Ok to book a hotel room through Expedia or similar?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I booked a room at the Bellagio via Expedia once for a one night stay for our family of 4 on our way to the Grand Canyon. When we got there around 5pm, our room wasn't ready because the person renting the room the night before still had not checked out, was not answering the door or the phone so there was still someone occupying it and it hadn't been clean. They refused to give us another room despite having vacancy bc it had been booked via Expedia. They also had zero Fs to give about the person still being in there and said as policy they don't kick people out so we were SOL. Calling Expedia customer service also provided zero results. Complete and total nightmare. Never again.

This is your problem right here, not Expedia.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We use Hotels.com (part of Expedia) all the time with no issues. We're Gold members so get good upgraded rooms and other perks.

Same! I love it.

I agree. I've used Expedia, Orbitz and Hotels.com and Hotels.com has been the easiest in terms of cancellations and changes. I also find their platform to be the most user-friendly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I booked a room at the Bellagio via Expedia once for a one night stay for our family of 4 on our way to the Grand Canyon. When we got there around 5pm, our room wasn't ready because the person renting the room the night before still had not checked out, was not answering the door or the phone so there was still someone occupying it and it hadn't been clean. They refused to give us another room despite having vacancy bc it had been booked via Expedia. They also had zero Fs to give about the person still being in there and said as policy they don't kick people out so we were SOL. Calling Expedia customer service also provided zero results. Complete and total nightmare. Never again.

This is your problem right here, not Expedia.

No, it wasn’t. The hotel had vacancy, in any other situation the hotel would have assigned us a different room. BUT they wouldn’t because we had reserved via Expedia (that’s what they told us) and it was up to Expedia to “fix the problem”. Bellagio offered to give us a different room at the walk up rate, so essentially we would have and be paying for 2 hotel rooms. Expedia said Bellagio had to give us a different room for no extra cost; Bellagio said to kick rocks, that our reservation is with Expedia and not them. No one wanted to fix it.

100% the problem was booking via Expedia. Never. Ever. Again.

[Anonymous]

I think Expedia etc employees have found this forum...

I regularly and happily used booking.com for all accommodations- in the US, Canada, Europe, and for a trip to Morocco - for the latter was able to book riads a day or 2 before and everything went smoothly.
I have probably used for 10, 15 years or more.

But got shafted on booking.com twice in a row for 2 different cities in the last 4 weeks- once at beginning of July and again in mid July.

You know that saying - fool me once shame on you, for me twice....

There isn't a fool me 3 times option. It's over.

For trip to Montreal I switched to hotels.com -- I know Montreal so less traumatic to have no hotel on arrival AND I had a back up plan and knew where there was availability elsewhere in a reasonable place. It worked out but I know I was a little worried hotel wouldn't honor the rate or something something....

If I can, I'll book direct. If the price is significantly lower on hotels.com then I'll book, but I suggest always having a plan B. Worse thing to have to scramble to find a place to sleep in a city you don't know, if you don't speak the language.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I booked a room at the Bellagio via Expedia once for a one night stay for our family of 4 on our way to the Grand Canyon. When we got there around 5pm, our room wasn't ready because the person renting the room the night before still had not checked out, was not answering the door or the phone so there was still someone occupying it and it hadn't been clean. They refused to give us another room despite having vacancy bc it had been booked via Expedia. They also had zero Fs to give about the person still being in there and said as policy they don't kick people out so we were SOL. Calling Expedia customer service also provided zero results. Complete and total nightmare. Never again.

This is your problem right here, not Expedia.

No, it wasn’t. The hotel had vacancy, in any other situation the hotel would have assigned us a different room. BUT they wouldn’t because we had reserved via Expedia (that’s what they told us) and it was up to Expedia to “fix the problem”. Bellagio offered to give us a different room at the walk up rate, so essentially we would have and be paying for 2 hotel rooms. Expedia said Bellagio had to give us a different room for no extra cost; Bellagio said to kick rocks, that our reservation is with Expedia and not them. No one wanted to fix it.

100% the problem was booking via Expedia. Never. Ever. Again.

No, the problem was that the hotel wouldn’t enforce their check out time. Frankly, I kind of disbelieve your entire story, because I stay in hotels upwards of 80 nights a year for work, and every place I’ve stayed has had no compunction about letting people know they need to leave.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I booked a room at the Bellagio via Expedia once for a one night stay for our family of 4 on our way to the Grand Canyon. When we got there around 5pm, our room wasn't ready because the person renting the room the night before still had not checked out, was not answering the door or the phone so there was still someone occupying it and it hadn't been clean. They refused to give us another room despite having vacancy bc it had been booked via Expedia. They also had zero Fs to give about the person still being in there and said as policy they don't kick people out so we were SOL. Calling Expedia customer service also provided zero results. Complete and total nightmare. Never again.

This is your problem right here, not Expedia.

No, it wasn’t. The hotel had vacancy, in any other situation the hotel would have assigned us a different room. BUT they wouldn’t because we had reserved via Expedia (that’s what they told us) and it was up to Expedia to “fix the problem”. Bellagio offered to give us a different room at the walk up rate, so essentially we would have and be paying for 2 hotel rooms. Expedia said Bellagio had to give us a different room for no extra cost; Bellagio said to kick rocks, that our reservation is with Expedia and not them. No one wanted to fix it.

100% the problem was booking via Expedia. Never. Ever. Again.

No, the problem was that the hotel wouldn’t enforce their check out time. Frankly, I kind of disbelieve your entire story, because I stay in hotels upwards of 80 nights a year for work, and every place I’ve stayed has had no compunction about letting people know they need to leave.

I'm sorry you're so rigid about defending Expedia, but in the end using Expedia screwed us in this situation. I don't really care how often you travel, or how special you are, or if you believe me or not on DCUM, but it absolutely happened.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You definitely get worse rooms. It’s also a hassle to cancel a reservation if you go through a third party site.

This is so outdated...

I book all of my rooms on hotels.com; I earn points that I can use anywhere and can cancel with the click of a button. The hotel sets the cancellation policy. Have never noticed that my rooms are worse and since I have status, I often receive upgrades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We use Hotels.com (part of Expedia) all the time with no issues. We're Gold members so get good upgraded rooms and other perks.

Same! I love it.

I agree. I've used Expedia, Orbitz and Hotels.com and Hotels.com has been the easiest in terms of cancellations and changes. I also find their platform to be the most user-friendly.

I agree too and am glad that the new unified rewards program allows you to collect points across platforms. I just booked through VRBO and was happy to see that I could apply my Hotels.com rewards to the booking cost.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I booked a room at the Bellagio via Expedia once for a one night stay for our family of 4 on our way to the Grand Canyon. When we got there around 5pm, our room wasn't ready because the person renting the room the night before still had not checked out, was not answering the door or the phone so there was still someone occupying it and it hadn't been clean. They refused to give us another room despite having vacancy bc it had been booked via Expedia. They also had zero Fs to give about the person still being in there and said as policy they don't kick people out so we were SOL. Calling Expedia customer service also provided zero results. Complete and total nightmare. Never again.

This is your problem right here, not Expedia.

No, it wasn’t. The hotel had vacancy, in any other situation the hotel would have assigned us a different room. BUT they wouldn’t because we had reserved via Expedia (that’s what they told us) and it was up to Expedia to “fix the problem”. Bellagio offered to give us a different room at the walk up rate, so essentially we would have and be paying for 2 hotel rooms. Expedia said Bellagio had to give us a different room for no extra cost; Bellagio said to kick rocks, that our reservation is with Expedia and not them. No one wanted to fix it.

100% the problem was booking via Expedia. Never. Ever. Again.

No, the problem was that the hotel wouldn’t enforce their check out time. Frankly, I kind of disbelieve your entire story, because I stay in hotels upwards of 80 nights a year for work, and every place I’ve stayed has had no compunction about letting people know they need to leave.

I'm sorry you're so rigid about defending Expedia, but in the end using Expedia screwed us in this situation. I don't really care how often you travel, or how special you are, or if you believe me or not on DCUM, but it absolutely happened.

I think the front desk clerk just didn’t like your face.

[Anonymous]

bit of a twist, but anyone have hotel problems booking a package deal through an airline, AAA, or other brick and mortar travel agency?

[Anonymous]

We recently booked through our credit card rewards program - which ironically was handled by Expedia. I was mortified - but the points covered the cost of the hotel so was motivated to make it work. Realized a week before departing that our departure date was wrong. Tried the hotel with no luck (told us to deal with Expedia), Expedia told us to deal with credit card. Credit card handled it with their special hotline. Lesson learned I would recommend finding out what and who you need to contact to make changes.

[Anonymous]

I've booked through Hotwire, Expedia, Booking.com dozens of times over the years. Occasionally I've had a bad room, but usually it's fine.

[Anonymous]

I always book direct. I like the points and perks that come with Hilton Honors- free breakfast/food beverage credit, executive lounge and an occasional upgrade.

We were recently at the beach, on a family trip. It was pretty much a washout and we decided to cut our trip short. We had no problem canceling our last night. Other family, who booked 3rd party, were not allowed to cancel. I’m all for saving a couple bucks, but don’t think the savings, from a site like Expedia, is really worth it.

[Anonymous]

We always book direct or through our credit card travel site. The cc let s us add our rewards program, so sometimes we get double bonuses. I used to use Expedia a lot when I was younger, but I’m more brand loyal now for points.