"On July 26, 2023 I looked up a rate for the Draftsman hotel in Charlottesville, VA. The quote was for $139/night which was a $29 discount from the standard rate. No sooner did I accept the $139 the room rate was changed to $170. The Hotels.com rep simply said the price s are subject to change, there is nothing he can do. He couldn’t give me a phone number to speak to anyone. I will no longer use Hotels.com
S. Pure"

"This was our first time using Hotels.com and I can't express how disappointed we are. We made a mistake when booking and accidentally clicked on the night after the one we needed. We called customer service immediately after booking to have the mistake corrected, but were unable to understand the representative due to a heavy foreign accent. We were already only 15 minutes away from the hotel, so figured we would fix it there.

Once at the hotel, the front desk was happy to help, but had no available rooms for the night we needed. However, they offered to issue a full refund but needed us to call this site because it wasn't booked directly through the hotel. We called right from the hotel office and were given the run around and told the would create a ticket and get back to us. It's now 2 weeks later, 5 emails sent with only 1 initial reply saying the ticket was open, and we're still waiting on a resolution. This should have been refunded immediately. "

"Booked, paid, and then canceled but never have gotten a refund. Got email saying I will get a refund but money never showed up. Called several time but nobody has the knowledge to help. If planning on using them, DO NOT PAY ONLINE!!!!! Pay at the hotel. "

"What a bad experience, they offered me a free night and they mentioned I'll just pay the taxes, once I completed the booking it was cheap, only taxes and some additional fees. After I checked the credit card I found the charges are $550. After calling them over 3 days they said the reservation is non-refundable. I'll try to call the bank to do a charge back "

"Dealing with hotels.com is a complete fiasco every single time. Have been using them on and off for 7 years now. It says on their website while booking that if you have any questions you can contact them. That statement is completely false. Unless you have a reservation already booked with a booking number, you can't get through to an agent at their toll free number. The system will end the call and hang up on you unless you're able to enter a valid booking number. On this last trip I booked 2 rooms at the Four Seasons Hotel in Atlanta from Thursday 2/17/22 through Monday 2/21/22. When checking in, the employee at the front desk only showed one room booked. I show her my confirmation e-mail that stated we booked 2 rooms. The employee said I would have to call hotels.com and have them reach out to the hotel. I call the toll free number for hotels.com and it wanted me to enter the booking number to speak to a representative. I entered the booking number from the e-mail multiple times. It said I'm sorry we can't find a booking that matches the information you have provided. The call will end now, goodbye. We stood there 45 minutes and eventually the hotel employee was able to figure it out. We had to check out a day early. The employee at the front desk told us to call hotels.com to have them call the hotel. The hotel would authorize a one day refund for each of the two rooms. Called but it kept saying the booking number was invalid. Had to go back to older e-mails. Discovered we needed to remove the last digit in the booking number. I finally got a representative and they supposedly called the hotel. They came back on the phone. Said they couldn't give a refund because there was no hotel manager on duty. I called the hotel. The hotel said they could issue the refund because hotels.com refused to provide a call back number. Hotels.com didn't want to refund me because of loss of commission. Not the first time. Very shady company. Won't use again ever."

"Booked 2 rooms. One for mon-fri
Another turs-thurs

Called to make a change the Friday before to switch it from mon-fri to tues-fri.

Automated system said someone would get back to me in (4) hours. Never happened. I called again. Same thing, except as soon as I was called (4) hours later called disconnected (on purpose?) Without getting to speak to someone. Called following morning & spoke with Rajiv, who seemed to be working from home bc the sound of (3-4) large dogs barking was throughout our conversation. Explained what I wanted to do which was switch one reservation & cancel the other.

He successfully cancelled the tues-thursday and I was issued a credit to my card within a few days. He said his system wasn't working properly and couldn't figure out how to switch my other reservation from mon-tues to Friday. Said he emailed a supervisor who would call me back to fix it and that all was going to be ok.

I went to hotel and BOTH RESERVATIONS WERE CANCELLED. Thankfully after (3) drive, they did have a room available, but nearly (4) months later still no refund on my 50% deposit for their incompetence. I sent a letter to Hotels.com corporate office and (6-7 weeks later haven't heard a peep).

Stay as far away as possible from hotels.com

Terribly understaffed on the phones
(Always a 4-6 hour wait to speak to live rep)
Online assistance is a non-working/functioning "bot" that is useless, and corporate doesn't care.

A company with ZERO JNTEGRITY/CREDIBILITY!

YOU'VE BEEN WARNED. Going to my credit card company for assistance. Hotels com is a shameful, disreputable embarrassment. I've sent a letter to the State Attorney's General in PA, MD, TX and the US Attorney General to investigate, as my case is not the outlier, but the norm"

"I made a mistake when booking, and I'll admit that from the start. And it was a non-refundable reservation. So I called Hotels.com to see what they could do. After sitting on hold for a short amount of time, I was connected with an agent. She said if the hotel agreed to the cancellation and refund, they would too. She told me I needed to call the hotel, and in the meantime, she would send me an email. I should reply to the email with the name and position of the person who agreed to the refund,

When I called the hotel, it turned out THEY HAVE NO SUCH NON-REFUNDABLE POLICY! They would have been happy to cancel the reservation at no charge, if I had made it directly, but couldn't do that because I had used Hotels.com. She said she would approve it and gave me her name and title for me to provide to Hotels.com.

I replied back to the email Hotels.com had sent, happy that a resolution seemed likely. My reply was only 7 minutes after I had received the email from Hotels.com in the first place. I wanted to make sure I did everything quickly to help speed the process along.

Then I heard nothing back. I emailed again about 5 1/2 hours later. Nothing. And again 3 hours after that. Nothing. I went back to the original email and noted that it said they would respond within 10 business days.

So I waited 10 business days and emailed them to tell them how disappointed I was in their lack of communication. As far as I can tell, they never reached out to the property. Never refunded my money. NEVER EVEN BOTHERED TO REPLY BACK TO THE SUPPORT TICKET.

I've since done some research and discovered that Hotels.com and other third-party booking sites really harm the industry. They're taking a cut of the revenue due to the property because they can out-beat them at advertising. Other than being a search engine, they really offer no useful service. And in this case, they made everything harder.

I am still out over $400, which I'm sure I'll never see again. It was an expensive lesson to learn, but from now on, I'll book everything directly so I don't have to rely on a middleman who offers nothing in the way of good customer service.
"

"Major wripp off. I booked with them and 15 minutes later arrived at the hotel only to find out I booked the wrong night by accident. I did it in a rush on my cellphone. I had to repay at the hotel because they said that I needed to get the refund through hotels.com. The hotel said that it would not be an issue and that Hotels.com would just call them to verify the mistake and refund my money. Well they denied the refund and I am out double the $$$ !!!!"

"On a trip to visit family my husband booked a hotel that was farther away than we intended from my family's home. We wanted to be closer. So he called hotels. Com to see if we could switch our hotel. We were using a free night we earned but staying 4 nights in all. My husband told the CS guy if we're going to lose our free night or be charged penaltys, then we'd just keep the first hotel booking. We were very clear on that. Don't want to cancel if we're going to be charged for two hotels or lose the free night we earned. The CS guy told my husband he'd see what he could do! Came back an told my husband ok sir everything is good "

"Had to call THREE times today and was on hold more than an hour each time due to a refund request for a terrible booking. I was either disconnected or transferred to wrong department. After I was able to get someone on the line who barely spoke English, I was promised a refund and then an hour later got an email the refund wasn’t happening. Never will use them again ! "

"Sought to block book a further four nights at the hotel I was staying at, with my ‘trusted partner’ of 20 years plus namely’Hotels.com’
Rather surprised by total price that appeared on my screen and so out of intrigue wanted to appreciate which nights were costing what... So I made 4 individual pricing requests for the dates in question. Fri- Sat/ Sat-Sun/ Sun-Mon/ Mon- Tues.
This latter action showed a different total ; lower price by over €300 (>30%).
So taking the normal time saving action can if this is indicative wold have lead to a far higher price for the stay. Thought feedback important so contacted hotels.com
Spoke to a member of the team in USA and suggested there must be a glitch on the system and it might be an idea to pass feedback to the appropriate department to safeguard other clients and their brand. You would have thought a bit of ‘ hey thank you, will get right on it and will ensure you receive an explanation plus assurance all resolved’. Instead he said ‘ it is not my remit you’re best talking to sales’. He put me through and there were two options : current ( press 1) , new bookings ( press 2). Always believing companies are more eager to make a new bookings pressed the latter. Re directed to website. Tried ringing him back : unlisted number. Rang hotels.com again ; couldn’t get through. Shadow of its once untouchable position... Another example of losing touch with pragmatics and listening to customers..."

"They are lucky to get 1 star. Price guarantee does not exist. I had a paid room, no refund. The price went down 200. before my stay so I called Hotel.com for a refund. 1 hour on hold, They cancelled my no refund room, booked it under the new price & never paid it. I could not stay because they wanted another $554 because it was no longer paid. The paid room had been cancelled by them & it was a no refund price. But the Hotel does NOT guarantee the price, Hotel.com does. I tried calling again only to be on hold for an hour and a half before hanging up. Save time and money, call the hotel directly."

"Horrible customer service. I accidentally booked a room for two months in advance because the site autopopulated the date. It has been less than 24 and they will not refund. "

"A friend and I were to visit Eastern Europe in June, 2020. We began booking accommodations through hotels.com in January. When the pandemic hit, our flights to Europe were cancelled. The countries I intended to visit closed their borders.

My airline refunded my non-refundable ticket. I tried to contact hotels.com without success. I realize I booked non-refundable rooms. However, other vendors practiced good customer service and gave me back my money but not hotels.com. Not even by writing to the president of the company did I receive the courtesy of a return call/ email. I will never use them again because I feel cheated.

Please note they are owned by Expedia Group, which owns 18 travel companies: VRBO, Hot Wire, Wotif, Orbitz, and Travelocity among others. They could have afforded to do the right thing but did not. Beware, not only of Hotels.com but all Expedia companies.
"

"Won't refund a $30 difference in room price. I was charged by hotels.com $108 and change but recieved bill from hotel next morning for $78 and change. I contacted them and they told me numerous times we have the best negotiated room rates!"