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Expedia Cancellation Policy: Ts and Cs Explained Without the Legal Jargon
The most successful hosts know their cancellation policy inside out and communicate it very clearly to their vacation rental guests. If you’re listing your property on Expedia, take the time to read up on the cancellation policy and choose the one that best fits your business needs.
Expedia works a bit differently from other mainstream platforms, like Airbnb, as it offers various types of products, each with its own Expedia cancellation policy refund. Studying the cancellation and refund policy might not be the most exciting activity for hosts, but it’s necessary.
Deciding on the best cancellation policy for your property is often a source of headaches. Even if you feel that you don’t need this information to run your vacation rentals, your guests might have questions. It can make a great impression on your guests if you’re able to answer these types of questions that fall outside of your scope too which will help you to land more positive guest reviews.
To cut down on the reading, we’ve scoured the internet to summarize all the main Ts and Cs you need to know about Expedia’s cancellation policy. Whether it’s a flight reservation or a hotel booking or an entire vacation package, here’s what you need to know about the Expedia refund policy.
The Pros of Using Expedia
Last-minute deals and loyalty program
One of the main reasons why Expedia is so popular among travelers is because of the attractive last-minute deals. Combine the availability of bargains with its powerful search filters that allow travelers to filter according to destination, check-in and checkout dates, and number of travelers, and using Expedia to find that dream vacation package becomes a whole lot easier.
If the specials aren’t enough motivation, it also offers a loyalty program. With the Expedia Rewards program, travelers qualify for exclusive member prices on top of the last-minute deals and can earn Expedia points that they can use to pay for future trips.
Additional services
Unlike many of the other popular online travel agencies (OTAs) for hosts and travelers, Expedia also makes it easier to buy travel insurance for stays, car rentals, flights, packages, cruises, and event tickets.
It’s presented as an optional add-on to travelers upon checkout and the cost, limitations, and exclusions will vary depending on the type of trip. Irrespective of the Ts and Cs, it’s strongly recommended that guests invest in travel insurance. If the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that travel plans can change in a second. So, as a short-term rental host, encourage your guests to opt-in and buy Expedia travel insurance.
Customer service department
Expedia’s customer service is also known as being very helpful. Changing flight reservations separately and dealing with service providers like a rental car company directly can add to the confusion of extra service fees that might be incurred for canceling bookings. Most of the time you can cancel your flight, car rental, or hotel room conveniently via the Expedia Extranet.
The Cons of Using Expedia
Confusing cancellation policies
Expedia’s cancellation policies have been described as confusing and more stringent. The main reason for this is that the platform allows service providers to set their own rules and policies. For example, some property owners prohibit cancellations (or even changes) after booking altogether.
Also, guests might be hit with cancellation fees twice. On top of the travel provider’s fee, Expedia might also add an administration fee.
That said, the booking process is easy and travelers receive the cancellation policies along with the cancellation fees that might apply in the Rules and Restrictions before booking.
How Do Cancellation Policies on Expedia Work?
Considering that cancellations and refunds on the platform aren’t as clear-cut, here are some of the main points that property owners and guests need to keep in mind.
Expedia Hotel Cancellation
When booking a hotel room through Expedia, travelers can choose between two types of hotel reservations. The fully refundable option can be canceled before the check-in date and the guest will receive a full refund.
There’s one catch, though. The check-in date may not be too close and hotels have the ultimate say over how close to check-in they’ll refund guests.
The other option is a non-refundable hotel booking. It’s self-explanatory and with this type of reservation, money won’t be returned to the guest if they wish to cancel.
It’s also important to note that there might be cancellation fees involved. The platform allows individual hotels to set their own refund policy and may deduct a cancellation fee if a guest cancels a hotel reservation.
To avoid confusion and possible unhappiness, guests are strongly urged to double-check the hotel’s finer terms and conditions of their Expedia hotel booking. Some hotels do offer free cancellations, but it’s not necessarily the case.
If a guest still needs to cancel a hotel room, the process is pretty simple. Guests can cancel their hotel bookings by phoning Expedia customer care or logging in to their Expedia account and selecting the trip from the drop-down menu under “My Travels”.
To cancel a vacation rental, guests must reach out to property managers directly who can conveniently adjust trip details via the Expedia Extranet.
Canceling Packages Booked via Expedia
Bundling is a key trait of Expedia. This way, guests can book, for example, their hotel rooms and flight tickets together. By booking multiple products together, guests save on average up to 10% in the United States.
If guests opted for a package deal, they can easily cancel it by logging in to the website. Under “My Trips”, they can select which service they want to cancel, for example, flight, hotel accommodation, car rentals, or activity. It also gives them the option of canceling only one item. After selecting which items, the on-screen prompts will guide them through the rest of the process.
Alternatively, it’s also possible to contact Expedia customer care directly by phone and a customer service representative will take care of it.
What is important to remember when cancelling packages is that each service provider will have their own cancellation policies.
Expedia Flight Cancellation
If you booked flight tickets via Expedia, some airlines let you cancel their flight for free as long as it falls within 24 hours of booking the ticket. In this case, travelers are entitled to a full refund.
What makes this rule even better is that if travelers get a better deal within 24 hours, there’s nothing preventing them from canceling the flight that they’ve already booked only to book a new ticket offering a better deal.
If travelers booked a non-refundable fare, they might receive an airline credit instead of a full refund.
To cancel your flight tickets is generally straightforward. Travelers can usually cancel the flight ticket via Expedia’s official website by logging in, opening the “My Trips” section, selecting “Manage booking” and following the prompts.
That said, Frontier, AirAsia, and Ryanair and some other airlines prefer to manage flight cancellations in-house in which case travelers will need to contact the specific airline directly.
Also, in the case of roundtrips, each flight will need to be canceled individually. This can make the cancellation process more time-consuming as travelers will need to work with different airlines.
Also, some flight tickets are non-refundable and may also not be adjusted. Only under extenuating circumstances, like jury duty, might Expedia grant a refund.
Expedia Car Rental Cancellations
Most rental car reservations don’t qualify for a refund. However, if you used one of their Vrbo brands, the good news is that in most cases a refund is granted on condition that your rental car isn’t cancelled within six hours of collection time.
That said, Expedia recommends that you first check the specific cancellation policy of the company via the itinerary page to double-check if the rental qualifies for a refund. Here, you’ll also see if cancellation fees will be levied.
To cancel rental car reservations, you can follow the same process by visiting the Expedia website, logging in to your account, and clicking on the “My Trips” section.
If it’s a bundled car rental, you’ll need to contact Expedia customer service by completing an online form.
Any car rental insurance will get canceled automatically.
How Do Refunds Work?
Refunds generally take up to 24 hours to get processed. That said, it can take the payment service as many as seven business days to add the credit to your account and then two billing cycles before the credit will show on your statement.
Once everything has been cleared, you’ll see the refund for which you qualified on the original payment method. So, for a flight booked and paid via credit card, the money will reflect on your credit card.
Wrapping Things Up
While Expedia offers many last-minute deals, a huge reason for its popularity among travelers, direct bookings are sometimes still cheaper. If you’re a short-term rental host, you can use this to your advantage by making sure that you have a user-friendly business website.
After all, there’s nothing preventing you from running your own promos on your website. If you’ve completed the math and you can’t afford to lower your nightly rate, how about throwing in a freebie? You can, for instance, include a voucher for a dinner at a local restaurant, a guided tour, or a free late checkout on their departure date.
Also, if you’re going to list your property on Expedia, it can be a good idea to offer free cancellations. The platform gives guests the opportunity to limit their search to only “fully refundable” properties. By making your policy fully refundable, you’ll show up in these searches which means more exposure for your vacation rental.
As a short-term rental host, you might find software like iGMS quite useful. It has integration with Airbnb, Booking.com, and Vrbo and allows you to manage all the major aspects of your business hassle-free. Not to mention iGMS can manage cancellation fees and Expedia flight booking details.
