I like to filter all of the coupons and sale announcements I get from retailers into a folder, which I peek through when I’m about to buy something to see whether any of them apply to that thing I’m about to buy. That’s what Andrew did when he was about to book his last trip’s lodging through Hotels.com, when it was finally time for him to earn his free hotel stay through that site. When his anticipated reward never came, he learned something terrible. Simply using that coupon in his mailbox had disqualified him from earning any rewards on that hotel stay. Then his rewards expired. It won’t surprise you when you learn that he’s not going back to Hotels.com to earn any more.

Read the fine print, people. Read the fine print. Well, read it if there is any.

He explains:

I’ve been booking my travel for the past year with Hotels.com, so I could take advantage of their “Welcome Rewards” program & earn a free night. I’ve racked up 8 points & on my way to 10. Had a trip planned for last weekend & found a great deal on a room through a competitors’ site, but figured by gaining 3 nights with Hotels.com, I would earn my free night I’ve been working towards, so would pay the higher price through their site.

Upon checkout I realized they spam me with “coupons” all the time & found an email from a couple weeks back with a 10% off code. Thought, great, this makes them more competitive & gets me the free night I’ve been working towards.

Completed my stay & kept checking my account to find it takes up to 72 hours for rewards points to accrue. Well it’s been a week, so decided to give a call. When I finally spoke to someone, that barely spoke English mind you, they explained that due to using their coupon, my trip no longer qualified for “Rewards”! Nowhere on their site, during checkout, or in the email with the coupon does it mention that by using their “coupon”, I was forfeiting my rewards points!

Now I find that my existing 8 points expire today & not only do I not get the 3 points I accrued on my latest trip, but I will end with no free night I’ve been working towards, nor ANY point balance AT ALL!

I will never use that site again.

Some deal. Andrew should make sure, and call back to speak with someone who has better English skills. Then maybe their supervisor. As we learned this week, misinformed front-line staff can really mess things up.

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