Excellent site, but not a good place for bargains or hotels off the beaten track.
Written: Aug 09 '04 (Updated Aug 10 '04)
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How would you like to pay $119 a night for a room that you can easily get for $69 a night by by dealing direct with the hotel? How about paying $25 to cancel your reservation a month before your planned trip? If either of those sounds good to you, then you'll be happy with Expedia hotels.
That's not to say there's anything wrong with Expedia's hotel reservation service. It's actually quite good. It's just not the place to go if you're looking for a bargain.
The Web Site
To access the Expedia hotel site, just start at www.expedia.com and click on the "Hotels" link. That takes you to a very clear, simple and easy to use search and booking page. It's topped off with links to special hotel deals at a variety of popular destinations (for example, Las Vegas, New York, etc.). Just click on one of these to see a list of good deals.
Otherwise, you can just enter your trip dates and pick from a list of most popular cities or enter the name of the city you're going to. Click "GO" and Expedia quickly comes up with a list of hotels with room choices and prices for the days of your trip. Each hotel listing includes a star rating and links to more complete descriptions of the property. Select a hotel, and Expedia takes you through a reservation process that's similar to what you see on any other travel site and other areas of Expedia. It's fast and straightforward, and when you set up your personal "account," it remembers all your name, address and credit card information.
One very nice feature of the site is the ability to home in on hotels close to a specific address or in a specific neighborhood.
Expedia gives you a clear, detailed confirmation including about half a page of information on its cancellation policy.
The Downside
Although the web site is great, there are some significant problems with this service:
Price. Remember the good old days when using sites like Travelocity, Expedia, Orbitz, etc. was the way to find travel bargains? Well, with the cutthroat competition in the travel industry and the ability of even the smallest hotels to directly represent themselves on the internet, middlemen like Expedia aren't able to routinely deliver good prices any more.
Here's a recent personal example. I just booked (July 2004) a room for two nights at Harrah's Lake Tahoe by going directly to Harrah's web site. Cost? $69 for the first night and $79 for the second night. And that was just the rack rate. Even lower rates were available for "frequent gamblers." Out of curiousity, I went right to Expedia and found the same type of room offered at $119 per night. Furthermore, Harrah's offered free cancellation up to 72 hours before the reserved date while Expedia imposed a $25 fee beginning immediately.
Selection. I've also found that Expedia doesn't always offer the full range of rooms available directly from the hotel. For example, Harrah's offers two types of standard rooms: lake view rooms and all other rooms. Expedia offered only one type of room and neglected to specify which type it was.
Confirming reservations with the hotel. Expedia sends you a confirmation, but if you try calling the hotel well before your trip, you may find they haven't heard of you. That's because Expedia has control over reserving the room and it isn't required to inform the hotel right away that you've made a reservation. Of course, it does inform the hotel before your arrival date. This may be a problem for those who need some atypical service from the hotel, such as coordinating rooms for several different parties, etc.
Overall
Expedia hotels is an excellent hotel booking site for those who don't care about rock bottom prices and don't need to see the full range of rooms available at a particular hotel. If you're happy with Expedia's prices and room choices, great.
On the other hand, if price and detailed selection is a concern, you might be better off going directly to the hotel's web site or booking number.
Related Links
How should I pay my travel expenses? This no-fee Visa card gives 1% cash back.
Recommended:
No
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? Checked prices for Lake Tahoe casino/hotels
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Member: Jim J
Location: Santa Cruz, California
Reviews written: 190
Trusted by: 78 members
About Me:
#7 in Personal Finance, #14 in Travel. My goal? Saving you money.
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