Expedia and the awful experience
I booked a hotel through Expedia about one month before my trip. A few days later, I checked the Expedia app to review my reservation, but it wasn’t there. I also never received a confirmation email, so I genuinely believed the booking had not been confirmed. Since my trip was getting closer, I couldn’t risk arriving without accommodation, so I made a new reservation through Booking.com. That reservation was confirmed immediately, and I planned my entire trip, including my flights, around it. Only later did I discover that Expedia had already charged my credit card for the original booking, even though the reservation never appeared in my Expedia account. I suddenly found myself with two non-refundable bookings for the same hotel. I contacted Expedia immediately, expecting them to take responsibility for what had happened. Instead, I spent weeks speaking with different agents, explaining the same situation over and over again, only to be told to wait while they contacted the hotel. Nothing meaningful happened. The difference in customer service was unbelievable. Even though both reservations were non-refundable, Booking.com told me they were willing to waive their commission and cancel my reservation if it would help solve the situation. They were not responsible for the problem, yet they still tried to help. Expedia, however, left me completely dependent on the hotel. I had to make international phone calls to the hotel myself and explain everything: that Expedia’s booking never appeared in my account, that I believed it had failed, that I had made another confirmed reservation through a different platform, and that I had already arranged my flights and my entire trip based on that confirmed booking. I personally asked the hotel for help. After several calls and emails, I was the one who convinced the hotel to approve a 50% refund. Expedia did not negotiate that agreement. I did. What frustrated me even more was that Expedia later claimed they had obtained the hotel’s approval, even though I was the person who spent the time, made the international calls, and reached the agreement directly with the hotel. The hotel agreed to refund 50% of a booking worth around €630. However, after deductions, I received only €183. At that point, Expedia simply left me to deal with the hotel by myself. They did not make sure I received the agreed refund, they did not recover the missing amount, and they did not take responsibility for a problem that started with a booking that never even appeared in their own app. This experience cost me hundreds of euros, countless hours, expensive international calls, and an unbelievable amount of stress before and after my holiday. I used Expedia because I expected a travel company to protect its customers when something goes wrong. Instead, I had to solve everything myself while Expedia stood on the sidelines. This has been the worst customer service experience I have ever had, and after everything I went through, I cannot recommend Expedia to anyone. Even on the Trustpilot page, they keep repeating the same generic response without actually addressing the issue.