Best Timing for a Hotwire Reservation in London: Way Ahead or Right Before?
 

I'd love to get a decent room at an affordable price in London through Hotwire.com. I've used them in the past for rooms in the U.S. (I'd rather use Priceline, since the reported prices I've seen seem pretty good, but there wil be three of us in one room.)

Last year before a trip to Amsterdam, I searched a little bit on Hotwire. We ended up booking rooms at a small hotel ourselves, but I was intrigued at how Hotwire offered a room at one of the 4-star hotels (identified with the help of Better Bidding.com) for $112 as I began looking, maybe 5 months ahead of the trip. The price for that property went up steadily as I checked every couple of weeks. (We would have had to get two rooms; the nicer places don't seem to allow three people in a room.) One we'd decided on a property, I stopped checking.

I'm looking at dates for London next July, and I'm wondering if I should go ahead and book something this far ahead. Is it better to wait until the trip is closer?

P.S. I've looked into the budget chain hotels, and while I'd never say "never," the prices for a Premier Inn or Travelodge are close to 100 pounds a night. I hope I can find something nicer via Hotwire.

I was going to do Hotwire for London, but decided to do Priceline for a better deal.
Got the Jumeriah Lowndes 5* for 150$ a night.
As far as Hotwire, I use it as a judge for Priceline.

"<i>Best Timing for a Hotwire Reservation in London: Way Ahead or Right Before?</i>"

Neither extreme IMO. You usually don't want to book too far ahead since inventory is released as hotels determine there occupancy rates. They will always try to sell a full price when possible - or even at discounted rates w/o having to pay hotwire.

But you usually also don't want to wait til the last minute since everything may be full.

Start maybe next Spring.

oops: >>as hotels determine THEIR occupancy rates<<

I went to London in March and we booked our hotel through hotwire. I want to say we booked it in December--so 3 months before we went. It was great! We got the room for $66 a night... when we checked in, we saw the rate was 150 pounds a night. Needless to say, I'm glad we went through hotwire!

So all that to say, I'd wait until about 2-3 months before you leave to book it.

Thanks, all. You've been helpful.

Planner that I am, I'm grateful to know that last minute isn't necessarily best, but it will be nice to put this aside awhile longer.

I have used both PL and Hotwire. I like Hotwire because by using http://betterbidding.com you can usually pretty well figure out which hotel you're about to buy.

For a planned trip to London this past summer (that just didn't come off) I started checking Hotwire early spring for a planned early July trip. If I remember correctly prices were at their lowest about 2 months ahead. I was checking several times week right up to late June. The areas were Westminster/Mayfair-Soho 4 stars and up.

Rob

Best bet is to just check on a regular basis. Sometimes, the prices go up as your date approaches, sometimes they go down, sometimes they fluctuate, sometimes properties vanish.

Everything turns on your dates and what's offered when you're looking.

Thanks for the additional input. I like better bidding, too -- there's a lot of useful information on that site, and it does give me confidence about using a "blind" site like Hotwire.

I guess I'm really hoping that Hotwire will help me to afford the unaffordable.

I got a great Hotwire deal 11 months in advance once, that was not available later. I think it's the luck of the draw. Find an acceptable cancellable backup, and then when you find what seems like a sufficiently good deal to offset the nonrefundable nature of Hotwire, take it. You may miss some super-duper deal, but then again, you might not.