Expedia Ripoff unable to provide contracted hotel room Bellevue Washington

I first booked a hotel through expedia on October 9, 2004 through itinerary 110670113023 and the sheets in the room had blood and hair in them and the hotel refused to clean it or give me another room. They eventually kicked me out for complaining about the problem and Expedia could not refund me, but gave me a $100 good will coupon despite the reservation costing $125.

For a long time I was unwilling to use expedia, however I had to go to my uncles funeral last minute on February 20, 2006. I used the good will coupon to book itinerary 112094871895 (booked on February 19) which was a room at Ramada Plaza Hotel La Guardia Airport. I used the goodwill coupon and paid the balance of $23.50. I had to find a place to stay for the evening because my flight did not leave until 11:00am the following morning and my uncle's house has 6 cats in it which I am allergic to.

When I arrived at the hotel at 8pm, they told me that because I booked a prepaid room through expedia at the last minute they did not actually have a room for me. They said I should never book rooms unless it's through the hotel itself because they can see if there are rooms, but can not actually guarantee rooms. I asked for a refund and they said I would have to go through expedia. I called expedia and said they can not give me a refund because the hotel would not authorize a refund. The representative negotiated with the hotel and they offered me a disabled access smoking room, however I have severe asthma and the residual smoke made the room in habitable for me. All the hotel would offer were air fresheners which I am also allergic to. I have had to go the hospital and be hooked up to breathing machines from being around smoke before and was not willing to risk sleeping in this situation. The hotel and expedia were both unwilling to offer a refund or other accommodations.

I tried calling other Hotels and all of them were full. I also used the expedia travel service to find another room and they could not locate any vacancies. I told the expedia representative that I was now started because I had no place to sleep and my flight was not for another 14 hours. All they were willing to do was offer me another good will coupon.

The hotel said I would be removed if I tried to sleep in the lobby, but said I ocudl sleep in the airport, so they called a cab so I could go to the airport and sleep there as they did not have an airport shuttle running at the time. I was then told at the airport I can not sleep in the check in area, only after the security check point, but I could not enter the security check point until 4 hours before my flight. So I had no where to go or sleep. Because of this I bought a 1 way ticket on a flight that evening to return to Indianapolis for $257.50.

I would like to be reimbursed by expedia in the amount of $123.50 for my hotel room, $15.00 for the cab, and $257.50 for the additional airfare I had to purchase because expedia was not able to provide with any accommodations and I would have been arrested had I slept anywhere and was unable to sleep on the street because of the cold weather. This is a total of $396. I believe this is called Expectation damages. All expedia will offer is a $50 coupon towards my next purchase.

Michael
Bloomington, Indiana
U.S.A.