Its a good deal offering some good hotels @ 50% off in melbourne. But only valid for Sat, Sun and Monday stay.
Expedia 72hr sale for Melbourne Hotels save upto 50%
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LOL … I just read this story yesteday … was about to warn people as well :)
Same thing happen to me with www.lastminute.com.au, they stuff up my hotel booking early last year. I was lucky the hotel not fully booked, and they gave me better deal. But having 2 hours waiting is still sucks!
It seems we can't really rely on this kind of sites, unless we verify our bookings with the hotel afterward…Most of the big chains are directly interfaced to booking engines. When I left a few years ago Wotif was the only one that required manual bookings the others such as hotels.com, lastminute, expedia etc the bookings would flow into our systems in real time. There was talk of wotif doing the same thing and by now I imagine that would be the case.
But booking at non chain hotels or independants still requires human intervention
Interesting to know, thanks for that. That's probably why the the screwup reported by TC happened, that it's an exception and can fall through the cracks in their processes.
Interesting to note in the above article he blames Expedia for allowing a booking to proceed to a full hotel. Of course, the hotel handles the allotment to the booking engine so this was the hotels fault. But the author doesn't let the truth get in the way of his rant.
It also worth mentioning here to check the brand website for the hotel as most of the bigger players are accutely aware they need to reduce their commission bills paid to booking engines so are offering their best prices with no booking fees on their own channels (similar to most airlines).
Most of the time you will find the price is the same (but cheaper if your 3rd party site charges a booking fee). If you can find a better deal on a third party site you will generally get a free night, the difference + X%, free drinks etc etc. But refer to your preferred hotel chain for details of their program.
don't forget if you happen to see a better price on an "Expeda Special Rate" hotel, phone them and get them to price match (as long as you are prepared to book it that is)
They should beat the price by $1 and attach a $50 voucher to your account
I had to do it this morning, when they were beaten by hotelclub of all places (and about 6 other sites)
After I booked it! - but luckily I meet their terms and conditions
It must be in AUD though without conversion, and there are some strict conditions, but its worth a go
Went through expedia a few months ago to grab ibis in brisbane, they didn't forward the booking onto Ibis, and Ibis had sold out of that room that week. We had to pay $1000 to grab the priciest room for the duration of the booking (6 nights). That left me with about $120 in spending money in the middle of Brisbane.
Expedia did give us our $1000 back, along with a $500 gift voucher for their service, but it still wasn't good enough.
Quick Ink is completely right. Can't believe how old school the American hotels are. There is channel manager for hoteliers nowadays that their room inventories will be updated automatically on all booking sites. It's rare that you will book a room that is actually sold! If it happens, you know how professional that hotel is!!!
And most importantly travel websites can't verify if a room is really available at the hotel, it's up to the hotel to make sure they are giving the correct information.
I am lucky enough to book a few these great deals without hassle.
Just be careful they actually make the booking for you :)
http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/14/expedia-sucks/