Good tip! I'll also mention that many hotels/airlines/transit companies offer discount rates for those who have lost loved ones and are traveling. They typically called Bereavement Rates/Fares. They do often require proof though, a death certificate or statement from a hospital regarding an imminent death.

Hope this helps!

@JessTheUnstill I thought the benefit of going via a third-party travel broker was that someone else's reputation was on the line, but at Microsoft we had to use the Concur system and there was no accountability there at all.

I booked a room in Dream Apartments - Obel Tower for CyberUK. It was one of the closest hotels to the venue and I had my arm in a sling with a broken shoulder, so didn't want to have to travel far while I was there.

When I turned up, I discovered that the hotel had decided to cancel my booking. When I booked, it was much cheaper than anywhere else nearby, so I guess they realised that there was a big demand and wanted to make more money. They hadn't told me because, they claimed, they had no contact information for me (other hotels have managed to contact me when booking through Concur). Looking on TripAdvisor, they've done this a lot (indeed, the most recent review was from someone else this happened to, though at least they found out before they arrived to check in).

They also claimed that they hadn't confirmed the booking, but Concur said they had.

Concur were able to find one hotel in walking distance for the two nights, but it cost five times as much as the hotel I should have been in and they passed that on to us (and it wasn't covered by the corporate travel insurance). They also refused to remove the hotel from their listings, so it will happen to other people in the future.

If I understand their billing model, they take a cut of booking fees and they charge for contacting them, so their incentives are to keep hotels on their books that do this kind of thing.

it's worse than just getting charged a higher rate. I know someone this happened to in Jamaica and when they got to the hotel they had no reservations at all. Expedia took their money, didn't make a reservation at the hotel. Luckily they ended up staying somewhere else that was better and I believe they got their money back as well .

Arriving in JA to find out you have nowhere to stay is not fun however.

I also noticed something fishy going on in Google results a few years back.

When I searched for a hotel, the Google information pane showed a "world" icon with "Website" next to it. But, if you click on that it can take you to Hotels.com or similar.

Then, I noticed beneath that was a different symbol with "Official Website" beside it. Google was misleading searchers and intentionally causing confusion (to their advantage, I'm sure).

It seems they've cut back on that now as third party websites are more clearly designated as sponsored links.

I don't book through Expedia or Priceline or any of those anymore after too many bad experiences. I book direct. I join the rewards program for hotel chains and have already earned a free late checkout, multiple early check-ins, and a couple of free nights.

Independent mom and pop hotels especially appreciate when we book directly with them as more money goes into their pockets while we pay the same rate.

did you report this situation to Google? please do!

(yes, I work there. no, it's way outside of my bailiwick.)

@JustRosy They don’t have that relationship, I asked when I checked in. They had no idea the listing was hijacked.

This is both according to the front desk workers, and the owner of the entire hotel (he knows my parents so they asked directly)