Has anyone booked a room using Hotwire? When they describe a hotel as "4 star or 5 star", is that what you get?

Yes, I believe their * ratings are fairly accurate. You are only offered properties with the * rating that you request.

We used Hotwire to book our room in Vancouver this summer. They offered a 4* at $41/night for our travel dates. We already had a room booked at the Wedgewood, but went ahead and booked the Hotwire room and cancelled the Wedgewood, as the 4 nights were less than 1 night at the Wedgewood (we are trying to keep on a relatively tight budget for this trip)!

The room is at the Westin Bayshore, which may actually be a better choice for us this trip as we are taking our children with us. Quite a deal! I called to request a room with 2 beds; they were very nice. Hopefully it will be a great stay!

Good luck!

Thanks for the tip. Hotwire has a fantastic rate for a 4 1/2 star Toronto hotel over Labor Day weekend and I'm just worried it's too good to be true.

Martytravels,
There is a website called betterbidding.com. Here people who used Priceline and Hotwire will tell you what hotel they got. I used Hotwire for a Toronto Downtown Hotel 3 1/2 star and got the Sheraton Centre for $46 a night. They are still new so they don't have a lot of posts for Canada but it's a start.

ezmark keeps pushing betterbidding.com. He must have some interests in that site.

I'm not saying don't go there, but biddingfortravel.com has "tons" of more stuff for comparison on rates you can get at priceline.

Martytravels, biddingfortravel.com will give you a listing of Priceline hotels based on number of stars. These same hotels tend to be given slightly higber ratings on Hotwire. If you read through the info on biddingfortravel, you may be able to determine which Hotwire hotels are offered.

I've used Hotwire in the US for 3.5 and 4 star hotels and have been very happy with the rooms. My daughter got a 3.5 star hotel in Montreal just this week and loved her room and the hotel.

From my experience wiht these things, they are pretty acurate most of the time... I have gotten some really great deals on hotwire, but i often dont have the flexible schedule that you need to use a travel bidding site... In those cases i have had a good bit of success with orbitz. They have had been pretty accurate with their hotel ratings.

For what it's worth, I just reserved a room at the Montreal Wyndham Hotel, a three-star, through Priceline for $51 a night for the first week in August. I could have gotten it for $55 from Hotwire but for some reason Hotwire's fees and taxes added up to $100 more than Priceline's.

Well, there's no way of truly knowing whether that Hotwire hotel would be the Wyndham...We booked a 4-1/2 star in Montreal a few months ago and it was the Sofitel, but these days it's the Intercontintal...For Boston, a 4-1/2 was always the Meridien, but sometimes it's the Bostonian (no significant difference, other than edge of the "area&quot.

As for the discrepancies between star ratings with Hotwire and Priceline hotels...in my experience, which is considerable for many destinations over many years, you just never know. Each reclassifies hotels and the "areas" in which they are located on a regular basis, so as you can hardly keep up.

In the overall, I've always been much more satisfied with the Hotwire hotels, though I've often received better (sometimes significantly) rates with Priceline.

Only once did I feel that the Hotwire star rating on the hotel we received was a bit higher than the hotel deserved. But, not long after the same hotel was reduced in stars (I reply to all those feedback surveys).

I always shop like the dickens and book the best room I can find at the most appealing price with a generous cancellation policy.

Then, I shop Hotwire and bid Priceline all during. The rates do fluctuate, sometimes wildly.

Most of the time, the best rates are available within a week or two, or less, of departure. Unless there are special events occuring during your dates.

And, if you're booking a Friday/Saturday night, generally speaking, rates will be much lower than if you add a Thursday, or lower still if you add a Wednesday or Monday night.

Those "too good to be true" rates right now are no doubt due to SARS. This could get better, could get worse.

In my experience, though, you will definitely not be disappointed with any Hotwire 4-1/2 star hotel. For Boston, we've gotten Le Meridien, for NYC Le Parker Meridien or Waldorf (and not a "staff" room), in Montreal the Sofitel.

As for Priceline, in my experience and observation, there's always one or more 4* everywhere else hotels in the 3* in the biddingfortravel list in nearly every area. So, one would be bidding in hopes of that, but be booked at a "marginal" 3* sort of place. It's happ