I'm aware that errors happen and it's an unavoidable part of travel, but I thought I'd share this story about hotels.com.

Going to Denver on Friday. My friend with whom I'm sharing a room booked our hotel via hotels.com. He called the hotel this morning to see if we could get an early check-in; the hotel staff said that he couldn't find our reservation that we booked five months ago.

To make a very long, convoluted story short...My friend's been on and off the phone/email/fax with hotels.com customer service and the hotel itself all day. It sounds like everything has worked out, but it's still very disconcerting.

In the future, we're going to book with the hotel itself rather than third party outfits like hotels.com. We'll also call to confirm reservations.

I have had the same issue with Travelocity. That is why I always call the hotels shortly after making the reservation. THe time it happened to me, they didn't have any rooms. I had to book a new room at a different hotel and then jump through hoops to get my $ refunded from travelocity. This was back when there were actually noticeable differences in the rates.

I've never had a problem with hotels.com, but then I always call and verify.

You should always verify your hotel reservations ahead of time no matter how you book. I always try to book directly with the hotel anyway unless using an Orbitz or Hotels.com saves me a good amount of money. Then again, I always use Priceline as a first-resort anyway.

I should've noted too that it might've been the hotel's fault.

Either way, moral of the story is to call to confirm. Stupid of us not to.

I only used hotels.com one time and when I showed up at the hotel they had no record of my reservation. Thankfully, I had printed a hard copy of my confirmation from hotels.com and brought it with me. Also, luckily, the hotel had rooms available and honored the reservation and pre-payment. Now I book with the hotels directly as it seems their websites usually have the same rates as places like hotels.com and orbitz, and sometimes even better rates.

Yes, I agree, the moral of the story is to call and confirm. Always. Doesn't matter how the reservation was made.

Once my phone reservation was lost. Things happen.

Expedia messed up my reservation: 2 rooms on my credit card, one for the Agains, one for Others. The Others didn't get theirs, good I called a week before to the hotel to confirm.

Within an hour Expedia sent a fax with proper reservation. Our vacations went on as scheduled.

I always call hotels directly to confirm my rezzie. Not trying to be a PIA, just don't need additional stress when I'm "there".

I also re-check reservations just after booking no matter how I book.

There's no telling whether having no reservation was the fault of the hotel or hotels.com

Great idea to call and book direct..only one problem..you may NOT get the discounted rate the hotel is giving to Hotels.com

Having worked in the hospitality industry myself, I will NEVER use third party booking such as hotels.com, travelocity, orbits, etc...
When a person makes a reservation via third party online booking, most of the time the reservation doesn't go "directly into the hotel's reservation system." usually, a fax is sent to the hotel, so imagine the room for error! for example, where I worked, the fax would come in on the hotel's main fax line. which was in the inhouse reservation department, but EVEERYONE had access to it. don't worry, the hotel doesn't get your credit card number, but the reservation could get tossed out, lost, that's if it even gets through! pay the extra bucks and book through the hotel, use AAA if you can. less hassle! also, if the hotel is "overseold" which is done intentionally, the first guests to get "walked" to anther hotel are those who booked through companies like hotels.com.

Raquelita, thank you for that post. I had no idea that that is how third-party bookers worked. Very interesting and good to know. This is my first problem with a third-party company, and I book through Orbitz almost every time.

Probably the last time I book via hotels.com, though.

One of the things I like best about booking direct with a hotel is that in most cases these days, THEY reconfirm with ME by sending an email a few days ahead. Marriotts all do this, I believe. Just today I got my email from them reminding me of my reservation in Sarasota this Saturday night.

I like Hotels.com for browsing, but so far I've never seen a better rate there than I've been able to get direct from the hotel (sometimes calling the specific hotel and NOT their national booking number).

I do not book through any third party site which asks for prepayment, and ESPECIALLY those who give me no choice of hotel, only an area of the city.

I do book, all the time, for San Francisco, through hotelres.com. You choose the area of the city and up comes all of the information, including specials and detailed descriptions of the hotels. including parking charges and amenities, and usually photos. Even maps of the area showing the location of the hotel.

This is a consolidator and the hotels use it to help fill unused rooms. Once when I could not get an advance booking at one of my favorite hotels when I was checking out, the desk clerk actually suggested that I contact hoterlres.com and gave me a list of the hotels which they service.

When I use them I not only get an email confirmation from them, but also from the hotel a few days before arrival.

I've used Expedia and Quikbook only a couple of times, usually the hotels' own websites give even a better rate!

Never had success with hotels.com against Expedia - the latter was always lower.

Having worked in the hotel industry for years, I always use a second party booking system either Quikbook.com, Hotwire.com, or Priceline.com.

However I always call the hotel and verify the reservation and I've only had one problem one time.

It was because my name is hyphenated and the hotel changed reservation systems between my booking and actual stay.

raquelita, the guests we walked at the five different hotels I worked for were the last ones to arrive not the ones who booked second party.

My friend worked front desk for Kimpton Group (some years ago now) and they never walked guests based on how the reservations were made. It was last arrivals got walked in most cases (lots of celebrities stayed at her hotel; obviously they aren't going to walk an NBA team who is staying there and probably paid big bucks for the rooms).