Hotels.com Stole $35 Internet

1.  I had a $35 credit with Hotels.com because they had made a mistake.  I applied it to a new reservation.  Tried to change the reservation (perfectly allowable, no date problems, no problems of any kind) and hotels.com said that, because the credit had already been used, it could not be reused.  They even agreed with me that the credit had not actually been used, but their computer system would not allow it to be used.  So I lost the $35.

2.  That experience reflects a theme I've encountered numerous times with Hotels.com - their computer system is often not working.  Sometimes I've been told the system is "updating", other times that it "doesn't respond", still other times that various common operations cannot be performed.

3.  The phone representatives do not speak good English.  Oh, most are understandable with some effort, but it is perhaps a cultural context that is missing.  I know that sounds vague or trivial, but I believe it is actually a worse issue than their technical abilities with the English language.  One time, Hotels.com had messed something up and the person at Hotels.com was good enough to call the hotel to try to straighten things out.  Unfortunately, the American-born, English-speaking hotel employee was unable to understand what the Hotels.com employee was saying due to the thick accent.

4.  This one is probably not specific to Hotels.com.  Keep in mind when using a travel service like this that one cannot simply call the hotel to make changes.  One has to coordinate between the hotel and Hotels.com and it can become a big hassle.