Priceline.com sends a representative to meet with the brains behind Expedia
Posted on 11/13/2005 1:20:03 AM PST by freepatriot32
CHICAGO (Nov. 12) - Online travel agency Expedia.com said a glitch last week allowed some travelers to book hotel stays in Japan at stunningly low prices and that only some of these reservations would be honored.
Expedia.com, run by Expedia Inc., posted incorrect prices for two Hilton International hotels in Japan. Some customers reported prices as low as $2 a night.
The agency blamed the mix-up on an "isolated processing incident" at Hilton. A hotel spokeswoman described it as a "technical glitch" on Hilton's side.
Expedia said Friday that Hilton would honor some of these bookings and that other customers would get a $250 coupon for a package trip to Japan.
The company also said it notified some customers offering to confirm the original booking at the correct price or cancel the booking with a full refund.
Randall Besta, who had booked stays for 11 nights in Tokyo and Osaka next year, said that option was unacceptable. The 43-year-old Toronto marketing consultant had already booked flights for himself and a friend to Tokyo.
He said he has received confirmation from Hilton saying the rate would be honored but that Expedia told him the rate was incorrect. Besta said he would think twice before booking on Expedia again.
"If they come clean on this, then yes," said Besta, who booked his rooms for $3.48 a night.
Expedia said that bookings for this month would be honored at the quoted price. But later bookings would be canceled at Hilton's request. The exception is for package deals booked on Expedia. Those also will be honored.
Expedia said it was offering customers who booked rooms at the wrong rate a $250 coupon for a package trip to Japan booked prior to Dec. 31, 2005. Travel must be completed by December 31, 2006.
Bill Scannell, who plans to fly with his family to Osaka, Japan, next year, said Expedia agreed to honor his booking after he called several times to complain.
"You can't weasel out of something like this," said Scannell, a 41-year-old publicist in Washington. "With travel you make plans. You buy tickets. I've been busy mapping out frequent fliers to get my family there."
He said he had been considered legal action if his September 7-20, 2006, reservation at a Hilton in Osaka was not kept at the price he was promised.
Scannell booked the room on Nov. 4 for a total of $46.57. Expedia later told him the correct figure was $2,079.57.
Expedia said one reason it was canceling the bookings was to prevent people from reselling the cheap bookings to travelers at higher prices. Expedia bookings are nontransferable.
Expedia would rather pinch the consumer rather than eat it or make waves with Hilton.
I thought a contract was a contract.
Priceline.com sends a representative to meet with the brains behind Expedia
5,000 quatroos for Denny Crane.
...[customers will receive] a full refund.
wow, how generous. :)
Now *where* did I get the impression that Hilton would be dirt cheap.
Quatloo Ping
I think there is some kind of stipulation that if something appears absurdly incorrect to a reasonable person the contract doesn't have to be honored, such as a car dealership ad that offers a brand new car for 200 dollars. If you are so dumb as to think you are getting a hotel room for a night in Japan for 2 dollars you probably deserve to sleep on the street.
And claiming they're doing this to prevent possible arbitrage opportunities? I find it's generally best not to insult your customers' intelligence, Expedia.
Anyone who thinks that they are going to get a $2.00 hotel room needs their intelligence insulted.
Anyone who advertises a $2.00 hotel room deserves to lose their ar$e on the deal. Bait and switch is illegal and immoral. No matter the "advertised" price, the seller has the obligation to live up to their posting or suffer the consequences.
Maybe so, but from a business standpoint, Expedia will wish they'd absorbed the loss. Instead, they cost their company goodwill far in excess of the difference between the advertised and correct hotel rates.
***The agency blamed the mix-up on an "isolated processing incident" at Hilton.***
Plain English: One of our stupid clerks fed the wrong price into the website. He/she's been fired.
Indeed, advertise it as a feature. "Always check Expedia.com when planning your travel--you may save over 95%."
'Advertise' and 'bait and switch' are words which have specific commercial meanings. You know the words but you don't know the meanings. An advertisement is an invitation to make an offer. A car dealer can put signs on the cars in his showroom. If the lotboy mixes up a $10,000 sign with a $20,000 sign the dealer is no more obligated to sell the $20,000 car for $10,000 than he is to sell the $10,000 car for $20,000.
Bait and switch is a pattern of behavior which is designed to entice customers to purchase a substantively different item. The pattern is essential to the fraud.
A meeting of the minds is a requirement for a contract. An error on the part of a sales manager or clerk in loading rack rates onto Expedia does not enable some dullard to claim to have an enforceable contract at the erroneous price. In this case Expedia was blameless and Hilton has no obligation to honor the price. Hilton was more than accomodating in the offers that they made.
"I thought a contract was a contract. "
Go ahead, take the vacation time, fly over to Japan and demand that Hilton let you have the room for $2/night. I'm sure they will be very understanding.
"I thought a contract was a contract."
Actually it's not.
Not when there's a mistake.
If the newspaper prints a car dealer ad and drops a zero, making a new car $2000 instead of $20000, does the dealership HAVE to sell cars at that price, and maybe force itself out of business? Of course not. A mistake was made. It happens. Common sense tells you you can't book a Hilton room in the most expensive city in the world for $3.48. The claimant is an idiot...and a self-righteous one at that.
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