One hotel has had such horrific experiences trying to advertise with them that they are doing the only thing they can afford, which is to spread the bad news.
I have to say, I can’t see any reason I’d ever go to Expedia for anything after this.
Wow! That was pretty outrageous. Canceling bookings and then hitting the hotel with a “relocation fee” to cover the more expensive hotel they had booked for the customer? That seems outright criminal to me!
I’d be a bit less suspicious of the article if they actually published some of the smoking gun emails they claim to have received from expedia.
I’ve never really seen the point in sites like Expedia for booking. By all means search on them, read reviews etc, but when it comes to booking, you can almost always get a better deal by just Googling the name of your chosen hotel and dealing with them direct. After all, Expedia takes a hefty cut for itself.
This goes doubly for small boutique-type hotels like the one in the story. For an airport Hilton or something, maybe you can get a better deal through Expedia, but I still doubt it.
I spent my honeymoon on the Mayan Riviera, and booked with the hotels direct. No problem whatsoever.
Wow. Thank you for that.
To me it sounds like a combination of honest mistakes on Expedia’s part, incompetence in fixing them, and a good deal of callousness in their customer support.
If I stopped dealing with companies whenever I encountered occasional mistakes, incompetence and callousness, I’d probably be living in a shack in Montana like the Unabomber. It sucks to be on the receiving end of “the perfect storm” of all three, though.
From the hotel’s point of view, does it really matter if it’s malice or negligence? Assuming the whole story is true, it seems like they gave Expedia ample notice of what was going on, and ample opportunity to fix it. If someone from Expedia doesn’t immediately step up, make amends, and institute policies to prevent it from happening again, customers should be informed about it so they can shop around for a company who will. Whether the actions were deliberate or not doesn’t enter into it.
That’s what I do too. I open up Expedia or Travelocity or whatever, look at the reviews and costs of the hotels near where I want to stay, find a hotel that sounds good, and then go to that hotel’s website to book. In almost every instance, the cost through the hotel website is the same or cheaper. I don’t remember hearing people exclaiming about the great deal they got through Expedia or other booking sites, but I’ve heard many people complain about how much trouble they’ve had dealing with booking sites.
I did do a Google search for Luna Blue and Expedia. There was a post about it on TripAdvisor, but when I clicked the link, the post had been removed. Hmmmmm.
Huh. I used Expedia just a few hours ago. Should I be worried?
The Expedia rep told me the place has a pool. The hotel’s website doesn’t mention one. :dubious:
Exactly. I always go directly to the hotel site (though I’ll use Orbitz to find a list of possible hotels). You can usually get the same price, or even less, for rooms.
I recently stayed in an eco-lodge in Belize that also uses Expedia. The owner told several stories of Expedia completely screwing things up: for example, this lodge has about 10 cabins. Expedia would continue to take reservations no matter if the hotel was booked out, and sometimes the lodge would not be informed of the “extra” reservations. (The lodge used some kind of software tool to manage its reservations so that the Expedia website should be constantly updated as to room availability.) As a result, the lodge often had to call people to cancel their supposed reservations, but on some occasions people would fly into the Belize City airport, not be picked up, take a cab out to BFE expecting to have a room waiting for them… only to have the owners completely surprised.
This was a very well run eco-lodge that had very good service. Definitely not a fly-by-night motel run by incompetents. I very much believe their story, and the linked article further confirms that Expedia runs their business poorly.
I work at a hotel. We have had a lot of trouble with the online travel agencies. You are dealing with a third party, which means you have more opportunities for human error.
For a long time, they had a tendency to book a smoking room, while telling the customer that they were booking a nonsmoking room. And we are not allowed to make changes to a reservation. If you want to cancel, or change the dates, you have to go through them. Which, I am told, means being put on hold for long periods of time.
The online agencies may save you some time. But that convenience costs money. The agency generally charges the customer something fairly close to the hotel’s standard rate. Even if the hotel is offering a discount on that week, the agency will still charge the standard rate, and the hotel is contractually forbidden to change it. (You are not actually paying the hotel. You pay the agency, and then the hotel sends a bill to the agency. The agency charges your credit card the moment you book the reservation. If the hotel discounts the agency’s bill, that does not affect what the agency has already charged you.)
If possible, try to call the hotel directly. If the hotel is part of a chain, the chain will have a central reservation system, available online or through a toll-free number. (The central reservation system is still a third party, but at least it is a party that has regular direct communications with the hotel. Their information will be less out-of-date.)