Hotels.com does not devaluate their award program, they defraud their customers to steal past awards

Hotels.com fraudulently steal past Night rewards and customers don't seem to realize it! Why no class action yet? – Do not use Hotels.com or Expedia

Note: This is a summary of what has happened to one of our reader. Proofs (emails to and from hotels.com, past email communications, and a recording of the highest supervisor in charge of the support call center / policy handling) have been reviewed and are available. All the statements below are factual based on these documents. They are available upon request from regulators, law enforcement, media or parties interested to legally pursuing hotels.com or expedia.com. This matter deserves a class action.

What happened: Customer has been booking hotels for personal trip using hotels.com, since 2013. He accumulated 25 free nights worth a total of 4841.98 USD (documented by email). Hotels.com calls this “before expiration”. The policy in place at the time, i.e., before May 2023, was that the counter on expiration of these night was reset every time new stays were booked. If 12 months pass, the nights would expired. The tally captured above was the value in November 2019, when the last stay in 2019 was booked. With COVID19, hotel.com communicated via email that it was suspending the expiration policy: customer maintain their status (e.g., silver, gold etc.) and reward nights. The customer also booked in October 2021 and June 2023. Per the announcement and policy, the reward nights valid on November 2019 ad at most only 3 to 4 [November 2019 till February 2020 when expiration was suspended for COVID] + 1 months [May 2023 (when expiration restored) till June 2023 (when new boking took place. During the suspended month, the months did not count. That was admitted by Luis, highest person in customer service, self-stated highest level in charge of handling these policy issues.

The announcement of the suspension of the expiration policy did not provide any process to sign-up, or ensure that nights are not expiring. Requests to see copy of the 202 announcement have been ignored by most support agent and rejected by Luis.

Around May 2023, hotels.com announced combination of expedia.com and hotels.com rewards under what they call One Key. Details can be found for example at https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/travel/one-key-rewards-program-the-complete-guide. For sure the program is pathetic versus what Hoetls.com offered (i.e. one free night every 10 nights (cheapest rate in the 10 nights) vs. 2% of spent with the new reward program), but that is a different issue.

At the end of August 2023, the customer checked the new one key status and see only ~ USD 200, in it. From early September till December 2023, communications (email and calls to agents and supervisors), have resulted into hotels.com claiming 1) that the 2019 and before free night had expired 2) that they were not available for review any more 3) that they can’t be restored, 4) (end of November) that they were 25 free nights worth a total of 4841.98 USD and refused to provide past statements (stays and or rewards, copy of COVID suspension announcement and copy of any expiration announcement). Offered to refund USD 500 were made.

Luis finally explained, or should we say admitted, and it is all on tape, that:

· The 25 free nights worth a total of 4841.98 USD were not expired. However, customer should have contacted hotels.com to have them restored (not mentioned anywhere and why would that be considering the COVID announcement). When asked to provide copy of the email announcement, Luis claims not having it and not being able to request the IT department to have a copy recovered.

· When asked how the customer know that he stated expiration notices supposedly sent (i.e. ~ Nov 21 and Oct 2022). No such notice were ever received. When asked to provide copy of the email notification, Luis claims not having them and not being able to request the IT department to have a copy recovered.

· Then Luis explained that hotels.com had a policy that request to restore had to be done before May 8, 2023.

· When asked how the customer should know that Luis said, on tape, that the customer couldn’t know it. It was an internal policy that had not been communicated to customers!

· The Luis repeated the mantra of all the agents: therefore the rewards are expired and they can’t be restored. Ut he offered a courtesy addition of 1000USD to One Key, and stated noting more can be done.

In other words, the top (allegedly) level escalation of customer service admitted, on tape, you have to listen to it to believe it, that hotels.com stole 4841.98 USD through this scheme and claimed it could only give 1000 USD back to make up for it! He admitted it was a theft! Is this a reputable company with which you wat to do business? Of course it is a challenge that the market is cornered by expedia.com that actually drives these fraudulent and shady businesses practices and behaves like a quasi-monopoly with all the differ travel sites appearing different but owned by them!

Anyway, a complaint has been filed with customers service asking that the upper management be informed and for a letter of explanation and apology. It is a last way out for hotels.com and expedia.com to prove that they are an ethical business and do the right thing. We will update here if we hear back.

Recommendation: Do not use Hoetls.com and boycott expedia.com businesses

In the meanwhile, we urge any customer planning to book hotels, to reconsider and avoid hotels.com and any other façade to expedia.com.

We would appreciate any help from others, lawyers or journalists interested to expose these malpractices and warning the public. Clearly a lot of hotels.com customers must have been victim of this scam and have had their rewards stolen, many probably not even aware of it. Please help us expose and correct this.

It is unacceptable that such a fraudulent business as hotels.com and its parent expedia.com are allowed to exist as a business.