gtrekker2003

I recently made a booking with Hotwire for a hotel in DC and it was a nightmare. First of all, I made the mistake of not calling the hotel directly to confirm the reservation. My fault but I assumed that Hotwire would have sorted this out. I've used Priceline plenty of times without having confirmed with the hotel.

When I arrived at the hotel in DC, they did not have a reservation for me. After about 4-5 phone calls with Hotwire, waiting several hours for them to fax over the confirmation, I was stuck with a smoking room and missed out on the night tour I was going to take. It was an ordeal as I was almost homeless for the night.....DC is a hard place to find a hotel and the hotel I was supposed to stay at was almost booked.

Has anybody else had similar problems with Hotwire? I rang Hotwire and they blamed it on the hotel. The hotel however said they keep having this problem with Hotwire not sending them over the reservations.

Whom should I complain to about this matter if Hotwire's supervisors or customer support is not responsive?

Lesson learned.....I guess I got what I paid for. Also, when using Hotwire, one should definitely ring the hotel directly to confirm the reservation.

djkbooks

I've booked rooms with Hotwire dozens of times and have never had a problem.

Hotwire always provides a hotel confirmation number, and almost always you can just go to the hotel's website and verify your reservation with the confirmation number.

Where everything is electonic these days, my guess would be that the problem is with the hotel, not with Hotwire.

Since your hotel was not fully booked, I'm seriously wondering why they did not just assign you a room, then sort things out with Hotwire for you.

I always double check with the hotel and bring the printed confirmation. I've never once had a problem with a Hotwire reservation.

dmlove

My experience with Hotwire has been the same as djkbooks' -- I've used it probably 10 or 12 times and never had a problem. I don't know who caused the problem because I honestly don't know how the system works, but I'd suspect the hotel before I would suspect Hotwire.

travelinwifey

Agreed, probably a hotel problem. And I would have made sure I told the hotel agent it's the hotel chain's decision to accept Hotwire customers. If they don't want customers paying less, don't take them. If the hotel was full I can understand a less desirable room, if not you were being penilized for being a Hotwire customer. You should put a review about your treatment on Hotwire so other readers are prepared if they have a Hotwire win.

travelinwifey

What was the hotel?

japw82

A couple of years ago we had the same problem in Memphis. Another couple was in the same predicament and said that they had already waited for over an hour for Hotwire to fax their reservation. The four of us waited an additional 3 hours with numerous phone calls to Hotwire before the hotel received our reservation by fax. I know this could have been an isolated problem with Hotwire but I have never had this issue when using Priceline.

gtrekker2003

It sounds like my experience was the same as japw82. It was the Comfort Inn in DC.

I don't know if it was the hotel or Hotwire, but either way, Hotwire took several hours to confirm the reservation with the hotel and in the end, they still hadn't faxed over the confirmation.

I will post a review on Hotwire about this.

I guess I feel jipped as this really screwed up my whole evening, the only free evening I had in DC for travel and exploring.

Andrew

Well, while the hotel may indeed be at fault, it sounds like these problems simply happen from time to time and Hotwire didn't handle it very well (nor did the hotel). Since you can't control which hotel you'll get with Hotwire, it might be best to avoid them in the future if you worry about this happening again.

I've only used Hotwire once (no problem) and Priceline a bunch of times, never with a problem. Once I had a lousy hotel experience and when I explained it to Priceline and asked for a partial refund, they instead refunded ALL my money, which was a pleasant surprise.

bhonoreh

I have used Hotwire only twice. Both times I was very happy.
Though the 2nd time I had a problem in the night with the room and when I mentioned it to the people at the desk in the morning they said they would contact Hotwire to have them give me a full credit.
And that is exactly what happened.
As I said in the beginning I have been a happy customer both times and would certainly use Hotwire again.

Cassandra

Have never had a problem with Hotwire hotel res's, even when a Hyatt deskclerk with an over-booked house was clearly unhappy about giving me a $420 room for $120. Doesn't mean it can't happen in the future, so I do try to reconfirm before I leave the house.

Hotwire was particularly helpful once with a car reservation when my flight was diverted and they helped me pick up a car at the alternate airport and didn't charge me any extra.

TxTravelPro

Agreeing to participate in any merchant program (Hotwire, Travelocity Best Buy, Priceline, etc...) is a decision of the owner or property revenue manager.
The automation used to confirm these bookings can be fax based, web based or GDS (the system used by travel agents).
MOST problems are related to mishandling the confirmation.
A fax machine problem, a reservation that was never entered in the property system, oversell and playing dumb, etc...
There are occasionally system issues on the part of the merchant but most problems are not related to the merchant at all.
I completely trust the Hotwire, PL, TV, Expedia, etc... systems. Not sure about lesser known merchants but all the established merchants statistically have excellent records .

TxTravelPro

Oops, meant to clarify:
Agreeing to participate in any merchant program (Hotwire, Travelocity Best Buy, Priceline, etc...) is a decision of the owner or property revenue manager NOT the chain.
Having said that, the chain can attempt to mandate that franchise properties CANNOT participate in merchant programs. A good example is InterContinental Hotel Group and Expedia. They just came to some agreement after several YEARS.
Originally IHG disagreed with guerilla marketing tactics of Expedia.
Anyhoo... they can't force franchise owners to particpate but they can tell them not to.
Most branded hotels (Holiday Inn, Hilton, Marriott, etc) are not OWNED by the chain, they are francised.
Omni owns most of their hotels. La Quinta used to own their hotels but I believe they now franchise.

travelinwifey

You can find out what hotel you are going to get with hotwire, just go to the hotel + car packages and match icons side by side to the "hotel only" product.

Writing a comment on Hotwire isn't going to help much when they have control over what one writes and what is posted, again Tripadvisor is a better place to write about the mishap as the website is a disinterrested third party.

soccr

Hotwire is just dropped in my estimation because they've picked up Enterprise as one of their car rental partners. Up to now, it's just been Budget, Hertz, Avis, or National. Once they picked up Enterprise, they've added a much less reliable supplier who's much more likely to be outside the airport. This is bad news.

GoTravel

Whether or not I use priceline, quikbook, or hotwire I ALWAYS call the hotel directly.

I always call the hotel even if I book with them directly.

TxTravelPro

I agree, Go. No matter how I book it, I call 24 hours before I check in.
It is important to keep in mind that some merchants do not forward guest lists to the hotels until late in the game.
For example, let say that today you make a reservation on PL, Hotwire, Trravelocity, Expedia (etc) for next month. You cannot call and confirm the booking today, this week or maybe even 2 weeks from now.
Some merchant confirmations are sent to the hotel just before the travel date.
A good rule of thumb is that if you have to prepay for a reservation on a website that IS NOT owned by the hotel or chain, the hotel may not have your reservation data until just prior to the arrival date.
If you DO NOT prepay for the reservation but provide a form of guarantee and have a cancellation date/time, the reservation is likely interactive with the chain system. You can call and discuss your reservation instantly in many cases, within hours on others.

GoTravel

For the 2005 NYC Marathon, I booked four rooms at the Seaport Suites (now The Exchange Hotel) at the incredible steal of $179 per night.

I booked in March (I actually walked into the hotel and booked in person) and the marathon is the first weekend in November. Even the Best Westerns get $500 a night during marathon weekend.

When I called in August, they did not have my reservations but offered me rooms at the discounted rate of $379 per night. I was livid.

I called and spoke with the reservations manager, the front of the house manager, the Assistant GM and FINALLY the General Manager.

What had happened is they had switched over their reservations computers and programs in July and had failed to add my reservations.

The General Manager did honor the $179 rate after they finally found my missing reservations.