Would appreciate feedback from anyone who has used this for hotel bookings. Have looked into their site but cannot understand how it works.....no hotel name? If I want to find out how much their rate is for, say, Hyatt in Weehawken, where do I start? Please help as I am really confused!

sorry, I meant Sheraton not Hyatt.

At Hotwire, you do not know what specific hotel you are booking until your credit card has been charged. You can see the map of their zone and select a star level, but not a hotel.

Sometimes, if your a bit clever and do some work you can pretty much figure out what hotel you're getting.
For instance, if the only 4 star hotel you see in a particular area is an Omni and Hotwire offers a 4 star hotel you can pretty much guess that your hotel will be that one. When you click on the stars rating you see which hotels they work with in that category.
I've used Hotwire a couple times and have been very happy with my hotel on each occassion.

Just be very, very sure of your destination and very, very careful when inputting arrivals, departures, etc. You can't make any changes to a Hotwire res, neither can the hotel or car rental agency. On our last car booking, my husband inputted an incorrect arrival date..luckily we were in town for two days. We were able to take a taxi to the hotel, but had to taxi back to the airport the next day to pick up the car. The agency couldn't add or delete a day--that was considered a change.

Use betterbidding.com and match the zone and amenity list to make a educated guess what hotel that may be.

I've used Hotwire for hotel a few times. Each time, it's the one I expected after doing my homework on betterbidding.

Since you have no idea what you are doing, I highly suggest you spend a couple of hours reading www.BetterBidding.com.

It will save you from making costly mistakes and save you up to several hundred dollars.

I've used Hotwire many times over the years with great success.

As mentioned, you can often determine the hotels offered for your dates on www.betterbidding.com

And, sometimes you can figure out the hotels by shopping the packages.

We have used Hotwire several times with success. Only once did we have a problem with the room not be clean. We complained to management and they gave us a different room. I wrote Hotwire after arriving home and they refunded our money. Really appreciated that. Good Luck

I use Hotwire for hotels when the area doesn't matter, or in cities in my state. I use Hotwire for flight when I don't need a specific time.

I've gotten great deals and have not been disappointed.

However, I used either Travelocity or Cheaptickets when I want to know the specific hotel & flight. I've gotten packages on Travelocity that were cheaper than the flight price.

Gee, thanks heaps everyone for your input! Sounds like I should read up betterbidding and go from there.