I tried to link to you, but if you search for the magic phrase (that would be "hotels.com censors negative reviews") my post comes up pretty high and I don't see you on there at all. Is this a perk of feeding the hive mind?

I recently used Hotels.com for the first time to book a hotel for a business trip to Chicago. Upon completing my reservation I was utterly shocked to see the exorbitant extra fees charged by your website - the so-called "Tax Recovery Charges & Service Fees" - which amounted to over $200 or $40 per night. Of course, I also saw that my reservation could not be changed or canceled in any way. I am tempted to call my credit card company to tell them that the charges are fraudulent and unauthorized. I will never again use their service and will warn everyone I know to stay far away from Hotels.com.

I booked a room in October 2007- it was expensive and though the Hotels.com reservationist assured me it was on La Rambla (a street in Barcelona, Spain), it was over a mile away! A huge disappointment as we could have stayed on La Rambla for the $200/night we were charged. I made sure I did everything correctly (as told to me by their reservationist) so I could get frequent flier miles posted to my Continental OnePass account from making this reservation. Before we took the trip I checked again with Hotels.com to verify that they had the information needed and I would not get a "oh, too bad, you didn't supply one of the numbers that we need." All was okay. Well, I waited 3 months and the miles never posted to my OnePass account. I called Hotels.com in January 2008. They told me to call Continental. I did. I was given another number to call. I did. An agent fixed everything and assured me "the miles will post to your OnePass account within 24 hours." I waited. I called Hotels.com after many weeks passed. I was passed around to various agents (who spoke an unintelligible English) in Hotels.com. After an hour and a half - 90 percent of which was on hold so the agent could "get the answer" - I was told that the original reservationist did not go through the proper steps and I would not get any miles posted to my OnePass account.
Is it my fault that their reservationist messed up? I supplied the booking number, dates, etc. everything they asked for each time I called. Why was I told that the points would post the second time I called? And the third time? Their rewards for booking is bogus.
Beware! I am convinced, by the way I was treated, that the consumer will not get any of the promised perks by when booking through hotels.com.

I have booked a room with 2 queen beds through hotels.com, for a number of nights. Upon arrival, we were told that the hotel was full and we could only get a room with a king bed. The situation was pretty awkward as we were 2 unrelated people. The hotel clerk told us, nearly in these words, that we could stuff ourselves. When I called hotels.com for help, they told us, after conferring with the hotel, that we could cancel our reservation without paying a penalty on the cancellation, implying that we were free to go out for the night into the street. In my review I mentioned the assistance hotels.com provided. Well, weeks have passed and later reviews than mine for the hotel got posted, but not mine. Hotels.com also promised a discount coupon for our hardship but I have yet to see it. Needless to say, I won't be a customer of hotels.com anymore. In the process, I have learned that hotels.com and Expedia were the same company.

I tried to post a negative comment on a ste and they had some kind of baysian filtering to detect negative comment. I used spam-like techniques and this enabled by comment to be accepted. So if they do not use human filters that would work. Try: e rror, mis take, li ed or even suck3d and see if it works.

I had a miserable experience at the Sahara hotel in Las Vegas booked through hotels.com and submitted a suitably negative review. It was never posted on hotels.com, if you look on there now there are only positive reviews and I find that hard to believe having stayed in the Sahara.

I asked them why they didn't post it and they replied like a politician by ignoring my question and assuring me "the matter has been fully investigated", whatever that is supposed to mean.

We had a bad experience with hotel.com we have been charged by hotel.com as well as the hotel when we checked out and we are not getting our money back. We have been charged twice.

Booked a hotel with hotels.com. When arrived at hotel, we were told that our booking was cancelled. Called hotels.com 3 times and were told that they would cancel the charge to our credit card, and would send an email confirming same. Needless to say I am still waiting for the email. I have sent them 2 emails and called them again. Still nothing. I will never ever use them again. And will keep telling everyone I meet about this scam of a company

"We had a bad experience with hotel.com we have been charged by hotel.com as well as the hotel when we checked out and we are not getting our money back. We have been charged twice." duuuuh!

That is because of a marked lack of intelligence... is it to hard for you to call the hotel and ask for a refund.

Recently my wife and I desperately needed a hotel for a two night stay in Los Angeles. Hotels.com put us in a DUMP that they claimed was rated 4.2 -- it should've been a 0.2!! It was in a WAR zone!! Urine smells everywhere. Bars on the windows.

When we got the heck out of there (out of fear for our safety), Hotels.com refused to give us our first night's money back. We were only there for ten minutes! When we tried to call to complain, hotels.com put us on hold for HOURS and STILL refused to give us our money back. They are freakin' CROOKS!

Will not use hotels.com again. Got double-charged, I called hotels.com and asked to speak with a supervisor. The 1st rep. said all the supervisors were busy. I asked to hold for one. She said none were available. I asked to please be put on hold again. Then she changed her story and said that I just couldn't talk to one. When I repeated to ask why, she hung up on me. Called back and the second rep. said I could not speak to a supervisor, even about being hung up on. Then he said he could put me on hold for a supervisor, that the hold may be 45 minutes and that a supervisor likely WOULD NOT TAKE MY CALL. What does that even mean, I asked? He said after 45 minutes or so, a supervisor would get to my call and then make a decision whether or not to take it. When I said that was rude and I had never heard of that type of service before, he said they have a high volume of calls and supervisors cannot take every call. What a joke for customer service.

We called to reserve a hotel using hotels.com. Upon arriving at the hotel, we found out they booked us on the wrong dates. The only thing that the customer service did is to say that they were sorry.

Guess who had to pay for their mistakes? Yes, we had to.

We had to pay extra fees for changing the dates. After all, the rates had changed and we were responsible for it. The only thing that hotels.com customer service does is to give you a lip service...

Be very careful, before paying them. Check, and re check the information. After paying your money, you are on your own. You might have wished that you paid the extra fee and booked directly from the hotel.

i hate hotels.com , 'cos doesnt works!

Thank GOD I saw this blog. Much thanks to the original poster. I was about to use hotels.com this month for my birthday. Thank you everyone for the warning, I had no idea! It was pretty weird that the hotels on hotels.com didn't have any negative reviews. Once again, thank you!

Hello everyone,

I recently went to Austin and booked a hotel on Hotels.com. When I booked my hotel I specifically stated to have a 4 to 5 star hotel. While driving into the hotel, the hotel had all windows open and people sitting outside etc....to describe everything in a nut shell, it was rundown hotel. They booked me at a cheap hotel but with the price of a 4 star. I called hotels.com and the customer service agent was unprofessional. I told them that I would not check in and that I was missed lead by the company and the customer service agent. They responded by charging me 189.00 for the room without checking in and when a sign outside of the hotel said 39.95. While trying to dispute the claim with my credit card holder, I was told that they will win because they will not refund any monies. NEVER AGAIN WILL I USE OR RECOMMEND HOTELS.COM (RIP OFF COMPANY). READERS BEWARE SHARE THIS WITH ALL YOUR FRIENDS.

This company Hotel.com, part of Expedia is definately a scam of some kind.

I just found an entry on my credit card statement for hotels com... except that I don't know anything about it! When I tried to ring them I stayed on hold for what must have been 20 minutes on 2 occasions. Another time I called the sales desk to try to speak to anyone.. was then transfered to "customer service" where I went on hold for 10 minutes before being hung up on!

Since then I've been forced to fill out dispute forms with both my bank and VISA.

I thought I'd update anyone interested on my saga. I since found out that Hotels.com has a parent company, Expedia. I rang up Expedia and spoke to a very helpful person called Summer, who rang up Hotels.com and put me directly in touch with someone. On follow up comversations with Hotels.com (when I could get through via Expedia) the reps were - I can only say "sulky".

Hotels.com is a very bad choice of company and I strongly recommend you avoid them at all cost. Expedia on the other hand, whilst it gets some flack on refund policies has been pretty decent. I recently found an incredibly good hotel rate through Expedia that I couldn't get anywhere else.. and I've used Expedia on two occasions since without issue. But like I said, Hotels.com... avoid, avoid, avoid.

We decided to take a trip to london for winter vacations, and we were looking into hotels.com so we were checking packages that seemed to be good, so we decided to call and ask for a good hotel on a turist zone and they recommended us some hotel, which sounded good and they told us it was a really good hotel and stuff..
so we trusted them and booked flight and hotel with them, after that we started checking the reviews of the hotel they gave us, and reviews titled "BEWARE", "SOS", "BUGS IN HERE", and other creepy titles were in the review, NOT EVEN ONE GOOD REVIEW WAS THERE, so we started freaking out and we find out the hotel was IN THE BUSINESS ZONE, 6 MILES AWAY FROM LONDON, i mean, hotels.com is supposed to give you a good hotel and if you're asking for a good location we didnt expect something like this!, we call and after being an hour on the phone waiting for someone to answer we could finally expose our case and they tell us we CANT change the hotel because "WE DIDNT PAY A 69 DOLLAR INSURANCE" when we DID ASK FOR IT, and THEY DIDNT INCLUDE IT IN OUR PACKAGE, so because of 69 dollars, we couldnt change the hotel, being our FIRST TIME IN LONDON we were gonna be IN THE BUSINESS ZONE, FAR AWAY FROM EVERYTHING.

after regrets and stuff, we DECIDED to LOOSE 1200 DOLLARS spent in a hotel, because we are NOT going to have a bad experience in london, so we LOST 1200 dollars of hotel.

now we want to change the flights and NO ONE IS ANSWERING, HALF AN HOUR ON THE PHONE and NO ONE ASNWERS when youre pressing the button which is supposed to send you to PACKAGE CHANGES, and we even BET that if we would press the button to send you to NEW PACKAGE somebody would answer, and IMMEDIATLY THEY ANSWERED.
NOW WE ARE HAVING A REALLY BAD EXPERIENCE AND WE ARE LOSING MONEY WITH EACH PASSING MINUTE, THIS IS REALLY UNACCEPTABLE.
HOTELS.COM REALLY SUCKS.

THEN WE CALLED AND MADE OUR COMPLAIN AND GUESS WHAT THEY DID?
THEY SIMPLY HANG UP, AND THEY KEEP HANGING UP
WE ARE FRUSTRATED AND DONT KNOW WHAT TO DO

I had a bad experience with hotels.com too. I booked my hotel for the max days because I was using it as a transition to move. I was told that I could cancel at any time. When I canceled it took me two phone calls and almost 15 days to get reimbursed for the remaining days. I called twice to get a revised receipt and they said they emailed it (checked the email address twice and checked my spam filter) but they never sent it. I had to find it on their website to print it out. They told me on the phone it could take up to 30 days to get my money back. Avoid booking here, I never will again.

Also, there is a "special" that says if you sign up you can get one night free for every 10 or something like that. I signed up to it only to find out afterward that my current stay did not count toward the total nights. It was for any trip booked after the fact even though I signed up to it before booking the hotel.

As a Border's Rewards Perk customer, if you go through their web site to book with Hotels.com, you are supposed to receive a 10% discount which will show up after you book. It never showed up, of course. I emailed their "Customer Care" and they emailed back that it would be forthcoming. It never came and after several more emails and months, they offered a $50 "hotel bucks" to be used on the next reservation. But that would take 4-6 weeks (after 2 months already) Another 6 weeks goes by, but no "bucks". In the meantime, I book another hotel through them with the incentive of a $50 gas card, which did show up on my reservation receipt. In the meantime, I did receive the $50 hotel bucks, which I still have. But the same thing started with the $50 gas card. emails back and forth stating that it is forthcoming, but due to heavy demand it will take a while longer. They finally offered me another $50 hotel bucks, which I turned down. Told them I wanted the $50 gas card or $50 check from them. They answered stating that the $50 gas card promotion was "over" and that was it! How can it be "over" when they haven't sent it in the past 4 months?! Isn't this called FRAUD? Will never book with them again. Not worth the aggravation.

I made a reservation for 2 nights at a Days Inn. I arrived to the hotel an hour after the reservation was made. And they haven't faxed the confirmation. I got on the phone with their sales for over a period of 1.5 hours and still, they weren't able to send a fax. Then their sales people started to put me on hold for 20 minutes 3 times and didn't get back to me. Hotels.com is one nasty, awful company. Finally some sales decided to think of the giving me the customer care number. Customer care finally were able to send a fax. So here is the question. How many cheap labor in a customer service center in India it takes to send a fax. Hotels.com is a complete failure!

I made my reservation through hotels.com. After my stay, I got back home and check my bank account. I see two charges on my online statement. One from hotels.com and another one from the hotel i stayed in. The numbers were identical, so clearly I was double charged. I called the hotels.com and explained customer rep the situation. Without even asking any proof or copy of my statement etc she called the hotel and five minutes later she told me that "Hotel is telling me that they didn't charge you therefore we don't think you are double billed." Again I told her that I can see the charges on my online account, and she told me that "There is no way I can proof this, and I don't think I can take your word for this". To me this is clearly calling me a lair. It's been three days I've been still trying to solve this issue. No luck so far, I am planning to dispute the one of the charges. BTW, I can't even get in touch with anybody from the hotel's accounting.

Hey anonymous,

I wouldn't even bother trying to resolve this with the Hotel. Call your credit card company and tell them you were double charged and that only one is legit. Your credit card company will reverse the charge and send you paperwork to fill out.

-A

I wish I found this site earlier, would have saved me a week of sorting there inability to do something that is asked of them.

An the 18th of April I booked on there website 3 rooms, this was ment to be for 2x twin room and 1x double room.

After completing the details on the website in question, I get to the last page that says 'thank you this page is confirmation of your booking' with the details of the booking (as expected above). I printed this page off and even had the website send me a SMS confirming my booking (that I recived). The money for the above was taken from my account and I thought nothing more of it. In my mind, this had been confirmed and paid for so there was nothing more to worry about.

Roll on to the 28th April, I phoned to hotel to confirm they had a booking in my name. They had no record of my booking. So I phoned the less-then helpfull hotels.com customer support line (at 10p a min) who said they had a record of my booking and will chase up the hotel to see why I dont have my rooms. The person 'who did not have english as his first language' said he would phone me back after he sorted it out.

29th: No phone call back or message left on the answer machine so I phoned up hotels.co.uk customer support and found out that my bookings had been made, great I thought - not as bad as it could be. Wrong! - turns out in the time lapse from my initial confirmation (18th) and the 28th April - all the twin rooms were taken by other guests. So hotels.com made a reservation for 3x double rooms.

This is not what I had had ordered. I promptly told hotels.co.uk that this is not what was confirmed and that I would like the twin rooms please. They said the best they could offer is twin rooms for one night and a double for the second. I told them this was unacceptable and that I would require at least single rooms for my guests (5 males). Hotels told me they could do that, however I would be required to pay an upgrade fee!.

Asked to talk to a supervisor who turns out to be just as useless as the customer service team he manages. Told him about the cock up they have made and that I expect Hotels.com/.co.uk to absorb the cost of there error. Was told they they would not and that If I needed the rooms that I required then I would have to pay the upgrade fee.

If the reservation was not for the 8th of May I would have cancelled everything with Hotels and got a full refund, but as it stands I was running out of time and needed those rooms sorted, so paid the upgrade fee. As part of this process I asked that the two of the double rooms be cancelled as I no longer require them. In the end I should have 1x double room and 4x single room.

Paying the upgrade fee was made worse by the fact that Hotels.com could not take the difference between two payements, but instead had to refund part of the original and take a full payment for the single rooms.

As of this time I am now keeping a very close eye on my statement and will be waiting for this refund.

So to sum up:
1. When you phone you talk to some call centre in the middle of nowhere who have tno intrest in solving your problems
2. Supervisors dont and wont help you either
3. When you finish your booking and see the screen that says booking confirmation and recive a sms text message saying so - you are not seeing a confirmation of your booking - its a lie
4. They are not part of any group from what I can see (iata for example) but are a part of Expidia inc

Phew! I just got off the phone to hotels.com for a stay in New Zealand. Good thing I Googled and found this information. But is there anyone you can trust online?

Hotels.com is showing up on MyPoints Frogpond site right now and MyPoints members can earn 25 points for submitting a 50-word review of Hotels.com. So all these people who have NEVER used Hotels.com are posting positive (mostly) reviews just to earn a quick 25 points. Grrrr!!!

My boyfriend has used the Hotels.com site in the past and was very unhappy with the experience. Customer support is almost nonexistent. And good luck on getting any money refunded even when the problem is Hotels.com's fault!!!

Unresponsive to an unbelievable level...

After waiting 20 minutes, I got ahold of someone to help only to have them "disconnect" me.

Tried to call back waited ONE HOUR on hold - no answer.

Asked for help by email - no response after 48 hours... meanwhile - it cost me several hours worth of time to resolve the problem directly with the hotel.

This company is run by losers.

my reviews too haven't been posted on hotels.com. they choose what to post and they only post the good reviews.
I will never book with them again and I tell everyone I know about my bad experience with hotels.com. I will never recommend them.
Their customer service sucks. I was requesting a refund for the first night because the hotel san juan marriott and stelaris resort casino in san juan, puerto rico, canceled our reservation because we showed up late (no one told us that you need to check in by midnight). The help desk at marriott too sucked and was of no help so I complained at marriott.com and I got a reply back from telling me to tell hotels.com to call them and request the refund. Once the refund has been issue to hotels.com, hotels.com should refund me for the first night. The customer reps at hotels.com apparently have no email address so you can not email them, they said you need to fax to this number so I did. I said ok will you call me, she said no, you have to call us in 72 hours. So I call in 72 hours and they say they didnt get the fax although I got a fax report that said the fax went through. So this rep gives me another number, I fax it over, get an ok from fax report, he hungs up on me, I call again and i have to explain everything again because the new rep now knows nothing and she says each center has a different fax number and she cant check for the old faxes i sent. so i ask her to give me the fax she has and to stay on line with me. she does. i tell her ok the report said it went through, she tells wait a sec while i go check and puts me on hold but suddenly i am redirected to someone else who has no clue what is going on. she keeps asking me for my booking number. i say please redirect me to mary or the service center that has the last fax number i used. she said she doesnt know any mary and cant find centers by fax number!!!! this is crazy!!!! worst customer service experience to date. i do not understand how they are still in business.

We stayed at a hotel to be close to a racetrack for an Indy race. We thought the price was within range for a race weekend. Come to find out, the people in the exact rooms as we had, paid alot less. When this was reported to hotel.com. They said it was to late to cancel the reservation. That was not even the issue. We had no plans of canceling, as we were already there. We would have preferred a refund of the difference or a voucher toward a stay somewhere at another time. We will NOT use hotel.com again. You don't exist once they have your money!!!! BAD customer service.

After narrowing down my search for a Montreal hotel online, I called Hotels.com to make sure that there would be NO FEE for parking. I was told by the cust srvc rep that "only for HOtels.com customers did the Hotel Le Cantlie NOT charge parking" so I hung up the phone and reviewed that with my husband. We decided to go with this establishment, and then I noticed that I got an email from Hotels.com saying "Thank you for your conversation - here are the hotels we discussed" and once clicked, I saw that the rep sent me the hotel's name and info that we'd discussed. I went ahead then, and completed the reservation online. I had to call the hotel for another matter (to check and see the closed streets for the Int'l Jazz Festival going on week of July 5) and happened to ask in passing about the parking. The rep emphatically stated that WAS NOT correct - they ALWAYS charge for parking and that Hotels.com and other establishments like them claim that they can get free parking, but that is NOT the case. I called Hotels.com back, spoke with another rep who mentioned he had no idea why the first rep said they had free parking (which I brought to his attention that the first guy probably just wanted my business), then spoke with a sup AFTER being put on hold for 45 mins. The sup, Jackie, said that in her system, she saw that I called AFTER the transation online took place already. Is she CRAZY? I had the email that I received from hotels.com that was PRE-TIMED (came before) the confirmation email! I told her I'd forward this to her and she said there was no need; her system revealed that I called AFTER. Logically, I explained, WHY would I do that? That DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE. She must've had no logic after all as until the end of the conversation, she said I was pretty much lying. First off, Hotels.com SUCKS with customer service. Secondly, how in the WORLD is the SUPERVISOR going to come on the phone and tell me that I LIED when I offered to forward BOTH EMAILS?! This establishment, Hotels.com, is HORRENDOUS and the fact that they kept an IRATE and LIVID consumer on HOLD for 45 mins was ASTOUNDING. NEVER, EVER using them again. That sup, Jackie, mentioned that she would cancel my reservation. Well guess what? I called back an hour later after I'd cooled down to make sure it was indeed cancelled, and found - that it was NEVER CANCELLED! If I didn't make that final call I would've been slapped with a $350 bill tomorrow. They are HORRIBLE.

Try different sites this one will not work if hotels change you room or ANY OTHER PROBLEMS hotels.com don't care they just give you the money back. BUT YOU WILL HAVE TO RESOLVE THE PROBLEM BY YOUR SELF

I booked 4 separate hotel stays for a single vacation which I had to cancel months in advance. Two of my reservations were refundable, two were not although the reservations appeared the same on the computer and in the confirmation email. Don't bother trying to get your money back through your credit card company. They side with hotels.com.

Curiously, the domain f***hotels.com is owned by and forwards to hotels.com. Obviously, they've had so much trouble with disgruntled customers, they either secured that domain or took it away from a legitimate owner.

I have learned to never use this service again. My reservation notice says I could cancel with a penalty of 1 night's stay. When I called to cancel, I was told they couldn't process without talking to the manager of the hotel and that I would have to call back when the manager is in. When I call the hotel, they refer me to hotels.com. when I call hotels.com (and wait 30 minutes to speak to an agent) they say I have to talk to the manager. It's a total run around. My advice is never make a reservation through hotels.com.

If you never need to make a change to a reservation, hotels.com is a convenient way to shop for available hotels. However, my advice is to shop for hotels through their web site and then book directly through the hotel. Hotels are a service business and are generally very accomodating to those who book directly in terms of making changes in your reservations. However, if you make the reservation through hotels.com, the hotel cannot make a change without going through hotels.com which gets you into the legal fine print of hotels.com contract with the hotel. In order to secure low rates and earn their fee, hotels.com makes it very expensive and difficult to make a change. Thus, I have concluded that whatever savings you might get by booking through hotels.com is not worth the aggravation and cost if you ever need to make a change.

Forget about what deal with hotels.com.
Just remember if you see this message,do not use hotels.com.
'Cause they only want collect money from you,they do not care you at all.
If you want loose money ,use it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just don't know how to start since I am still so upset about the way they handled my reservations. To try and make this short so I can continue my vacation...the hotel was not what was described and they (THE HOTEL) was VERY willing to give me a FULL refund. When she pulled up my reservation she told me to call Hotels.com direct and then call her and she would make sure everything was canceled. The hotel was pleasant. THEN I called hotels.com to tell them that the hotel would refund me but that I had to call them first. He asked about the problem and I explained just as I did to the hotel manager. He put me on hold for awhile, came back and asked more questions and asked if he could book something else and I said no (I had already been traveling for 6 hours with kids we were tired and hungry, not to mention checking in and then checking out which was a major problem in itself)...so he put me on hold again and came back to tell me that he would not give me that nights money back that it was the hotels policy I said NO the hotel was willing to refund me COMPLETELY. He said that no one else had complained so since NO ONE else said anything I GET PUNISHED. The guy quickly changed his attitude to a JERK. Of course he was nice at first and wanted to help in any way he could until I told him I was not staying anywhere just wanted my money back. I realize now that if I had asked him to book me something else he would have gladly provided a refund and booked me somewhere else. I honestly think that. Heck maybe he kept my money? Such a lesson learned. I know that I could call and be on hold for hours and talk to 50 people with 50 excuses but it will only piss me off more than I am right now. I just want to be able to warn everyone NOT to use hotels.com, that is my RIGHT by LAW to voice my opinion! HOTELS.COM SUCKS SUCKS SUCKS SUCKS.....how can people be such uncaring A**holes! People amaze me. Well I am at another hotel that is so far so good. Please if anyone is even thinking about using this service please it is not worth saving just a few dollars! Call the hotel direct most of them will offer matching pricing....try it before you get GOT by them! Thanks for reading and I hope I help someone not get their vacation RUINED...

Beware of overcharging by Hotels.com. I recently stayed at a hotel that I booked on hotels.com thinking I was finding the "best rate" without the headache of calling around. Apparently the hotels are not to give you a receipt when you check out because then you will see that you have been overcharged by hotels.com. I can understand that they are trying to make a profit, but in my case it was over $40! I could have looked up hotels in the area I was planning on staying myself (even using hotels.com for references), but then calling the hotel myself and saving myself several dollars. If you are considering using it I suggest you call one of the hotels you are looking at before you book to see what their rate is. You may find that it is cheaper to do it yourself. Plus, remember there is no refund or way to cancel your room through hotels.com. When I called customer service the representative that I spoke with was rather rude and said that they work with the hotels to bring us the best rate but wasn't willing to admit that they were scamming people with this kind of billing. Looks like it's a win/win situation for both hotels.com and the hotels, but consumers lose their bargaining power. After reading the other reviews on this site I can guarantee I will NEVER use hotels.com again and will let everyone I know what a scam it is.

I wish I read this blog before I booked on Hotels.com. They charged me an additional $30 for 'taxes and service fees.' I canceled the reservation even though I now have to wait for it to clear my bank. In the end I have a better deal by going directly to the hotel. Yuk! What a pain. I won't use hotels.com again.

I used Hotels.com twice to book. There were no problems I could see with fees, but both times there were problems with the room. The first time, the shower didn't drain. The second time (yesterday) the air conditioner didn't work and we had to have a hotel maintenance worker in at 10 PM to perform what appeared to be routine maintenance. I suspect that the discounted rooms assigned to Hotels.com are any that happen to be substandard.

1. I got ripped off ---higher prices than other companies and higher than even when you call the hotel directly

2. Watch you back even there price are not a special deal all DEALS ALL NOT REFUNDABLE

3. the use only non-US workers in there call stations in the Philippines and El Salvador

4. We need job and Hotel.com sends all the jobs to other countries

Ok... i took the time to read all the comments here... to be honest i'm a customer just like you. I've used hotels.com service and had a bad experience once
and i can understand the frustration of some situations and also the part of poor customer service.... But to be fair Hotels.com is a good company... i think they
have areas to improve just like any other company. Having a bad experience doesn't mean it's all wrong!! Is like saying that a human being is not worthy just
cause he or she made a mistake before...

I have had bad experiences before and that does not mean this is the "ABSOLUTE TRUTH".... Another thing is i see a lot of racist ideas
in some comments... i'm an open minded person and to be honest i'm surprise to see some comments from people who live in a "democracy"
there are people who work hard and some other who is just not interested in that... but saying this people in central america or in the middle of nowhere is
just a waste! Men, that is a very very silly way of thinking...wich to be honest is not gonna help at all. No you might think i was not in your place, i did not had a
very bad expericence but you are wrong! i'm a human being just like you. i have felt anger, frustration and all of those negatives feelings you might have felt too.

Sum up:

1. if you pay for something (anything) from a t shirt, a facial cream, a hotel room read the conditions, be aware of the risk involve... read the small letters so you
don't have to go through a bad experience

2. be aware that people in customer service working under proceedures for the company... don't take it personal. It's a job like every other job... there is no need
to be racist or mean with this people

3. educate yourself as a customer... hotels.com is not the only company. search for other options. At the end you the rule is that you need to what is that you are paying for
if you make a resv on line with any company or with a hotel you know what is the best for you

Ok, To whom it may concern. 8-24-2009
Sun .23.2009, I've spoken to reps Keith, Chad, Supervisor Julie, rep Iam, Vanessa, Supervisor Sari, and the 2 booking reps that gave me incorrect information about the hotel in the booking process. Mon 8.24.2009 reps Nathaniel and Boris., supervisor Eve. Phone has hung on on me 5 times during this process and it is virtually impossible to get a supervisor or any competent agent to handle the matter at hand.

Matter at hand - I booked a hotel where I was told the room was a special suite with a fireplace. When I arrived it was a king basic room. Upon calling down to the front desk, the clerk alerted me that no room in the entire hotel had a fireplace. I decided to leave, called back the same line it was so easy to get through to take my money, and this is where the nightmare began.
Above is a condensed version of the hell.

As a long standing customer, I am sending this note to put you on notice,
that the "delights" of this experience will be going out to the masses in blog,form, and I hope no one ever has to deal with the type of treatment I went through.

Just booked with hotels.com and unfortunatley we found a cheaper rate. Their "guaranteed lowest rate" is wrong and misleading!!! They do not stand behind this guarantee and as any "small print" company, they provided deceptive information. Hopefully, they will know that more people who get this mesaage will not use them and they will go out of business.

Hotels.com is a terrible company. Do not use them. If you call for customer service be prepared to be transferred around at least 3 times before none of your problems get solved. Their employees barely speak English. One lady I spoke to asked if I wanted to make changes to a trip I had already come back from in August. Mind you, it was already September. Yes, I would like to add a snorkeling package to my trip that I've already come back from. If you are using the welcome rewards program, this is valid for hotel reservations only. NO packages! I'm telling you this because they won't. They have no idea about the promotions their company is advertising.This is the worst customer service I have ever had. All the people who work there are in lala land. Their promotions are just scams and the savings (if any) are not worth the headache you end up with in the end.

We recently made a hotel reservation through hotels.com and found the experience to be extremely frustrating. We were traveling and called the hotels.com number to reserve a room. It was after 5:00 pm so they did say we would be charged even if we did not show up. We went to the hotel, but there was not a reservation from hotels.com or they couldn't recognize the confirmation number. The hotel desk manager assigned a new number and gave me a rate and then charged my credit card the next morning. This rate was considerably better than the hotel.com rate. Anyway, I specifically said that I was worried I might be charged twice and was assured that could not happen. On my last credit card bill, there are two charges for the room. I called both the hotel and hotels.com. The hotel is refunding the lower rate because hotels.com will not let them do anything else. I will NEVER use hotels.com again. Please be careful if you book through this place!!!

I booked a hotel with hotels.com and the same day called back to change hotels, anyway i got charged for both!! All hotel.com did was give me the run around, then after spending a good hour on the phone i was told i would have to call back later because they could not reach accounting to help with my refund!!! I have to call back!!! A bunch of bull i tell you never book with hotels.com!!!!!!!

On 2 reservations this year, hotels.com said the hotel permits pets. Only after I had indelibly paid for the reservation did hotels.com say that the hotel would collect a pet fee during registration. Even then, hotels.com didn't disclose the fee amount. That's fraud. If you say "X is permitted", that means it's free, unless you say it has a cost and specify what the cost is. Since it's not possible to contact hotels.com with a complaint or request for an adjustment, I simply didn't say anything to the hotel about having a pet and thereby protected myself against the fraudulent charge. hotels.com deserves a class-action lawsuit.

I work for a large construction company and, for the last several months, have used this hotels.com as a means to earn travel rewards, make arrangements, etc. for the crews we regularly deploy. I have learned my lesson. I would NOT recommend using hotels.com as it provides very little flexibility to make changes once booked. And, as mentioned above by other users, hotels.com does seem to find ways to sneak in extra fees unknowingly. Even worse, try calling customer service - between being put on hold endlessly, you'll also have to strain very hard to understand the customer service representative through the extremely thick foreign accent. It's an equation built for disaster. Save yourself the headache, wasted time, and extra fees and contact your desired hotel directly.

I would like to suggest that be sure that all reviews are from different individuals and do not represent a coordinated attack on his reputation.Make sure that your site has a disclaimer stating that reviews are the personal opinions of the reviewers and do not represent your views.

A couple of weeks ago I was looking for a hotel deal in DC and came across a good one (I thought) on Hotels.com. I was a little sleepy and just wanted to get it over with, so I made the reservation through them - a mistake I will not be repeating. Cut to the day before we're scheduled to leave, and the remnants of a hurricane are battering the Virginia coast - not a good time to go. I called the hotel only to be told I had to change the reservation through Hotels.com; the hotel could not touch the reservation.

Fair enough. I got online and changed it to three weeks in the future, sent myself a confirmation (they don't do it for you), and thought that was that, since I'd made the change more than 24 hours before our scheduled arrival. I even saved a few bucks since the rate was lower for the new weekend. A few days ago my wife got our credit card bill, and lo and behold, I'd already been charged for the stay. I had been under the impression that, like most hotels, I was giving them my card number to hold the reservation. Turns out that once you give them your credit card number, they can charge you any time they damn well feel like it. But that wasn't the worst of it. Although I'd made the change on the Hotels.com Web site with plenty of time to spare, I'd been billed for an extra day - for a stay I had not yet begun.

My first call was to the "Call Us" number (800-3-HOTELS) on the Hotels.com Customer Care page, possibly the most misnamed Web page I've ever encountered. The service rep, whose name I didn't catch due to his unusually thick Indian accent, assured me that the credit had gone through - for $26 bucks, when they owed me $126. I asked to speak with his supervisor. He put me on hold for three minutes, then came back on the line and said he could explain if I'd give him a chance. I told him to go ahead. He "explained" that the extra day's charge was due to Radisson's change policy, not theirs. Again I asked to speak to a supervisor. He began giving me all kinds of excuses why I couldn't, so I just hung up on him.

The next call was to Radisson's main number. The rep I talked to said they never charged extra to change a reservation. By then I had read some of the stories here and knew that further contact with "Customer Care" was useless. I called Expedia, as someone else here had done, and they gave me another number for Hotels.com, which turned out to be their vacation packaging subsidiary. That lady asked which number I'd called, and I gave her the one on the Customer Care (God, I find it hard to type that) page. No, she said, that's the reservation number (It's marked "Reservations and Customer Care on the page). The customer support number, she told me, is 1-800-219-4606.

I called that number and got a support tech named Nelson, who I could barely hear to due a bad connection. When I told him how the other guy had lied about Radisson's change policy, he put me on hold and called them himself. A few minutes later he came back on the line, told me he was still working the problem, and asked me to hang on. Five minutes after that, he returned and told me I would be getting a full refund for the extra day's charge. And all of that only took my entire evening.

Whether or not they'll actually post the credit, I don't know. I'll check in 48 hours, as was suggested, and keep my fingers crossed. In the meantime, I'll add my voice to the chorus: AVOID DOING ANY BUSINESS WITH HOTELS.COM. Tell your friends and neighbors. Spread the word. These weasels count on a constant supply of newbies unfamiliar with their underhanded modus operandi. Nothing gets cockroaches noticed better than shining a light on them.

I have been researching a trip to New Orleans for a few days now and came across Hotels.com and at first I was delighted to see all of these low rates on places to stay in the French Quarter. Spending (wasting) 2 days looking at Hotels and reviews to finally pick a place I thought was right for our stay. The "normal" rate that Hotels.com says the hotel charges was $109 a night and they could book it for $65! Wow that's great right? Not so! After clicking "Book It" I fine these Tax Recovery Charges & Service Fees added to the total charges. I know many of you already know about this issue but, it ended up being $108.79 for the room after these fees? A savings of $0.21! The reviews were helpful but there were no savings and their customer service was a joke speaking broken English and putting me on hold for 10 mintues.

I ended up going right to the Hotels website to book the room which it turns out offered 40% off a 4+ night stay! :) Booked the room for 5 nights at $61.53 after taxes! These travel sites seem to be good for reviews only and they censor those to boot!

Now that I no longer work for a hotel, and have returned to the resturant management field after a downturn in my areas economy forced me to either take hotel mgmt, or another even worse job until I could get back into my chosen field, has left me with a surprising depth of otherwise useless information that I must get out of my head so here it goes. Hotels.com and other online booking agencies ( agencies that are not owned by the individual hotels themselves ) are in business to make money, plain and simple just like the hotel is. However the seemingly incredible and overwhelming desire of people wanting to "get the best deal" by doing as little work as possible to get that deal, has made these apparent bargain companies look fantastic to consumers that are incapable of negotiating a deal, for whatever reason they have, afraid of asking for a better rate, fear of losing out on prime booking season, being too lazy to call around and so on. These companies are raking in huge sums of cash because they have found a way to play on our collective fears of paying too much, while at the same time actually increasing the cost to consumers, and giving the hotel the shaft on profit ( interestingly enough, none of my staff was ever given any form of gratuity or "tips" from anyone, and I repeat anyone that had booked through an online discount agency, while regular guests and off the street walk-ins were usually very generous and appreciative for their excellent service ).
So here's the meat and potato's part of this rant. Consumer checks the booking rates online, then after reading the pricing, features, location and other hotel information they decide they are happy with what they see and are all to happy to forward their credit card information and lock in that great rate before it goes away, as the rates on their sites are about 50% made up, or in plain english lies. As soon as you send the credit card info you are billed sometimes almost instantly, but always before check-in at your location as the hotel itself never, and I repeat NEVER actually has your credit card or other personal info, save for first and last name, number of ocupants and what type of room you need, making changes to your rate, or room features at the hotel itself virtually impossible, besides the hotels know you were only rate shopping and not looking to stay there because of their brands strengths, or collective image, meaning that service from regular level employees will be lackluster as soon as you exit the check-in counter and head to your room, my tipping comment comes into play here as well. However it is of little concern to owners and upper mgmt types as the negative reviews strangely never make it onto the booking agencies site, as the agreement with the hotel is arranged to automatically filter negative comments, thereby increasing the number of bookings for the hotel which in turn makes more money for both parties, so if you really want to lodge a complaint about the physical hotel put it on the actual hotels website or review board or whatever. That covers the horrible service that most people get, because when you book online and then show up you are automatically labeled as a cheap-ass and a complainer ( really sorry if the comments seem negative i'm just giving you guys the info from the other side of the counter ). Now onto the rates, for example if you think the rate they are advertising online is really great, call the actual hotel itself before booking, please do not let your natural instinct of "gotta book it now to get that rate" impulse spending habits kick in.
Ask the hotel what their rates are, DO NOT tell them that you were just looking online at hotels/expedia/priceline, as hotel employees are trained to tell you that the rates offered by these companies are really fantastic and you should book through them, right now to get that "great rate", by the way when asked why they can offer theses great rates there is only one response " due to the number of rooms booked through the agency we can offer selected rates for the level of business that they bring us". Ask the hotel what there cancellation policies are, do they have an additional charge for pets, do they have an additional charge for multiple guests, what is the breakfast like, do they offer wireless internet access, do they have a pool, in most cases the responses from the hotel employees are vastly diffrent to the information on the booking site and on that note people do not let any booking agency charge you for an additional person fee if you are staying in a room that was ment to sleep more than one person with more than 1 bed, no hotel in their right mind would charge you for an additional guest if the room was set up to accomadate more than one person! If the site really can offer you a beter deal than the hotel itself book through them just make sure you hear from both sides what the additional expenses would be. Rates.......... the online agencies strive to make at least 50% profit at your loss, example john just booked a room online lets say at $50 plus tax for one night at a hotel that charges $60 for an average room, a confirmation fax is sent to the hotel that has your basic info and the rate they are going to pay you ( the hotel ) for the room..... get ready to gasp the room that you paid $50 for is sold to said agency for right around $20-$25 guests do not receive a bill from the front desk, unless it is by accident from employees, people who do receive a bill accidentally are usually horrified by what they see as most consumers think the hotel takes all of the money and then pays the agency a small commission on the sale, like a car salesman would get. A sharp guest of mine who was a regular stay was handed a bill accidentally by a new employee, instead of getting mad and going off the deep end he asked to speak to me about the rates, I obliged and we worked out a deal for his future stays that actually cost him less than what he was being charged through the agency, and made the hotel more money at the same time! Win-win!!
Its really easy folks, these b.s. companies make money hand over fist because they have found a way to con you out of your money buy playing on your fears of not being able to negotiate and wanting to get that "great rate". What should you do then if you want a great deal? Kindly talk to the hotel employees, state the fact that you would like to stay at there location, disclose wether or not you will be using AAA or other discounts prior to doing the back and forth with the rates, and above all compliment the hotel stafff not nessecarily on themselves personally, but in a way that makes it look like you want to stay there if they are willing to work with you, " you know I would really like to stay here beacuse I always have a good experience at your hotels, and the staff is always great to us, but the rate is just a little outside of my budget, is there anything you can do so that we can see a little more eye to eye on this?" A little ass kissing never hurt anyone espescially hourly employees, you will be surprised how much easier it is to get great rates and service by being friendly, rather than acting like a hard ass who is belives they are hasseled by the counter help. If the said hotel just cant get you in at a good rate, try another hotel, believe me there are no shortages in that area. Lastly, if the trip or occasion you are planning is important please dont let your desire to save money ruin a good time, I would rather pay $50 more for that great romantic weekend getaway than have it ruined by a hotel I did not want, or did not have the features I desired, or gave me a bogus room, because I wanted to cheap out. I have never heard anyones wife comlain because you decided to spend a few extra bucks on your dream vacation, but how fast the weekend is ruined by not getting what you thought you were buying, and ending up in some run down hellhole 10 miles away from anything interesting in town. Your weekend fling was just turned into fodder for arguments and dirty looks, "oh yeah, you don't remember when you booked us that awful hotel, and then we got ripped off because it wasn't refundable and ended up at the days inn?" Cheers and good luck!!!

I originally started booking with hotels.com because they appeared to have good prices compared to what the hotels themselves were offering me. Also, they have the special member program where after you book 10 nights you get one free and they have a price-match guarentee. Well, the first reservation I made with them online was perfect. They sent me a nice email with the weather, local attractions, and all of my reservation information. When I called the hotel themselves, they would only offer me a price that was a$30 more than that at Hotels.com. My second experience with them, however, was not so lucky. I booked online after checking all of the other sites and calling the hotel change. A few days later a competator had a price $30 cheaper, so I called to get a price match. The money was refunded to me, but only after I was transfered all around to several people and spent over an hour on the phone. As my reservation got closer, I needed to add an additional night due to incliment weather. While researching to see if the hotel had any rooms available for the extra night, I again found a rate that was another $22 a night cheaper. I called Hotels.com again to add a night and change my rate. The woman on the phone tried to get me to cancel my current reservation and book with the other agency, which didn't seem to make any sense to me. She clearly did not want to take the time to get me the better rate and kept beating around the bush, telling me it was easier to just cancel this reservation and book another one with the other company. I did not want to do this because I wanted my two nights to go towards my 10 nights at Hotels.com. She put me on hold for 25minutes and then came back and said that because of certain limitations she cannot give me the additonal discount. When I asked her what the vague "certain limitations" were, she stumbled on her words several times before saying that the amount that I have requested and found on the neighboring site is less than what they pay the hotel to try to book this. Therefore, they would not be making any money off my booking. I was furious with this and asked to speak to a manager because it is not fair to consumers to guarantee a price match if you are not going to do it. She then put me on hold for another 10 minutes before saying that the manager is not available. Even when I told her I would wait AGAIN to speak with a manager, she assured me he/she would not be available for a while. Then she proceeded to tell me that she would send me a $20 gift card for my next purchase with them...too bad she couldn't just take that off now...and too bad I will NEVER book with them again!