Ever had problems with Orbitz?

[Munchkin]

Munchkin is currently an "angry elf"

DH and I wanted to plan a getaway vacation for next winter. We decided on a budget and I scoured vacation search engines (travelocity, hotels.com, etc) for weeks. My persistence paid off and we were able to book round trip airfare and 7 nights for a smidge over budget. The resort looks amazing and we are super excited.

The room category we booked has either 2 double beds or one king. Reservation details state that they cannot guarantee a bed request. I emailed the resort (I like "paper" trails) and asked if our reservation could possibly be flagged requesting a king if available. To my surprise, the hotel''s representative replied that we were booked for a room that is 2 categories below what we paid for, but we could pay for an upgrade if the higher class of room is available.

I''ve responded to the hotel''s reply offering to fax them copies of our itinerary (which clearly states the proper room) and am waiting to hear back. The purpose of this post is twofold: 1) to waste time as I impatiently await a response

and 2) to see if anyone had a similar problem when booking through orbitz. Should the resort challenge my response, I figure I will contact Orbitz for resolution. Has anyone ever had to do this, and did it work out?

Thanks for helping me distract myself!

 

[Lauren8211]

I refuse to use Orbitz.

I had a terrible experience with them several years ago.

We booked a hotel room through them, and had to cancel 24 hours in advance. We called them to tell them we cancelled, and they said they could not refund any of the money for the hotel. We asked why, since it was 24 hours in advance, and they said it was the policy of the hotel where we were booked. We called that hotel and asked them their policy. They told us the received a fax from Orbitz cancelling the room, and that they were not charging anything, and not receiving any money for the room because we cancelled 24 hours in advance.

We called Orbitz back and told them that the hotel didn't charge us, so why is Orbitz still charging us? They stood by the fact that it was that hotel's policy and refused to refund our money. We lost nearly 120 dollars by booking through Orbitz. Had we done it directly through the hotel, we'd have lost no money.

We pushed to talk to management, and were on the phone for several hours, and no one was very friendly or helpful. They pretty much refused to work with us.

I refuse to book through them anymore. Period. I don't care how good the deal is.

Hopefully you have better luck.

 

[Mara]

I use them all the time for work and personal travel and *knock on wood* have thus far had decent experiences with them.

In the past if we have had any issues with the room, I typically just take a copy of our confirmation with us and the hotel will usually try to do whatever they can. Many times they don''t like to accommodate the ''budget'' engine upgrade requests, but we have had good luck getting upgrades on the day of travel (calling in) or in person when we check in. If the hotel has the availability they will typically try to help.

But as for them booking you 2 levels down, def fax that confirmation over and see what they can do.

Good luck!

 

[cara]

I haven't used orbitz for hotels as much. With flights, I almost always try to book directly with the airline in question if possible as they are much better about dealing with 'their own' customers rather than someone who booked through an online search engine. But sometimes that is not possible at the right price - orbitz is often capable of combining flights on different airlines into a cheaper 'round trip' than could be done on either airlines own site. In that case one must go with orbitz and I've been somewhat lucky thus far.

Sorry they are being a pain in this instance.

 

[LGK]

I got hugely screwed by them one memorial weekend. We booked a hotel in Portland fairly far in advance, and paid, and our card was charged. when we showed up at the hotel, they''d never heard of us and had no reservation, and in fact that the whole hotel was booked full. when I finally dug up a receipt proving we''d paid, the hotel "found" a room. While I''m not sure if it was actually the hotel that screwed us, or orbitz, or both, i was pretty glad to not have to drive straight back to seattle. orbitz was torture when I called them- i kept getting put on hold forever, then subsequently hung up on, over and over.

that was the first and last time we used them.

 

[SENIOR CITIZEN]

I just ran into a similar problem with Orbitz; need to cancel Super 8 motel rooms 7/30-8/2 because serious illness causing cancellation of family get together. I haven''t talked to Orbitz yet, but did talk to Super 8, and they say nothing they can do because it was booked through Orbitz - and Orbitz won''t pay them until 7/30. I''m wondering if Orbitz offered you any credit towards a future booking through them??

Thanks - Senior Citizen, new user

 

[Munchkin]

I contacted the hotel directly rather than try to change anything via orbitz. We had already set our hearts on the resort, so I was optimistic that something could be worked out. After a couple of emails and a phone call full of people trying very hard to communicate, I *think* we are all set. I faxed them a copy of our itinerary which clearly stated the room category, and they replied with an email confirming such. As I type this, though, I realized that I never did get to the king bed issue! I found it interesting that the 3 people I spoke with all identified immediately via their computer system that we were booked through orbitz. I wonder if that ever clouds a staff members choice of which room to give a guest. I wouldn''t be surprised...just typing out loud...

So, I guess my situation can''t help you much. If you used a credit card to book, can''t you just call the credit card company to dispute charges?