Based on some horrific experiences with them recently, I actually have a list:
- Their prices are actually HIGHER in many cases for a hotel room you can book directly. 9 times out of 10, if I’ve done a search on Expedia and found that they charge at least a couple of dollars more to book through them (all things in).
- We showed up at a hotel the other night that had no record of our reservation. We understand that mistakes happen. This hotel receives their reservations via fax machine (yep, old skool), so perhaps there was a paper jam that day? Either way, I just wanted options as the hotel was fully booked. I got on the phone with Expedia, who refused to take any responsibility for the mishap. “But ma’am,” I said, “I booked at Expedia.com, giving you my credit card and trusting this to be taken care of, yet you say you can’t rectify it now? You can’t put us in a similar hotel?” Nope. In fact, she indicated that it would take a couple of weeks to refund the money I paid for this hotel room and I would have to pay for whichever replacement hotel room I could find.”
- So, being quite upset, I asked to speak to a manager. After being on hold for well over an hour (it was after midnight at this point), I got fed up and found a hotel that cost me 3x the rate of the other hotel. Not only did a manager never manifest, but they don’t have a ‘system’ for calling me back the next day. Apparently, managers at Expedia don’t call customers.
- Understandably, I was quite put off by this experience, so I went into my itineraries to ‘unbook’ a hotel and car reservation set in the future. Turns out that they have no tolerance for such things and charged me $34.99 to cancel a booking over 2 weeks into the future. $34.99?!
- I logged back into my account this evening to see that the booking for the hotel that never was is still there, so nothing has been done to begin my refund (obviously, this is why it takes several weeks, right?), so I am now on hold (again), this time for 65 minutes already. I was warned, though, that they are experiencing quite high call volume. No shit. I would assume that if this sort of thing happens often. Oh, wait…it does. (There is an entire site dedicated to awful Expedia stories)
So, the experience continues. I’m weary and now broke and it makes me very angry to think that this company cares so little about its customers but is still in business. How does this happen? And how can we change one or the other variable?
Well, personally, I usually make it a rule to book directly. For some reason, I clicked on the ‘expedia’ option in kayak.com the last couple of times (or was it pre-clicked? I can’t recall). I thought, “What they hey” and booked. I may have been a little lazy that day. But in general, I’ve found that booking directly with an airline, hotel and/or car rental gets me a better deal than going through a third party site and having experienced multiple issues with third party sites (although they have never extorted money for a cancellation in due time before and have refunded my money promptly for their errors) has kept me from being lazy.
I remember when my mother went to a travel agent to get everything booked. These individuals made very little money, like $15/booking (the agency got kickbacks, though) and provided top notch service. Sites like Expedia came along and pretty much put them all out of business. Now, certainly, in the beginning, it made us our own travel agents and provided awesome deals, but somehow, somewhere along the line, these virtual agents forgot that they are not in the business of booking travel, but they are in the business of easing our minds. That was my mom’s travel agent: mind easer.
Well, I’ve finally learnt my lesson. No more third party sites for me, no matter what ‘package deals’ they offer. Thankfully, I have Tripit to pull it all together for me (and they are not in the itinerary business, but the business of easing my mind as well), which makes booking on multiple sites a breeze.
Actually, the virtual agents didn’t forget these things – the hotel chains significantly changed their contracts with online travel services. In the beginning, those sites could charge whatever they wanted for hotel rooms, and there was a mad dash for market share. Later, when hotel chains started to figure out how much they were losing in fees to the agencies, they started putting up their own sites (initially just under their own name, and later fronts like Orbitz). When they realized they had to compete with Expedia and the other agents, the hotel chains changed their contracts at the next renewal times. Expedia, Travelocity and the like are now barred from selling rooms cheaper than the hotel’s own sites.
If you’re a hotel owner, you can hire rate management services that will go out and patrol this for you – letting you know who has what rates for your hotel at any given date in the future. That way you can lock out lower rates more easily and make sure you get the revenues you want.
Since Expedia knows it can never compete on price, it’s coasting on reputation and marketing instead, rather than offering premium service. They already pigeonholed themselves as a low-cost vendor, not a high-service vendor, so they just keep up the front rather than raise prices and reinvent themselves as an AmEx Travel competitor.
(Used to work in the biz.)
As a result of your experience and of a presentation I saw yesterday I ended up booking via Travelocity yesterday. I always do price comparisons across sites, including the hotel site, and when they were the same picked Expedia. I think that’s changing.
With regards to Brent’s comment, I’ve often seen the travel services cheaper than the hotel itself – either on the web or calling direct. I usually check out all the options before booking and never seen a pattern in which is cheaper when
I get good results and good prices booking hotels through the Southwest Airlines site, even when I’m not using them for air travel. (Maybe the hotels figure that anyone coming in on Southwest must be on a tight budget.) I don’t get to stay any place swanky that way, and the prices on the high end hotels don’t seem to be discounted much, but La Quinta or Holiday Inn Express is fine.
I’ve never used Expedia so I don’t have a point of comparison, but I’d recommend Orbitz. I book most of my flights and about half of my hotels through Orbitz. The times I’ve run into problems, Orbitz has made it right (and most times given me 25-50$ gift certs), and they’re friendly.
With the volume going through these sites I’m sure that plenty of people have Orbitz horror stories, but I will say I’ve been pretty happy.
Have you considered a chargeback on the credit card? If they’re not going to do it, you can just stick it to them that way.
I had that happen to me through expedia.ca last year. Showed up at a hotel late on a Sunday night in NYC. No evidence of my booking.
One of my colleagues played the hold game for me (long hold times + roaming + Canadian cell plan = bankruptcy) and got a hold of them. After a lot of back and forth with expedia and the idiots at the hotel (they managed to make the experience worse). After over an hour at the front desk my reservation “suddenly” appeared in the system but the hotel clerk was sure to point out that “it wasn’t booked through Expedia”. Odd, I thought, but I had a room so I wasn’t complaining.
To the individual’s credit, the girl @ Expedia called the reservation number for the hotel chain, got me a killer rate (better than Expedia) and booked me a room. She actually called me in my room to expalin the situation about 30 minutes later. Hyper apologetic and just wanted to make sure I got checked in okay.
So while their system f’d me their rep actually helped me out quite a bit. Kudos to her but Expedia can take a hike.
The title of this post is unjustified, inaccurate and intentionally injurious. I consider myself a ‘smart traveller’–I’ve certainly traveled more than 90% of North Americans.
We’ve used Expedia a bunch for both domestic and international travel, and have never had any complaints. They’ve never exceeded our expectations, but they’ve effectively met them every time. I also think their prices are reasonably competitive, because Julie’s a pretty wicked comparison shopper.
You seem to have had one bad customer service experience, and damned the company. I’ve got at least ten data points–satisfactory customer interactions–that indicate they’re not deserving of such treatment, so I think the title of your post is irresponsible.
I make these points because I’ve had similar accusations leveled at me in the past, and I’ve learned that (as Peter Parker concluded, sort of), with great bloggy power, comes great bloggy responsibility.
Expedia does indeed, stink. My favorite bonehead thing is that they offer me the “lowest” airfare and then I go to direct book through a discount carrier’s site that gives me a rate thats several HUNDRED dollars cheaper.
But Tara you’re just dipping your toe into a bigger problem here. The travel industry, in general, is horribly broken.
I hear you, but if you read through the comments as well as the sites dedicated to serving irate Expedia customers, you will note that I’m not alone. I would be just as likely to write about how Expedia does a good job of taking care of customers if they would have come through. Instead, they refused to take responsibility and made it difficult to get my money back.
There’s a couple of points here.
Firstly the revevolution of buying items via the internet (be it flights, hotel rooms, books, etc) was never about the convienience but about demanding cheaper prices through the removal of overheads.
And the overheads that were removed were the ‘peace of mind’ you talk about. If you want such peace of mind, don’t look on the Internet – and that includes buying books, CD’s and everything else. You’ll always only ever be a line in a database, even if it’s a carefully recommended and collaboratively filtered line in a database.
There are other options, and given the amount of travel you see seem to do have you thought about enrolling with an e-concierge or personal travel assistant? It won’t be cheap, but from experience it’s about the cost of what those ‘old fashioned’ travel agents used to charge.
You simply call them up, say “I need a hotel in X” or “I want two seats from Y to Z” and they book it. And if you arrive at the hotel and there’s no booking you can call them and they’ll sort it out. Given it’s a premium service for premium customers, you’re also more likely to get a positive resolution from the hotel you book at as they know must be a frequent traveller, etc.
It’s basically all that warm-personal-experience snuggly feeling you are talking about Tara. So if you really want the ‘peace of mind’ then you won’t mind paying for it. And if you don’t want to pay the premium then you have to take what you can get as a line in a database.
Some e-concierge services I’ve used or know friends have used include United’s Aminity (bizarre spelling) and American Express. Your bank might also have such a service is you have a premium account with them.
Finally, Tara, I’d be interested to hear your take on the economics of ‘personal service’. Personally, I like to get as cheap as I can get and happy to take the lack of personal service. If I only had ‘personal service added’ options that upped the price, many of the items I’ve bought and enjoyed/found useful would have been out of my reach. It’s an interesting one to pick over
Oh, don’t get me wrong. I almost always pay higher prices for better service (niche products, hand made, etc). I suppose I should have built this into my story.
I’ve used an old fashioned travel agent and, actually, got a better deal than the online services (as per Brent O. above, the deals aren’t there online anymore, so they can’t rest on rock bottom prices). I haven’t found one that can suit my very particular needs.
I have a hierarchy of booking travel:
1. A trusted airline/hotel/car rental/etc.
One that hasn’t tried to screw me or a friend in the past. Everyone makes mistakes. I get that. But how they handle themselves when they make those mistakes is what I consider the test. For instance: I have used a third party site in the past (it may have been priceline? I can’t recall) and when I went to check into a return flight, it was canceled and they hadn’t notified or rebooked us. So, I called them and they said, “Sorry, can’t help you.” I was furious. They couldn’t help? So, we called Air Canada directly, who not only rebooked us (for free), but paid for our hotel one more night, and gave us a refund of $300 on each ticket.
Factors include: service, flexibility, friendliness and good website UI. I love the airlines that will SMS me with delays (Southwest). I don’t mind paying for my own meals or movies. I like being able to upgrade myself to an exit row for an extra couple of dollars. That sort of thing.
Currently on my ‘fly’ list are: Southwest, Jet Blue, Virgin, Air New Zealand, Air Canada, Frontier, Alaska, and all of the european airlines. On my ‘no fly’ is: American, United, Delta, and US Airways.
2. For flight: fewer connections
I will also pay a premium to get fewer connections. Luggage gets lost too many times on connecting flights. I’ve had it lost too many times now and I get paranoid. Plus, I’ve also had extremely tight connections that were missed OR really long layovers that were time suckers.
3. The right time of day/night.
I don’t like getting up really early if I don’t have to. I also am okay with redeyes as long as I don’t have something early the next morning. So, I will often pay a higher price to get a better time of day.
4. Price
I’m not rich, so I still have to watch my wallet. I also travel alot, so budgeting is still an issue. I wish it wasn’t. I’d like to take this off of my list (wouldn’t everyone?)
…
But I’m confused at your comment. I’ve worked in the online space for years and I don’t think of it at all as a commoditized space. Hell, you can create an even more thorough customer experience online. Many airlines and hotels already do. And e-concierge? Are they not online? Cheap travel third party sites are in trouble and travelers (especially frequent travelers) are more and more like me. They don’t mind going a couple of places to book their travel, because, well, they’ll get peace of mind dealing with the hotels and airlines directly (because many of them actually understand the fact that we have choice).
I, personally, don’t think peace of mind is a luxury…I think it is a right.
“with great bloggy power, comes great bloggy responsibility.”
especially when your post is shared through scoble’s shared items….
I’ve had a similarly crap experience with Expedia, never to be repeated. Its success is one of the great mysteries.
This sounds like a job for
https://www.thepoint.com/campaigns
Get pissed and get the network behind you (beyond blogging of course)
I was victims of their unethical and criminal business practice.
They tried to scam me once (1254.95 U$D)and failed miserably.
Read my case and hundreds more at: http://www.expedianews.com
And spread the word…..
Hi Tara, unlike Darren, I like the headline, because it is emotionally expressive and because of that connects with my emotions. This is a great example of how customer support is measured. It is measured by the support you receive under exceptional circumstances, and Expedia had plenty of opportunity to rise to the occasion — unfortunately, their “system” likely leaves their people to be spectators in bad service.
I do think “we” are too cynical, so I look forward to the company post of who you later find does this well — and remember not to write the review until you are served under exceptional circumstances. Thanks Tara.
I look forward to the companion* post
“You’ll always only ever be a line in a database, even if it’s a carefully recommended and collaboratively filtered line in a database.”
I strongly disagree. There is absolutely no reason why you can’t provide excellent customer service if you do ecommerce. Just because customers select and buy items through a website rather than by phone or physically obtaining them themselves like at a retail store doesn’t mean that it isn’t still a business. If you offer a good or service and then fail to deliver on that, you’re being an asshole.
Also, the idea that sticking order information in a relational database is somehow more error-prone or less reliable than, say, working through a stack of paper invoices by hand is ridiculous. Actually it’s far more reliable because computers are fantastic at doing detailed, repetitive work, and you can do all kinds of stuff with transactions, on-site and off-site backup, etc. that pretty much guarantees you’ll never drop a single piece of important customer information.
If what happened to Tara with Expedia happened to me I would express my frustration in much less polite terms. It would have involved calls for boycotting, letter-writing campaigns, voodoo dolls, and a lot of swearing.
If you paid for the booking with your credit card, you have some leverage. Call the credit card company (I know, another nightmare of ‘customer service’) and tell them the story. You could certainly make a case to charge back the cancellation fees, at least.
Travelocity guarantee baby. And no, direct booking for hotels is nowhere near being cheaper 9 times out of 10. It can be at times, but not 90%. But I have always thought that hotels do cater to you a bit more if you book directly, except for Hilton hotels, they just suck.
Anyhoo, I am going to post the link on this blog on a travel focused site that is good, but needs content, http://www.bambora.com
Expedia and other online services have no control over hotel prices. Hotels control the prices through and extranet system and are free to change them as often as they like and to whatever they like. Many hotels, and all hotels with a smart revenue management team, do guarantee the lowest available price on their own website. The reason can be summarized in one word…Capitalism. These big third party channels have a set markup on the rooms they sell. The rate that you are seeing on Expedia, Orbitz, and the like are not the same rate that the hotel will get paid from the agency. The markup is different based on which sight, but can be up to 33%. On Expedia for example a room that costs you $149 will only net a rate of $111.75 for the hotel. It is way more cost efficient for hotels to sell rooms directly at the hotel or their own websites because they do not have as much built in cost to makeup. Old school travel agencies can sometimes find better deals than mega online booking engines for much the same reason. Most actual travel agencies receive a 10% commission on the total amount of the hotel stay. Do the math: at $149 the hotel would make $134.10 through a travel agency, but only $111.75 on the same rate from Expedia. Over $20 per night extra in the hotels bank account. Even if the hotel gave the Travel Agent a special rate of $129 they would still make $116.10 rather than the $111.75.
I hope some of that makes sense. Expedia’s service problems are legitimate at times, but their pricing is not up to them at all. Hotels will normally price their rooms higher on these sites because of the expense related to them.
I started a campaign to stop EXPEDIA’s unethical business practice:
https://www.thepoint.com/campaigns/stop-expedi-as-unethical-business-practice