About Expedia
Expedia is an online travel agency that sells flights, hotels, rental cars, package deals, cruises, and activities through one checkout. It launched in 1996 inside Microsoft and is now the flagship brand of Expedia Group, Inc., the NASDAQ-listed company behind Hotels.com and Vrbo. European customers book on localized sites such as expedia.nl, expedia.de, and expedia.fr, with prices billed in euros. Payment options depend on the country site: cards (Visa, Mastercard, American Express) and PayPal work across Europe, while iDEAL is available on the Dutch site and Klarna appears at checkout for eligible bookings. After payment, confirmations and e-tickets arrive by email, and bookings are managed from the Trips section of an Expedia account. Expedia fits travelers who want to compare airlines and hotels in one place or bundle a flight and hotel for a package discount. It is less suited to travelers who expect to resolve problems directly with the airline or hotel: on an Expedia booking, changes and cancellations run through Expedia's own support.
What are alternatives for Expedia
Pros of using Expedia
- Flights, hotels, rental cars, and activities can be combined in one booking, and flight + hotel packages are often priced below the separate totals.
- Localized European sites (expedia.nl, expedia.de, expedia.fr) bill in euros and support local payment methods such as iDEAL in the Netherlands.
- Refundable rates are clearly labeled and can be filtered, and many hotel bookings allow free cancellation until shortly before check-in.
- The company has operated since 1996 and is part of NASDAQ-listed Expedia Group, so the legitimacy of the platform itself is not in question.
- Confirmations and e-tickets are delivered by email within minutes for most bookings.
Cons of using Expedia
- Trustpilot score: 1.2 / 5 from roughly 12,000 reviews, with slow refunds and unhelpful customer service the dominant complaints.
- As an intermediary, Expedia sits between you and the airline or hotel: changes, cancellations, and disruptions must be handled through Expedia support, which reviewers describe as slow.
- Refunds on cancelled trips can take weeks to process according to recent reviews.
- Klarna is only offered on eligible bookings, so you cannot count on it being available at checkout.
- The final price can be higher than the first price shown: hotel taxes and local fees, such as resort fees, are sometimes collected separately at the property.
