I have seen many requests on this board for "what hotel might Hotwire be offering in this city if the ammenities are _____."

As a result, I am starting a database of Hotwire hotels, so as the database grows there will be one place to compare ammenities, star ratings, and prices. Having this info in one place will make it easier to narrow down the choices and make an educated guess as to what hotels they may be offering.

Please submit hotels you have received to www.thenassaus.com/forums

I'm all for this, and hate to discourage you, but I'm not sure this is possible. For example, I've seen two four-star hotels come up for Back Bay - Boston with identical ammenities, both "customer favorites", curiously sometimes at identical rates, sometimes substantially different.

And, I've also booked rooms with Hotwire with more ammenties (pool, for example) than shown when I booked.

Hotwire is really mysterious.

I always wonder when they show a 4* for much less than a 3-1/2* in the same area. Who'd pay more, a lot more, for less stars?

Hotwire changes the star ratings of hotels, too. I know of one particular hotel in Boston that went from 4* to 3* and back to 4*.

Along with all of the above, the borders of their areas change frequently, too.

I went to your website and noticed immediately the same format as biddingfortravel.com. Any relation? Why'd you do that?

to djkbooks: I noticed that about the 3 stars being higher than 4's too...makes me leery of Hotwire, are their 4 stars really better? Which Boston hotel was it, and which rating should they have in your opinion?

I've updated the site to now include both Hotwire AND Priceline.

DJKBOOKS, i appreciate your feedback, and although i agree that it won't be possible to guarantee which hotel you will get, it will certainly help to narrow the choices.

One of the great things about a message board such as this is that we can monitor the changes in star ratings, as well as geographical areas, and alert users to that fact when the ratings/geography changes.

Regarding the ammenities, the actual ammenities offered wouldn't be a factor, as long as Hotwire is consistent in how they represent them. For instance, our concern would be that XYZ Hotel is consistently represented as 4 star, pool, breakfast, and fitness center... whether or not a Business Center is actually offered at the hotel wouldn't factor into our consideration.

Using the above example, there could of course be 2 (or more) hotels that show the same identical ammenities and don't show any of the other ammenities, but this would be the "overlap" and at least we could narrow it down to those "overlapped" hotels.

The message board will also assist in areas to avoid if there is a certain hotel in that area that you absolutely DON"T want to stay in.

After you have visited the site, i'd love to hear any add'l feedback that you may have (you can post suggestions on the board)... all criticism is taken constructively, and positive changes will affect all of us thru ease of use.

You seem like you have used Hotwire in the past, so it would be appreciated if you could post some of your winning hotels at the board. This will only work if we all contribute. There are NO pop-up ads and NO spam.

www.thenassaus.com/forums

Just checked it out, thanks for putting this together. I hope you get a good response, it will be nice to have this type of information in an easily accessible and (although I HATE the term) "user-friendly" site. I'll be bidding on PL for 2 sets of dates fro NYC in the upcoming weeks, Ill be sure to post my results on your site. Good Luck!

While I truly appreciate your effort and endeavor (and, I have posted half a dozen or so Hotwire results at your website, and gosh but I'd have expected an e-mail thank-you by now for the ONLY posts so far), I'm not one of those who pays much attention to "ammenities" icons, rather star-ratings. I just don't care much whether a hotel has a pool, work-out facilities, on-sight restaurant (in a large city, anyway), 24-hour room service, hi-speed internet access (we leave the laptop at home when traveling for pleasure). I'm more interested in room size (and pleasant decor), friendly service, housekeeping, location.

If you peruse the BFT results, they are overwhelming for one/two night stays on weekend dates, bid ever so close to occupancy dates. How interesting is that?

Curiously (and the most of my experience with Priceline and Hotwire is for Boston, since we live nearby and weekend there many times a year), the differences in areas and star-ratings between Hotwire and Priceline are daunting, not to mention CHANGE all the time. So, you much check each and every time you set about booking. In my experience, each new booking is an entirely new endeavor.

And, I know that you really can't count on those star ratings. Though, I've found the star ratings on Hotwire more accurate (to my mind) than Priceline, most of the time. For example, the Sheraton and Hilton in Back Bay Boston are allegedly PL three stars (or were just a few days ago), but Hotwire four. More than a few folks have bid on Priceline, hoping to get the Hilton, but then "winning" the Doubletree. What do you know, the "areas" have changed and the Back Bay map has been "stretched" just to include the location of the Doubletree. To me, if the Hilton is a 4*, the Doubletree is a 3* (and we've stayed at both). I just checked, though, and what do you know, BFT now lists the Sheraton, but not the Hilton, as a 4* Priceline hotel in Back Bay. Go figure.

I truly appreciate that you welcome Hotwire AND Priceline results. In the several years I've been booking (Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, San Francisco, New York City,etc.) with them, I've been happier with Hotwire results, even at the (sometimes substantially) higher rates.

But, I'm a-wondering here what's going to happen when BFT/"anti-Hotwire" Sheryl and her followers (Andrew, for example) finds you.

Anyway, I surely do applaud your efforts (particularly with regard to the absence of pop-ups!).

Here's hoping that everyone possible will post their Priceline and Hotwire results on your forum.

I do hope, however, that you will STRESS that it's all just a GUESS, educated or otherwise. There are no constants here, only variables and possibilities.

While I truly appreciate your effort and endeavor (and, I have posted half a dozen or so Hotwire results at your website, and gosh but I'd have expected an e-mail thank-you by now for the ONLY posts so far), I'm not one of those who pays much attention to "ammenities" icons, rather star-ratings. I just don't care much whether a hotel has a pool, work-out facilities, on-sight restaurant (in a large city, anyway), 24-hour room service, hi-speed internet access (we leave the laptop at home when traveling for pleasure). I'm more interested in room size (and pleasant decor), friendly service, housekeeping, location.

Curiously (and the most of my experience with Priceline and Hotwire is for Boston, since we live nearby and weekend there many times a year), the differences in areas and star-ratings between Hotwire and Priceline are daunting, not to mention CHANGE all the time. So, you much check each and every time you set about booking. In my experience, each new booking is an entirely new endeavor.

And, I know that you really can't count on those star ratings. Though, I've found the star ratings on Hotwire more accurate (to my mind) than Priceline, most of the time. For example, the Sheraton and Hilton in Back Bay Boston are allegedly PL three stars (or were just a few days ago), but Hotwire four. More than a few folks have bid on Priceline, hoping to get the Hilton, but then "winning" the Doubletree. What do you know, the "areas" have changed and the Back Bay map has been "stretched" just to include the location of the Doubletree. To me, if the Hilton is a 4*, the Doubletree is a 3* (and we've stayed at both). I just checked, though, and what do you know, BFT now lists the Sheraton, but not the Hilton, as a 4* Priceline hotel in Back Bay.

I truly appreciate that you welcome Hotwire AND Priceline results. In the several years I've been booking (Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, San Francisco, New York City) with them, I've been happier with Hotwire results, even at the (sometimes substantially) higher rates.

But, I'm a-wondering here what's going to happen when BFT/"anti-Hotwire" Sheryl and her followers (Andrew, for example) finds you.

Anyway, I surely do applaud your efforts (particularly with regard to the absence of pop-ups!).

Here's hoping that everyone possible will post their Priceline and Hotwire results on your forum.

I do hope, however, that you will STRESS that it's all just a GUESS, educated or otherwise. There are no constants here, only variables and possibilities.

Joan,

There is no relation to BFT. If you click on a few of our threads, you'll see that they are actually quite different (the most vivid is that we are seeking to cover BOTH Hotwire and Priceline).

As with any message board, there's only a few different ways to set them up (Fodor's is actually very unique in this instance, but there are only really ~3 main formats out there that i'm aware of). I chose this platform because it is easy to use, there are a lot of nice features (like PMs, ability to edit your post, etc), AND the search engine works! Of course if you, or anyone else, has a suggestion on a better way to set this up, i'm willing to listen and incorporate the chanages.

DJKBOOKS,

You certainly deserve a public thank you, so here it is, "Thank You"! I've also sent you a Private Message at the board.


The most difficult aspect of getting a board like this started is getting people to post. Even if you have nothing to post right now, please at least register so that others will be less aprehensive about joining and posting their hotel experiences.

www.thenassaus.com/forums

I too have witnessed the 3* hotels sometimes costing more than the 4* hotels (in multiple cities)... you would think they would have some sort of system of checking that and eliminating one of the hotels (or raising the price of the 4* hotel), although i'm glad they don't do that on either count.

www.thenassaus.com/forums