Expedia.com: Lots of Choices, Easy Navigation
Written: Apr 15 '02 (Updated May 16 '05)
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Lodging sites on the world wide web are plentiful, and most of them contain very similar services and features. Also, there are several lodging services that are affiliated directly with another full- service web site, allowing the traveler to book his room, flight, and car rental all at once. One such site is Expedia.com, a popular on- line travel service. For this review, I’m going to discuss the specifics of Expedia.com’s hotel reservation service.
How Does This Service Work?:
Expedia.com’s hotel reservation home page features Expedia’s special deals, at the top of the screen. This is a quick link into some discounted, featured deals on a few popular destinations. Each time I have logged into Expedia.com hotel reservations, there have been five featured destinations to choose from in this section.
If you want to search for a hotel in a specific location, you can either select a city from the “top destinations” list or you can click on “other city”, and type in the name of a specific place. The top destinations include about 20 popular places for travel, like Las Vegas, Orlando, Washington D.C, and others. The only purpose of this option is to save you a few key strokes. You could easily just type in the name of the destination, in the “other city” box, and you would accomplish the same goal.
The last step you need to take is entering the desired check in and check out dates for you trip, along with the numbers of children and adults in your travel party. To select the dates, you can either type them directly into the box, or you can click on the calendar, find the month that you wish to travel, and then click on the selected date.
If you need to make a more detailed search, you can utilize the Expedia.com lodging wizard. This will allow you to narrow down your search by keyword and/or by amenities. For example, if you want to stay in a Marriott hotel with a pool, you can enter “Marriott” in the keyword box, and then select “pool” from the list of amenities.
Once you enter your dates, Expedia.com will search for matches. On the results page, the hotels will be listed with special offers showing up at the top of the list, with the cost breakdown for each day that you requested. The remaining hotels (those that do not have a special offer at the time) are listed next, but they do not show a breakdown cost per day. Instead, they show you the standard daily rates, plus any discounted daily rates for special circumstances (like senior rates, non- smoking, standard rates, etc.).
On the search page, Expedia.com provides a star rating (from 1 to 5, indicating how fancy the hotel is, not how the Expedia.com customers have rated it) and a brief description of the hotel for the majority of the listings. There’s also a small photo of the hotel. If you want to see more, you can click on a link which will allow you to see a detailed listing that includes the hotel amenities, dining options, location, cancellation policy, check- in and check- out information, and a map of the location. You can zoom in, or zoom out with the map, in order to get a good idea of the location of the hotel.
Booking a Room:
If you decide to make a reservation, you just click the link and you will then be shown a summary of your selection, along with the total cost. If you agree to the deal, then you will be asked to enter your name, address, credit card number, phone number, etc. You will also need to set up an account first, with Expedia.com, before you can complete your reservation. It’s free to sign up, and it only requires a small amount of information. You cannot complete your reservation until you have a personal account.
Pricing:
Expedia.com offers some good, competitive rates on rooms. The price that you are quoted includes a breakdown, showing the price for the room itself, plus the taxes, and grand total. There are no additional charges added. What you see, on your summary page, is the exact amount that will be charged to your credit card.
Expedia.com will send you an e-mail confirmation, to confirm your order. You will also receive a second e-mail confirmation, when the hotel itself has confirmed your stay. It’s a good idea to print these and take them with you, to be safe.
Final Thoughts:
Expedia.com is a very good travel service. I have used it mostly for flights, but the hotel reservation service is very good, too. The site is easy to use and navigate, and the prices are low. There’s also an excellent number of hotels to choose from. With so many choices, a traveler should have no problem finding a hotel to fit his/her budget.
There are a few things, however, that could use improvement in this web service. First of all, I don’t like the order that the hotel search results are displayed. It’s fine to show the special offers first, but it would be better if they were sorted by price. This would allow the person to quickly zero- in on the hotel price that is acceptable, without having to search through all the pages, to see what options fit an individual’s price constraints.
Another way to improve Expedia.com hotel reservations would be to include links to more photos. Each listing shows an outside view of the hotel. If you click to see more information, you might get to see a photo of the inside of the room, and perhaps one or two more photographs. To entice more people to stay at a particular hotel, it would be nice if there were more pictures, including photos of the various types of rooms available, the pool area, bar, restaurant, and other areas that would be of interest.
You have to setup an account first, before you can make a reservation, but this isn’t a big deal. It’s very quick and easy to do, and it doesn’t cost anything.
If you’re looking for a place to stay, I recommend checking out Expedia.com hotel reservations. You can find lodging in well- known destinations, as well as lesser- known cities, both in the United States and around the world. The prices are competitive, and the site is easy to navigate. Expedia.com is a hotel reservation service that’s worth a look!
Be Sure to Click the Links Below to Read More Reviews of Other Popular Travel Web Sites:
American Express Travel
Cheapairlines.com
Travelnow.com
Cheaptravel.com
Hotel Discount.com
Bestfares.com
Hotwire.com
America’s Vacation Center
Expedia.com Flights
Expedia.com Cruises
Travelocity.com Flights
Travelocity.com Hotels
Priceline.com Flights
Priceline.com Hotels
Vacations To Go
Vacationspot.com
Flycheap.com
LowestFare.com
Mytravelco.com
Placestostay.com
Orbitz.com
Cheaptickets.com
Recommended:
Yes
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