FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Booking Flights, Rooms, Cars, Cruises, Activities through Chase/Expedia portal.
Old Sep 10, 2019, 12:01 pm
  #545  
Happy
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,731
A Fair Warning WHY you need to verify your UR lodging bookings with the property owners to make sure your "confirmed" UR booking is indeed confirmed.

After my very poor experience on a property at South Africa a couple years ago, I have since ALWAYS verified the UR lodging bookings with the properties.

Also keep in mind - Chase UR bookings on independent properties are NOT Real Time! Both the status of availability and the "Confirmed" booking status, can be completely false!

The latest incident is, I booked a property in the Puglia region of Italy - this property is also available on Booking.com, BUT not on Expedia! This is strange enough that a property NOT on Expedia but available on UR to book.

After my "confirmed" UR booking, the property which is a HOUSE, hence only 1 available to book and it should show Sold Out on other booking platform - Well, it stays as available on Booking.com for HOURS - Should someone book it thru Booking.com which is always Real Time for their listings, I would be left in the cold without knowing it!
Lucky for me that this property participates in the new feature on Booking.com, that let you send a message to ask questions BEFORE making a reservation - not every property has such feature but when those do, it is very very very useful for asking relevant questions such as parking being the most important one to know the proper answer...

Before going to bed for the night I sent this property 2 questions, pleading them to check if they have received a booking through Other Travel Agency for the date that still shows as available on Booking.com site, and asked them to send their clarification to my email address on the UR reservation status.

The property replied thru the Booking.com message at 2:30am US EST, told me they have received the reservation and just confirmed it - My UR booking was made at least 8 hours before and the inventory is not taken off by whatever system UR uses, requiring the owner to MANUALLY confirm it - meanwhile the property remained available to book on Booking.com and could be booked by someone then Booking.com would immediately take the inventory and UR reservation would be deemed invalid...

That was very similar to what happened to me on the South Africa booking in 2017 with some additional twist, when UR booking was handled by Connexion which in turn used whatever OTAs that offer the lowest prices (have seen both Priceline and Expedia being used).

Even now it is supposedly handled directly by Expedia, obviously the system is still NOT real time - therefore, cardholder's own vigilance is very much needed.
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