I have only recently signed up to Expedia, and taking the advice these sites give on saving money by booking early, I did. Never again. I had to have some dental work done in Antalya Turkey, so after browsing hotels, decided on the crowne plaza hotel. I thought it was going to be a painful week at the clinic so I treated myself and booked a 1 room suite for £1, 050.00 for 7 nights. I had to have the booked dental work done so I didn’t bother paying the extortionate cancellation fees, I had to go, like it or not. A few days later, I noticed that the same 1 room suite, same dates was now only £800 for the week! The price was now £250 cheaper than what I paid. I do understand that as the season progresses, the prices are bound to rise, but we are talking a matter of days, not weeks or months. I am flabbergasted! I queried this with Expedia, who just sent me a stock reply ‘prices can vary, can we help you with anything else’ now the suspicious side of me starts thinking; I was a brand new customer, with money to spend, how hard would it be for them to ‘tinker’ with the prices, let’s whack on a few hundred quid and see if he swallows it, if not, well can reduce the prices, a bit like the proverbial second hand car salesman, start off high, then reduce as necessary. This may seem outlandish to anyone reading this, but think about it. They are out to make as much money from you as possible, that’s just business and understandable, but to manipulate the prices in order to maximise their profits in this way is tantamount to fraud. I genuinely believed that by booking a bit earlier would save me money, how wrong I was, and want to warn others from falling into the same trap.I am also going to start investigating this in much more detail, I will start by informing all my Facebook friends and ask if they have experienced something similar, then ‘request’ information from Expedia themselves, with special interest in the algorithms they use with their pricing policy. I will leave no stone unturned and will update this review as and when. In the meantime, be very conscious of this when you book via Expedia.
