5 Reasons Not To Book Hotels Using Expedia, Hotels.com or Hotwire
91Booking Hotel Rooms Online
The advent of online booking intermediaries has revolutionized the hotel industry. Companies like Expedia, Hotels.com or Hotwire are essential to the success of any hotel because they draw in so much clientele. At a glance, the arrangement between the hotels, customers and intermediaries works quite well. The customer gets to buy a hotel room at a cheaper rate than if they booked directly with the hotel, the intermediary gets to take a certain percentage of the bill while the hotel gets a new way to attract clients and increase their business.
Having worked in the hotel industry, i feel that i need to debunk this myth. The only winner in this case is the intermediary that pockets their percentage. The hotel is forced to accept clientele that is generally not within its target market and online bookings like Expedia leave the hotel open to fraud. The customer does usually get a slight discount on the rate, but not enough to warrant the hassle and horrible customer service that accompanies these intermediaries. Here are the top 5 reasons why you should never book with these intermediaries:
1. There Are Virtually No Cost Savings
You may think that by booking with an intermediary you are saving money, but you are dead wrong. The standard policy in hotels is to keep "rate integrity", meaning that all of its sales points charge roughly the same rate to the end user that actually stays in the hotel. The intermediary will make a killing because the hotel is forced to sell them rooms at a discount (20-50%), while you as the end user will have to cover the difference because the intermediary is making money.
2. Good Luck Changing Your Reservation
If you book with a hotel it is fairly easy to change your reservation. You can call the hotel and most of the time (unless you're past the change/cancellation policy) you can get your reservation sorted. If you book with an intermediary, you can forget all about that. You will need to call their customer service, which is a hit and miss process. Most intermediaries have outsourced their customer service department, meaning that you will have to deal with low paid Third World workers who may have English as their 2nd,,3rd or 4th language. You can still get your reservation changed, but it is guaranteed to be a hassle.
3. Poor Customer Service
As mentioned above in point number 2, most intermediaries have outsourced their customer service departments, meaning that your standard of service is bound to suffer. Their agents are usually low paid, highly educated individuals from the third world that should be working in much more productive jobs but are hampered by local economic conditions. Thus, the lack of motivation and morale makes for a sub-standard customer service experience. From personal experience, it is very common to be shuttled between departments before someone even understands your problem.
4. You Will Get The Worst Rooms In The Hotel
Hotels assign their rooms on the basis of rate, meaning that the more you pay, the better of a room you will get. If you booked with an intermediary, your room will be assigned last, usually to a low or un-renovated floor. In addition, when hotels need to balance their inventory, they provide complimentary upgrades to certain reservations, which are also determined on the basis of what rate you have paid. The worst thing about the situation is that you are actually paying almost the same rate as most other people, as the intermediary pockets the difference between what they pay the hotel and charge you. However,in the hotels eye's, your rate is equal to the intermediary's discount rate, no how much you actually forked out.
5. No Perks At Hotels
To close on the last point, you will most often not get any of the perks that are included in a stay at a hotel. Priority is given to guests that pay a higher rate, and perks that are in limited supply (concierge service, transport to/from airport, room upgrades, access to business centers) may not be extended to guests paying through an online intermediary. It doesn't sound very fair, but if a hotel has a limited supply of such services, they will prioritize them according to rate, and as the hotel only gets 50-70% of what you paid, you will be far down the priority line.
Book With A Hotel
To summarize, you are best off booking directly with a hotel. Alternatively, you can also book with a travel agent, but you are best off doing your own hotel bookings. You will not find as good of a deal as you would if you booked directly with a hotel, because they usually offer a multitude of packages/services, something that no intermediary can match.
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I would say that this goes for all websites, but Expedia is just the most common one that we saw at the hotel that i worked at. Their basic business model is to pray on the ignorance of the consumer and arbitrage the price difference. But i will be the first one to say that my view of such services is biased because I've had to clean up their mess.
I couldn't agree more with this. As someone who has worked for a very well known brand Hotel, I feel confident saying that guests who use third parties to book hotels ALWAYS get a bad deal, and most don't even realize it (this applies to ANY third party such as Hotwire, Expedia, Orbitz, etc.).
Let's say you and a friend book a room with Hotwire. You might have the option of giving your room preference, you say how many adults it will be, and so on.
When I get that reservation, it is accompanied with a fax confirmation of your booking. I am not shown what YOU paid; I only have the balance I am to bill to Hotwire, which is substantially less than I would have gotten if you'd book directly through my hotel. Right away, I am disheartened, especially if it is a slow night where the more revenue I take in the better.
Also in this fax is, in big bold letters, the room preference of HOTWIRE, not you. I never see what you requested.
Hotwire as well as ANY third party give the same preference 100% of the time: "Run of House". R.O.H. is, to be blunt, a nice way of saying "We don't care where you put them. We already got their money. They're your problem now."
And boy oh boy do we encounter problems. I'd say about 75% of my Hotwire guests are extremely upset within two minutes of waking up to my front desk. Remember how you and your friend booked a room? You probably requested a room with two beds. Unfortunately, Hotwire not only has told me that any room type will do, but they've also told me that there will only be one person in this room.
Girls sometimes are okay with this. It starts to become a problem when its two men, a father and his teenage son, or, in the very worst of circumstances, two parents with their 2 or more children.
If you are at my hotel, I will usually do my best to accommodate you (despite being irritated that I'm giving you a bigger room when all my property is getting from the cut is at MOST 40% of what I could have sold the cheapest room for). But if this is a Friday evening, you may be SOL. I may not HAVE a bigger room that would accommodate your party, or I may have one or two left of the room type you want and I am not about to lose a MINIMUM of 60% revenue on one of those rooms by upgrading a Hotwire reservation.
It's also worth conforming the fact that once you pay Hotwire (or whoever you booked through), that transaction is between you and them. My hotel has a completely separate, unrelated transaction that does not involve the guest. When a hotel gets a reservation through something like Hotwire, the vast majority bill the company immediately (and this is the ONLY instance most hotels do that).
The reason for this is because if you are unhappy, you will call the online agent you used. They will tell you they can't refund you. You'll keep complaining and they will put you on hold and call me asking if I can cancel. The answer will be "too late, we have already processed the payment". In turn, they'll tell you to deal with it.
The irony of these situations is that they would have all been easily avoided had you simply chosen your hotel yourself and called it directly. By doing so, you will have the following benefits:
-You have the benefit of RESERVING the type of room you need, not "requesting" it.
-You'll have a more-than-reasonable Cancellation Policy. Most hotels in the price range of a Holiday Inn or Best Western give you until the early evening of your arrival date to cancel without charge.
-Speaking of charges, you don't actually have any until you arrive. We don't bill your credit card when you make a reservation. You can use a different one when you arrive or even pay cash!
-You can still prepay if you prefer, and even THAT is refundable if you cancel in time (at most hotels).
-As said before, you might even get an upgrade. If I'm overbooked, upgrading a Hotwire guest is an absolute last resort. I can count on one hand how many times I do this in the span of an entire year.
-Some hotels (like mine) STILL hold money on your credit card. All hotels will ask for a credit card for "incidentals" (charges you might incur during your visit. While most hotels simply keep your card on file but do not charge it unless needed, some will place a hold of $50-$250 that won't be released to you until you check out (or 14 days if its a debit card!). We do this to cover any damages you might make or policies you break, as we cannot bill Hotwire for more than we have been contracted.
-Finally, and most importantly, is the subject of saving money by using a third party. Booking directly through the hotel gives you a worst case scenario of paying, at most, five or ten dollars more. Even then, you avoid the inevitable problems that you'd encounter. However, I'd say about 90% of the time (and I'm not exaggerating) you will pay LESS. People often are unaware of the discounts offered by something as simple as having a AAA card, being a student or elderly, or even working at a grocery store! The rate we offer to HEB employees is nearly half off!
My final tip: the further in advance you book, the cheaper your rate will be. Room prices go up as less rooms are available, so when you book before anyone else, you are getting the absolute best rate and likely paying at least 35-45% less than someone with the same room who booked just before arriving.
Some people, such as lone-travelers, may choose to continue booking through the likes of Hotwire, and those people will admittedly not encounter anything problematic (though I still don't understand why you'd want to be viewed more of a nuisance to a hotel than a guest, all for a few extra bucks in your pocket).....but for the rest of you, I highly recommend booking through a hotel direct. It'll make your day, the clerks day, and the entire process much less complicated and easy going.
I agree with everything that you said. Third party booking companies are horrible, everyone except them gets shafted in that transaction. Personally, i will never use one of them.
My favorite experience is when we would get inexperienced travel agents that booked rooms for 10 clients through Expedia and only tell us that as they're checking in for their group... haha what a mess.
Nomenklatura, your comment saying "Third World workers" is so disgusting. I am from India and don't forget every Indian even the one who is not educated can say few words in English so stop under estimating us. Ohh, you must be the airhead English man.
Indigital Level 5 Commenter 8 months ago
Would you say this goes for all internet-holiday/travel-booking websites, or just Expedia?