What is happening with Expedia?

Parents Forum Parent Cafe
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If she wants to pursue this issue, she might want to take a look at elliott.org for tips and pointers on how to create an effective consumer complaint. Christopher Elliott is a travel consumer complaint guru.

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For hotels, I have not used Expedia. But I have used Booking.com and Hotels.com several times each, so far without problem. Now wondering though if that is risky.

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I love booking.com and fingers crossed, I have never had an issue.

I also tend to use Orbitz and haven’t had an issue.:crossed_fingers:

I do sometimes book directly on the airline website, but frankly, their fare is usually much more expensive. If you’re flying a family of four somewhere, it’s too much extra money.

I’ve personally not experienced an issue like the one my D had. I really hope this is not the start of a downhill trend.

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I don’t use 3rd party services for flight or hotels either and much prefer dealing directly with the
vendor. The savings isn’t worth it to me. The way they deliberately try and disguise themselves (some more than others) on the web is off-putting to me.

But you haven’t lived until you’ve dealt with reservationdesk.com. The Woodstock Inn in Vt. and some other hotels let them link on their website, so you are 100% convinced you’re just going to their actual reservation desk, when in fact you are being directed to the Darth Vader of third-party booking service providers. And they are nasty. It’s worth a trying just for the entertainment value, but be warned that they’ll start calling you unsolicited even if (or perhaps especially if) you turn them down.

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I’ve used hotels.com for approximately 10 years. I rarely have problems and when I have had some issues I call. I’ve always had fantastic customer service on my calls with problems resolved.

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I check those sites but generally the hotel site deal is just as good if not better. Do you really get better deals on those sites?

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Do these hotels with links to there have their own actual booking web sites, or do they outsource their web booking to these third party booking web sites?

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All the major hotel chains (as well as airlines) run their own websites. Credit card companies, OTOH, often outsource their travel portals to third parties. Citi outsources its portal to Rocket Travel (part of booking.com) and Capital One to Hopper. Chase used to outsource to Experia, but now uses cxLoyalty after it was acquired by Chase (US Bank also uses cxLoyalty). AmEx runs its own portal.

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However, the previously mentioned hotel may have been a local hotel not part of a major chain.

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Right. Independent hotels aren’t likely to have their own dedicated websites.

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I don’t know why people don’t use Google flights/hotels more (there’s even a Chrome extension to allow it to display Southwest flights). Once you find your best flight/hotel, Google displays a list of options for you to book either directly or via a third party travel portal. For hotel stays, aside from the customer service issue, keep in mind that booking via a third party portal means guests wouldn’t be able to enjoy their potential elite status or accumulate points with the hotel frequent guest program (booking flights doesn’t have this issue).

There’re a few exceptions (most of them associated with premium travel credit cards): 1) your credit card gives you travel credit for booking on its portal; 2) you want to book a hotel in the credit card’s premier hotel collections with their extra benefits (free room upgrades, free breakfast, etc.); or 3) AARP companion ticket benefit on British Airways (you must book with Expedia for that). And there might be a couple of others that I can’t think of at the moment.

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The one that is a recent experience, the Woodstock Inn, will take a reservation if you call them directly. So it’s not entirely outsourced.

I wouldn’t single out reservationdesk.com for being sneaky. Many, many, many third-party sites play the game, though I must say that the name, reservation desk, is mighty clever and may be the best one I’ve come across. It certainly fooled me. But what makes them stand out is their boiler room sales tactics. It was only after about 5 minutes of shocking rudeness that I was able to gather my thoughts and ask the question, “is this the Woodstock Inn?” It was how that question was met that clued me in finally.

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All that, and I don’t think you get points if you book 3rd party, though perhaps that has changed. I tend not to dwell on hotel points and focus instead on airline miles. But I still enjoy the comfort of knowing I have a confirmation # from the hotel and not Expedia.

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I believe that is correct. It may be owned by a PE fund that owns other hotels, but the Woodstock Inn is a venerable ‘one of a kind’ inn in Woodstock Vt. It’s not part of Marriott or Hilton. At least I don’t think it is.

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Many times when you search for a particular hotel, you have to look VERY carefully at the web address to be sure you are not dealing with a 3rd party site and ask is the xxxxx hotel and not a 3rd party and listen carefully to the answer.

There are so many companies that mask their websites in the hotel and you have to be very careful or you aren’t making the reservation with the party you THINK you are and may be charged an extra fee to boot!

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Absolutely.

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With flights, you can enter your frequent flyer number (if the third party travel portal doesn’t provide a field for it) directly on carrier’s own website (typically under My Bookings or My Trips). This is the reason third party portals get paid very little by the airlines for booking flights (compared to hotels).

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My mom kept using Expedia. I told her to go directly to the airline or let me do it. She’s stubborn and would keep booking on Expedia.

During the pandemic, she wasn’t able to make 2 flights. One because of a death in the family and the other because of flight delays that she didn’t want to get caught up in.

I tried to get her money back with no success. It was a lesson learned in the end. The flights I booked through the airline, had no problem getting my money back. She did get credit but by then she decided she wasn’t flying anymore :woman_shrugging:

Would not book through Expedia because of this.

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When my daughter was going to Europe last year with a school group (and extending her trip with friends) the friends found some dates and she really wanted to go with them. I found a few flights (probably using Kayak) that were cheaper. I’d also get about $30 back on Rakutin. Her friend were impressed by my searching capabilities.

But my oh so smart daughter said she’d rather book direct with United and she’d pay me the $30 (which of course I didn’t make her). She was so smart. She ended up changing her return date and it was easy to do (and she even got a credit as return was cheaper). One of her friends returned a week or so earlier and her flight was cancelled and she had to scramble to book a new flight at full price and I don’t know what her results were with the search engine she used.

She also had a B&B cancelled when she was in London and she was able to handle it herself. She’s actually quite an airhead and doesn’t always understand how the puzzle pieces fit together, but she’s learning. She’s been traveling solo since she was 14 but I always made the reservations. She’s learned to ASK if there is a problem, to look for other ways to get where she needs to get to, to be a little more assertive for what she needs. Once she was on a flight to California with a connection in Denver. While on the flight the connecting flight changed and i had her on another flight before she even landed in Denver. Quick connection, luggage had to be located at another time, but she got to where she needed to be.

I think your daughter has a good case. Expedia may ‘fix’ it with giving her a credit for future flights or hotels rather than refunding or giving her some kind of cash (they will refund THIS ticket, but she should ask for more than that because of her inconvenience). What I’ve learned from customer service is that they have authority to give credits or other non-cash compensations (ski tickets, hotel rooms, free meals, etc) much more often than cash. She may even suggest that as a fix.

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