What should travelers know about booking hotels through Expedia during the COVID pandemic?

Just a post about my recent EXPEDIA Booking !!!

“For information purposes only”.

I made a booking a couple of hours ago for February, 2023 in Bangkok, Thailand. I made it through EXPEDIA. It was at a hotel that I have stayed at several times before and quite like.

I received an EXPEDIA email CONFIRMATION with the BOOKING number which was also pre-paid through Expedia. I then called the property phone number on the Expedia Booking / Confirmation for the hotel. I just wanted to confirm same as I know a lot of properties in Thailand were devastated and many are still shuttered from the COVID Epidemic. It turned out that the Phone number was not functional, it was NOT a valid active phone number. I next spent about 30 minutes on a “chat” with a Virtual agent and subsequent live agent and was given a different phone number for the hotel. I tried that phone number, I called 3 times and it kept ringing many times before someone answered. I finally spoke to someone at the hotel. ( I believe he may have been someone doing site security and he advised that the hotel has been closed since COVID and there are no plans to re-open !!!! )

I then went back to a Virtual chat and then a LIVE agent who advised that my Confirmation was not really a VALID confirmation, that will take about 24 hours !!!! I asked if my Booking # or my pre-paid payment was also not valid. The agent asked for my phone number and called me on my Cellphone. I explained all and said just cancel the NON CONFIRMED booking. He tried to convince me to let him connect with their escalation booking team. That offerI declined and i said I would just cancel the booking which I did personally to make sure it was actually cancelled. Free cancellation on the booking was free until February 11th on the booking so no penalty in that regard.

I am guessing the reason for the phone call was that there was no longer a CHAT record. I could be wrong, but thats just my thoughts !

What would happen or may have happened had I not followed up directly to confirm and verify the booking directly with the property and had showed up on the date with my EXPEDIA CONFIRMATION, Pre-paid booking and an invalid booking number ????

Just be aware that it is possible that is some rare instances Confirmations and Booking numbers may not in reality actually be valid.

I just decided to call the hotel tonight to verify same and I am so glad that I did.

This is just my personal experience. Others may want to just double check their reservations directly, especially, in areas severely affected from COVID like Thailand has been. I for one am glad that I always follow up and confirm either with a direct phone call or via e-mail with each and every property I make a reservation with and have been doing so for decades. This is just for my own personal peace of mind as often I book multiple rooms. I have also on occasion used Expedia in the past with no issues, but had followed up and confirmed directly. In this day and age of computers and technology etc. in my personal opinion this is completely unacceptable and should have been avoidable. There are still plenty of other hotels open in Thailand that I know have re-opened and stayed at quite a few times in the past couple of years even during the COVID times. Thailand is a great place to visit and enjoy. Just take that second step and verify any bookings regardless of how you make the reservation.

Hopefully, this was a one time incident but for me Expedia is history.

Good luck to all and stay safe.