ST. LOUIS – In mid-March, Trace Lyons and his wife prepared to leave on a trip months in the making.

“Our first stop was in St. Louis and we were going to go to Chicago and Indianapolis to see some relatives and then to Nashville,” Lyons said.

But the night before leaving Oklahoma, he says he got a call from the online travel company Expedia. 

The representative told him Expedia could no longer honor the one-night stay Trace booked through the site at “The Last Hotel” in downtown St. Louis. They wanted him to rebook elsewhere.

“And I said, no, I don’t feel comfortable re-booking with anybody. As far as I know, the hotel hasn’t called or anything so I’m thinking this is just a scam,” Lyons said.

Trace got this email from Expedia confirming the cancelled reservation. It said, “if you’ve been charged a deposit or partial payments, you’ll be issued a full refund by “The Last Hotel.” 

On the road the following day, Trace says his wife made a disturbing discovery.

“She checks the account and it’s withdrawn. Now this is before we even showed up. The whole time, Expedia is saying they don’t charge until you get there, kind of thing. I’m thinking again, I got scammed or something,” Lyons said.

What Trace didn’t know yet is that “The Last Hotel” abruptly closed a week before he and his wife were supposed to stay there. 

FOX 2 reported on the closure on March 6, as hotel management scrambled to find guests new accommodations. 

A fierce legal battle between the hotel’s owners ultimately led to the closure. Trace says he tried to contact the hotel for a refund but never got a response and got nowhere with Expedia. That’s when he called us.

“You guys came highly recommended. Said, look, Channel 2 is a really good outfit; maybe you should call them,” Lyons said.

After interviewing Tracy, we contacted Expedia on his behalf. The company responded, told us they’d look into it and quickly got back to us. 

Expedia said, “We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience experienced by Mr. Lyons due to our agent’s error. As a result, we are issuing a full refund and will communicate this update to him directly.”

“We spoke to Mike Colombo and we decided to refund your money. I was like, good. It worked out. I’ll have that number in my head for a while. I said it a million times: $185.64,” Lyon said.

Tracy says he also won’t forget Contact 2’s out-of-state support.

“Within those few minutes, you called. That was great and your response was amazing. You guys were wonderful. I really appreciate it,” Lyons said.