Expedia Hotel Reviews Are Officially Worthless

I like to use Expedia to book hotels due to their handy Best Price Guarantee.   All you have to do is call them and tell them that you found a better price at another website and after they have verified it over the phone and immediately match the price and give you a coupon for $50 your next hotel stay.

That Is Not The Only Way To Get A $50 Off Coupon

According to this article in The Consumerist, Expedia has also been offering $50 off coupons for removing negative reviews of hotels.   I am not surprised.   I have never seen a negative review of a hotel in Expedia, and because of that I long ago stopped reading them.    When booking a hotel, I will always have Tripadvisor up on another tab of my browser.   Tripadvisor is not perfect, but there is no shortage of negative reviews there.    According to the article, multiple people have reported attempting to post a negative review of some truly hideous hotels, and Expedia refuses to post them.    It is really unfortunate that Expedia just doesn’t get how consumers react to negative reviews.

Since no product or service is perfect, I am always extremely skeptical of any review site that does not show negative reviews.   Someone will always have a problem with something and post it.  The existence of a negative review or two actually increases the likelihood that I will book a particular hotel as it lends credibility to the positive reviews.    Often, the negative review highlight problems that do not effect me.    For example, many hotels in the Colorado high country lack air conditioning.   If you read a slew of negative reviews about such a property due to their lack of air conditioning, would that effect your decision to book the hotel for a ski trip?     Likewise, if they are unfriendly to pets, what do you care if you are not traveling with one?

In Conclusion

Expedia is a great place to book hotels with a best rate guarantee.    They also have great tools for managing your various itineraries.    Just do not try to rely on them to provide unbiased reviews of their properties.