I booked my trip to Ireland 4 months in advance using Expedia. This included a car rental in Dublin with a company called “Payless”. Because we booked early, we got a good rate. Apparently too good, because when we got to Dublin, we couldn’t find a “Payless” counter anywhere. We spoke with several airport employees who said that there was no company called Payless in the airport. Turns out that it was under a different name (doing business as Dooley Car Rentals). Nowhere on the Expedia printed itinerary was this listed, nor was it in the itinerary you can have e-mailed to you. The U.S. number listed on the itinerary was not helpful either due to the time zone change (voicemail). We had no choice but to rent a car for 5 times the amount at another rental counter. When we got back to the states, my husband called Expedia to explain our situation. After over an hour on the phone, we were of course told that it was our fault, because way at the bottom of the booking page on Expedia (not in the print version) buried in a bunch of other links was a link that said ‘Detailed Rental Information’, and that it was our responsibility to click these links and either print them out or remember that it is called Dooley Car Rentals during the 4 months between the time we booked and our trip. With this type of customer service, we will never use Expedia again, since there may be other times where they are ‘hiding’ CRITICAL information deep in the fine print.

Expedia is usually a great place to book vacation travel, hotels, and car rentals. They offer an easy, simplified search engine to find everything you need to plan your vacation in one spot. There are also numerous advanced searches and options to help you find what you need. Overall, the layout of Expedia’s site really makes it user friendly. The hotel descriptions and reviews are always very helpful, and it is great to be able to search multiple airlines and flights at once. One downside to Expedia is that while they are frequently the cheapest, such is not always the case. I have found cheaper flights and hotels enough times through the main provider, that I also check multiple places to be sure. Overall though, Expedia provides a great resource and often has some great travel deals.

Expedia.com was the first on-line travel agency I have tried and used for about 5 years before switching to Orbitz and Travelocity. It is a very nice website that allows you to plan your entire trip or vacation. There is a price comparison between different airlines and you get to choose your depart and return flights. Let’s you purchase the tickets, hotels, rent a car or hotel and car rental combinations. Your trips are saved for possible revisions or changes and service fees are very reasonable. The only thing I don’t like about it recently is that it has too many commercial ads.