Expedia Drops The Ball on Valentine's Day

February 15, 2010 at 11:57 AM | by juliana | Comment (1)

Well, we hope all of you had a lovely, lovely Valentine's Day yesterday at the hotel with your schmoopie, eating oysters and chocolate covered strawberries before relaxing in a bath filled with sensuous oils and just enjoying each other "for who they are."

Because that is not what happened to this TechCrunch.com writer. Expedia royally F'd up his Valentine's Day reservation. The situation is complicated but it goes something like this: The hotel was oversold but Expedia was still taking reservations. When the guy arrived at the hotel, the hotel had no reservation under his name--partly because they never confirmed with Expedia that they had any rooms open, or conversely, that they were sold-out.

And this happened with four other couples at the hotel that day.

Did You Get Our Fax?
After much back and forth with the agents at Expedia, the writer was able to get a refund and a $100 Expedia credit but not another hotel room in the city. Apparently, the city was sold-out, at least Expedia's inventory in the city was sold-out, forcing the writer to shack up at a motel for the rest of the weekend.

Not quite the romantic weekend he had in mind and we're sure the girl of two weeks that he's been seeing is probably already halfway out the door.

Expedia has long had a history of screwing up room reservations and their customer service agents, while friendly, tend to be tied down by an extremely antiquated system. Apparently, Expedia faxes confirmations of bookings to the hotel. Faxes! Then the hotel has to fax back their confirmation agreement as well. As you can imagine, in this day and age, faxing seems ridiculous--not to mention it causes a lot of problems.

Faxing is Convenient...For Expedia
We doubt Expedia will change this process since it seems to be very convenient for them. "Oh the hotel never faxed back their confirmation agreement. It's not our fault and therefore we can't refund your money. But we can give you a $50 Expedia credit?" Nice. Thanks a lot.

If It's Important, Book Through The Hotel
In short, for important events like V-day, we say book directly through the hotel. If the Expedia price is less than what the hotel is advertising (or even if the hotel says its sold-out when Expedia says its not), call the hotel and let them know that the price is lower on Expedia. Most hotels will honor the Expedia price instead.

Valentine's Day Re-Do
In the meantime, the TechCrunch writer should enter Cambria Suites Valentine's Day Redo which is accepting disappointing Valentine's Day stories from now through February 21. Two people will win one-night stays at Cambria Suites and either Billy Joel and Elton John tickets or a 60-minute massage.

The catch? The stays must take place in either Oklahoma City (where Joel and John are playing) or Madison, Wisconsin, where the massage awaits.

[Photo: ChippenzieDeutch]

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