Online Travel Booking and Bidding Agencies - Hotels.com's Price Match Guarantee is an Illusion

Hotels.com's price match guarantee is a joke. I found a lower price for one of the hotels I'll be staying at in Japan on Agoda.com. Normally I would just book with them and cancel the other reservation. But I get extra Ultimate Reward points from using Hotels.com so I emailed for a price match (even attaching a screen shot). Got a reply that the same room wasn't available so the request was denied. Wrong!

Now I call. First agent puts me on hold for 15 mins (I can hear her in the background and then line goes dead). I call back. Second agent confirms lower price and offers refund. Great! Except they only refund the difference on the hotel rate and do not adjust the taxes. They offered me a refund of $31.40. But the price on Agoda.com was $35.60 less because of the lower taxes.

They refuse to refund the difference claiming their price match is only on the room rate, not on the taxes. Taxes on virtually all hotel rooms are a percentage of the rate. They are not matching the true price. Who's keeping the extra money? I asked them why I shouldn't cancel the reservation and book with Agoda since the net price was less. He couldn't answer. Supervisor couldn't help either. They lost the booking over $4. It's the principal for me but I refuse to reward stupidity.

The terms and conditions explicitly say "The guarantee applies only to the cost of booked travel, as presented in the hotels.com search results, without including taxes and fees".

I'm not sure what you are complaining about here. They performed their obligations as specified.

Hotels.com's price match guarantee is a joke. I found a lower price for one of the hotels I'll be staying at in Japan on Agoda.com. Normally I would just book with them and cancel the other reservation. But I get extra Ultimate Reward points from using Hotels.com so I emailed for a price match (even attaching a screen shot). Got a reply that the same room wasn't available so the request was denied. Wrong!

Now I call. First agent puts me on hold for 15 mins (I can hear her in the background and then line goes dead). I call back. Second agent confirms lower price and offers refund. Great! Except they only refund the difference on the hotel rate and do not adjust the taxes. They offered me a refund of $31.40. But the price on Agoda.com was $35.60 less because of the lower taxes.

They refuse to refund the difference claiming their price match is only on the room rate, not on the taxes. Taxes on virtually all hotel rooms are a percentage of the rate. They are not matching the true price. Who's keeping the extra money? I asked them why I shouldn't cancel the reservation and book with Agoda since the net price was less. He couldn't answer. Supervisor couldn't help either. They lost the booking over $4. It's the principal for me but I refuse to reward stupidity.

First of all Kudos to Hotels.com for coming through in the end (better late then never).^ Unlike the supposed "guarantee" of another company... (http://bgreenson.blogspot.com/):td:

About your $4. Well, in addition to what cbn wrote, you should double check what those taxes are exactly.

Is the hotel in Tokyo? Is it a spa? Besides for regular taxes, Japan also levies special hotel taxes (IIRC approximately $4) which are not a percentage of the hotel rate, but a variable of the hotel type etc., Google it when you get a chance.

The terms and conditions explicitly say "The guarantee applies only to the cost of booked travel, as presented in the hotels.com search results, without including taxes and fees".

I'm not sure what you are complaining about here. They performed their obligations as specified.

My objection isn't with their terms, although I don't think they are as clear about this as they could be. My problem is they really are not matching the price I could get from another website. I had no incentive to keep my booking with hotels.com when I could get a cheaper rate on another website.

Virtually all hotel taxes are based, in part, on a percentage of the room rate. When the room rate decreases the amount of taxes decrease. Hotels.com is not refunding the excess taxes. Because of this, they will NEVER match the actual price a customer could get elsewhere. They will ALWAYS be higher. That is not matching the price.

First of all Kudos to Hotels.com for coming through in the end (better late then never).^ Unlike the supposed "guarantee" of another company... (http://bgreenson.blogspot.com/):td:

About your $4. Well, in addition to what cbn wrote, you should double check what those taxes are exactly.

Is the hotel in Tokyo? Is it a spa? Besides for regular taxes, Japan also levies special hotel taxes (IIRC approximately $4) which are not a percentage of the hotel rate, but a variable of the hotel type etc., Google it when you get a chance.

The taxes are a percentage of the room rate. There may also be some fixed charges per room. However, the agoda.com website showed lower taxes based on the lower room rate. The hotel is not in Tokyo (it's in Yokohama) and is not a spa. If the taxes were solely a fixed amount per room I would have no objection to hotels.com's price match. However, in that scenario the price match should have resulted in an identical price. It did not and hotels.com was unwilling to match the actual price I got on agoda.com so I cancelled the reservation.