I booked a room at an Econo Lodge through Hotels.Com and gave them my credit card number. They guaranteed me the best price and said there would not be a penalty if I canceled. Nothing was said to me about canceling 24 hours in advance. The day we entered S.C., we picked up a motel book and there was a coupon for much much less, after motels.com assuring me they had the best price. I tried for hours to cancel and it was hard to understand the person on the other end of the line due to their poor English. Finally they said they would cancel but did not tell me they would keep the full amount of the charge, which they did.
We then called and made a reservation at the same hotel with the coupon. When we got there, extremely tired (being seniors) at a glance the hotel looked fairly nice until we had unloaded our luggage and looked at the floor. You could tell that pets had been using the floor for a bathroom. We were too tired to ask to change rooms so we kept our slippers on so as not to get our feet dirty. The bathroom was dirty, a ring around the toilet and dirt behind it. Everything was old in the bathroom & grimy.
Now, Motels.com will not return our money and the manager at the Econo Lodge also kept our coupon reservation money. We paid double for one room. Motels.com is a scammer. They promised the best rate and they lied. They were very nasty when I tried to cancel. They had not told me about canceling 24 hours in advance. My e-mail confirmation said I could cancel without a fee. We are elderly and need our money. I cannot recommend them to anyone. They will not refund our money even though we stayed at the same motel and paid again.