Nowadays, practically everybody uses the Internet. To book a flight, to make a restaurant/hotel reservation or to purchase an item.
It is convenient, fast and utterly cool.
With one caveat. On the Internet you are not talking to human beings, you are communicating with robots.
And while navigating the seemingly serene waters of Ocean Internet, you ought to remember that among the harmless creatures of the deep also lurk piranhas.
A few weeks ago, I was looking to book a hotel room on the North Shore of Lake Tahoe.
I fired up my computer and soon after, an ad sponsored by Expedia caught my attention. It showed a nice spacious room, reasonably priced, located at “The Squaw Valley Olympic Village”.
The price per night was shown in big bold characters on the right side of the page.
After picking a date and booking this room for 4 nights, the grand total was shown again, also in bold characters.
Excellent!
I printed that document and then noticed an ominous warning at the bottom of the page:
“This reservation is non-refundable and cannot be cancelled or changed.”
Not able to cancel 3 weeks ahead of time? Who ever heard of such a thing?
A rather peculiar policy.
Upon my arrival to the resort, I was surprised to discover that I had to pay an additional $23.00 per night for a “Lodging Resort Charge” and other minor fees.
Seeing my look of disbelief, the front desk clerk hastened to say, “It says so on your reservation”.
After looking more carefully at my printed reservation form I indeed came across the “Resort Fee” shown in the proverbial “fine print”.
Excuse me for saying so, but this reeks of “bait and switch” tactics. It is a flagrant case of misleading advertising. A few bucks more are not going to kill me, but I hate to be deceived in such a fraudulent manner.
So, before you whip out your plastic and unlock your strongbox, it would behoove you to actually read the fine print.
The room was not what I would call spacious. It had only one nightstand and the single night lamp worked intermittently.
It was stuffy and there was no obvious way to start the ceiling fan.
The bathtub was slippery and the elevator and the bathroom could use a new coat of paint.
The garage was ill-conceived and difficult to enter and navigate. Its extremely narrow entrances proved a hazard to inattentive drivers.
Upon my return to the Bay Area, I logged unto the Internet again and was surprised to read that according to Expedia 92% of the previous guests “recommended” this place.
I certainly won’t.
I also discovered while rummaging through the Web, that contrary to Expedia’s assertions, a great number of people are not exactly thrilled with its operations.
The following sites are not shy about dissing Expedia.
Expedia.pissedconsumer.com, Consumeraffairs, Trustpilot
To sum it up, Expedia is an expedient outfit (convenient, although possibly acting improperly or immorally) and running its business with a rather cavalier attitude.
If you want to book a hotel, check it out online, read the fine print, call the hotel and talk to a human being before securing the deal.
So far, a human being is more amenable than a bot.
Alain