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I’ve always had good experiences in the past with Hotels.com Price Match Guarantee, however I have received a rather confusing rejection to my latest claim:
Thanks for contacting Hotels.com regarding your price match with [redacted hotel name].
The specific Source of Lower price you found: https://www.opodo.co.uk/ is not listed on Hotels.com approved lists of competitor’s website. Thus, your claim is denied. We are confident that Hotels.com offers you the best value for this trip.
You can find more information in the Terms and Conditions on our site: https://www.hotels.com/customer_care/terms_conditions.html.
Of course their terms and conditions make no reference to an approved list. I have asked for a copy of the list, so let’s see if they respond.
Just to update, they will not provide me with a list of approved competitor websites, and will not honour the price match despite it complying with all the terms and conditions listed in the link they sent.
As the booking is refundable I have cancelled and booked directly with Opodo, which worked out cheaper even taking into account their stamps. It seems Hotels.com are no longer the good deal they used to be.
Odd. I assume this price doesn’t require you to be logged into Opodo (which would disqualify the match)?
Nope, it was a standard price shown to everyone without logging in.
Ironically hotels.com have now reduced their price to the same as Opodo!
Just to update, they will not provide me with a list of approved competitor websites, and will not honour the price match despite it complying with all the terms and conditions listed in the link they sent.
As the booking is refundable I have cancelled and booked directly with Opodo, which worked out cheaper even taking into account their stamps. It seems Hotels.com are no longer the good deal they used to be.
Hotels.com price match terms and conditions state that if the Hotels.com booking is refundable you have to cancel and re-book elsewhere – they only truely “match” i.e. reduce their price if the other (cheaper)booking is non refundable.
I have in the past got a price reduction when in fact their own price for a non refundable booking reduced on their site
Nope, it was a standard price shown to everyone without logging in.
Ironically hotels.com have now reduced their price to the same as Opodo!
So, anything stopping you from re-booking the Hotels.com one at the price matched quote and still get stamps?
Hotels.com price match terms and conditions state that if the Hotels.com booking is refundable you have to cancel and re-book elsewhere – they only truely “match” i.e. reduce their price if the other (cheaper)booking is non refundable.
Not according to the T&C’s in the link above:
For refundable bookings:
b) Where the cheaper rate is found on a competitor’s website: Hotels.com will refund the price difference. You must contact the customer call centre or submit your request using the online Price Guarantee form by 23:59 local time the day before your stay.I know this is an old thread but I have posted several price match enquiries over the last few months with hotels.com and they have all been rejected. It’s definitely not the same as it used to be. We could speak to someone in the gold team before too and they could look into it whilst on the phone. Now they seem unable to do anything and it’s just the email you sent that is reviewed by a specific team. I am actively seeking to use ebookers in future.
I’m not sure how aligned things are behind the scenes but ebookers is owned by Expedia as is hotels.com
Sometimes you need to push them hard on matching if they reject for pointless reasons. They do usually give in.
I’ve had some amazing value over the years as for many years the cashback amount and free night amount were always paid on the original booking price, not the matched price. In cases where the difference was significant, it made for some very cheap stays.
I’ve done a couple of requests in the last year or so.
Both rejected for the same reason “X not listed on Hotels.com approved lists of competitor’s website”.
I think the only use for it these days is if the price on hotels.com itself lowers (and it’s a non-refundable booking), or for some reason Expedia is showing a lower price. Other than that the guarantee is useless.
Very rarely I find anything cheaper though. The app seems to show lower prices in some hotels too.
Sometimes you need to push them hard on matching if they reject for pointless reasons. They do usually give in.
I’ve had some amazing value over the years as for many years the cashback amount and free night amount were always paid on the original booking price, not the matched price. In cases where the difference was significant, it made for some very cheap stays.
Agreed over the years it was good but now, my experience anyway is that even calling them and trying to reason with them and spending time on this (which worked before) no longer makes any difference. They even say they will escalate it to their manager but nothing happens.
I used to love hotels.com!Is this something that should be reported to the ASA, Trading Standards or another relevant body?
It does seem very unfair practice for a firm to promote a price match guarantee, whilst refusing to disclose the full terms of the guarantee.
Guess it would be good to hear of experiences where people have been successful in the last 2 or so months. I have struggled on more than 10 occasions (!) but that’s me and I guess it would be good to see where people are successful (if so), what and how are they achieving the pricematch.
Is this something that should be reported to the ASA, Trading Standards or another relevant body?
It does seem very unfair practice for a firm to promote a price match guarantee, whilst refusing to disclose the full terms of the guarantee.
Good luck with that – all these organisations are so under resourced / do not care that I can pretty much guarantee you they won’t do anything and the companies can thus get away with saying whatever they want.
I have always matched by email to the Gold specific address. I always include a screenshot of the other price and also make it clear that the room type and cancellation policy both match my hotels.com reservation.
Is this something that should be reported to the ASA, Trading Standards or another relevant body?
It does seem very unfair practice for a firm to promote a price match guarantee, whilst refusing to disclose the full terms of the guarantee.
Good luck with that – all these organisations are so under resourced / do not care that I can pretty much guarantee you they won’t do anything and the companies can thus get away with saying whatever they want.
If you relied on a misrepresentation and entered a contract with them then you do have legal recourse. It would have to have been a long/expensive stay to make MCOL for the difference in prices worth the hassle.
I have always matched by email to the Gold specific address. I always include a screenshot of the other price and also make it clear that the room type and cancellation policy both match my hotels.com reservation.
BP- is this in recent months too? I tried once and they were explicit I had to go through the website and the new price match form. In the past, I also used the hrgold or the telephone number for gold and was pricematxhed successfully
If you relied on a misrepresentation and entered a contract with them then you do have legal recourse. It would have to have been a long/expensive stay to make MCOL for the difference in prices worth the hassle.
Well indeed, and hence nothing happens…
Is this something that should be reported to the ASA, Trading Standards or another relevant body?
It does seem very unfair practice for a firm to promote a price match guarantee, whilst refusing to disclose the full terms of the guarantee.
Good luck with that – all these organisations are so under resourced / do not care that I can pretty much guarantee you they won’t do anything and the companies can thus get away with saying whatever they want.
ASA are pretty good at case management, but they are fundamentally fairly toothless too.
Is this something that should be reported to the ASA, Trading Standards or another relevant body?
It does seem very unfair practice for a firm to promote a price match guarantee, whilst refusing to disclose the full terms of the guarantee.
Good luck with that – all these organisations are so under resourced / do not care that I can pretty much guarantee you they won’t do anything and the companies can thus get away with saying whatever they want.
If you relied on a misrepresentation and entered a contract with them then you do have legal recourse. It would have to have been a long/expensive stay to make MCOL for the difference in prices worth the hassle.
If applicable, Section 75 could be an easier approach.
I don’t quite understand how you would use these organisations if you’ve booked a hotel at the rate advertised. Especially if it’s refundable.
I reported hotels.com to the ASA a few years ago for advertising a hotel which charged “government taxes” at check in, with no mention of this on the website. I never even got an acknowledgement, no idea if anything actually changed! Hotels.com’s response was that they couldn’t stop the hotel doing that, but when I persisted they did actually refund the £40 or so we’d been forced to hand over before they would give us the room key!
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