Expedia Complaints

[Go Bolts]

Never knew Expedia has so many complaints against them until we looked online after the fact. Be cautious working with them based on our experience...

Recently used Expedia to book a hotel in Europe. Booked a junior suite through them. Upon arrival at the hotel, we were informed there were no junior suites available, so they gave us the best available regular hotel room. The hotel said they could not do anything since the booking was made through Expedia.

We had several communications with Expedia, who, of course, blamed the hotel. Expedia said they contacted the hotel, etc., but they would/could not do anything to resolve the issue. Consequently, we filed a dispute with AMEX. For the moment, they credited back the entire amount we paid to Expedia, although we were just looking for a refund of the difference between junior suite and hotel room rates.

AMEX is awaiting a response from Expedia, so we may be rebilled when that occurs.

Needless to say, we will never use Expedia again!

 

[audreyh1]

In the early days, around 2000, I used Expedia for flights, hotels, etc. Back then sites like Expedia were very popular for booking and had easier to use user interfaces, so the convenience plus one site for everything travel was appealing. There were enough issues* so I quickly learned to book directly with the hotel and airlines and never looked back. I only use a 3rd party now if there is no other way. Lots of horror stories of finger pointing when something goes wrong, especially international travel.

Another unacceptable thing is getting pre-charged for rooms. I always select pay on arrival and reasonably close cancellation conditions even if it costs more.

* Expedia just totally blanked out and failed to select our seats on a particular flight so I called the airline. They told me there was generally a $25 fee for seat selection changes unless you booked directly with the airline in which case it was free, however they fixed our missing seat assignment for no charge.
Arrival at a very busy hotel and they didn’t have our reservation. Had to wait a while for the front desk to contact Expedia and figure something out. Fortunately we were able to eventually get a room. That was the last straw.

 

[levindb]

I have used Expedia quite a few times with no issues. This includes cruises, hotels, and cars. The cruises were BTD long cruises, and we get a 2% OneKey "rebate" which can only be used for some Expedia type expenses...so the cost of my Hotels was $0 out of pocket. I also use my Costco credit to make the payments to Expedia, which gives me 3% cash back on travel expenses. So, from a financial standpoint, using Expedia has been good.

There are complications, however, when you do not book flights and cars directly with the airlines or rental companies...especially when you have to make changes...as noted above.

 

[MichaelB]

People think Expedia is a travel agent, but it’s a reseller. As far as the hotel is concerned, the customer is Expedia, period. The hotel has no obligation with Expedia customer, even when the customer is member of a loyalty program.

This is also an issue when buying airline flights with Expedia. This is why I too only deal directly with the service provider.

 

[Jerry1]

People think Expedia is a travel agent, but it’s a reseller. As far as the hotel is concerned, the customer is Expedia, period. The hotel has no obligation with Expedia customer, even when the customer is member of a loyalty program.

This is also an issue when buying airline flights with Expedia. This is why I too only deal directly with the service provider.

Same here. I use hotels.com a lot in my research, but when it gets time to reserve a room, I go directly to the hotel.

 

[Aerides]

I think I only used Expedia once, but got lucky with a dispute through amex. But I only book direct from now on. You don't get any points on Ex, and the hotel is making less, so they are not incentivized to treat you well. If they were oversold - too bad!

I enjoy my travel far to much to seek out the "best deal" and enjoy getting an upgrade, and knowing I'm a welcome guest.

 

[COcheesehead]

I no longer use third party booking services. I would rather book direct and get the loyalty points. A direct booking saves money in the long run when you figure in free nights and perks,

 

[CO-guy]

We had several communications with Expedia, who, of course, blamed the hotel.

I avoid using 3rd party booking sites, but Expedia is 100% correct. It's the hotel's fault and whoever it was at the front desk of that hotel when you went to check-in lied to your face.

Expedia is an advertising platform. It is entirely the hotel's responsibility to input room descriptions and availability. What happened was that the hotel sold your suite to someone else and tried to give you a lesser room than you reserved by claiming Expedia screwed up. Expedia didn't. The hotel got greedy.

While it's easy to blame the 3rd party booking site for these things, rest assured that this is entirely, 100% the fault of the hotel. My advice would be to "name and shame" this dishonest property.

 

[audreyh1]

I read so many horror stories about European hotels dealing poorly with some of the third party booking companies and giving preferential treatment to direct bookings. Missing reservations was a biggie, inability to change reservations, and even sending some of those customers to a less convenient sister hotel in one case, probably a result of overbooking.

 

[disneysteve]

I always book everything direct. If any issues arise I don’t want to have to deal with any middleman. I buy airline tickets from the airline. I make hotel reservations through the hotel website. I book rental cars via their company website.

 

[audreyh1]

Domestic rental cars I rent through Costco Travel and have for years. They only use 4 rental car companies but I have long experience with most of them. Costco gives me both their confirmation number and the rental car company confirmation number, and occasionally I’ll check the rental car site for my reservation.

And you pay the car rental company directly, card charged upon returning the car. No pre-pay funniness. Also easy to cancel and rebook if desired.

 

[TrvlBug]

We will now only book with the provider. We had a couple of hicccups in the early days of booking with 3rd parties. A memorable one was booking a couple of nights in Prague. We arrived with the hotel telling us we had no reservation and they were booked and ignored the fact that we had a copy of the ressie in hand. It took hours, but they finally got us a room at their sister hotel way out of town (we always book centrally located hotels).

Turns out the Pope was coming to Prague the next day...we're sure that's why they "lost" our ressie.

 

[jollystomper]

We only used Expedia a few times, and all before 2020. I recall we had one dispute where the hotel charged us higher than the Expedia rate and would not budge, we filed a claim and were refunded the difference. However, over the years the direct booking has become the same price, and/or with more flexibility, so that is the way we have gone for the most part.

The exception has been Booking.com, we have used that several times for both domestic and local bookings and have not had any issues so far. They might have a different model, I recall when we booked an apartment hotel through them we were sent a link directly with the hotel website and had all of our followup communication and payment directly with them.

 

[audreyh1]

Direct booking has definitely improved, plus often decent loyalty discounts.

 

[audreyh1]

I had one case where a small inn in Austria website told us to book via booking.com. No problem. Another where a hotel in Salzburg only offered pre-paid rooms on-line, so we booked through booking.com to have a place. Later when we were very sure of our plans we switched.

 

[disneysteve]

In an unfortunately timely occurrence, friends of ours left for a weekend in NYC today. The wife texted my wife a short time ago and said that when they arrived, the hotel didn't have the package deal reservation that they had paid for but they were luckily able to book them a room. They booked the package with TravelZoo so now have to fight with them when they get home to hopefully get their money back, and they're stuck with just a regular room stay instead of having whatever perks they were expecting as part of the package they booked.

Book direct. Even if it costs more.