Expedia
Reviews and Complaints

EXPEDIA RIP OFF

Folks I don't normally go off on a subject like this, but my experience with Expedia is a slap in the face. They must view their customers like cattle, just dumb enough to fall for anything. When you book a hotel with Expedia, beware. While any hotel will allow you to cancel your reservation, with varied time clauses from 48 to 72 hours, not Expedia. They charged me $25, 99 for a cancelation that I made, six weeks prior to staying at the hotel. When I questioned them on this, this was Expedia's explanation.

"Expedia negotiates special arrangements with our partner hotels to guarantee the lowest prices available. In order to continue offering these great rates, we need to charge a $25 change/cancellation fee. But that fee allows us to bring you the best possible hotel rates in your future travel."

Germaine

Expedia.com Customer Service Team

Well, I thought I would see what kind of savings that the expert negation team at Expedia had achieved to justify this claim. This is what I found. I compared a booking for December 18th, with the Marriott in Budapest. Going directly through the Marriot web site, my rate was $165.39, or 130.00 Euros. Through Expedia

Expedia itinerary number: [protected]

Hotel confirmation number: [protected]

Reserved for:

Dennis Maroney Hotel: 2 adults Deluxe Room 12/18: $164.81 per night

Hmm, now I really feel validated, and assured that the expert negotiation team of Expedia has actually saved me .58 cents! Folks, please get the word out, under no circumstances use Expedia for hotel bookings. We have been a very active customer of Expedia for the past three years. They do not give any customer appreciation points and will jump at the change to gouge you for any nickel or dime they can get away with.

Expedia's response to my .58 cents savings was:

"Unfortunately, we are unable to process your request for a refund on the cancellation fee. We regret any inconvenience this may have caused you and would like to assure you that every reservation is important to us".

Meredith

Expedia.com Customer Service Team

Hmm, what is important to Expedia is squeezing every cent from your wallet!

Expedia is a rip off and a fraud. they told that there were no hidden charges and if you booked a hotel room from them before a certain date, they would give us $50 dollar gas card and in the hotel bill it said, "extras, 0.00. when we came back from our trip we got a bill from Expedia that we had to pay extra $30 per room for nothing and we had booked two rooms, so they charged us extra $60. we didn't even use there extras that they offered us. and about the gas card, its like they dont know anything about it. when we call them and ask them about the gas card, they disconnect the phone .

Expedia is heavily advertising a $200 coupon they promise to give you if you "book and travel by January 3 2009" .

They set January 3 as the deadline, which is of course the Saturday of the New Year's weekend. Does this sound like you have to take the first leg of a round-trip by January 3, or you have to complete your whole trip by January 3? The ad doesn't specify. I called customer service and wrote emails to clarify, after I spent over $2000 on my ticket. Well, they meant, "complete travel by January 3." I thought it seemed preposterous to say "book and travel by January 3"--how could you travel by Jan. 3 if you hadn't also booked by January 3? And how could you book on January 3 for travel that day, considering it's the last Saturday of the holiday season?

I think Expedia is purposely obfuscating the travel deadline, and purposely set the deadline for travel a day early so they don't have to give coupons to people who can't get a flight on Saturday and have to travel on Sunday; and they still get the sales to people, like me, who thought if they meant "complete travel by Jan. 3" they would have said so.

Sometime prior to August 22, 2008 I booked a room at the Salmon Arm, B.C. Travelodge. Prior to my scheduled arrival and certainly within 24 hours of that date, I cancelled my reservation. The reason was that I was attending a funeral and determined that my friend, whose wife passed away, invited me to stay with him. I called the Travelodge and thought that I cancelled my trip. I was informed that I only cancelled one reservation and that I had made two. I certainly had no reason to book two rooms for two of us (husband and wife) to stay overnight. I have been charged for this stay and futile efforts to recover my expenses have met with no results. I went through Travelodge and Visa. Is there some means that you can assist me to recover my lost funds ($98.95). Thank you.

I purchased an airline ticket online through Expedia.com. The airline made several changes to flights that I could not accomodate so Expedia told me that I could get a refund for the ticket. I made my original call to request the refund on August 4, 2008 and at that time I was told it would take a "Billing cycle or two to receive the refund.

After more than a month I contacted Expedia since I had not received the refund. At that time I was told it wuld take two to three billing cycles to receive the refund. As of today, October 30, 2008 I still have not received the refund. I called today and was told it would be three to four billing cycles to receive the refund.

This is completely unacceptable to take three or more months to receive an electronic refund. I discourage everyone from using Expedia.com to purchase tickets.

I had a very bad experience with expedia.ca customer service regarding a "airline hidden fee issue"

Long story short we booked an all inclusive trip but on the way home were informed we couldn't check our baggage (1 bag per person - All under weight) unless we paid $15.00 USD per bag.

We expressed our displeasure to expedia.ca about there lack of communication regarding these fee's and the fact there was no mention of it in our booking confirmations etc...

The customer support person was rude and basically said tough luck and there is nothing we are willing to do to help you.

They lost 4 customers already and hopfully other will read this and come to the same concusion.

We booked flights for Christmas from Anchorage to Acapulco in June, 2008. The credit card was charged about $5, 100.00. On August 14, 2008 they called and said that the flight was cancelled. They said we would get a refund "within 3 billing cycles." On October 24, 2008, I called the airlines (Delta)directly about this. I was informed that Expedia never requested the refund for us, even though we were entitled to it. Now we will get our money back in 7 to 10 days (hopefully). Bottom line is that they sat on $5, 100.00 for 5 months.

I booked a hotel room through expedia. 2 days later i found out my card number had been stolen, and over 1000 dollars put on my account, on top of the hotel charge that was 233.00.
When i got to the hotel, they had NO RESERVATION for me. Expedia had never booked it for me, and the hotel was full.
I've never had such a horrible experience while traveling before. I'm trying to figure out now how to get a refund on the hotel room that they never booked for me. I've already called the fraud dept of my credit card company for the other charges that i did not authorize.
DO NOT USE EXPEDIA.COM!

I changed in my Hotel reservation over a week before traveling to Kinsale, Ireland -- to delay my arrival from 29Sep to 02Oct08 -- as required by your cancellation policy. The confirmation #123467 was not reflected in the travel itinerary sent to my email 6 days before my new departure. I immediately responded by email on 25Sep that the itinerary information was wrong and that I had to postpone my arrive until 02Oct08.

All other attempts to obtain clear contractual information have not provided any indication that would alter your existing refund policy following 72 hours notice. Instead, the only information I received was after it was too late to change. Such as no breakfast would be included because of expedia prepayment and, when my normal reservation ended on 09Oct08, that I had to call expedia to confirm my stay had ended because expedia had extended my dates rather than provide the add-on rate normally used by the hotel. These latent revelations became impossible to resolve because the 800-expedia number was not functional from Ireland. Hotel assurances that my abbreviated hotel stay could be confirmed by a later call to expedia have been dishonored.

I booked a trip to Arizona thru Expedia. I later found out that the hotel I reserved was a long way from where I was going. I called Expedia to change hotel locations. The CSR from West Virginia quoted me $124. TOTAL to change from one hotel to another. I told him to check with his manager, because it needed to be the TOTAL amount, not the DAILY amount. He put me on hold, came back laughing, & said he checked w/his Manager and it was $124 TOTAL. for the 7 night stay. I changed hotels.

Later that day I checked my bank account, and he took out $800 from my account. I called back right away and got that same West Virginia office. I told them what happened, repeated my conversation & told him to check with the Manager, since the other CSR did too. He said there was a note in the system that said I KNEW there was an $800. additional charge, & that I agreed to it! I told him they quoted me $124 for the ENTIRE change, and he told me it was my word against theirs. I asked to speak to the Manager, and I could hear all 3 people talking to each other in the background. She told me the same thing, saying that I could NEVER prove what they did, & I would NEVER get my money back!

You know — THEY WERE RIGHT! I have sent hundreds of emails, & made hundreds of calls, and NO ONE CARES! They are ripping people off left & right, with no one to answer to! I am so pissed! That West Virginia Office is up to NO GOOD! I keep telling the CSR's that I speak to about what happened, & all they do is send me a "form letter apology" saying they strive to maintain excellent customer service, and then go into a sales pitch trying to get me to go on vacation again — and USE THEM! They are all NUTS! They have no corporate office that will take your calls, and no line staff will forward your emails to management!

Be Careful! I never did get my $800 back, and I had to borrow rent money because they stole that $800 from my account!

I have bought from ebookers a pair of return flight tickets from Manchester to Rio at 9.30pm on Tuesday 9/9/2009. Shortly after I have found that the same ticket was cheaper elsewhere (eg, at lastminute.co.uk and expedia.co.uk). No problem, I thought, for ebooker offers a "Best Price Guarantee".

The next morning I phoned them and was asked to say where I had found a cheaper offer. I mentioned expedia.com, the ebookers representative checked expedia's website and told me "yes, print this out and send it to us", which I promptly did. The email went to them at 12pm.

However, and contrary to what I heard in that first phone call, there was a problem with that expedia.com offer: the first leg of the return flight (Rio to Paris CDG) was two hours earlier than in my ebookers reservation, in which I hadn't specified any preferred time (route, airline and class were the same).

Ebookers wrote to me saying that the first printout was no good at 10.37pm, 25 five hours after my initial booking. I then sent them another printout (this time from lastminute.co.uk, which I had also saved when I realised the price difference), in which every single detail of the trip was EXACTLY as in my purchase. Then their answer was "as you're sending this more than 24 hours after your booking, no refund".

The refund I was expecting should be of 192 or 476 pounds, depending on what other price the ebookers one was compared to.

In my opinion, ebookers has been unfair. Whether they have also been dishonest, that is something I'll leave for you to decide.

I booked a room on Expedia.com. When I arrived to check into the hotel, I discovered that they had booked us in a different hotel location, even though my printed confirmation from Expedia clearly stated the location I requested. The hotel provided me with the reservation they received from Expedia, which is incorrect. I have called Expedia many, many times and spent hours on the phone. They frequently disconnect customers and put me on hold for long periods of time. I was promised a refund I never received, and when I call back I am told something different each time, always amounting to the fact that I must call back at a later time or date. I strongly recommend that you rethink booking any travel on Expedia.com. I will never do so again.

We booked a trip through Expedia to Disneyland to get married and a few days honeymoon afterwards. We had paid for transportation and day passes to Universal Studios to use on our last day (value $200). We called the number for the shuttle service to Universal and confirmed 24 hours prior. On our last day we went early to the front of the hotel to wait for the shuttle at 8:15 am (pick up 8:30). A Coash USA shuttle as on our itinerary was parked and we met the driver, showed him our itinerary and he told us we "werent on the list" we then showed him our confirmation number and insisted that we were on the list and he refused! We went into the hotel front desk to call Coach USA, and the driver took off! Our front desk agent called them and we were confirmed, however they said everyone was picked up except us, AND this just happened to 5 more people! Coach denies that we were there, yet our front desk agent witnessed the whole thing! We were not going to pay $95 each way to get to Universal for a service we allready paid for! We were on the phone arguing and re-explaining our situation to Expedia for a good 3 hours! Our day was ruined, and they offered no apology, told us we could not get a refund, were not willing to change our passes to a 1 day Disney for compensation, it was our fault, even though we had a witness for their vendor leaving us high and dry! We used our credit card to get into Disney that day-and dont understand why expedia offered us ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! Now they have spoken to our front desk agent as a witness as to what happened to us and its been 4 days that they say they have been doing an "investigation". I say screw the investigation as we have provided everything they need and give us our money back! If not by Monday, I think I will have to take legal action! NEVER USING EXPEDIA AGAIN!

Well what can I say I'm a cheap ###...I saw low price guaranteed on Expedia and went to see if its true...I was going on vacation so i wanted the bang for my buck...So I spent 30 mins searching through several websites ...most were exactly the same price as expedia.. until I found a European Site that has a HUGE difference in price... I proceeded to book my hotel with Expedia online... I called cutomer service 5 mins later to complain i found a better price... The CSR kept saying it must be a mirror image description of the hotel. the ### read word for word describing the room... describing the continental breakfast...describing the decor...The euro website gave me a total of $88. The expedia site gave me a total of $140.00... the csr was shocked to see such a huge price difference... and I was put on hold... as I've read in other blogs.. I guess its the death Hold...He came back and said oh no its not the same... our site says free wireless and your site doesn't mention free wireless. It's a totally different room. Sorry I can't refund you the difference...but i can give you $50 voucher.. I said Hell no maann GIVE ME My money he put me on hold ..he came back and said I can Give you $100 VOucher... SO i said Fine... I was gonna book more rooms at a differnt city for the following day so pretty much I got it for free. =0) Screw it I didn't get the $50 difference back but I made a free $50...JUST BE AWARE THE MONEY BACK IS A SCAMMMM ALL THEY DO IS TRY TO STIFF YOU WITH A $50 VOUCHER SAY NO I WANT MORE!...BEING CHEAP IS KING! by the way that Euro website is www.roomex.com I was afraid of putting my cc into the site... but you can at least us it to compare prices differenes with Expedia...to get your vouchers...

Expedia elite plus has been unable to apply a delta credit for a properly cancelled flight for a new reservation for the same passanger for the same travel route for the same airline. I've spoken with three (3) offshore (English is second language) representatives for over 2 hours listening to every note of pachabel's canon in d until I am about to scream. The two previous calls somehow mysteriously "dropped" after being on eternal hold.

Okay... Hurricane ike and delta... But why am I an elite plus member; don't they even answer the phones for the regular customers.

And... No direct way to speak up the chain of command... How convenient.

What has happened to expedia?

Booked trip to italy in mid april — got cancellation insurance — trip was to start on may 30th — refund policy was >3wk in advance got a refund of 50% — if < 3wk in advance — got nothing. On may 6 called to cancel as my partner became ill. Said I wanted to cancel — was told to call travel insurance number and get a cancellation number and that would facilitate cancellation. Was called later that afternoon by expedia to ask if I wanted to cancel for just my partner or both of us — told them for both of us. Tried travel inurance company — on hold for ne hour — no luck — on may 8th called travel ins and got cancellation case number and called expedia to give them the number — (again waiting interminably for cnnection as always). Though all was ok — got call the next day (may 9th) from expedia with a new person asking if i"wanted to cancel my trip." I said I had called three days ago to cancel. She said no cancellation had taken place so far, but that she would intitate cancellation then, but since it was 21 days before the trip, I would get no refund. I protested that I ahd cancelled three days prior but was told it hadn't occurred. I was then told I had travel insurance, so it didn't really matter. I said that was not the point. As it turned out, due to full hospital rooms here, my partner was admitted to a private clinic, as there was no choice. Private clinics of course, are not covered by insurance, so travel insurance refused our claim. I then called expedia with a more valid reason to protest their actions. I got an email from them saying that when I had called originally, they only put that down as an information request re cancellation. I said that they called me again that afternoon to confirm that I wanted to cancel for both of us, adn that I had calle on may 8th (22 days in advance) to give them the cancellation number (not that my cancellation with expedia should have anything to do with whether I choose to put in a claim with insurance) they have not answered any emails re this, but of course they have my 3599 dollars and will not refund the 50% owing me. I always used expedia. Ca first in my on line booking search, but seriously, stay away from these crooks!

I booked a 3 leg flight in Europe for Late April

Newark - Hamburg

Hamburg thru Nurnberg to Milan

Stuttgart to Newark

When I arrived in Hamburg in April to fly to Milan, I didn’t have a flight & paid 300 Euros to get to Milan. I called Expedia many times & was given the run around – on hold for way to long. Apparently they have customer service centers all over (USA & India?). No one is trained properly. By the time I was told what to do, a month had past. I sent in my documentation & waited. When I called a month later they said they sent my info to the “refund department” & Amex would credit it with 30-60 days. To make a LONG story short, today when I called they changed their story again. The request was sent to the airline & the airline would process the refund within the next YEAR!

I cannot believe the lack of ownership. Horrible business practices/processes. Expedia should simply refund me and deal with the rest. As the middleman, they should make the process flawless for the customer and deal with any issues for me. They suggested I call the airline directly. The response to my original complaint letter was just “sorry”. Today after I mentioned it, they gave me $50. I am in shock.

They lost me as a customer.

I have never dealt with a company like expedia before. I would never recommend them! I recently booked a hotel room for Denver last week. I booked two weeks in advance and paid and received confirmation. A week later they sent me an email saying they were unable to accommodate my reservations at the hotel where they sent me a confirmation. What’s the point in pre-paying and getting a confirmation?

At this point all hotels in the area were booked. They would not give me a refund and offered to upgrade my hotel, in which they didn't. They put me in a DUMP with no A/C (it was 85 degrees in our rooms) intolerable!

Within that week they screwed up my reservations several times. I kept a phone log and figured I spent over 5 hours on the phones. And the amount of stress it caused me was horrible. The company offered me nothing! I have recently sent over a complaint to corporate offices demanding something be done... doubt it will.

Regardless my trip was ruined from booking through Expedia! I will never use them again, nor will I get the vacation I should have had back! I have never been more upset with a company! And hope word gets spread how horrible they are! No one should have to deal with this from a major corporation.

I will never, ever use expedia again.

In march of this year, I reserved a hotel room at a sleep inn through expedia about 12 miles outside denver for the last week of august, '08 — the time of the democratic natl. Convention. At that time, there were hardly any rooms available for that time period.

On june 20, expedia sent me an email confirming that my reservation had been cancelled. I was, understandably, horrified and angry. I called expedia, who said that someone — they don't know who — had used my name and email address to cancel the reservation. Expedia, I was told, does not ask for the last four digits of the credit card used to buy the room. Name and email address is all that's needed to cancel a reservation. (Expedia did refund my money.)

The customer service agent I spoke to that night looked but found no other rooms available in all of denver for that time period. I was pissed.

I mailed letters to several expedia corporate honchos, including chairman barry diller, with ccs to the attorney general's office of washington state, where expedia is headquartered, and to choice hotels president. Within two days, I got a response from the assistant to choice hotel's president, who offered a room 30-35 miles from denver, the closest in they could find one. But I by then had found another room 25 miles from denver. But at least they tried and responded quickly.

The washington ag's office also sent me a response saying they were following up with expedia. But expedia took more than a week to respond, with a voicemail. When I called them back, I talked to someone who had no idea what my case was about and simply read the notes of the person who had left me the voicemail earlier. And, she said essentially, there was nothing expedia could or would do to ameliorate the situation.

So I say again: I will never ever use expedia again. And I suggest you don't either.