Expedia.com
Baymont Inn

On Wednesday, May 9th I was searching online to find a hotel in the Pensacola, FL area to stay at on a trip. I was looking at lots of hotel websites around the area to find a safe location, good quality and price. I went on the Expedia website for the first time to look and see what hotel rates were around the Pensacola area. I saw on Expedia's website that I could do a 40% off hotel request, and this would qualify as an unpublished hotel rate that would provide a more substantial discount in hotel price due to the restrictions being placed on the reservation, ie. No cancellation, unaware of hotel name, etc. Before I placed the reservation, I reviewed the terms and conditions of the site. It stated that the 2.5 star hotel would be similar to a Holiday Inn Express and/or a Best Western. It also stated the hotel would be a good quality hotel. As soon as I placed my reservation, I was given the hotel information: Baymont Inn in Pensacola, FL and lead back to expedia's website where it has the hotel reviews and information listed. Now two things particularly stand out to me as being wrong with this reservation: 1) This hotel, which the expedia company advertised with the 40% off this unpublished rate, I was not given what I consider a discount at all.in fact, I went on to the hotel website, provided the same reservation information and was given a cheaper rate to stay ($180 instead of $187- expedia price) than what expedia charged me. Also listed on Expedia.com (published rate), Priceline.com, Travelocity.com and like I previously said on the hotel website, the price is the exact same if not cheaper than what expedia gave to me as they called "an unpublished rate". To make matters worse, the website expedia led me to after I received my reservation information for the hotel was on the expedia website. It contained reviews for this particular hotel which were honestly horrendous. Nearly every other review on the expedia site for this hotel was a 2.0 or below and detailed concerns for safey, uncleanliness of the hotel and maintenance issues, etc.

When I contacted Expedia customer service to relay the above information and state that this is what I believe to be false advertisement, the several representatives that I spoke with, including a corporate manager by the name of William and a customer service representative named Nicholi stated that policy is policy and the company could not offer any sort of a refund or credit me back my money in order to use on a future purchase through Expedia. Expedia even refused to contact the hotel, explain the situation and request a cancellation and refund. I feel as though this is very bad business practice and customer service. I was mislead to believe that I was getting a 2.5 star hotel, similar to that of a Holiday Inn Express caliber and that the amount I would be spending would be based off of an unpublished rate by the hotel (that was the incentive for booking without knowing the exact hotel and without being able to cancel the reservation if needed). Expedia is doing a disservice to its customers and in turn, losing a customer because of false advertisement and poor customer service.

Company: Expedia.com
Country: USA

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