I used Expedia, Microsoft's bastard stepchild online travel service, to make hotel reservations for a recent trip to Portland. Why did I use Expedia? I used Expedia because I didn't know any better. A friend recommended the Mallory Hotel , but Expedia showed me that I would get a "special weekend rate" at the Westin, which was cheaper than what it showed for the Mallory. So I reserved my room at the Westin through Expedia. When I showed up at the Westin I learned that they charge an additional $20 a day for parking, which Expedia didn't tell me. I later learned that the Mallory has free parking, and the room rate you get by calling them directly is cheaper than the rate that Expedia quoted me. So I would have saved at least $50 by just calling the Mallory in the first place.
The lesson: use Expedia for doing research, but get your own price quotes and make your own reservations.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at January 23, 2003 06:44 AMSounds bad, but I've had worse. Last summer we booked a room at the Palace Station in Vegas through Hotwire, only to learn at checkout time that that dreadful hotel actually charges you for electricity and the telephone (i.e., the fact that they are made available to you, whether you actually use them or not). To top it all off, there was no way we could have known this until it was too late to do anything about it. Hotwire won't tell you what hotel you are booking until after you've paid the price you thought you had just agreed to, and once you make that payment, it is nonrefundable. Pretty clever, huh?
Posted by: Xrlq on January 22, 2003 11:59 PMPlease feel free to drop a line if you have questions about Portland.
Posted by: Rob on January 23, 2003 04:17 PM