Yesterday, I was researching accommodation options for Padangbai in Bali for the night. Checked TripAdvisor and decided to book one hotel on Expedia. The property descriptions are usually far better on Booking.com and decided to check it to see if the hotel has property wide wifi. Found that the hotel on Booking.com was 22 cents lower, when all the taxes/fees were factored in.
I have used Expedia quite a lot, but mainly for airline tickets. As the hotel reservations booked on Expedia are not eligible for night/stay credits and points, I tend to book hotels on their own websites. As there are no chains hotels in Padangbai. I could well use Expedia and put their Best Price Guarantee to test.
Comparing Expedia’s Price To Booking.com’s Price
Expedia displays their prices without taxes/fees and you have to click few times before you get all inclusive pricing.
Booking.com displays all inclusive pricing on their front page.
The Expedia’s price is 22 cents higher than Booking.com’s. This may well could be for differences in foreign exchange conversions between Booking.com and Expedia from IDR to USD.
Expedia Best Price Guarantee Terms
Normally, the terms and conditions of these Best Price Guarantees are really long and confusing. You rarely qualify for the guarantee after reading the small print.
Normally, the terms and conditions of these Best Price Guarantees are really long and confusing. You rarely qualify for the guarantee after reading the small print.
I was surprised that Expedia didn’t have requirement for booking at least 24 or 48 hours of your intended stay to be eligible for the guarantee and that there was no minimum how much the difference would have to be. I was booking for arrival in less than 6 hours and the difference was only 22 cents.
Expedia Best Price Guarantee Application
So, when you make the reservation Expedia, the Best Price Guarantee is prominently displayed on the right bar. Once you confirm your reservation, it is no longer there (or anywhere) and you have to use Google to find it.
First, you need to plug in your date of purchase, click that the other website is in English, the price on other website is displayed in USD, and your Expedia itinerary number. If you miss something, you won’t get past this screen.
On the second step, you need to fill out more information. Basic personal information, the price that you paid on Expedia, the price on the competing website, and the name of the competing website.
Once you click submit, you get another screen that your claim has been submitted and it may take up to 48 hours for someone to get back to you.
Expedia also sends you an email confirming the submission of you claim.
Quite frankly, I was sure at this point that they would not process these claims promptly. Of course, if they check the price of the hotel 24 hours after my reservation, it wouldn’t be there, as it would be the day after the check in date.
To my surprise, I received an email confirmation from Expedia seven hours later that the Best Price Guarantee had been processed; Expedia had lowered the price by 22 cents and issued a $50 Expedia coupon.
Expedia Best Price Guarantee Coupon
The coupon was deposited to my Expedia account with May 31, 2014 expiry date.
This coupon can be used for Expedia Special Rate hotel. Essentially, these hotels that you book and pay to Expedia. It is likely that the mark up is the highest for Expedia on these type of hotels.
You can access Expedia’s web page for their guarantees here and the terms and conditions of the Best Price Guarantee coupon here.
Conclusion
I would have booked this specific hotel anyway, so I didn’t have anything to lose by applying for the Expedia Best Price Guarantee being sure that it wouldn’t come through.
$50 coupon may sound as a great deal, but you have to bear in mind that you need to book a hotel at Expedia’s displayed price that I rarely do. It is likely that they just break even considering the mark up on my original booking and the mark up on booking that I will apply the coupon for sometime in the future.
