When language skills pays off (dealing with Expedia)

justinbrett

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I'm travelling to Central America next month and needed to make a booking a small hotel in Honduras that doesn't take direct bookings (their website refers to booking.com).

I booked with Expedia, which I don't use often (I prefer to book direct with chains) but useful for booking in obscure properties.

I had to change the date for the booking by one day, but it was not refundable (only non-refundable rates offered). I attempted to change with Expedia but was told they couldn't contact the hotel. So I sent the email direct to the hotel in Spanish and they said no problem, make it through Expedia and they'd agree to the change.

So tried to change again with Expedia, this time they came back within 24 hours and said the hotel had denied the change waiver. I emailed this to the hotel and they said nobody contacted them, and they sent me a message through Expedia approving the change.

So I tried yet again to change the booking, even saying look in my Expedia messages to see the confirmation, they yet again said the hotel won't approve.

I gave it a few weeks over Christmas, and with my suspicion that the Expedia overseas call centre couldn't speak Spanish, decided to log into the Mexican Expedia site and launch a chat in Spanish.

Literally 5 minutes later the change is processed and even a $5.40 AUD refund for the difference in rates.

Maybe next time I'll try expedia.mx even for English language destinations! Their service was excellent!

(I'm not a native Spanish speaker and not fluent but have been learning for about 10 years, enough to get by for travel).
 
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