I have been making some quick decisions because of the falling dollar. I have firm reservations with Expedia for hotel rooms in dollars. Will they honor that rate in Euros? How? I am confused about this...eg, I have a rate for 80 dollars on Expedia, will this convert?

Who are you paying? If you prepay for the room with Expedia, then you are paying in dollars at the rate you show. If not - or if it is only a partial payment, then you will likely pay the balance in Euros - at whatever exchange rate cost in effect then. That is, the room price should stay the same, the exchange rate is the only part that changes.

"Will they honor that rate in Euros?"

What do you mean by "that rate"? To establish a rate, you need two numbers.

There is one component missing, and that's the price in Euros.

If today their price is 50 Euros and they take your 80 dollars, then you'll be happy, and so will they because today 80 US dollars is worth 55 Euros (but at the bank-to-bank rate which neither you nor a retail business in Europe can get, so 50 Euros will be about fair).

But if the price in Euros is 65 and you offer your 80 greenbacks, I can't see how that's gonna work.

Besides, if you pay by credit card overseas, never let them do the conversion at the point of sale and charge your card in dollars, you'll always be way behind. Always have them charge your cc in the local currency and let the issuing bank do the conversion. You get that best bank-to-bank rate (plus your statement will probably show a total fee of 3% but that's a different story) that way, not some "I'll hedge my bet by padding the conversion" rate a retailer has to charge to protect himself in case the rate changes between the moment he does your deal and the time his money gets to his bank.

Thanks for the feedback. I am doing some prepaying now for a few hotels.

Why not call the hotels directly and ask what they're charging in euros and, if it's less at the current exchange rate than you're going to pay with Expedia, lock in at that rate and prepay the hotel itself?

Hi JR,

If you prepay, you send Expedia $80 and that's that.

If you have a booking, but will pay later, you have to lnegotiate with the hotel how many Euro equals $80.

Say you booked the hotel at an exchange rate of $1.37/E. That's 58E.

You go to check out and the hotel wants 58E, but the exchange rate is up to $1.47/E. That is now $85.

Worst scenario:

You say, "I have a confirmation for $80. That is only 54E".

The hotel says, "We confirmed your rate at 58E. Go fight with Expedia".

Better scenario:

The hotel says, "We are converting Euro to USD at $1.42/E. You owe us 56E".

Best scenario:

The hotel says, "You are correct".

Which do you think is the most likely scenario.

Call Expedia and find out if the hotel has quoted the rated in dolloars or in Euro.

Wow, great advice from Ira and StCirq. I like calling the hotel..works for me. You guys are the best!

I've used Expedia a couple of times for packaged trips.

If I'm a hotel, my rate is in euros. I want to be paid in euros. I may accept $, but I will charge you for that convenience. So Expedia will pay me in euros. My room rate is 50 euros, it is 50 now, it will be 50 euros this summeer (apart from any seasonal deals). I don't care about the exchange rate, it's 50 euros. I would like to have customers pay up front for their total stay, but if not, not big deal. I may insist on a pre-payment for one night, to keep the "hotel hoppers'" from booking and not showing up.

With Expedia, you are paying up front for your total hotel stay. They quote you in $ (in Canada they quote me in $CDN). So if room rate is 50 euros for this summer, the hotel will get its 50 euros X number of nights.

Expedia, at the moment of you requesting a price for that summer night, will do the currency conversion based on today's rate and add its fees to give you its final price. The hotel rate is always 50 euros, but the currency and fees can vary.

When you hit the 'buy' button, Expedia gets the $, sends 50 euros to the hotel, and collects its fees.

If I hit 'buy' today, that is the end of the transaction. Both parties have been paid, you credit card billed in $. It now does not matter what the currency does between today and this summer. The 'contract' has been signed...hotel will deliver you a room this summer for 50 euros, which is their normal rate.

So there is no currency factor in this transaction. You are locking in. If you looked at the same package two weeks from now, the $ price from Espedia may vary up and down, but the hotel rate has not.

The only decision to be made is a guess on the direction of the exchange rates. Corollary risk is that if you wait too long, the hotel room is booked by someone else

Ditto to above about checking directly with hotels.

Two questions that I may ask myself...are all hotels on Expedia (probably not)..so therefore some smaller nice hotels may not appear. Would not use Expedia exclusively to supply me with list of possible hotels.

Secondly...with its larger buying power, will Expedia get me a better deal at a hotel? So even if I get a quote, or price from hotel web site, would an Expedia price be better? Would be interested in doing a bit of research to confirm theory

OK - you booked through Expedia -- didn't you also pay up front? If so, I don't understand your question since as Michael says, the transaction is already complete.

I agree that you should compare rates, if you can prepay the hotels and it turns out to be less (which I doubt, actually, as $80 is very cheap). I think you don't understand Expedia, though, so maybe you should find out more what you are doing so you are not confused. If you pay Expedia, you are buying from Expedia, that's all. The hotel has sold that room to Expedia. YOu aren't getting any rate for the hotel to honor or not, Expedia is setting the rate. DO you not understand that you must pay Expedia, not the hotel?

sorry, I realized this is already a done deal. I don't think there is anything you can do at this point, although I think maybe you can cancel Expedia and get a partial refund, at least on some hotels. But your terms will state that. I don't think Expedia just makes reservations without you doing the actual purchasing, does it? They require prepayment in full.

If you make reservations through Expedia, you pay to Expedia X amounts of dollars.

That's it. You are done, and doesn't matter if the exchange rate goes up or down, your rate of $80 is locked.

The hotel will not charge you anything per night. You deal with Expedia alone.

Now, if this is in your favor to deal with Expedia, or with the hotel directly paying in Euros, is a different question. For that, see Ira's post

HRS and Venere, have a Euro base and does not have a prepay option. I have 2 reservations with HRS and Venere. Not all Expedia reservations are prepay BTW. Priceline has a Euro based company that takes care of their transactions. Some PL is prepay (as in their bidding section). My goal is to try to prepay as much as possible. Methinks,things will only get worse. One bright spot I have encountered, is hotel prices are dropping like crazy.

I've booked some packages with Expedia for myself and family members and always had to pay at the end of the transaction. So, I'm still a bit confused about the question. I go to expedia, choose a hotel + flight pkg, then pay for it -- DONE! When travel time arrives, I check into the hotel using my itinerary/receipt as proof of purchase and I get my room. I don't pay anything extra unless I broke something or ordered room service, etc.! Am I missing something?

I have used Expedia for hotels. It works just as everyone else has described: I paid so and so dollars at the time of booking, and I paid nothing more when I stayed at the hotel.

I usually don't like prepaying. However, on one trip, I realized that the credit limit on a card that gives a good exchange rate will be exceeded. So I used another card to prepay hotels using Expedia. For a U.S. resident, paying Expedia in dollars to book hotels in Europe was a U.S. transaction, so I was able to use a credit card that would have hit me with a confiscatory fee had I used the card in Europe.