The ever-expanding tentacles of Expedia …. do you know everything it owns?

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• Talay says:

  5 Feb5 February 04:18

  When I do business with an end customer rather than an intermediary I can offer preferential terms. Yet when hotels do business with their end customers, through their own websites or direct booking, too often I find their prices out of sync and their “best price guarantee” conditions almost impossible to utilise.

  If hotels were truly offering best prices, then only the foolish and uneducated would book through consolidators or intermediary websites. The simple fact is that they do not.

• Danksy says:

  5 Feb5 February 04:20

  The best value from expedia and the like is to exploit BRG’s . I have had mixed success so far but over the next 2 weeks I’ve snared 4 hotel rooms at a 25% discount to the rate quoted by ClubCarlsson brands by using their BRG. Plus doing it this way you get loyalty points too!

  • JamesWag says:

    5 Feb5 February 07:19

    How long does it take to get the match agreed and then the room booked ?
    (Particularly Club Carlson)
    Cheers.

  • Rob says:

    5 Feb5 February 07:43

    Brg?

    • Alan says:

      5 Feb5 February 07:44

      Best Rate Guarantee – most of the big chains offer this, some more generous than others, some better at paying out than others!

• Peaceful Waters says:

  5 Feb5 February 04:49

  I’ve recently discovered Hotels.com quoting me in Sterling but charging me in local currency, triggering credit card currency fees.

  Irritating.

  • The_Real_A says:

    5 Feb5 February 09:42

    This is stated in the terms of each hotel. Its normally to your advanatge if you have a fee free credit card.

• Waribai says:

  5 Feb5 February 05:19

  Ebookers must be part of the Expedia family now. No?

  • AndyR says:

    5 Feb5 February 19:27

    Was thinking the same as I thought Ebookers was part of Orbitz?

• Metatone says:

  5 Feb5 February 06:42

  So what’s the best hotel aggregator to look at that isn’t owned by Expedia?

  And to second the comment by someone else, if the hotel groups want to compete then need to think beyond penalising customers for using Expedia and start developing better offers when they use their websites. This is especially true in big cities where Expedia lists a lot of good independent hotels that are often just nicer places than the chains.

  • pauldb says:

    5 Feb5 February 09:13

    IMO booking.com, or if by aggregator you mean price comparison then kayak.com.

    Conincidentally both owned by Priceline (along with Agoda, rentalcars.com and OpenTable) which rather more quietly has 50% higher revenues than Expedia and three time the market valuation.

• Metatone says:

  5 Feb5 February 07:06

  While I am grousing, it is repeatedly the case that Expedia is more accurate than IHG or Hilton sites at knowing which hotels have a swimming pool. So I end up searching Expedia first every time.

  • pauldb says:

    5 Feb5 February 09:14

    If I want to know a hotel’s child bed/cot policy I go straight to booking.com!

  • The_Real_A says:

    5 Feb5 February 09:43

    Same for free parking!

• JamesWag says:

  5 Feb5 February 07:18

  If hotel chains are trying to encourage more direct bookings, why are they constantly devaluing their loyalty programmes ?

  • Frenske says:

    5 Feb5 February 07:29

    Uhm inflation correction perhaps.

    • Jason says:

      5 Feb5 February 08:44

      Maybe – but scheme members are generally pretty savvy and know if a direct deal is better than Expedia etc
      There are lots of factors/considerations that go into booking a room. However if you know where you want to go then I suspect most people want the most competitive price, I know I do.
      I’m trying to book a hotel, in Dubai, for October half term, I had the hotel booked for April but switched to a trip to the Maldives, the rate I had got at Easter was £561 a night incl HB( which is pretty good for the room type). My travel agent can currently get the same room at £770 a night incl HB, – the hotel website, with a current 30% sale is £730 first week, a night, and £883 a night BB.
      Expedia is a staggering £1454 a night BB.

      • Lady London says:

        5 Feb5 February 14:00

        @ Jason this is exactly the sort of situation where hotel points can be useful. Often the points rate is the same all year whereas cash can have peak pricing.

        • Jason says:

          5 Feb5 February 14:29

          Unfortunately this hotel doesn’t except points 🙁
          The hotel close by, that does, doesn’t have the facilities we require 🙁

        • Jason says:

          5 Feb5 February 18:24

          Or even “accept” 😉

• David says:

  5 Feb5 February 09:27

  OT, but interesting saw Martin Lewis’ show and he mentioned the same website can show different prices for the same search (using cookies etc) – hotel.com was showing £2177 for a hotel I was looking at, tried the same search on a different laptop via my work VPN and it came up over £2300. It would be interesting to understand the mechanics behind this.

  • Moray says:

    5 Feb5 February 09:35

    There have been various examples of this kind of pricing for years now. Apparently the idea is that companies will work out your income level or other indicators and change the price they present you. There was an article in The Economist last week about this kind of “dynamic pricing” and it mentioned that some people will go into internet cafes (do they still exist) and shop around to get away from their own buyer profile.
    Apparently Amazon got caught doing it with DVDs a few years ago.

  • The_Real_A says:

    5 Feb5 February 09:50

    I can explain some of the parameters: A tracking cookie can see your hotel searches on other websites (say the hotel direct, or another booking site) including the date and the price returned. A website could then change its price dynamically to be more competitive than the competition. This is similar to say searching for a “bookcase” in Argos, and then for the following weeks be inundated with adverts at the side of other websites for similar items.

    Using a VPN is interesting as the country you appear to come from can legitimately trigger greater liabilities for the company. (In a different industry) We use IP to determine a range of charges/taxes that might not be immediately obvious. Always check your VPN to understand the location and use it to your advanatge.

    • Lady London says:

      5 Feb5 February 14:07

      I once got sacked from my temporary assignment at a top private equity firm because I commented to one of the partners I was working for that a website you use may be able to know what other websites you use by looking on your computer. I was told this was rubbish and found my booking lasted till the following day rather than the extra week it had been planned to.

      ‘Twas all a long time ago though

      • Rob says:

        5 Feb5 February 16:33

        It wasn’t me I hope!

  • Rich says:

    5 Feb5 February 13:56

    Have to admit, my first reaction to that sort of behaviour is “Great. We’ll see who gets the better of whom in that little game!” 😉

    • Lady London says:

      5 Feb5 February 14:11

      If I was clever I would work out how to flip bits on my existing cookies to show a lower price returned but it’s a long stretch to know which website will check for which cookies

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