Guarantees can be tricky things. If you want to take advantage of a company’s low price guarantee, no matter how widely advertised it is, it’s a good idea to take a minute to read the terms and conditions of that guarantee before taking advantage of it. Even if it’s advertised on TV. Even if you think you know how the guarantee works. Just ask Marc.

Marc thought he knew how Expedia’s Best Price Guarantee worked. He booked a trip, then found a better price. Score! That means that he gets a $50 voucher! Right? Nope. Not if you make the purchase without logging in to your Expedia account…or creating one in the first place.

He wrote to us looking for our help:

I recently purchased a trip (hotel + flight) on Expedia. About one hour after I booked it, I noticed the price decreased by a small amount. No problem, I thought, I can use Expedia’s Best Price Guarantee and get the difference refunded to me.

I submitted the necessary information, but received a “sorry, but no can do” response from Expedia, since I booked under a guest account instead of my Expedia account. This isn’t a lot of money we’re talking about, but Expedia doesn’t make clear when booking that their Best Price Guarantee applies only to checking out with an Expedia account.

No, they don’t. But if you click over to the Best Price Guarantee terms page, you do see this as part of the instructions for the guarantee:

Here’s how the Best Price Guarantee Works:

Step 1:
Create an Expedia account (or log in if you already have one).

Oh. That means it’s kind of key, then.

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