Why is expedia so expensive

Oh, and by the way, Expedia isn't just Expedia. Look at wikipedia's article on Expedia Group to see in the first paragraph just a few of their many brands:. Expedia Group is an American global travel technology company. Its websites, which are primarily travel fare aggregators and travel metasearch engines, include CarRentals. If you rent a hotel room from any of these sites and several others it is from Expedia and it is coming out of their inventory of hotel rooms if it is from a hotel they're buying rooms from.

Other answers that point out that you can sometimes get a matching price from a hotel: that's true. And what's also true - in my experience, so anecdotal - is if you book directly with the hotel you can easily get a better room and certainly better service while you're there. So there's some trade-offs there that you can use if you're a more experienced traveler than I am!

Just another thing that hasn't been mentioned: when you browse the hotel's own website, they are not competing with anyone else, at least at the same time -- you are already on their website, they only have to have a reasonable enough price.

Through Expedia, customers will prefer the lowest price rooms, so hotels can't charge as much as they would otherwise. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group.

Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. How does Expedia manage to sell a room significantly cheaper than the hotel itself? Ask Question. Asked 2 years, 10 months ago. Active 2 years, 10 months ago. Viewed 18k times. Improve this question. It could be a sales trick exploiting the anchoring effect en. They are willing to sell at the lower price Expedia price - commission , but list a high price at a different place. So people who see both can hopefully snatch the "bargain" without too much thought.

Hotels often have a posted room rate - check the sign near the door and you'll see a room's value at some absurd multiple of what you paid. That value is used as their valuation of the room's cost in the event that they need to seek damages. They sell the same mattress in two "competing" stores.

One much cheaper than the other. It's a win-win for them. If someone buys the "discounted one", they make a profit. If someone buys the more expensive one, they make more of a profit. It's a total scam. The economics term for this is price discrimination. If you charge everyone a high price, you lose customers, if you charge everyone a low price, then you lose the money you would have gotten from the customers willing to pay more.

The goal is to get all the customers possible to pay the highest price they are willing to fork over. It's extremely common across many categories of goods and services. Add a comment. Offers are valid for stay dates within the next 14 days. The visible hotel costs are priced per room per stay based on the cheapest double room available, whereas the quoted flight prices are per person based on the cheapest return flights — potential additional baggage charges not included.

Here's just a taste of some of the policy differences:. Hotels have various cancellation deadlines; if the reservation was made on a nonrefundable booking, you may still qualify for cancellation, minus any hotel fees, by giving Expedia a call or chatting online.

Cruises must be canceled 90 days ahead of departure to still be eligible. While some bookings through Expedia are nonrefundable altogether, view all of its cancellation policies to make sure you understand the potential financial consequences of a possible change in plans.

Outsourced customer service can be hit or miss with Expedia. If you have a specific complaint to make toward a hotel or airline, for instance, you may be given a longer runaround before actually having your question addressed.

On the bright side, there are many ways to get in touch with Expedia to discuss bookings, including live chat. When you book through travel search engines rather than through specific loyalty programs , you may hurt your chances of receiving free upgrades or other useful loyalty membership perks.

Further, when you book through Expedia, you're not always guaranteed a room type or fare type. This alone can leave a lot of your travel comforts up to chance. The Expedia pros and cons are worth consideration before booking your next flight, hotel, cruise or car rental. The chance to save big or pay over time are tempting, but the complicated cancellation policies might make a traveler hesitate. With the right deal, booking on Expedia could be worth it.

Here are our picks for the best travel credit cards of , including those best for:. The pros of booking with Expedia. Expedia found that for U. To be precise, travelers should book 21 to 30 days in advance of their ideal departure, according to Alexis Tiacoh, a spokeswoman for Expedia. The average cost for a seat on a flight originating in the U.

Beyond that, if you book too late, or too early, you're likely to pay more. When you start your trip may also net you some savings on airfares. That's based on a review of more than million passenger air travel trips in When it comes to booking your flight, the report finds the best day to plunk down your credit card is on a weekend, particularly on Sundays.

It turns out you should reserve your rental car before you book your hotel for summer vacations. Expedia says the optimal time to book a rental car, regardless of the destination, is 14 to 20 days ahead of your trip. If you really want to secure the best possible deal on a hotel, Expedia says it pays to reserve your room last-minute.