Hotels.com deceptive advertising

When we first started talking about it, there were hotel rooms galore right in Wausau, WI. About a week later, there was nothing to be found in the non-smoking, 2 beds category. I pulled up hotels.com and did a search in the area. Lo and behold there was a hotel listed in Mosinee (about 10m away) that had 2 rooms, both with double beds and non-smoking:

Sweet. It's pretty close. It's got an ok rating, and we're really just going to sleep there anyway.

So I book it.

Fast forward to this past weekend. We get to Granite Peak, it's really cold. We ski/board all day. It's still really cold. We hop in our cars and drive down to the hotel. Finally warming up, we check-in, get the keys and head up to the rooms. I walk in and am confronted with a wall of stale smoke. Blegh. Other room--same problem.

Head down to the front desk to find out that they are full for the night (big surprise) and that the room was booked by hotels.com as a smoking room. After talking to the lady behind the desk, we figure out that we can move to a non-smoking room for the next night, and they would send someone up with commercial grade febreeze. This is about all I can hope for since the room was RESERVED as smoking by hotels.com.

There is obviously some sort of confusion here, so I send an email to hotels.com's customer care group. Monday morning I get this response:

Thank you for your email. Please be advised we are unable to guarantee any smoking preferences since it depends on the availability of those types of rooms. I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. I hope you will allow us another opportunity to better serve your future hotel. Have a nice day.

Bwah? I look back at my original booking confirmation, and at the hotels.com site, and nowhere can I find that when they advertise a non-smoking room that it is only a suggestion and that you probably won't get it unless the hotel is empty. In fact, the only thing that mentions it is the confirmation that I received the day prior with a little (*) at the bottom.

My response:

If you are unable to guarantee smoking preferences, that should be stated up front. Instead when I go to book a room, it lists rates for non-smoking, with no disclaimer stating such. The only disclaimers for this particular hotel are (as copied directly from your reservation screen for this hotel):

* Rates do not include applicable tax recovery charges or our service fees.
* All rates are for double occupancy per room, and are quoted on a nightly basis unless otherwise specified. Some rates may require special identification. Taxes and Fees are not included. Extra people, children, roll-away beds and incidentals may be subject to additional charges.

Additionally, I was unable to find any text relating to this anywhere on your website. The only reference I see to this is in the reminder email that I received approximately one day before my scheduled arrival. This is very poor business practice. I will be filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and never using hotels.com nor recommending it to anyone in the future.

I am still awaiting a response to that email. At this point, it is very unlikely that I will use hotels.com again--and probably not expedia.com, either.