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.
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