More Than Points

Usually I keep this blog targeted towards frequent travelers, but even road warriors need to take vacations.  This particular incident hits a bit closer to home as my wife searched the web for a weekend getaway and thought she found a good deal until Expedia.com decided to pull a bait and switch.  She even spent an hour with customer service just to have the agent repeatedly lie to her face on the phone.  Buyer beware.

Here’s the run-down:

“Hey look, no additional hotel-imposed fees!”

“Wait a minute…attempting to book the room warns you of a $20 per room hotel resort fee!”

If you try and call customer service, you should just write off an hour of your life as they lie directly to your face.  My wife was so steamed she posted the following on several rating/review websites.  Her comments do a good job of summarizing the experience:

Expedia.com is simply horrible! Not only does the website contain blatant misrepresentations, its customer service is totally incompetent. I just spent an hour with a representative that didn’t even understand English. The website had stated that the it was providing an "Expedia Extra" of "No additional hotel-imposed fees at check-in or check-out" if I booked a certain hotel for a certain range of days. However, when I tried to book it, it gave me a total based on the room rates and stated that there will be additional hotel fees of $20/day added on. So, I called customer service about it, and all they told me was that the hotel fees were mandatory. So, I asked what’s with this "Expedia Extra?" The customer service rep could not provide an answer. He simply repeated that the hotel fees are mandatory even though Expedia.com plainly states "Expedia Extra! - This hotel has no additional fees imposed at check-in or check-out." At one point the customer service rep tried to pretend he didn’t see that written on the website. When I called him out on in (I had the website open as I was talking to him), he backtracked and again repeated, "the hotel fees are mandatory." So finally, I asked to be transferred to someone more knowledgeable about what this "Expedia Extra" is supposed to mean, he hung up on me!! Even if Expedia.com had the lowest price on the website, I’ll never use it again. The people behind it seem to have no integrity and do not appear to treat their customers with even a hint of honesty or decency. Never again!!

Don’t fall for the Expedia.com bait and switch.