Expedia - don't understand how they operate

janeken

We booked flights and accommodation with Expedia last August for a trip to Los Angeles, San Diego and Palm Springs to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary in February, we depart in five weeks' time. Return flights and four hotel bookings were made and we paid in full. Now we have had an email from Expedia saying that our 10 day booking at our chosen hotel in Palm Springs has been cancelled. We called them and all they will say is that there has been an over-booking and they will email us and offer alternative hotels to choose from. That was the gist of it but it was difficult to understand what they were saying as it was a call centre. The hotel we chose was very special and cost over £1800 for 10 nights - it will be very difficult to find anything as nice. As yet we have received no email from them.

We feel completely deflated and are struggling to understand how Expedia operate. They have had our money since August and sent us a booking confirmation for this hotel which clearly means nothing. Can anybody help us to make sense of this? Should we ask for a refund and book through somebody else or hope that they will do right by us?

visidigi

Can you still book the hotel on hotels.com (also part of Expedia).

Just to validate if they are telling the truth...

jpsartre

janeken wrote: »

We feel completely deflated and are struggling to understand how Expedia operate.

That's understandable but they operate like any other site selling rooms. The hotel (not Expedia) decided to overbook, didn't get the number of cancellations they expected, and now they're starting to bump people. Expedia is simply the messenger. Don't wait for them to contact you, look for suitable alternatives yourself, then call Expedia to get booked into one of them.

hcb42

It is unlikely you will be able to book on hotels.com, as it will be the same rate feed to both sites from the hotel's reservation systems.

What might be possible is check the hotel website directly..

ultimately it is the hotel who decide their booking/overbooking strategy, an the hotel industry, like the airline industry, routinely overbooks - and it sounds like they will have forced this upon Expedia to handle the outbooking - as they feel they need to outbook some guests and you might be an easy target if they are massively overbooked. I have to say they seem to be outbooking you very early (five weeks in advance) unless they have a major conference in town, or have taken a major booking at relatively short lead. The hotel therefore are probably estimating that they will not get enough cancellations between now and your arrival date on one of the days you are stopping, and therefore need to take early action.

Check the hotel website direct for your full length of stay (although I would expect it to be showing full, or they wouldnt have taken the action they have). Check it for individual dates, and you might stumble across a full night, that will be the problem night if so.

You can - (a) push back to Expedia and state this is a trip of a lifetime and you do not want to move - and see if the hotel will accept the reservation - or push hard for the best alternative outcome you can i.e. hotel of equivalent standard, and perhaps a meal or two and drinks paid for also. If it is a problem on one night, then by agreeing to move out and back, they will be very grateful, and you can probably negotiate quite a bit in the way of extras

Good luck sorting it, they need to find you equivalent accommodation i.e. equal star rating and cover any additional costs (e.g. additional transport etc)

peachyprice

I can't quite believe there aren't any other hotels in Palm Springs in the £180 a night bracket, it's not that outrageously expensive!

Edit: Just looked on Hotel.com, there are at least a dozen resorts in that price bracket (and plenty more over £2k). Ask Expedia for a refund and book one of those.

Or perhaps that is the problem, Expedia have sold you a £2.5k+ resort too cheap and the hotel won't honour the booking at that price.

janeken

Thank you for your replies. We are going to try and find an alternative hotel ourselves as we have still had nothing from Expedia. I appreciate tht there will be alternatives in Palm Springs at the same price or more but it is a small boutique hotel http://www.thechateaulakelaquinta.com/ and so far we haven't found anything like it as we were trying to avoid a large complex. The hotel website shows they are booked until the end of March. We are very disappointed with Expedia but will probably have to re-book with them to avoid waiting for a refund to come through.

janeken

peachyprice wrote: »

I can't quite believe there aren't any other hotels in Palm Springs in the £180 a night bracket, it's not that outrageously expensive!

Edit: Just looked on Hotel.com, there are at least a dozen resorts in that price bracket (and plenty more over £2k). Ask Expedia for a refund and book one of those.

Or perhaps that is the problem, Expedia have sold you a £2.5k+ resort too cheap and the hotel won't honour the booking at that price.

We were trying to avoid a resort, we just wanted something small and quiet so chose a boutique hotel (see link in my post above) and it seems to be a one-off. We will just have to settle for something else but it is so disappointing.

littlereddevil

What a terrible way for a hotel to treat people. Hope you get something else sorted

DUKE

I'd ask for my money back & book elsewhere, Expedia have really bad reviews. Hope you get something sorted.

jpsartre

DUKE wrote: »

Expedia have really bad reviews.

They're one of the most reputable booking sites out there. Unless the OP finds acommodation that can't be booked from them there would be little upside going to a different provider.

bagand96

The hotel website has photos of weddings. I wonder if they've taken a wedding booking or some other function that they know is more lucrative and decided to cancel your booking. Terrible behaviour from the hotel considering how long ago you booked.

Unfortunately not much Expedia can do if the hotel have told them they aren't honouring the booking.

You're doing the right thing now by researching other options. If you find something that is available with Expedia then that will obviously simplify things. But if you find something Expedia can't provide then stress to them you need the refund ASAP to re book.