a month ago
Expedia Hotel Booking
verifiedExpedia.com is one of the leaders in the online travel reservations. They have been in business since 1999 and have many cutting-edge features that their competition does not. Expedia.com offers online reservations for flights, rental cars, cruises, hotels, and vacation packages. The convenience of being able to book travel at one site can save time and money for many of their customers.
The Good
- Great features
- Customer service 24/7
- Rewards program
Great Features
Expedia has been in business for more than 15 years and is one of the leading travel sites on the web and has helped thousands of travelers with all of their booking needs. Over time, they have made innovations in the online booking space and their technology ultimately allows them to pull data and pricing information from thousands of traveling and airfare sites. These results are then presented to the traveler to compare, contrast, and book.
Aside from allowing travelers to book the standard accommodations on their site, Expedia has also found a way to help travelers make their trip as straight-forward as possible. Features that travelers will find to be useful during their research and planning time include the following:
- Low price guarantee
- No cancellation or change charges (from Expedia.com - there may be some from airlines, hotels, etc.)
- Cutting edge technology of Scratchpad to keep track of your searches
- Expedia + Rewards program
- Easy interface with suggestions available
- Ability to book with a variety of options (flight only, flight + car, flight + room, flight + room + car, room + car)
- Free cancellation within 24 hours of booking
Customer Service 24/7
Access to customer service is available 24/7, which is helpful for night owls looking for a vacation getaway after normal business hours. With this being said, our reviewers did experience long hold times when trying to contact customer service.
Rewards Program
Expedia offers a rewards program in which points are accumulated for reservations made through Expedia.com and can be donated to charity or redeemed for travel rewards on future trips. The program, Expedia + Rewards, offers three tiers of increasing benefits per tier (Blue, Silver and Gold). Additionally, members of Expedia + Rewards are given access to special deals of the day.
The Bad
- Long wait time
- Not as popular as TripAdvisor
Long Wait Time
Customer service for Expedia.com is lacking some of the polish that one would expect from a large company. The wait time was longer than average and customers explain when agents pick up calls, they are not as professional or helpful as one would expect as well. Since most of the interaction and arrangements are made online and one of the main reasons for calling customer service would be if there was a problem with a reservation, this could be a more significant factor in the resolution of these issues should they arise. Common complaints of frequent Expedia users include:
- Failed anniversary cruises
- Miscommunicated airline ticket scheduling
- Terrible experiences with Expedia customer service
Not as Popular as TripAdvisor
Not only has Expedia demonstrated a struggle in customer service and consistency in travel packages, but it also isn't the most popular go-to travel site. Overall estimated desktop visits to Expedia sites were 63.5 million for May of 2014 compared to TripAdvisor's 159.6 million and Booking.com's 210.5 million.
The Bottom Line
There are many reasons to look at Expedia.com for your next travel arrangements. The usability of the website is exceptional and the ability to add a rental car or hotel to a flight only package is intuitive and cost effective. Expedia has a great deal to offer with its rewards program and daily travel offerings for the local scene and for travels abroad. Users that enlist the help of Expedia to book their travel can expect the following from the service:
- Booking Incentives: Rewards program and membership benefits
- Insurance: Travel protection
- Support: 24/7 customer support
- Compiled information: Family of brands to use to aggregate data
- Sorting tool: Thousands of results that can be sorted in a matter of seconds
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User Reviews
We use Expedia quite often when we are going on vacations, especially when we are traveling and needing to use different hotels. We have found that Expedia quite often has cheaper prices than if you go onto a hotel's website. I really like it because it is very easy to see all of the different hotels that are in the same area so you know all of the different options that you have. I would definitely recommend using Expedia for your next trip.
I am so glad websites like Expedia exist. I do not have the skills to vacation find, and Expedia brings it all together in one place!
Expedia give me a lot more options when I go to find a hotel at a destination that I don't know about. I can put in my criteria and in a matter of seconds have plenty of choices to choose from at great prices.
Recently I used Expedia to book a number of hotels for a big road trip vacation I was planning on going on. Unfortunately I had to cancel the trip and my cancellation dates had passed for me to get fully refunded for cancelling. I called Expedia's customer service and explained the predicament I was in & even though the cancellation dates were passed, they went out of their way to call the hotels that were booked and get me a full refund for all 4 hotels. Because of this, I will be using Expedia a lot more. I was very impressed with the customer service, the way they handled the situation & their professionalism.
They do a good job, but be prepared for tons of follow-up email after the purchase . . .
I have used Expedia a number of times and liked it. Very easy and fast to do.
I really like Expedia Hotel Booking. I have booked a few hotels on here, and I've gotten reward points for the ones I've stayed in to use for future bookings. They don't always have the cheapest prices, so still check around other sites. Most of the time though, they have very cheap prices.
I like going to one site. Pricing is always competative.
We drove across the country last year and used Expedia on an almost daily basis for two weeks to book our hotels. The process works okay as long as you don't have any problems and need to contact customer service. The customer service agents we spoke with hardly spoke English and it was very frustrating for us (and for them to, I'm sure) to work out the issues. I spent a lot of time on the phone which was the last thing I wanted to be doing. They did, however, give us a voucher for a free night's stay which was nice.