Hotels.com Reservations not honored Internet

I work at the front desk of a Best Western property, previously 2 years at a Marriot hotel. For some as of yet unknown reason sometimes reservations made through 3rd party websites, most often Hotels.com, come up with the wrong room reserved or just don't register in our computers. It's as if they were never there. You are far better off booking through the hotel itself and talking to a real person on the phone, you want something done right then do it yourself.

I have also seen news reports that Hotels.com has leaked credit card information in the past.

**You said: "Also, I would never recommend using hotels.com or expeida.com anyway. The commisions that properties pay is WAY too high. For example, you may see a room advertised for $99.00/night on the website. By the time the whole process is over, the property is only getting about $60/night."

When you are a hotel property contracted with Hotels or Expedia, you don't pay commission to them. You bill them. In fact, you bill them for a rate that was agreed upon in a contract. If the owner of the property believed for any reason that it was a bad idea, why would the owner enter into a contract to allow Expedia/Hotels.com to sell their rooms? Most hotels enter into this agreement because we agree to buy rooms from them they may not otherwise be able to sell on a normal daily basis. Better to get less money for a room than your normal charge, than to get nothing at all.

**You also said: "BTW: Hotels.com customer service isn't so great anyway. We allow hotels.com to sell no more than five rooms/day for our property. When they accidentally oversold us by one room on a busy weekend, I contacted their customer service dept. only to have a rude woman tell me 'I guess you'll just have to walk (send) that guest somewhere else.' Ummm...it was YOUR mistake and that's how I'm supposed to tell our staff to deal with it? How would you like to be that guest? Especially since all other area hotels have been sold out for weeks? Great solution, hotels.com!"

It isn't possible for us to overbook on prepaid, contracted rooms. If your contract stipulates that you allow Hotels.com 5 rooms/day, then that's the only allotment which is provided; there is no magical 6th room that appears. When the 5th room allotted has been booked, that's it. There are no more rooms to sell. The property is then listed as Sold Out on the site. The only way an overbooking occurs is if the hotel property sells one of the rooms that they've allotted to us, directly to someone else instead (usually because the hotel can obtain more money from that person than they would get from a Hotels.com booking; you pretty much confirmed this attitude yourself in your response). So the person who booked that allotted room then shows up to the hotel, only to find out that they are overbooked, and the hotel simply tells the customer that it's our fault and to contact us to complain. It then generally falls on Customer Care to try relocating the client, because often the hotel washes their hands of it. Great solution, hotel!

I appreciate your assessment that we at Hotels.com and Expedia are all pains in the a**; however, you must understand that the same can be said of so very, very many hotel properties.

We've read about this a couple of times. Same thing for car rental places. When I book something through the discounters, I then call either the hotel or car rental place to confirm/verify my reservation. As a matter of fact, I print off a copy. You'll get a confirmation number for both. At a couple of car rental places, they had no record UNTIL I produced my copy. It's the only smart thing to do. That way you don't get let out in the cold or in the middle of noplace without a ride.

The employee of hotels.com is somewhat correct. I work for a property that uses hotels.com (although I wish we didn't because they are such a pain in the a** as well as their sister company expedia.com).

ANYWAY, hotels.com/expedia.com process is this:
You want to stay at Joe's Inn and so you book on-line with hotels.com. Hotels.com sends Joe's Inn an automatic fax with your name and dates of stay.

The reservations department at Joe's Inn puts your reservation into their computer system and faxes back a confirmation to hotels.com.

If, for some reason, the reservation is lost and Joe's Inn never gets the initial fax, it is hotels.com customer service rep's job to contact Joe's Inn by phone to make sure everything is OK.

At our property, this phone call is usually made within hours of hotels.com not receiving a response (which is rare, but DOES happen b/c fax line was busy, fax line is down, etc.). Likewise, if it is a "last minute" reservation, a customer service person usually calls w/i minutes of not receiving a responce from the property.

Anyway, my point is that hotels.com should have known right away if the property had not received the reservation and should have taken the proper steps to ensure that the reservation was made before the guest experienced any problems. To blame the whole situation on the property isn't really fair.

Also, I would never recommend using hotels.com or expeida.com anyway. The commisions that properties pay is WAY too high. For example, you may see a room advertised for $99.00/night on the website. By the time the whole process is over, the property is only getting about $60/night.

You are much better off contacting the property directly b/c most people I know in my line of work (hotel accounting) do not want to lose that revenue by paying commisions. Call the reservations dept. and tell them that you saw $99/night on a hotels.com and they will most likely cut you a deal just so you WON'T book with an on-line travel agent.

Hotels/Expedia.com is also very shady when it comes to reimbursing the property for a guest's stay. Hotels.com just pays the property whenever the hell they feel like it. (Don't believe me? I've got PAGES of invoices totalling THOUSANDS of $$'s that hotels.com is dragging their feet on paying). It's ridiculous and not worth the hassle.

BTW: Hotels.com customer service isn't so great anyway. We allow hotels.com to sell no more than five rooms/day for our property. When they accidentally oversold us by one room on a busy weekend, I contacted their customer service dept. only to have a rude woman tell me "I guess you'll just have to walk (send) that guest somewhere else." Ummm...it was YOUR mistake and that's how I'm supposed to tell our staff to deal with it? How would you like to be that guest? Especially since all other area hotels have been sold out for weeks? Great solution, hotels.com!

If you are going to travel, do yourself a favor and contact properties directly b/c they don't want the headaches of dealing with these jokers, and neither do you.

On-line agencies like travelocity.com and orbitz.com are MUCH better in my opinion (with both customer service and rates), if you do like to book on-line.

I am a customer care agent with Hotels.com and I wish to state to you that every time a reservation is made either through our website or over the telephone with one of our agents, a fax is sent to the hotel with your reservation information. This fax is generated automatically by our computer system and there would not be any agent who would be negligent in getting your reservation information to the hotel.

At that point, it is the hotel's responsibility to ensure that your reservation information is entered into their own computer systems. If someone at the Marriott misplaced the fax with your reservation or neglected to enter your data, then of course they will not have your information, and to cover for themselves, they will state to you that we never sent the reservation to begin with when they know that our reservations are sent automatically.

I believe that you have not been compensated because hotels.com cannot be liable for the inaction or negligence of any hotels that contract with our company. My suggestion is this, contact hotels.com and find out from one of our agents if the hotel billed us for your stay. If they did not, then perhaps a credit can be issued back to your credit card. NO GUARANTEES!! If we have already submitted payment to the hotel for your stay, then you may not receive a refund. Considering that your post is from only 3 weeks ago, you may still have a chance for a credit.