Get a Full Refund if Rain Ruins Your Vacation

South Beach, Miami

In early June, Priceline.com announced the launch of their Sunshine Guaranteed program powered by San Francisco based WeatherBill. Each vacation booked through their site comes with a rain-free guarantee – if it rains on half or more of the days of your vacation, you will get a full refund. I can’t think of any better insurance for people who save their hard-earned money on one big vacation per year.

This special offer is available if you book a Priceline vacation package before July 17, 2008, and travel between July 1 and September 7, 2008. You can’t find any other major online travel agency that offers Sunshine Guaranteed vacation packages to more than 100 destinations in the US, Canada, the Caribbean and Europe.

Brett Keller, priceline.com’s Chief Marketing Officer commented, “Priceline.com has demonstrated a commitment to continually innovate in order to get great deals for our customers. Now we’re also offering them great weather. Best of all, these Sunshine Guaranteed vacations are available at the same great prices we offer for all of our packages. Our customers can book their Sunshine Guaranteed trips and rest assured that there’s a silver lining waiting if Mother Nature doesn’t cooperate.”

The name WeatherBill came to life while the company’s CEO and Founder David Friedberg was vacationing in Hawaii. A rain shower forced his island tour to be cut-short and the group took cover in a tiki bar. The tour guide said, “Looks like someone forgot to pay the weather bill.” After that, the name stuck.

David Friedberg was one of the founding members of Google’s Corporate Development team and worked as a Business Product Manager for AdWords, today you can read what he has to say about WeatherBill’s revolutionary program.

Erica Johansson: I’ve heard many stories from friends about bad weather ruining their vacations, so I must say this program sounds very promising. How did you come up with the idea?

David Friedberg: We’ve also heard those rainy vacation stories here at WeatherBill. We have a few rainy vacation stories of our own. So do our partners at Priceline. We are excited to be working with a company that understands how important it is for hard-working consumers to have great vacations. Everyone wants to get the best value, and the best memories, for their money. The idea sprung from the concept of giving vacationers something they have always wanted: guaranteed sunshine or your money back. No questions, no paperwork, no waiting for payment. We’re making that a reality.

How has the response been so far?

The response has truly been outstanding. We can’t wait to give out vacation refunds in July. There should be some interesting rainy vacation stories next month, so stay tuned.

Which is the sunniest destination you offer vacation bookings to?

The sunniest vacations take place in Las Vegas.

Perhaps those who enjoy rainy weather (yes, they do exist) watch the weather forecast in advance and deliberately book a trip to a place where there will be rain – just to get a refund. What are your thoughts on that?

We encourage rainy weather lovers to book their trips through Priceline. If rain is what they want, and it’s what they get, then the refund will just sweeten their vacations. Just remember that vacations must be booked 12 days in advance of departure.

What are your future plans for the company?

We hope to work with Priceline and other travel partners to extend weather guarantees to all consumers. We think it’s important that consumers can feel assured that the value of the investment they are making in vacations is protected with a weather guarantee.

Curious about the rainiest cities in the U.S.? Check out WeatherBill’s 2007 rain fall study. If rain is what you want, I can reveal that Miami is getting more and more unpredictable. New Orleans is third on the list of the top rainiest cities in the US., followed by West Palm Beach in Florida.

For full details on Priceline’s Sunshine Guaranteed promotion, visit: http://www.priceline.com/promo/sunshine_guarantee.asp