Hotels.com
reviews and complaints

Hotels.com has been scamming people since they first opened up. Paying their employees only 9.00 to 9.90 an hour. Then you make like .7% commission. Some employees would bring in over 100, 000 for the company in one month and not make and commission because they didn't meet a certain 'Close Ratio'. It is crazy how Expedia make all this money and doesn't pay anything to there workers. Then they continue to lie to the customers. Hotels.com is Expedia, Hotwire, tripadvisr, motels.com, New York City.com and lots of other names. Don't be fooled by the name. Hotels.com is a scam, if not to the customer to the employees. You have to basically lie to customer to make money for yourself. So customer who have called in to hotels.com or what they now say 'Hello, this is blank in reservations how may I help you?' Please, don't call if you are not going to book anything. These people are getting nearly nothing and you calling in is just giving them hopes that you will book something so they can make some real money. So instead of doing it yourself online just give one call and help someone pay their rent. They really do know what they are doing.

Last weekend, a few of my friends and myself drove to San Antonio (from Fort Worth) to have a nice, relaxing girl's weekend. When we arrived at the Hilton where I had made a reservation using the hotels.com website, I was informed they had no room booked under my name, which I found extremely surprising, considering I received an email from hotels.com specifically saying "Your reservation has been booked!" I then spent 30 minutes on the phone with a hotels.com representative who for some reason could not understand the booking number I gave him a million times and tried to tell me my reservation was for September something in Denver! He even called me a different name, even though I informed him who I was several times. When he was finally able to figure out our booking information, it took another 30 minutes for him to contact the Hilton--where supposedly we already had a reservation--to book us a room! I find this incredibly absurd. Rest assured, neither my friends who accompanied me on this trip nor myself will ever trust hotels.com for hotel booking purposes, as our "relaxing" weekend ended up starting with a stressful battle between incompetent customer service personnel and our hotel. In our opinion, hotels.com has a very flawed way of conducting business. We didn't even save any money!

Next time, I'm booking straight through the hotel... same price, really, and much better service!

Hotels.com debited my bank account on 09/29/2008 for $275.64. When I called them they had no record of the charge. My bank statement shows Hotels.com aith a phone of [protected] (their customer service line). They passed the buck saying to dispute the charge.

My last reservation with Hotels.com was Dec. 2005. Now three years later they debit my account but have no record?

They can cancel my account, delete my info, give me my money back and go out of business. I'll go to their Dallas headquarters and stand on someone's desk.

I booked a hotel reservation through Hotels.com, then I found that the price was lowered the day after I booked my reservation. Since most travel sites offer a best price guarantee, I e-mailed Hotels.com's customer service and they told me that they would credit back part of the difference and issue me "hotel bucks" for the remainder. Hotel bucks are like travel vouchers that can be used on a future booking, much like a coupon or gift certificate.

The trip was in May and I am still waiting for the credit/refund in August. I WILL NEVER USE HOTELS.COM AGAIN! I have repeatedly tried to contact their customer service through phone and e-mail with no avail. I am so frustrated and recommend that you avoid this web site!

I made a reservation in Seattle at the Red Lion Hotel on the 13th with HOTELS.COM on Dec. for the 31st. A few minutes later I discovered I had the wrong date as it should have been the 30th. I re-entered the information and made the change. Upon my chagrin I was billed for two nights. There policy states that if a change is made you are billed for two nights. What kind of policy is this? I had to pay double for one mistake that took less than 5 minutes to change. I travel a lot. I WILL NEVER USE THESE BURGLERS AGAIN. It was my first and last. Learned my lesson.

I wanted to write and let you know about the horrible time I had with hotels.com's booking and customer service. When I tried to check into my hotel room at the Milnor Hotel in Boston, MA on Saturday, I was informed that they had no record of my reservation (even though I was holding my confirmation email from hotels.com) and that they were completely booked for the night. They said my only option was to call your customer service, which I did.

After being on hold for 45 mins while sitting in the lobby of the hotel I was told by the customer service person that they could not get ahold of the hotel to confirm they had no record of my reservation. Which I knew because I was standing next to the front desk where the person at the desk put every call on hold and never went back to them.

So now your rep tells me there isn't a single hotel open in the entire city of Boston, of which there are hundreds, so I have to take a room at hotel in a different city that is supposedly only 9 miles away.

At this point I have asked for a manager whose name was Manny and he tells me the same thing except for the fact he lied because he said he spoke to the front desk at the hotel, which I was still standing at and could easily see that he was never on the phone and I even asked the front desk clerk and manager, who were the only two working there and they both said they never spoke with anyone from hotels.com that day.

The entire reason for getting this room at this hotel was because it was only 2 miles from Fenway park where I had bought $200 tickets to take my girlfriend to the baseball game for her birthday. So now I had to change hotels which was actually 18 miles away from Boston through 2 toll booths and on 2 different highways, not 9 like your rep had said and by the time we got there and checked in, the baseball game was already half over and we had to go sit in the hotel bar to watch the end of it.

So thank you hotels.com for ruining my girlfriends birthday present and allowing me to throw away $200 for a game we couldn't go to and spending $100 for a hotel room that we didn't need after missing the game.

Jason

I made a reservation for 3 nights stay in Novotel Paris Vaugirard Hotel via Hotels.com for 17.05.2008. Just one day before I had a serious last-minute health problem in my family i.e. bypass surgery so I had to cancel everything. I informed hotels.com that I had to cancel per above reasons I can document it and I would like a refund. Agent listened and told that he has to call the hotel for it and held me online, I do not think that he really called the hotel, anyway he informed that it is not possible. I asked the hotel myself and got the answer that refund is possible per hospital documentation. But because of poor language and general communication skills they first told they would refund themselves kept me waiting for a week and then after various calls decided that expedia can do the refund. I called expedia, I am not mentioning how many minutes they keep you waiting to reach an agent(it's a lot!) agent listened again and told me that he would call the hotel altough I have forwarded the written confirmation for refund from hotel. He kept me on the line and it got disconnected. When I called again, the other agent told me that the one talking to me already left for the day without even notifying me at all. Imagine you are waiting at an international call, believing that the agent is doing smth while you are waiting and he already leaves at that time. New agent this time named Nicole, had to bear my terrible frustration, listened again and guess what decided to call hotel, could not reach front desk manager as she told and did not call me back altough she was going to next morning. Today I called there again and by chance I reached the agent that left me on the call, I asked him to put me through his supervisor, the guy listened and told that he would send an e-mail so that I can forward my mail to them about confirmation, it is unbelievable that they do no even check the mails of their own company and that mail fro him did not come. I am still after this, this is the worst service I have ever got in my whole life. I do not recommend hotels.com to anyone at all. If you want to be dissatisfied please be my guest in this adventure!

They sent me some "hotel bucks" to make up for screwing me on a reservation for my "next" reservation thru Hotels.com. I made another reservation thru Hotels.com followed the directions on the "Hotel bucks" mailed them in for credit. WHOOPS! Here they come back with NEWAND DIFFERENT RULES! I called Hotels.com's customer service only to be insulted by them, being told "it's very simple if you'd just pay attention", theyrefuyse to give out their last initial, corporate telephone number or any help beyond the fact that you as customer are to blame! Never again! you get a better deal most times just going to the home site of the hotel you want to stay at. Beware these con artists.

This complaint is still in process with the BBB in Texas where HOTELS.COM corporate office is located.

This is my orginal letter to the BBB and below you will see hotels.com response

Complaint to BBB Case # [protected]

Hotel was HORRIBLE! The problems with the room were: NO DOORKNOB ON THE DOOR JUST A BIG HOLE WHERE THE DOORKNOB SHOULD BE. WE TALKED TO THE MANAGER ABOUT THIS WHO SAID HE WOULD COME UP AND TAKE A LOOK AT IT WHICH HE DID AND HIS REPLY WAS: YES, YOU ARE CORRECT THERE IS NO DOORKNOB... SHOWER HAD CHIPS IN TUB AND MOLDLY CAULKING, DIRTY UNDERNEATH BED (WE HAD TO SEE UNDERNEATH THE BED TO PULL OUT CHILDS BED, ROOM WAS FILTHY AND WAS NOT CLEANED, REQUESTED A ROOM FOR 3 ADULTS WHAT WE GOT WAS A QUEEN SIZE BED AND A PULL OUT CHILD'S TRUNDLE BED. WE HAD TO PICK UP THE QUEEN SIZED BED AND MOVE IT AGAINST THE WALL AND PUT THE NIGHTSTAND IN THE CLOSET JUST TO GET THE CHILDS TRUNDLE BED OUT. THEY ADVERTISED FREE COMPLIMENTARY PARKING ON SITE. WHEN WE ASKED ABOUT THE PARKING WE WERE TOLD THAT THE FREE PARKING WAS ANYWHERE ON THE STREET IF YOU COULD FIND A PLACE. WE WERE TOLD WE COULD PARK IN A CITY PARKING LOT BUT WE HAD TO PAY THE NORMAL FEE THAT THE CITY CHARGES. ROOM CLEARLY NOT BIG ENOUGH FOR 3 ADULTS I was told at the time of making the reservations that even if we cancelled there would be no refund I personally called hotels.com 5 or 6 times to try and settle this issue. Each time they would try and call the hotel we stayed at and each time I was told to call back that the manager was not available. I sent an email to hotels.com asking for a resolution I got no response. Hotels.com did offer me $100.00 and told me that was the best they could do. I told them that was unacceptable. I even have pictures and I will be more than happy to provide proof of my allegations.

Your Desired Resolution:
I want a total and COMPLETE refund. We were in Paris on vacation and if it had not been for the no refund policy and if other hotels had been available (there was a big event going on in Paris and most hotels were booked up) we would not have stayed there a second night. Not only was the hotel room horrible but also their description was total false advertising. I do not want any gift certificates, discounts or anything short of a full refund in cash/check/money order ect

HERE IS HOTELS.COM RESPONSE

On December 04, 2007, the business provided the following information:

We apologize for any inconvenience Mr. Hills may have experienced while using our services. Hotels.com appreciates the opportunity to address his complaint.

On 9/27/07 Mr. Hills contacted us to book a hotel in the Levallois Perret, France. The hotel of Mr. Hill's choice was the Campanile Paris Quest required check in date 10/05/07 for two nights and three adult occupants. Our agents are trained and monitored to recap the pertinent details of each booking at the close of the call. This includes but not limited to the room type, hotel name/location, number of occupants in the room and all terms and conditions. The cancellation policy is also read during the booking process and must be agreed upon prior to the completion of reservations. The cancellation that applied to Mr. Hill's reservation is as follows: At Hotels.com, we understand that sometimes plans fall through. Hotels.com does not charge a change or cancel fee.
However, this property (CAMPANILE PARIS OUEST) imposes the following penalty to its customers that Hotels.com is required to pass on: cancellations or changes made after 07:00 PM (W. Europe Daylight Time) on 10/04/2007 are subject to a 1 Night Room & Tax penalty. The property makes no refunds for no shows or early checkouts. All terms and conditions are also detailed in the email confirmation/receipt sent to Mr. Hills on 9/27/07. The email confirmation/receipt also has our listed disclaimer which states smoking and bedding preferences are not guaranteed.

Hotels.com understands that there may be times when the property may not meet the expectations of the guest and may lead to their dissatisfaction. We encourage our customers to contact us immediately when there is a problem during their hotel stay, this usually gives us a chance to resolve the problem at the time it occurred. Unfortunately Mr. Hills did not contact us until 10/12/07 after his completed stay. Contact with us after a completed stay limits our ability to resolve our guest's issues.

We are unable to honor Mr. Hill's request for a full refund. Our agents have made attempts to reconcile with Mr. Hills by offering refunds and coupons which have been declined by Mr. Hills.

Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns regarding this case.

Thank you,

Jennifer Buemtello
Consumer Relations
Hotels.com
[protected] ext. 3415

HERE IS MY RESPONSE TO THEM

Hotels.com was contacted as soon as I returned home from my travels. To say that that bedding preferences are not guaranteed is ridiculous. When I book a room for 3 adults common sense would say there will be enough bedding for 3 adults and not a Queen Sized Bed and a child’s bed. We did not check out early since there was NO OTHER PLACES to stay and we would have been charged for the room regardless! Hotels.com understands that there may be times when the property may not meet the expectations of the quest and may lead to their dissatisfaction

HOWEVER
I do not think that MY expectations of:
A DOORKNOB, and NOT JUST A HOLE IN THE DOOR WHERE A DOORKNOB USE TO BE
A CLEAN ROOM,
A ROOM BIG ENOUGH FOR 3 ADULTS,
ADVERTISEMENT ON HOTELS.COM WEB SITE THAT OFFERS FREE COMPLIMENTARY PARKING ON SITE ONLY TO BE TOLD PARKING IS REALLY ON THE STREET THAT IS IF YOU CAN FIND PARKING!,
AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST A BATHROOM THAT DOES NOT HAVE MOLD GROWING ALL OVER IT……..

IS ASKING TO MUCH.

After several attempts to resolve this issue hotels.com finally offered a measly $100.00 which I did refuse
At no time were COUPONS offered and if they had been they too would have been refused.

At this point I really want to ask, “Whatever happened to just doing the “right” thing?” I do not believe hotels.com did this on purpose but I do believe that you need to take responsibility since you were the agent that was used in booking this hotel reservation. If you can not as a company personally check out the hotels that are listed on your site then you as a company have to be prepared to assume liability when
there is a problem.

I am not some person complaining about a hair in a sink trying to get a refund. I had some real problems with this reservation and this room.
Would you stay in a room with no doorknob?
How about mold growing in the bathroom?
Would you subject your family to this? Would this be acceptable to you?

If the answer to any of the above questions is a no then please try and understand why I am so angry over this and why I am still wanting a total and complete refund of $417.60. At some point it becomes a much bigger issue than just the money. It is the principal of it. Yes, I am still demanding a refund, but it is the principal of it the drives me to seek justice. I will keep going up the chain as far as I have to if that is what it takes to get this resolved to my satisfaction.

I realize that as an employee of hotels.com it is your job to fight off complaints, save the company money, try to resolve issues and hope the complainers eventually are satisfied or hope they just go away assuming it is not worth the time and effort to peruse it. I’m not going away and the only way I will be satisfied is with a total and complete refund of $417.60

IF I RECIEVE A RESPONSE I WILL POST IT HERE AS WELL... I SUSPECT THIS WILL NOT BE RESOLVED. I DO LOVE THE LINE IN THEIR RESPONSE THAT SAYS:

"The email confirmation/receipt also has our listed disclaimer which states smoking and bedding preferences are not guaranteed."

ARE THEY KIDDING ME?

THEY ARE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE PEOPLE DO NOT USE THEM
TAKE THIS AS A WARNING THEY DO NOT GUARENTEE ANYTHING!

I made a reservation through Hotels.com for two rooms one night. The website states if you find a cheaper rate within xxx amount of days they would refund you the difference. I found one directly through the hotel that was almost $50 cheaper. I followed the rules on the website to get a credit to my credit card but never heard a peep out of them. Never again hotels.com.

On May 1st we made several reservations with hotels.com help by Jessica Turner who is employed by them. Out of the four reservation one was book incorrectly. After many emails, several phone calls and being disconnected because they insisted that the connection was bad, 4hrs later I later of persisting calling I was help by one of the supervisors and the correct package was made. I was promised that the other package was being cancel and the money was being refunded to my credit card, and that all I need it was to pay for the new package witch I did.

It has been more then a month since this transactions where done by hotels.com and no money has been return back to the credit card but they did charge the package that was made in oder to correct there mistake.

I strongly believe that it is not corrected for me to be paying changer for the 1st package that was made incorrectly by them on my credit card that I am not going to used.

On my first use of the service hotels.com I noticed that the page for credit card transactions is not secured. So when I called to make my reservation, I guess I was supposed to read all the disclaimers on the website first, which like an idiot I did not so I was extremely surprised when making the reservation that money had to be paid that very moment.

I couldn't even make plans to pay in cash, it had to be credit card, Money order, or nothing. When the Rep had answered the line my dog barked so I didn't catch her name nor did I think to ask at this point. The first thing they want is the credit card information, even before you actually find out if a room is still available or if it's the one you paid for.

Since I was paying extra for a "Pool" view room why hadn't she read this back to me when verifying the room? "It will be noted on my account, right?" I am told "No" they don't guarantee the room, as she went on I was quickly seeing they didn't guarantee anything! I asked her to note it on my account, I am paying extra and I don't want to end up over the parking lot! She says she's just suppose to read what's on the paper and that's all she can do (boy she got that right) she had this attitude like I had interrupted her day and continued to sigh the rest of the conversation until I was getting upset that she could by no means guarantee my Pool View Room. I said I just can't understand how you can be in business and offer No guarantees, she starts laughing at me like I'm a twit. I explain that I really didn't appreciate her laughing, this is my...CLICK!

She hung up on me! I had no confirmation number, no name of the Rep, nothing to verify this reservation, BUT she had my credit card number! I tried for over an hour to get in contact with hotels.com again, I received "Your call can not be connected at this time" or something very much like that over and over again.

A bit scared as she had my credit card number and I had nothing, nil, nada, zilch - I called my bank, she had already charged my account the charge for the two nights, over $150! While on the phone with the bank we tried yet again to get through to customer service at hotels.com only to find that to verify whether she made the reservation and I didn't have a booking, reference number they asked for my credit card number again! So now it's twice and to two people I've given my number (Nothing is secure on their website for credit card transactions so I'm not certain that it's safe on the phone either). The lady at the bank asked the Rep, "is this the only way when someone doesn't have their reservation number." "Yep!" he says. Since my bank was with me on this I gave it, found that I did indeed have a reservation for the extra money yet still no guarantee on the Pool room.

I insisted because of the treatment that it be noted on my booking. I HAVEN'T EVEN TRIED TO USE THE BOOKING YET! I cry to a supervisor finally, hours, stress, and emotional exhaustion later and I am told they will give me a $30 break - well ain't that nice, I'm a sobbing rag after all this and I still don't know what I will find on the other end. Five days later no credit of the $30 has hit my bank. When I call I get a foreign voice I cannot for the life of me understand and when I ask to speak with someone else she continues to try to say things in English (I guess anyway). Come to find out, I will get my $30 back within 30 days! They demand their money the day of, yet I will wait 30 days before I will know if they will actually refund 30 measly bucks.

My trip is still a month away. This is/was the last time I will ever use this service and I will dissuade others! Wonder what I will have to go through and what the hotel ACTUALLY has - what a way to ruin your business. Surely the rich people who use this service over and again could care less about a few bucks and their room is most likely a suite. Hotels.com, I know you won't miss me, but you might miss some of the people I tell about my experience.