Travelers frequently ask, “Is Expedia legit?,” when considering booking with Expedia. Is Expedia legit? It is fully legit, but knowing a few quirks about booking with Expedia can help you be prepared.
Expedia is a huge online travel agency (OTA). With over 20,000 employees, its conglomerate travel brands include Hotels.com, Vacation Rentals by Owner (Vrbo), Travelocity, Orbitz, and Kayak. Expedia has been in the travel industry for decades, and, as a fully publicly traded company, further confirms their credibility. Now let’s explore the specific issues that raise travelers’ concerns about Expedia.
Is Expedia Legit for Hotels?
Is Expedia legit for hotels? The answer is yes. As one of the industry’s leading companies, Expedia has direct connections with a multitude of hotels across the globe, from independent boutique hotels to major chain hotels. When booking with Expedia, you receive a legally binding hotel reservation that the hotel will honor.
Traveling is a more enjoyable experience when you can score early check-ins, special room requests, complimentary item requests, airport lounges, and more. Is Expedia a good option if you need to book something?
Just because you need to book a hotel on Expedia doesn’t mean you have to. Expedia has some hotel inventory that no one else has, giving them a chance to outbid other online travel agencies (OTAs). Because of this, they snag the best wholesale rates. There’s a decent chance that if you find a hotel on Expedia that no one else has, they’ll also have the lowest price.Fill out the necessary sections for your trip, and use the filters to your advantage to find a rate that no other online travel agencies offer you.
Hotel bookings on branded OTAs are generally more reliable more than Expedia. You can find some good niche deals on Expedia, but book as a backup if you’re going to do a multi-stop or view a carefully curated itinerary.
Are Expedia Flights Legit?
If you have any other questions, feel free to reach out! Expedia is trusted and can be used for flights, hotels, or experiences. You can use flights to map out your travel plans. They use a trusted set of airlines and travel partners.
Expedia serves as a middleman. When you successfully make a booking, your itinerary usually gets locked in with the airline. Expedia’s customer service can help you with bookings, especially if you booked a package with them, but for most changes and cancellations after the tickets are issued, you will have to deal with the airline. If you booked with Expedia, make sure you understand their cancellation and change policies, as well as the airline’s, especially for basic economy tickets, which are pretty strict no matter where you buy them from. Sometimes pricing errors do happen, but if a price looks too low, it could be a mistake, which Expedia will usually fix, and you’ll get your money back.
Expedia Car Rental: Is It Legit?
Car rentals from Expedia are also legit, as they partner with the major car rental companies. When renting a car from Expedia, you will get a real car from a real rental company.
Renting is simple, and you’ll get a confirmation voucher. The most important things to remember with car rentals through any OTA are:
Driver Requirements: The main driver must be of the correct age and have a license accepted by the rental company in your location.
Insurance: Understand what insurance is included and what you might need or want to purchase separately, either from Expedia, the rental company, or your credit card provider.
Additional Fees: Being aware of any extra costs incurred child seat, GPS, extra driver, and fuel options. These are to be paid directly to the rental company at the time of collection. Expedia shows you the base rate, but these are all part of the add-ons that get included in every rental company.
Is Expedia Trustworthy and Reliable?
Is Expedia trustworthy? Is Expedia trustworthy for airline tickets and other reservations? Yes, Expedia is a trustworthy company, and their booking system generally works as expected. There are millions of travelers booking travel itineraries through Expedia every year for the first time (and last time) without any problems. The period of time and the number of travelers are sufficient to prove that the travel company is reliable.
But reliable and trustworthy does not equal flawless. Expedia, like other large online companies, can have some problems. Especially in times of travel or global conflicts, the online company can experience some customer service delays and technical problems. Almost every time the bookings go through without problems. When there are problems, they are usually small problems that can be dealt with if you have a little patience.
Common Issues and How to Deal with Them
Customer Service: Customers sometimes mention that they get put on hold for a long time or are frustrated with getting a hold of customer service. This is a common issue for large OTAs. Sometimes issues are more complicated and require persistence. If that’s the case, try using different methods to get a hold of a customer service rep (call them, use the chat option, and reach out to them on social media).
Price Changes: The price of travel services is always changing. Don’t get alarmed if the price changes from one day to the next. This is cause of market dynamics, not an Expedia problem.
Read everything: It is incredibly important to read the conditions that apply to the company’s services, including which are the non-refundable bookings, which are the restrictive flight policies, the car rental policies, etc. If policies exist, they will cause you frustration, and it is for that reason that they exist.
Package Deals: Sometimes Expedia does really well with the package deal combo (like a flight + hotel, or a flight + hotel + car). The savings on these bundles are for real and they are a good way to keep your costs down.
Conclusion
Expedia is a legit, trusted, and mostly dependable site for hotel, flight, car rental, and vacation package bookings. It is convenient and offers a competitive price and a wide variety. No travel booking experience is completely risk-free, but knowing how to use Expedia, being careful to check the details, and knowing when to reach out to suppliers for a direct confirmation will help avoid any problems. Expedia is a great travel booking site.
