Complaint Review: Hotels.com

Hotels.com has a program where you get one free night after booking 10 nights. First of all, this is misleading: you don't get one free night. You get rewards points that you can redeem, so if the value of the one "free" night is more than what they decide is redeemable, you have to pay the difference. Second, when it comes down to redeeming your points, the hotel.com website won't allow you to do it. 

As I was looking for a room, I narrowed my search by hotels that accept redeeming hotels.com rewards. When I found one, I tried to book the night going step by step, which are:

1- Find the hotel

2- Click on book

3- Click on redeem points to reduce your balance

4- Pay the balance. Options here are: you can pay immediately or at the hotel

When I got to step 3 where I wanted to redeem my points, every time I clicked on "redeem rewards" the hotel room suddenly becomes unavailable, as in "sold out." When I don't click on "redeem rewards," the room becomes available again. I tried this over and over just to be sure, and I got the same results. So hotels.com promises you the rewards, but when you try to redeem them, suddenly the room you want becomes unavailable.

So eventually I booked the room without redeeming my points and I chose to pay at the hotel because I wanted to contact hotels.com about this issue first. I tried to chat with them online, no rep was available. I sent them an email, no response, so I called hotels.com and I got a rep by the name of Anthony on the line, who sounded like someone from India. Anyway, I explained the issue, and he looked at my reservation and here was his answer:

“Ma’am, you were unable to redeem your points because you chose to pay at the hotel, not immediately through the hotles.com website.” I told him that this was bull because redeeming the point is one step before choosing where to pay, so there was not way for the site to know where and when I was intending to pay for the room when I chose to redeem my points. He kept repeating the same BS, and wouldn’t help to redeem my points. He was totally useless, which led me to believe that the whole hotels.com rewards program is just a SCAM. They lure you into booking through them, promising rewards, but when it comes to redeeming the points, you’ll never be able to. You will not be able to book a room when you chose to redeem your points because every time you attempt to redeem your points, suddenly the hotel you’re trying to book at becomes fully booked. They are LIARS!