We have confirmation for a room but hotel shows Expedia cancelled it

Question

This happened to me and my daughter Saturday night. We were at a basketball tournament, all the teams including daughter's had reservations at the same hotel. I booked with Expedia, and received a confirmation from them that we did not need to reconfirm, so we did not.

Well.. we got there at night after our the games to check in and the hotel was completely booked. As was every other nice "family" hotel in the area. This was highly stressful as there was a snowstorm, yet Expedia did not care. I sat on the phone for 2 hours trying to work something out with Expedia.

The hotel showed me on their Expedia site where Expedia cancelled my reservations and never rebooked me for Saturday only. Expedia said they see my reservation. That's all. They see I am confirmed. My Expedia account and printed out sheet from my email shows my reservation confirmation for Saturday but for some reason they never confirmed with the hotel. The hotel did let my daughter swim with her friends for a while. But I ended up having to book directly with a MOTEL down the road as only room available, not ideal.

We have had this planned and booked since November. The hotel could do nothing as they were completely booked. Expedia hung up on me twice and hung up on the hotel once. The hotel even tried telling the Expedia they would pay for my room but that they messed up. Expedia kept insisting that I had to pay and anything above my reservation would be covered by Expedia.

Well the truckstop motel was $77. Our deal with the hotel Grandstay was $115. I can't even explain how horrid the experience was and to top it off there was a Blizzard Warning in Effect and we had to drive to the other hotel at nighttime. Expedia did nothing to help us, to compensate us for their mistake, etc. Again, I still have my confirmation that I have a room booked with NO NEED TO RECONFIRM.

Who do I contact as Expedia Customer Service and their Chat Service were absolutely no help and were downright rude. Even the hotel manager on duty said in 30 years and with a 4 year Travel (not sure correct title) degree she has never heard of such a thing and the service rep at Expedia even hung up on her before telling her it was the Hotel's fault for overbooking. (But I booked back in November).

I am looking for help on how to even get Expedia to take responsibility and maybe even give us a couple free nights stay at a hotel with a nice pool.

Answer 1

Expedia customer service hasn't been very helpful to you, but I would suggest you continue to call and email, asking for managers or higher ups. Generally staff will attempt to dismiss the issues, but when passed higher it is more likely to be sorted.

Phone: If you have previously called Expedia's customer services and your issue has not been resolved, you can call 0203 684 2910 about your problem. (worked in this case of overcharging)

Email: As @traveller mentioned in their comment you can email the CEO: ceoemail.com/s.php?id=ceo-10809, or you can also try [email protected] if you haven't already, this email has a 48 hour max response time and should give you an official complaint number etc.

Letter: Others have had success at the following address: Expedia Corporate Office Headquarters HQ, 3150 139th Ave. SE, Bellevue, WA 98005 USA

Personally, I always use social media such as twitter/facebook. Companies usually respond faster and resolve the issue properly when they are publicly called out. I've had issues resolved with Delta this way, but haven't tried Expedia specifically.

Hope you manage to solve this, but be warned that this is something that happens often with them, with some people taking them to small claims court.