Originally Posted by
NDFightinIrish
I completely agree Traveloshitty is the worst. I was in SYD for a few nights and used them to book a fairly standard Hilton looking 3* hotel. Upon arrival it was fairly obvious the place was a disaster. The place didnt have keycards and relied on old style actual keys. When my girlfriend and I got to our room the bed had food stains and the blanket (if you can call it that) was filled with several cigarette burns. The room lacked any furniture other than a nightstand and the smallest tv you can imagine. There were bugs crawling in the room. Everything was absolutely awful. We spoke with the agent at the desk who refused any sort of refund or room change eventhough we hadnt been checked in for five minutes.
Sounds like an experience I had with Hotels.com. I was looking for a cheapish but livable place for a night where I extended a business trip for personal travel (i.e. I had to foot the bill personally), and most of the major chains were showing $300-$400 a night. I found a $70/night place that looked rather nice and was 3-star, and I said, "I'll suck it up if it isn't--it's just for a night."
The hotel's own Web site had the cheapest rate for $100/night, and my corporate travel engine showed $90/night. So I took the Hotels.com rate.
Got there, and it was a SMOKING room (despite the reservation saying otherwise--and I didn't realize CA hotels had smoking rooms at all these days). I went to the desk and demanded to change. "No other rooms are available," they said. Hah--the parking lot was at most 1/10th full (at 11:00pm no less). I pointed that out and they still insisted they were booked full. Clearly, they saw it was a Hotels.com purchase and gave me the rattiest room they had. I asked for clean bed linens due to the smoke-infusion of the ones present; they never sent them up ("I'll page the maids," "There's nothing else I can do," etc.) The room was also dirty, with crumbs around and stains in the shower. I couldn't just leave, as it had been pre-paid via Hotels.com, and there was no easy way to get a refund short of contesting the charge with Amex (and I wondered if I'd win that dispute). They also advertised in-room Internet (even materials in the room itself claimed that), which I could not get to work, and the front desk claimed, "Oh, it's actually only available in the lobby."
I managed to suffer through the night--leaving all my stuff in the trunk of my car to avoid picking up the smell--and when I got the Hotels.com satisfaction survey, I expressed my displeasure. They said, "Sorry--we'll send you $50 in vouchers." I got $30 in the mail... and sent them a note asking where the other $20 was. "Sorry, we'll get it right out." Never came. They now ignore my follow-up e-mails.
Never again.
