shouldiuse.io

VERDICT

Should I use Expedia?

Travel booking for hotels, flights, cars, and vacation packages. - expedia.com

Depends. Use it for straightforward leisure bookings you don't expect to change — it's free with huge inventory and package savings. Skip it if changes, refunds, or hand-holding are likely; support complaints are relentless across Trustpilot, BBB, and Reddit.

Confidence

High. Based on ~40 public sources: Trustpilot/Reddit/BBB reviews, security reports, and official Expedia pages. Snippet quotes are truncated at source.

Ratings

  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Feature depth
  • Support quality
  • Security posture

Pricing

$0 to book

Traveler

ModelNot disclosed
Monthly feesNot disclosed
HardwareNot disclosed
Free tierYes

Best for

  • Leisure travelers bundling flight + hotel
  • Deal hunters with flexible plans
  • Flight price trackers
  • Occasional vacation bookers

Not for

  • Trips that might need changes or refunds
  • Business travel needing fast, reliable support
  • Loyalty-status travelers who should book direct
  • Complex multi-leg itineraries

Gotchas - check before you buy

high

Changes route through Expedia, not the airline or hotel; refund waits are common

medium

Same inventory can price differently on web versus app

medium

'Savings' claims are relative comparisons; One Key member pricing affects what you see

low

BBB complaint history spans many years

Pros and cons

Pros

  • Free for travelers; Expedia earns supplier commissions
  • Free flight price tracking with alerts
  • Bundle flights and hotels for package savings
  • One Key rewards span Expedia's brands
  • Huge inventory: flights, hotels, cars, homes

Cons

  • Customer service and refund complaints dominate Trustpilot, BBB, Facebook
  • Web prices can run higher than app prices
  • Third-party booking adds a middleman when plans change
  • Hotel review info can differ across booking sites
  • Frequent travelers actively debate its reliability

Sources & method

Analyzed 9/27/2026 - 14 sources - No known breaches of the core platform; two third-party incidents (2018 Orbitz, 2020 Prestige) exposed guest data.

official x2review x6security x3news x3
  • Orbitz customer data breach (2018), A hacker stole roughly two years' worth of customer data from Expedia subsidiary Orbitz.
  • Prestige Software data exposure (2020), A booking-provider misconfiguration exposed data for millions of guests.

Key stats

  • Value for money: 3/5

    Rating

  • $0 to book

    Starting price

  • 14

    Sources

  • Analyzed

  • Value for money: 3/5. Deals exist; web/app price gaps reported
  • Ease of use: 4/5. Guess: mature, heavily used booking UX
  • Feature depth: 4/5. Bundles, price alerts, cross-brand rewards
  • Support quality: 2/5. Refund and complaint volume dominates reviews
  • Security posture: 3/5. Past third-party breaches; runs public bug bounty
  • 19,274 Trustpilot reviews Service and refund complaints recur across platforms
  • 1996 Founded Launched by Microsoft in October 1996
  • $0 Cost to book Free for travelers; Expedia earns supplier commissions

Pricing

Traveler

$0 to book

  • Pay supplier rates; Expedia takes a commission
  • Free flight price tracking
  • Free One Key rewards membership

Security

No known breaches of the core platform; two third-party incidents (2018 Orbitz, 2020 Prestige) exposed guest data.

  • Orbitz customer data breach (2018)A hacker stole roughly two years' worth of customer data from Expedia subsidiary Orbitz.⁸
  • Prestige Software data exposure (2020)A booking-provider misconfiguration exposed data for millions of guests.⁷

What users say

Polarized: travelers praise the deals and inventory but repeatedly report poor customer service and refund hassles.

“I see a really good flig…”
Reddit, r/travel
“Definitely DO NOT book t…”
Reddit, r/travel
“Expedia is probably one…”
Reddit, r/travel

Companies that use it

  • TSD Inc.
Full analysis

Based on ~40 public sources: Trustpilot/Reddit/BBB reviews, security reports, and official Expedia pages. Snippet quotes are truncated at source.

Great for deal-hunting leisure trips; risky when plans change — customer service is the recurring complaint.

Methodology

Based on ~40 public sources: Trustpilot/Reddit/BBB reviews, security reports, and official Expedia pages. Snippet quotes are truncated at source.

Sources

  1. Trustpilot reviews of expedia.comtrustpilot.com
    review
  2. The Pros and Cons of Expedia — NerdWalletnerdwallet.com
    review
  3. Is expedia worth it? — Reddit r/travelreddit.com
    review
  4. Expedia web pricing higher than app pricing? — Reddit r/TravelHacksreddit.com
    review
  5. Is booking via Expedia etc a bad idea? — Reddit r/TravelHacksreddit.com
    review
  6. Expedia.com BBB complaintsbbb.org
    review
  7. Hotels.com, Expedia provider exposed data for millions — Engadgetengadget.com
    security
  8. Expedia's Orbitz says hacker stole 2 years of customer datainsurancebusinessmag.com
    security
  9. Expedia Group Bug Bounty — HackerOnehackerone.com
    security
  10. How Expedia Makes Money — Investopediainvestopedia.com
    news
  11. Expedia flight price trackingexpedia.com
    official
  12. Expedia Vacation Packagesexpedia.com
    official
  13. Expedia — Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
    news
  14. Microsoft Expedia Travel Services debut (1996)news.microsoft.com
    news

Rate this review

Anonymous. You can change your vote.

Loading votes…

Comments

One queue. No nested comments. Give a display name first. Limit: 200 words per comment and 7 comments per day. You can edit or delete yours.

Save a name to write a comment.

0 / 200 words

No comments yet.