I recently had a horrendous experience with Hotels.com, which has cost me hours of my time, immense frustration, and the need to dispute the charge through American Express just to get a resolution. Here's what happened:

1. Website Glitch Caused Incorrect Booking Dates
I booked a stay at La Quinta Inn & Suites by Wyndham Cocoa Beach Oceanfront, intending to stay July 19th - July 21st. However, due to what I suspect was a caching issue on Hotels.com's website, my reservation was booked for July 11th instead—a mistake caused by their system, not mine.

2. Hours Spent Trying to Fix Their Mistake
As soon as I realized the error, I immediately called Hotels.com to request a date modification (not a cancellation). Despite having purchased Travel Guard insurance, which should allow changes, Hotels.com refused to assist me.

I spent hours on the phone and through email trying to work with their customer service, only to be met with unhelpful responses and refusal to take responsibility.

3. Even the Hotel Confirmed Hotels.com's Issue
Frustrated, I contacted Shane (General Manager) and Summer (Front Desk) at the hotel directly. They told me this issue has been happening to many guests booking through Hotels.com!

They confirmed that Hotels.com absolutely has the ability to modify bookings, but consistently refuses to support customers.

4. Forced to Rebook Directly with the Hotel
Since Hotels.com wouldn't fix my reservation, I had no choice but to book the correct dates directly with the hotel, resulting in double booking costs. Unlike Hotels.com, the hotel staff was incredibly accommodating.

5. Disputing the Charge with American Express
After Hotels.com failed to help despite multiple attempts, I was forced to initiate a chargeback dispute with American Express, submitting extensive documentation proving my case.

6. Unacceptable Customer Service & Lack of Accountability
Hotels.com's refusal to fix their mistake, acknowledge their system errors, or provide reasonable customer service is absolutely unacceptable. This wasted hours of my time, and it's shocking how they treat loyal customers.

Conclusion: Avoid Hotels.com!
If you value your time, money, and sanity, do not book through Hotels.com. Their lack of accountability, refusal to correct simple issues, and complete disregard for customers is unacceptable.

Instead, book directly with hotels—it's safer, more reliable, and you won't have to go through the nightmare I did.

Note: This is a summary of what has happened to me. Proofs (emails to and from hotels.com, past email communications, and a recording of the highest supervisor in charge of the support call center / policy handling) have been reviewed and are available. All the statements below are factual based on these documents. They are available upon request from regulators, law enforcement, media or parties interested to legally pursuing hotels.com or expedia.com. This matter deserves a class action.
What happened: I have been booking hotels for personal trip using hotels.com, since 2013. He accumulated 25 free nights worth a total of 4841.98 USD (documented by email). Hotels.com calls this "before expiration". The policy in place at the time, i.e., before May 2023, was that the counter on expiration of these night was reset every time new stays were booked. If 12 months pass, the nights would expired. The tally captured above was the value in November 2019, when the last stay in 2019 was booked. With COVID19, hotel.com communicated via email that it was suspending the expiration policy: customers maintain their status (e.g., silver, gold etc.) and reward nights. I also booked in October 2021 and June 2023. Per the announcement and policy, the reward nights valid on November 2019 ad at most only 3 to 4 [November 2019 till February 2020 when expiration was suspended for COVID] + 1 months [May 2023 (when expiration restored) till June 2023 (when new boking took place. During the suspended month, the months did not count. That was admitted by Luis, highest person in customer service, self-stated highest level in charge of handling these policy issues.
The announcement of the suspension of the expiration policy did not provide any process to sign-up, or ensure that nights are not expiring. Requests to see copy of the 202 announcement have been ignored by most support agent and rejected by Luis.
Around May 2023, hotels.com announced combination of expedia.com and hotels.com rewards under what they call One Key. For sure the program is pathetic versus what Hotels.com offered (i.e. One free night every 10 nights (cheapest rate in the 10 nights) vs. 2% of spent with the new reward program), but that is a different issue.
At the end of August 2023, I checked the new one key status and see only ~ USD 200, in it. From early September till December 2023, communications (email and calls to agents and supervisors), have resulted into hotels.com claiming 1) that the 2019 and before free night had expired 2) that they were not available for review any more 3) that they can't be restored, 4) (end of November) that they were 25 free nights worth a total of 4841.98 USD and refused to provide past statements (stays and or rewards, copy of COVID suspension announcement and copy of any expiration announcement). Offered to refund USD 500 were made.
Luis finally explained, or should we say admitted, and it is all on tape, that:
The 25 free nights worth a total of 4841.98 USD were not expired. However, customer should have contacted hotels.com to have them restored (not mentioned anywhere and why would that be considering the COVID announcement). When asked to provide copy of the email announcement, Luis claims not having it and not being able to request the IT department to have a copy recovered.
When asked how the customer know that he stated expiration notices supposedly sent (i.e. ~ Nov 21 and Oct 2022). No such notice were ever received. When asked to provide copy of the email notification, Luis claims not having them and not being able to request the IT department to have a copy recovered.
Then Luis explained that hotels.com had a policy that request to restore had to be done before May 8,2023.
When asked how the customer should know that Luis said, on tape, that the customer couldn't know it. It was an internal policy that had not been communicated to customers!
The Luis repeated the mantra of all the agents: therefore the rewards are expired and they can't be restored. Ut he offered a courtesy addition of 1000USD to One Key, and stated noting more can be done.
In other words, the top (allegedly) level escalation of customer service admitted, on tape, you have to listen to it to believe it, that hotels.com stole 4841.98 USD through this scheme and claimed it could only give 1000 USD back to make up for it! He admitted it was a theft! Is this a reputable company with which you wat to do business? Of course it is a challenge that the market is cornered by expedia.com that actually drives these fraudulent and shady businesses practices and behaves like a quasi-monopoly with all the differ travel sites appearing different but owned by them!
Anyway, a complaint has been filed with customers service asking that the upper management be informed and for a letter of explanation and apology. It is a last way out for hotels.com and expedia.com to prove that they are an ethical business and do the right thing. We will update here if we hear back. References are Case # *******, S#******* (earlier was among others: Case number *******.
I want to recover $3841.98 and to warn consumers of the practice of expedia. It is likely many are not aware that they have been scammed

I paid for this booking knowing that it was non refundable under the policy that I had a 24 hour window to cancel. Once I passed this 24 hour window it was explained that it was going to be non refundable which I understood. My issue with HOTELS.com is that I tried canceling OVER a dozen times throught the only means of communication which is by chat. When attempting to cancel my reservation within 10 minutes of me making it (Due to a family emergency) their site couldn't pull up my reservation with the itinerary number that they provided me. I made sure that I entered in the itinerary number correct every single time by inputting one number at a time and would double check it after once more and their site said they couldn't find any info and to try again later. I kept trying like I said over a dozen times within the 24 hour period. To be exact I tried a total of 26 times. Their site was also showing that there seemed to be a problem on their end everytime I tried. NO CALL SUPPORT and to be frank, NO CHAT SUPPORT either. I obviously didn't show up to my reservation and what I had to do was contact my card company to dispute this transaction of $153.89. I was able to get my money back temporarily until a final determination was made. I showed proof of the chats from HOTELS.com showing that they couldn't pull up my info with the itinerary number and how HOTELS.com were saying we can't find your info based on the info you provide and proof showing that they were having problems on their end. I looked at my bank account and noticed about a month or so later that the money was infact taken out of my account again. I was told by my card company that I needed to provide additional proof because HOTELS.com were saying that I infact showed up to my reservation. I got in contact with the VP of the hotel company and was able to get a letter head showing that I in fact didn't show to the reservation. On HOTELS.com it does say that when making a reservation that you may be able to cancel within 24hr period. When I purchased this reservation it didn't say you may be able to cancel it said you can cancel anytime within 24 hours. I've escalated this to my bank and they are taking furthur action in my case. WORD TO THE WISE, DO NOT... I REPEAT, DO NOT book with HOTELS.COM! HOTELS.COM I WANT MY MONEY BACK, THIS IS A SCAM and YOU ROBBED ME OF MY MONEY.

The following is a copy of an email that I attempted to send to hotels.com, only to find that you can't actually contact customer service by email.

"Dear sir,

I am having great difficulty in dealing with the reservations person at the Hotel Emonec in Ljubljana Slovenia.

I am In the midst of planning a 10 week trip in several Central European Countries, Italy and North Africa through hotels.com. I booked 2 nights at the Hotel Emonec. The following morning I received an email saying that my credit card had been declined. I immediately called Wells Fargo MasterCard and was told they had posted a fraud alert and a stop on my card. They indicated that there had been a number of fraudulent charges through the Hotel Emonec. Wells Fargo removed the block on the card, I immediately sent a chat message to the Hotel Emonec and told them that the problem had been resolved and for them to resubmit the charge.

I booked this stay fully realizing that this was a nonrefundable reservation. " Mario" at Hotel Emonec responded with something to the effect that I had booked a nonrefundable charge and that there was nothing that could be done about it. I asked him to let me know if I had a reservation there or not. He never answered the question but wanted another credit card number from me. Now I am wondering if Wells Fargo was correct in flagging this as a fraud! At this point I do not know if my reservation went through or if I have a room. ( I am sure that the transcript of the chat is available to review to see both his and my insults).

I have already made several bookings for this trip through hotels.com and was planning to make the remainder of the reservations through your company. At this point I deciding whether I should cancel all of my refundable reservations that I have already made and working through hotels.com and using another channel for the remaining 7 weeks of reservations that have not been booked as yet. Right now I still do not know if I have a reservation in Ljubljana.

If this is the best that can be done, then the decision is going to be easy!

I travel internationally 4-5 months a year and typically don't stay in 4-5 star accommodations, but the volume of nights booked is significant.

I would appreciate you responding to me about the reservation in Ljubljana so I don't end up sleeping on the street!

Respectfully,

Robert Hoyle "
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I go to trivago.com to book hotels, you typically have a choice of several booking companies to choose from. I know which one I won't be using again!

They have temoved my reward points without any email notification, DO NOT TRUST HOTELS.COM No phone number or contact form.

It has now been a MONTH since out traumatic experience in Geneva at Annemasse apartments and we have not received a REFUND or even a response?!

I will not just go away like you are obviously hoping I will. I want the refund and I want the $100 credit I was promised on the phone for wasting 3 hours of my life and holiday being transferred between 3 different consultants all of whom promised to solve my issues but have done NOTHING.

I will be following this up legally

I want a response NOW

Sandra

Sent from my iPhone

> On 4 Mar 2023, at 5:13 pm, sandra palmos wrote:
>
> WHAT A JOKE?!
>
> So in 2 weeks you have had no response from Annemasse Apartments… what does that tell you?
>
> They are incompetent, unprofessional, unreliable and thieves who falsely advertise a premise, take your money, make you live through hell and then no response. Much like Hotels.com so not surprised you are partnered up?!
>
> If Annemasse don't provide a refund hotels.com should as they are the booking company and therefore LIABLE?!
>
> If you do not check your partners then you are liable. I want a refund within 3 days or I will be taking this further legally.
>
> Re changing my email address WHAT PART CANT ANY OF YOU UNDERSTAND?!
>
> I can't sign in to my account?!
>
> The email address registered is 10 years old and I can't send a link to reset my password or change/edit my account details.
>
> THIS IS THE PROBLEM?!
>
> I CANT GET IN TO MY ACCOUNT?!
>
> DO ANY OF YOU UNDERSTAND OR SPEAK ENGLISH?!
>
> I cannot change my email address because I CANNOT even get in to my account due to it having an OLD email address registered.
>
> I'VE ONLY REPEATED THIS ATLEAST 30 TIMES
>
> When will someone understand and bloody help?!
>
> THIS IS BEYOND A JOKE
>

I recently returned from a trip to the Kentucky Derby and stayed in Louisville, KY at a Holiday Inn. They gave me great service while I was there and I was satisfied with their hotel and their property. While I was there, however, I received a call from *******441, Red Roof Inn, Georgetown, IN on Thursday evening (May 5th). I did not know where this call originated from at the time. I was asked if this was Thomas, to which I replied "yes, who is this"? I was told that someone associated with my telephone # had made a reservation with them and hadn't shown up. I asked who they were and the person did not answer me. She merely stated that I had made a reservation with them for that evening. I asked again who they were and she did not respond, I asked what type of reservation they thought I had made, restaurant? …show? …what type of reservation? Nothing…she hung up.

I thought it was just a mistaken identity. The next day (May 6th) I was contacted by another person from the same # and this person explained to me that this was Red Roof Inn, Georgetown, IN and I had failed to check in to their hotel the previous day on an already paid for stay. I informed him that I did not make any reservations for their hotel and he told me that not only had I booked their hotel via Hotels.com but that I had prepaid in January. When I told him that I certainly did not he referred me to Hotels.com to sort out the problem and stated that he had no authority to cancel my reservation and issue a refund. He told me that he would inform his manager (who would have the authority to do so) of my situation and that I could call her the next day to inquire. When I called back the same gentleman informed me that the manager refused to issue a cancellation with a refund and that my only recourse was to inquire with Hotels.com.

When I contacted Hotels.com they agreed to contact the manager on my behalf in an attempt to resolve my issue. Hotels.com contacted me 2 days later via e-mail and told me that the manager refused to issue any refund and that there was nothing they could do.

First of all, although I travel quite a bit, I never prepay for a hotel stay no matter which booking service I may use. I never made a reservation with Red Roof Inn! As a senior citizen, and member of AARP, I realize that I may be targeted more frequently by identity thieves so I count on reputable companies to understand and work together with me to resolve potential problems.

On the same night, May 5th, my debit/credit card was turned down for a pizza order and I contacted my bank. I was told that there was an unauthorized charge on my card for $0.01 from Tempke, AZ and they had stopped my card on suspected fraud. When I returned home on May 10th I was informed that there were numerous fraudulent charges on the account, in excess of $1,000. I can't help but think that these two situations were related. I was charged $927.71 for a 3-night stay between May 5th – 8th.

I believe I am entitled to a full refund because I never authorized the prepayment of any hotel charges from Red Roof Inn. But regardless of this, the first person to whom I spoke knew that I was not going to stay at their hotel. She could have charged me for the no show that night and cancelled the remaining nights. This would have only resulted in a charge of a little over $300.

To make matters worse I was planning to attend the Kentucky Derby but tested positive for Covid on Friday, May 6th. Talk about a trip from hell!

Needless to say, I am not happy with the service I received from Red Roof Inn. I will never use them again and will advise anyone I can of the absolute nightmare I have gone through due to being charged for reservations I never made. You can rest assured that this post will be showing up in numerous reviews in regard to Red Roof Inn! This type of treatment is not what frequent travelers expect!

This is the second time I have attempted to resolve this issue with corporate. I received no response in my earlier attempt. That is unacceptable!

Hotels at TRI Hotel in Spartanburg SC was very poor service Arrived 5th and 6th would not recommend

Never use this site to book a hotel. Use any other site except this one.

I booked a hotel using their app for 5 days in Tennessee. Before the check in time we received a call from my ex wife stating that our son, that I had just been around had tested positive for Covid-19. We immediately called hotels.com and informed them that in order to avoid exposing other people, we were being instructed to test ourselves and quarantine until we received our results. Hotels.com put us on hold to inform the hotel of the situation and to see if they would waive the fee and give us the full refund. Timbers lodge approved the full refund. They took us off of hold and let us know that we would receive a refund within 24 hours to our original form of payment. We let them know that we used Affirm to book a hotel and it was a one time use card that could not accept refunds. At that time we asked for the money to be issued on a hotels.com gift card that we could use at a later date. The employee said that was fine and that it would take 24 hours.

12 hours later we called again to check the status of our received a refund, they kept hanging up on us and telling us they could not give us a refund. I then spoke to a gentleman for 58 minutes at midnight and he said his manager would be calling me back in 30 minutes. I waited until 2:53 AM to call back because a manager had not returned my phone call. I was on the phone for 42 minutes and got hung up on. I called back at 3:37AM spoke with a gentleman for 25 minutes, he reassured me that his manager would call me in the next hour. I stayed awake all night long and never received a phone call until 11:49 AM by a manger named Mitzi G. She reassured in her voicemail that she would contact me back within 1 hour. I never received a phone call. I called back at 3:02 PM and was hung up on again. I called again at 3:04 PM spoke with a gentleman for 42 minutes, he put me on a three-way call with a manager that did not provide his name or ID number. He argued with me, I once again explained our situation, he reassured me that within 72 hours a refund he would issued to use directly through hotels.com.

We called the next 2 days just to follow up to ensure that we would get our money back within 72 hours through hotels.com and the employees both confirmed.

After 79 hours we called because we had yet to receive our refund. After being on the phone for 2 hours, speaking to multiple managers, and providing them the exact date and times of phone calls they are said it would take 1 to 3 business days to investigate the situation because they do not issue refunds on a gift card. We finally got in contact with James ID#: ******* who argued with my fiancée and did not want to help us until we had to mention my fiancée's health condition. Once my fiancée got on the phone and told him that he had a brain tumor, that everyday could be a last day, what he had been through already with hotels.com and they were causing him anxiety and stress is when James finally decided to try to resolve the issue. He guaranteed we would receive a coupon with the full amount within 24 hours and that he would personally be calling us back once it was issued. We had to call once again and the first man we spoke to Yuri who refused to give us his ID number, said that he had no authority and could not transfer us to a manager and shortly after hung up the phone. I called again and didn't even finish telling them the situation when they hung up for a second time. Finally after 6 phone calls, I got in contact with a young lady that was able to transfer me to James. After having to re-explain that they money could not be refunded to the original form of payment he finally issued coupons for $325 when the actual amount was $328.03 but we left it alone after all that we had been through. What took him 5 minutes to resolve in our last conversation took 6 days and 8 and a half hours of being on the phone or on hold with hotels.com.

I do not understand why they had to be so difficult and rude throughout this entire process. Something so simple, that the hotel approved a refund for in a matter of minutes took over 6 days to complete. We are Gold members due to the amount of bookings we have made using this site and this is how we were treated. I can't imagine how regular customers are treated if this is how you treat your gold members.

Save yourself the trouble and book through another hotel site.

My email is *******@gmail.com in case someone from this company wants to double check that all the information I provided is correct.

On 19/2/2020 we confirmed our reservation at the ΄΄KALKEN '' hotel, in El Calafate, Argentina, via hotels.com. However, due to the unprecedented situation with the coronavirus and our canceled flights, we had to cancel our entire trip.
After contacting the HOTEL KALKEN ' by phone and via email, it confirmed to us, orally and in writing (the relevant email is attached), on 16/3/2020, the free cancellation of our room, although the booking conditions were non-refundable.
The written and oral confirmation from the hotel for the free cancellation of our reservation, combined with the fact that the use of the coupon for a long time is and will remain prohibitive, as well as that the reorganization of such a long trip can not be done imperative in order to receive our money back, lead to the conclusion that the only acceptable and fair solution is the return of our money.
This coupon is not a solution for us and implies the loss of our money, without the provision of services and without of course, our own fault. It is not possible for the customer to bear all the responsibility for the cancelled flights and the problems that arose due to the pandemic, and the agencies, taking advantage of the situation, not to refund money from the non-provision of services, providing as an alternative, impossible solutions.
Having organized such a long trip and cooperated with airbnb and booking, we did not face any problem in our refunds, as this is an unprecedented situation, which no one had predicted, nor is it responsible for it, nor was it able to managed, and which was perceived, by these agencies, in their honor and for impeccable service, to all their clients.
Moreover, It is illegal to be denied to have our money back since it was not our fault and nothing was cancelled by our side and trying to make a balance with a useless coupon.
It was denied to travel, hotels were closed and there was no possibility to arrive to our destination.
Booking and airbnb have fully re compensated us in accordance with hotels for non refundable cases.
It is your duty to come in contact with hotel kalken and help us to get our refund.
Moreover, i hereby attached you again their confirmation in writing about free cancellation of our booking, having hotel's free cancellation in writing, we doubt about your attempts to get our money back and procedure followed.
Awaiting to have an official answer by hotels.com and making all necessary arrangements yo get our money back.

Best regards
Kalliopi Kechri