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Poor experience booking hotel through Southwest.com

EM_in_NH
Explorer C

I want to share my disappointing experience booking a hotel through Southwest.com (and their partner Booking.com).  I booked a 2-night stay at a Hilton property and was charged for the cost of the stay which was several months away.  According to Southwest’s website, the reservation was refundable so I wasn’t terribly bothered by this.

 

After about a month or so I wanted to confirm the hotel reservation.  After checking my emails and logging on to my Southwest account, I found my Southwest flights, but not the hotel.  I don’t recall if I even received an email confirmation for the hotel.

 

I used the “resend” function on Southwest’s hotel booking site to get the confirmation email sent to me, but nothing came through.  I called the toll-free number for Southwest’s partner for hotel reservations (Booking.com) and a recorded message advised this line could only assist those who had their confirmation number and pin.

 

I then called Hilton who said that there is a reservation at the property associated with my name, but the telephone number, email address and credit card on the reservation do not match my information.  As such, Hilton could not verify that the reservation was for me and therefore could not provide the confirmation number.

 

I am hopeful that when I arrive at the hotel, I will not have any problems or delays checking in to the pre-paid room, but not having the confirmation number or any way to look up the hotel reservation certainly makes me nervous.  Based on this experience, I would not book another hotel through Southwest.  I would stick to using the hotel app to book directly or Chase Travel or American Express Travel.

8 REPLIES 8

Re: Poor experience booking hotel through Southwest.com

dfwskier
Aviator A

If I were you, I'd check with booking.com. Waiting til you get to the hotel to "see what happens" could be a very bad idea.

Re: Poor experience booking hotel through Southwest.com

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

Sorry to hear of your troubles.  99% of the time I would suggest booking directly with the hotel and not use any sort of middle man agency.  The points, rewards, or whatever bonus is offered by the 3rd party is usually not worth the trouble they create and you typically don't get credit towards status.  FYI, you will never see anything other than flights listed in your Southwest account.  All other bookings, hotels, cars, etc are handled by separate companies and that data does not get to Southwest.

 

--TheMiddleSeat

Re: Poor experience booking hotel through Southwest.com

dfwskier
Aviator A

Actually, any car reservation made on southwest.com does appear in your Southwest account.

I am unsure about hotels as I never book them on the Southwest website.

Re: Poor experience booking hotel through Southwest.com

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

@dfwskier Oh, good to know, thanks.  You can see I don't normally book through Southwest, lol.

 

--TheMiddleSeat

 

Re: Poor experience booking hotel through Southwest.com

jksobonya
Aviator A

@EM_in_NH wrote:

I then called Hilton who said that there is a reservation at the property associated with my name, but the telephone number, email address and credit card on the reservation do not match my information.  As such, Hilton could not verify that the reservation was for me and therefore could not provide the confirmation number.

 


That seems ... problematic, especially considering you were charged for the cost with your own credit card? Did you tell them that? I book through Southwest Hotels quite often (just a few weeks ago, in fact, 1,000 RR bonus!) and I never have any problems - but I always get a confirmation number and an e-mail with the details immediately after I book. 

 

My only guess is that your confirmation got mixed with someone else's somehow, and they (Southwest Hotels / Booking) needs to be able to resolve it. 

 

--Jessica

Re: Poor experience booking hotel through Southwest.com

kale14
Explorer C

I am dealing with this right now for my hotel stay this Friday. The hotel has my reservation which is reassuring, but if I don't get the 10k points I paid for then this was all for nothing.

 

What ended up happening with your points? The hotel said my reservation did not come through Booking.com either.. 

Re: Poor experience booking hotel through Southwest.com

rtfp0102
Explorer C

I am having the exact same experience today after booking through Southwest. They use booking.com for hotel reservations. I never received an email confirmation booking.com and they cannot locate my reservation but my credit card was charged.  Southwest said they cannot help and i must reach out to booking.com. Booking.com said they’ll they could not locate any reservation and recommend I call Southwest. 

I called the hotel and they found my reservation and emailed it to me. Now that  I have that I feel better and more confident that I have a place to stay when I arrive at my destination. I will NOT book through Southwest again, I don’t care how many points they offer, it’s not worth the stress and headache. 

 

Re: Poor experience booking hotel through Southwest.com

TexasChrissy
Explorer C

Same Problem!  Am unable to get any help because I don't have my confirmation number and pin and the website will NOT re-email this to me, I have tried a hundred times.  Email support is absolutely worthless and I will NEVER BOOK ANOTHER HOTEL THROUGH SW OR BOOKING.COM.  How can a business be so stinking worthless!!!!!????