CDKing

Expedia doesn't even care if its a legit price. You will probably be hosed

Adam1222

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hotel-deals/1539724-hotel-mistake-deals-best-practices-11.html

chokdee

In contrast to others experiences I have had mostly good experiences with Expedia and bargain rates that I have booked. Usually when a hotel decides not to honour a particular rate someone from Expedia ''lodgeops'' gets in contact.

Invaribily they have got the hotel to finally honour or in the cases that this has not happened they have offered comparable hotels at the originally booked rate.

In fact when I think of it I have yet to have a rate booked with Expedia that was not honoured in one way or another. For this reason when a great rate is available across a number of different OTA's I will invaribably book with Expedia as my first choice.

As it happens I am in touch with Expedia right now regarding a hotel that has contacted me after many months to say they will not be honouring the rate booked. This is unusual as normally Expedia would contact me as the booking agent and not the hotel.

Since this scenario is a first for me in the case of an Expedia booking it will be interesting to see how they handle the situation. Maybe my run of good fortune with them is about to end.

echino

The hotel fixed the error on their website, and the presidential villa is now bookable there and via Expedia at the correct ~$1,000 nightly rate. My Expedia booking is intact and nobody has contacted me so far. The issue is that they only have one presidential villa, and it is now showing as available and bookable at ~$1,000 rate for my dates when I have a confirmed booking. So they obviously are not honoring my booking, but I am not sure what exactly happens next. What if nothing happens, nobody contacts me, and I just show up at check in when they don't have a room reserved for me?

mareh

The rate I booked for four nights at an apartment-hotel in Ireland has to be a mistake. My rate was on their own website for four days that I know of, and was also on all the usual hotels discount sites listed on Kayak for three of the days. When I booked directly, they took a 100 Euro deposit on our credit card. Does the fact that they took a non-refundable deposit make any difference in this situation?

deovrat

So I just booked a stay at ITC Sonar Kolkata, an SPG Luxury Collection hotel for ~$25 all-in for one of their Tower Rooms with Breakfast and Evening happy hour. 2 nights, 2 rooms.

An hour after I booked and got the confirmation email from SPG, hotel pulled off reservations for several months around those dates. Hotel generally goes for ~$150-200 in advance. So seems to be a mistake fare.

The thing is, the reservation is >8 months out and I haven't been contacted by hotel about their error or anything. So should I just sit on it for months and then show up at check in directly?
Would calling to confirm just a day before check-in be a bad idea? (I assume they would have strategised their response to this situation by then and/or some others may have stayed on this deal before).

chokdee

It is very early days regarding these reservations. Still plenty of time for the hotel to cancel. In the meantime my advice is to relax and enjoy a nice cup of tea!

BTW
I am booked into an ITC One room both 11 months and 15 months out. If my reservations are still standing at the time and Kolkata is still in my schedule then I will have no hesitation in just turning up on the day.

deovrat

Always a good advice !

randix

So this morning I ran across a $3 rate for a one night hotel room in Vegas. I booked it (prepaid, $3+tax) through a third party vendor and received the confirmation. To clarify for my own information, do or do not hotels see what rate you prepaid when you book with an outside vendor, or does it vary from one outside vendor to another?

kaysmom

Care to share what hotel randix??

El_Duderito

There are too many factors to give an exact answer.

I've had cases where I essentially got a 'prepaid stay voucher' (to be printed and handed over) that the hotel frontdesk staff simply verified. For the hotel they stay is paid for and they don't care how much you paid. This is often the case with negotiated rates sold through big consolidators (e.g. for those tourist hotels on Mallorca often booked a year in advance). Most of these vouchers don't even show the price - but the hotel might see it internally.

I've also seen scenarios where you essentially got a negotiated rate and are supposed to pay on site. The rate may be 90% off the current rack rate and staff would not worry too much but congratulate you for the great deal.

Never did I show up at a hotel without getting the room at the price I agreed to pay. I am aware of a case where a hotel tried to get money from the OTA claiming that they messed up the rate.

jmtfp

I've got a weird one. About 6 weeks ago I booked a room for 0 points a night. Mostly expecting it would have fallen over by now, I've locked in a flexible alternative that's looking pretty good but clearly quite a bit more expensive. The issue is it's a 2hr flight away from the 0 points a night hotel as opposed to a ride in a taxi and only flexible up to a few days before check in. So I kind of need to figure it out prior to flying out. Both of them are more than 20 hours flying for us to get to and that's all locked in. I should mention this stay is more than a week long. The confirmation email is unclear regarding the daily rate. I have screen shots the whole way through the booking process showing 0 points per night and 0 points total for the booking. When I open the reservation online it shows the normal amount of points but appears as though they've been deducted from my account. They haven't. I never had any where near that number of points. I've got about 6 weeks until check in. If I don't hear from them between now and check in and they noticed then, do you think I could push back on the loyalty program seeing as it was a mistake on their website, they'd had 3 months to decide it was an error and contact me and I'd have just flown half way around the world to get there? Also seeing as how the cost to the loyalty program would be far less significant than it would be to the property and the fact that they generally seem to have a fair amount of room to credit points to accounts in special circumstances. I realise it's poor form not to be more specific about which property I'm talking about but it's definitely no longer bookable at that rate so I don't see the point. Obviously if they contact me before hand I'm cooked but just wondering how you think I'll go if I'm not contacted by then and just front up?

Adam1222

Unfortunately my crystal ball isnt working today. If you decide to pursue the 0 points option, be prepared to pay full price and/or argue. Not saying it's likely but you need to be prepared.

jmtfp

Yeah for sure. Paying full whack is probably out of the question though. It'd be about $8k. Appreciate the advice! Let me know if your crystal ball sorts itself out hahaha.

MSPeconomist

The problem with zero is that it's clearly a mistake.