I've used expedia with some success in the past for airfare but recently I used them for a 3 night stay at the hotel@ Mandaly Bay and a long weekend getaway with my wife at JW Marriott Camelback Inn. In both cases I had room problems. While the room at the Hotel was a 700+ sq ft corner suite for only $160 it had noise in the bathroom marble wall (lazy susan shaft for hotel staff) so they moved me to another corner suite...same corner type suite in another tower and this room had the same wall noise...obviously an engineering issue...spectacular room but the noise was annoying especially for trying to take a Vegas afternoon catnap. The hotel moved me to a 3rd room, interior king room and gave me a food/beverage credit stating this is all they could do because I used a 3rd party wholesaler to book the room.

On to Camelback...after the Vegas exeprience I was going to use expedia but Marriot website wouldn't confirm a smokefree king room for my weekend while expedia.com would and for a slightly lowere price than Marriott's website so I just figured expedia had bought or had rights to a book of rooms for some of their promo weekends. We get to Scottsdale and Camelback only has 2 queen bed room available (for our 25th wedding anniversary). Needless to say we weren't happy, Marriott staff moved us to an inferior room for the duration and weren't overly pleasant in so doing but I was beyond pissed off with them by this point. expedia has offered a $100 travel coupon for future use but I really told expedia support rep that I would be hard pressed to use their service again for anything because booking with expedia (a 3rd party wholesaler) makes you a 2nd class traveler, if that. One thing I want when I travel is to limit the surprises...expedia and others like them I believe write the book of surprises. The suite in vegas is a perfect example...great rate, and a spectacular room if the elavator shaft wasn't in the bathroom wall. The hotel staff said I was the only person to ever complain...I told them I don't think so and that's why this room is offered at a discount with the wholesalers...