MC
What we all should know about Expedia's business practices.
Just yesterday I found out just how dirty this business operates. One year ago, I booked 3 nights at the Embassy Suites in Nashville, TN through Expedia. This was a group trip with 5 or 6 life-long friends. We were to leave on our trip in 16 days and were unable to get there the first night, Thursday, and I needed to change the reservation. I searched for my confirmation email from Expedia in my inbox, sent box and folders. I couldn't find it so I contacted the 800 number for Embassy Suites as the Nashville hotel was not answering at 12:30 (approx.) a.m. The woman at the 800 number for Embassy Suites said I would have to contact Expedia to change the reservation because that is who I made the reservation through. I said "Thank You. I will tomorrow." The next day as I was going through emails and cleaning folders of years' past emails, I found my confirmation email for the 3 nights at the Embassy Suites in Nashville. I was very relieved to have found the confirmation, but noticed that it was sent to me by Reservationcounter.com. I thought, "Who is that???" Had never heard of them. I knew I had booked it through Expedia and the Embassy Suites even confirmed that the night before. I don't do business with random companies I have never heard of before. I then tried to change my reservation on Reservationcounter.com (henceforth to be known as R.counter.com and it would only allow me to cancel the entire reservation. That wasn't an option for me. I then called their "Customer Support" number...what a joke! I spoke with "Mary" and explained that I had tried to change my reservation online, but couldn't. I said I didn't know why R.counter.com sent me the confirmation because I booked with Expedia and had never heard of R.counter.com She informed me that R.counter.com was an affiliate of Expedia. I asked if they bought my reservation from Expedia and she said no and tried to tell me I booked with R.conter.com. I vehemently denied booking with R.counter.com and I wanted to change my reservation taking off only the Thursday night as we couldn't be there on that day. Mary confirmed I was calling well ahead of the cancellation policy's deadline, but she told me they could not take off just the Thursday night reservation because their system would not allow it. I would have to cancel the entire reservation and there were no more rooms to reserve. I told them I have a room, no need for another, just please cancel the Thursday night only. Again, I was told they couldn't do that and then the call was dropped!! I called back thinking it was my cell phone that dropped the call. Explained everything again to "George". He, too, said it couldn't be changed and I could only cancel the entire reservation and there were no more rooms to reserve. And then, the call AGAIN was dropped. I was furious. I then called Embassy Suites (henceforth known as E.S.) in Nashville to see if they could help me change my reservation and spoke to X (I prefer not to use a name) who was so helpful. They said they had my reservation and could indeed change it to eliminate the Thursday night reservation. I asked if that would then show as a credit on my credit card and they said no, that because I paid Expedia (in this case R.counter.com) Expedia pays E.S. for the number of days we stay after the stay is completed. I explained to X my encounter with R.counter.com and that my confirmation notice of 1 year ago came from them and it said my credit card had been charged in full for my original reservation of 3 days. I told X that if E.S. gets paid from R.counter.com for the 2 days I use, then R.counter.com pockets the money for the 3rd day (Thurs. night). Therefore, R.counter.com is STEALING my money because they won't let me change my reservation/my room to only 2 nights!!! I don't want to lose my room for 2 nights, there are no more rooms to reserve upon full cancellation (my only option) of my reservation with and according to R.counter.com, but I don't want to give over $200 to R.counter.com by keeping my reservation of 3 days and using only 2 of the 3 nights. After calling Expedia directly (their number was provided to me by E.S. because you can't find Expedia's number on their website) and speaking to their C.S. representative (she was nice) who sent me to her supervisor (who was not pleasant, washed Expedia's hands of my business situation and told me to call R.counter.com), this entire ordeal was worked out with the help of X at E.S. X still had a room available for 2 nights (Friday and Sat.) at a higher rate per night than I got from Expedia/R.counter.com. X asked if I still needed a Handicapped accessible room and I said not at all. X said that is what Expedia put me in. Isn't that against the law if you don't need Handicapped accessible rooms? It is for Handicapped parking places. X also said that since I had had soooo much trouble with Expedia/R.counter.com he would give me a discount per night for the 2 nights I wanted. I was thrilled and politely accepted his offer as the total cost for 2 nights was still less than what I was paying for 3 nights to Expedia/R.counter.com AND I WOULDN'T BE LETTING THEM STEAL MY MONEY for the 3rd night!!! The next day I cancelled my original reservation with Expedia/R.counter.com for a full reimbursement...their complete loss as they got absolutely no money from me!!!! And, I received a reservation I wanted and needed from a person and company that stand behind their claims of customer service and hospitality. I will NEVER use Expedia again and have cancelled my account with them. I urge everyone to BEWARE of who they do business with, especially over the internet. Expedia/R.counter.com is out to get you with all kinds of tricks. They don't inform you of their true cancellation policies nor do they inform you that your business with them may be turned over to an affiliate to handle. Both businesses train their people to hang up on you, put you on hold for over 30 minutes when requesting to speak to a supervisor (which happened to me in this situation, too) and give you false information re: availability of rooms, all in hopes of wearing you down, making you give up or trying to convince you to keep your original reservation so they can pocket your money on something you can't use. I would give Expedia and Reservationcounter.com a 0 stars if that were a choice because they trap you if they can when trying to change a reservation and steal your money. I can't say enough positive things about Embassy Suites of Nashville at Vanderbilt University. MC---Past client of Expedia