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FYI - the same thing happens with Hotels.com. When you "call the hotel" with the number listed, I learned that the representative is actually a Hotels.com rep,

FYI - the same thing happens with Hotels.com. When you "call the hotel" with the number listed, I learned that the representative is actually a Hotels.com rep, not a hotel employee or hotel call-center employee. This matters. In my case, I asked about my corporate discount and they gave me a vague answer about "I dont see anything in the system", which I guess was technically not a lie, but definitely deceitful. I wised up because I knew we had a corporate discount and asked who I was speaking to. They gave vague answers like "I'm the call center representative" or "I'm here to help you book with X hotel". The scam is they are trying to book you at a higher price w/o applying any corporate discounts, etc (and probably keeping a booking/affiliate fee). This should be illegal.

londons_explore 6y ago
Just ask a random question only a real hotel employee would know - like "What time is breakfast served?"
- TuringNYC 6y ago
  The problem is I dont have a "skeptical resting state" where i'm constantly trying to sniff out scams. I google "Fairmont Hotel Berkeley" because that is what my co-workers are staying at. I get an 800 number, which I call. The person is friendly and asks "Can I help you book a room at Fairmont Berkeley?" Business customers, especially, are somewhat price insensitive since they are not paying for trips. Sad world.
- danuker 6y ago
  I suppose you should know this also, to detect a lie.
moksly 6y ago
I was doing a stint of formulating our national enterprise architecture, something I was invited to because of my local work on the subject. During this period I staid at hotels quite often, and learned that the best way to get a good and cheap booking is to E-mail the hotel directly. The cheap part came from being an enterprise organisation, but as far as secure and easy booking goes I always email hotels directly for private stays as well. Maybe it’ll cost me a few extra dollars, but I avoid the hassle of having to deal with hotels.com who among other things charge you up front and make it almost impossible to cancel.
- iaw 6y ago
  My experience (years ago) was that the hotels would prefer people did this as they don't like the middlemen either.
  - toomuchtodo 6y ago
    I always lookup the hotel on an aggregator (Hotels.com usually) and then call the hotel directly to book.
    - notdang 6y ago
      and you call the number listed on hotels.com? In this case you are calling hotels.com and not the hotel itself.
      - toomuchtodo 6y ago
        No, I lookup the hotel's actual phone number. I don't rely on any contact info on hotels.com, only their map data of where the hotels are and rates for rough pricing.
loceng 6y ago
I had to recently book a hotel for a few nights. Hotels are mostly empty because of COVID. When I called to book a room it was clearly a script being followed with high pressure tactics including saying rooms are filling up quickly. Once I arrived at the hotel it looked mostly dead, and I when I asked the manager who was helping me behind the counter, he said they were at 10% capacity. It should also be illegal for businesses to misrepresent their inventory.
- Igelau 6y ago
  To be fair, they had just experienced a sudden exponential surge in interest: your phone call.
  - whitebread 6y ago
    /s?
    - marcosdumay 6y ago
      Seems highly redundant.
- asdff 6y ago
  So many websites resort to this, frankly it's embarrasing used car salesmen level tactics. My favorite is the petition websites like change.org. The ticking of people signing the petition before your eyes is entirely artificial. Refresh the page and the count resets.
  - o-__-o 6y ago
    Oh so like reddit today!
- punitxsmart 6y ago
  I agree with the sentiment. But, it should not be illegal to lie about your inventory. As long as you are receiving what is promised by them at a price that you both agree, its all fair game.
toast0 6y ago
I don't think the intent is to have you book at a higher price. The intent is to get the booking and collect the fee. And they just don't care that they can't process corporate codes. They are misrepresenting things, and asking about a discount code probably should get you forwarded to the hotel (or their corporate call center). It can get a little hairy when Hotels.com (or whoever) has a lower price or more rooms available than the hotel directly (sometimes the Online Travel Agencies will commit to a number of rooms over a time frame, then they have pricing autonomy and exclusive availability; probably not happening in covid times though)
heavyset_go 6y ago
This can come to a head when traveling. Years ago, I had used hotels.com to book a reservation. I had booked a hotel near the destination airport for one night before continuing to travel to my actual destination. The hotel advertised that they can give refunds or change booking with 24 hours notice. My flight was cancelled and rescheduled for the next day, making that one-night hotel stay a waste if I couldn't reschedule or get a refund for it. Apparently hotels.com doesn't have the same policy as the hotel I had a reservation at, so while still in the airport, I had to argue with about 3 layers of people before it was made apparent that I wasn't speaking to the hotel. In the end, hotels.com "made an exception" for me and refunded my money which I was then able to use to book another night. I suspect that exception was made because they were able to get a refund from the hotel itself.
coldcode 6y ago
hotels.com is an Expedia brand, not a company.
user5994461 6y ago
I don't remember phone numbers being listed on hotels.com. If you dig up the support number it is going to the hotels.com call center. It's not deceptive because they have your booking and your money, they can see your order and rebook you in another hotel which the direct hotel wouldn't be able to do (this happens regularly when there are problems like the hotel has no room). If you have a corporate discount with a specific hotel you definitely need to deal with the website of the hotel directly, not hotels.com

londons_explore 6y ago

Just ask a random question only a real hotel employee would know - like "What time is breakfast served?"

TuringNYC 6y ago
The problem is I dont have a "skeptical resting state" where i'm constantly trying to sniff out scams. I google "Fairmont Hotel Berkeley" because that is what my co-workers are staying at. I get an 800 number, which I call. The person is friendly and asks "Can I help you book a room at Fairmont Berkeley?" Business customers, especially, are somewhat price insensitive since they are not paying for trips. Sad world.
danuker 6y ago
I suppose you should know this also, to detect a lie.

moksly 6y ago

I was doing a stint of formulating our national enterprise architecture, something I was invited to because of my local work on the subject. During this period I staid at hotels quite often, and learned that the best way to get a good and cheap booking is to E-mail the hotel directly. The cheap part came from being an enterprise organisation, but as far as secure and easy booking goes I always email hotels directly for private stays as well. Maybe it’ll cost me a few extra dollars, but I avoid the hassle of having to deal with hotels.com who among other things charge you up front and make it almost impossible to cancel.

iaw 6y ago
My experience (years ago) was that the hotels would prefer people did this as they don't like the middlemen either.
- toomuchtodo 6y ago
  I always lookup the hotel on an aggregator (Hotels.com usually) and then call the hotel directly to book.
  - notdang 6y ago
    and you call the number listed on hotels.com? In this case you are calling hotels.com and not the hotel itself.
    - toomuchtodo 6y ago
      No, I lookup the hotel's actual phone number. I don't rely on any contact info on hotels.com, only their map data of where the hotels are and rates for rough pricing.

loceng 6y ago

I had to recently book a hotel for a few nights. Hotels are mostly empty because of COVID. When I called to book a room it was clearly a script being followed with high pressure tactics including saying rooms are filling up quickly. Once I arrived at the hotel it looked mostly dead, and I when I asked the manager who was helping me behind the counter, he said they were at 10% capacity. It should also be illegal for businesses to misrepresent their inventory.

Igelau 6y ago
To be fair, they had just experienced a sudden exponential surge in interest: your phone call.
- whitebread 6y ago
  /s?
  - marcosdumay 6y ago
    Seems highly redundant.
asdff 6y ago
So many websites resort to this, frankly it's embarrasing used car salesmen level tactics. My favorite is the petition websites like change.org. The ticking of people signing the petition before your eyes is entirely artificial. Refresh the page and the count resets.
- o-__-o 6y ago
  Oh so like reddit today!
punitxsmart 6y ago
I agree with the sentiment. But, it should not be illegal to lie about your inventory. As long as you are receiving what is promised by them at a price that you both agree, its all fair game.

toast0 6y ago

I don't think the intent is to have you book at a higher price. The intent is to get the booking and collect the fee. And they just don't care that they can't process corporate codes. They are misrepresenting things, and asking about a discount code probably should get you forwarded to the hotel (or their corporate call center). It can get a little hairy when Hotels.com (or whoever) has a lower price or more rooms available than the hotel directly (sometimes the Online Travel Agencies will commit to a number of rooms over a time frame, then they have pricing autonomy and exclusive availability; probably not happening in covid times though)

heavyset_go 6y ago

This can come to a head when traveling. Years ago, I had used hotels.com to book a reservation. I had booked a hotel near the destination airport for one night before continuing to travel to my actual destination. The hotel advertised that they can give refunds or change booking with 24 hours notice. My flight was cancelled and rescheduled for the next day, making that one-night hotel stay a waste if I couldn't reschedule or get a refund for it. Apparently hotels.com doesn't have the same policy as the hotel I had a reservation at, so while still in the airport, I had to argue with about 3 layers of people before it was made apparent that I wasn't speaking to the hotel. In the end, hotels.com "made an exception" for me and refunded my money which I was then able to use to book another night. I suspect that exception was made because they were able to get a refund from the hotel itself.

coldcode 6y ago

hotels.com is an Expedia brand, not a company.

user5994461 6y ago

I don't remember phone numbers being listed on hotels.com. If you dig up the support number it is going to the hotels.com call center. It's not deceptive because they have your booking and your money, they can see your order and rebook you in another hotel which the direct hotel wouldn't be able to do (this happens regularly when there are problems like the hotel has no room). If you have a corporate discount with a specific hotel you definitely need to deal with the website of the hotel directly, not hotels.com