europe, North America, South America, the Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East and Africa.

Booking.com is the number one online hotel reservation service in the world, offering over 170,000 hotels (as of November 7, 2011), and is available in 41 languages.  More recent hotel counts are available on the Booking.com website.  Priceline.com gives leisure travelers multiple ways to save on their airline tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars, vacation packages and cruises. In addition to getting compelling published prices, travelers can take advantage of priceline.com's famous Name Your Own Price® service, which can deliver the lowest prices available.  Agoda.com is an Asia-based online hotel reservation service that is available in 37 languages.  TravelJigsaw is a multinational car hire service, offering its reservation services in over 4,000 locations.  Customer support is provided in 29 languages.

SOURCE priceline.com