Good/Bad experiences with hotwire?

Old Jun 23rd, 2005, 06:49 AM
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Good/Bad experiences with hotwire?

Hi All I'm planning our trip to San Francisco and I would like your thoughts as to using hotwire. I've never used them. Has anyone had any good or bad experiences with them? Thanks
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Old Jun 23rd, 2005, 07:17 AM
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I've used them for car rental because I'm not sure how they can screw up on that. I've also used them for one night hotel accomadations near airports a couple of times. No complaints. I hesitate to use them for a whole vacation because I want to control my times for flights and am picky about locations for hotels.
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Old Jun 23rd, 2005, 08:04 AM
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Hi all I wouldn't use them for the whole vacation. But I'm thinking of using them for the hotel.
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Old Jun 23rd, 2005, 08:15 AM
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www.betterbidding.com will give you info on using hotwire for hotels.

They are reputable. You don't know exactly which hotel you'll get before you buy, but you'll specify the area, and hotwire will tell you the price, star level and amenities.

I've looked at hotwire hotels before but rarely found a savings over just booking with the hotel directly. Or, conversely, I've saved even more using priceline.

As an example - I am headed to Chicago for July 4th weekend. I looked around on hotel web sites, but all were more than I wanted to pay. I checked hotwire, and based on the list at www.betterbidding.com I guessed that the $97 hotel that hotwire was offering was likely the Omni Ambassador East. It may not have been, but that seemed most likely. Oddly enough, I bid on priceline and got that exact hotel. But for $75/night.

If you'd like to try underbidding hotwire's offer on priceline, www.biddingfortravel.com can teach you more, along with better bidding that I mentioned earlier.

If it's not worth the time for you, then hotiwre is probably decent, but you could still end up paying nearly as much through them as you would have directly with the hotel, and you give up a lot of control. So, do your research first.
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Old Jun 23rd, 2005, 08:21 AM
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I've used hotwire numerous times and think it's great! On hotels, in particular, I have saved a lot. I recently visited my son in Tacoma, WA and booked with the Sheraton directly using AAA rate and got a room for $105 per night. I then thought about hotwire and used it - of course they don't tell you the name of the hotel, but there are few hotels in Tacoma that get 4 stars. Anyway, I used hotwire and got the Sheraton for $52 per night!! I have gotten The Hilton in Portland before for $48/night. I have used them on occassion for flights, but usually I cannot be too flexible on times. Also, I use them frequently for car rentals. I have never had a problem.
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Old Jun 23rd, 2005, 08:30 AM
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I've used them for several years for car rentals - they use name brand companies (Avis, Hertz, and Budget if memory serves), so you know your rental will be with a reputable firm, and Hotwire's prices have been great. Have also used them once or twice for hotels - no problems, but if you want a hotel in a very specific area, Hotwire may not work for you.
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Old Jun 23rd, 2005, 09:23 AM
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I use Priceline all the time, as that's usually where you can get the best rates. But I've also used Hotwire for other occassions, and have no problem.

For example, I helped book a whole wedding party at the Park Central Westin in Dallas on Hotwire over several weeks. It's possible with Hotwire because you can match the amenities and tell which hotel is which. The chances of getting the same hotel for different bookings on Priceline will be very slim.
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Old Jun 23rd, 2005, 10:19 AM
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I've used Hotwire about 5 times in the last 5 years. It has always been a second choice that I use when the Priceline bid I've offered is not accepted- and/or when the bids overall just go too high on that site for my dates/place.

I've never used them for other than an hotel stay and I have been very happy with all aspects of those trips and the lodging I received.

In most markets Hotwire prices are higher than Priceline, and in my case, have been lower than calling the available establishments directly. Or in one case, when trying to get a second room directly for others in the same hotel (and this on the same day as when the Hotwire reserve was accepted) we were quoted best price as $40 more for the same rated room.

Actually San Francisco is one of the places I have used Hotwire for lodging and it was fine.
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Old Jun 23rd, 2005, 01:49 PM
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I've always had wonderful experiences with Hotwire, having booked hotel rooms with them for many yeara (NYC, Boston, Baltimore, San Francisco, etc.) but have used them less and less over the last year or two, getting much better prices with Priceline. Hotwire prices have climbed and climbed.

I did book the Argonaut with Hotwire (was able to deduce based on package searches and betterbidding) last year, and we were very pleased with the rate.

One thing that really annoys me - whenever I'm planning a new trip, I check Hotwire, along with various other resources. Later, I'll receive e-mail from Hotwire "save another $360 on your trip to...". Well, what if I'd booked the day I was shopping, then the price went down? I don't always print and save rates. "Another $360" compared to what?

I received e-mail today: "These knockout Hot-Rates® were discovered yesterday by another Hotwire user with your exact same search criteria. As always, hotel rates change often and good deals like this slip away quick."

Note the "yesterday". I could find no matching rates. Surely they know their own rates for today.

Anyway, more and more about Hotwire lately makes it much less appealing.
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Old Jun 23rd, 2005, 02:31 PM
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I used Hotwire last summer for part of our honeymoon. We used it to secure the Maui Hyatt for 7 nights at $208/night. This was a great deal, and we had no problems at all with either Hotwire or the Hyatt in Maui.
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