has anyone tried using this site before to book a hotel in Chicago? I found a good price on the site, but am rather suspicious and a bit apprehensive to pay for something without really knowing the hotel name and its location. Would appreciate any information on using this site if you have any. Thanks.

Their site has always locked up on me, so I have given up on them. That alone led me to believe that they aren't necessarily on the up and up, even though I see them advertised quite often. I haven't heard of anyone using them for hotel, but I hear a lot of good comments on priceline.com for hotels.

Good luck. Maybe someone else will have more info for you.

I've used them for a flight once (to Chicago) and all went smoothly.

You may want to check out www.biddingfortravel.com which gives what hotels have come up in the past (mostly for Priceline, but some Hotwire posts get included in the Hotwire section).

If you're going to buy "blind" anyway, why not try Priceline (ask for bidding assistance at the above site) and bid up to the price you can get on Hotwire (you may save even more money).

One thing to be aware of though, so that you're comparing apples to apples, often (i think) Hotwire's star rating is 1 star above Priceline's star rating... so a 4 star on Hotwire is probably equivalent to a 3 star on Priceline.(at least that's how i understand it, although this is a generalization, and not a sted-fast rule)

we've used hotwire several times for hotels and have NEVER had any trouble - they are a lot more reliable than priceline. In the past, we have booked a hotel in Chicago using hotwire. The hotel is the Allegro on Randolph street a few blocks west of Michigan Ave. Great hotel at a great rate! Go ahead and use hotwire - you won't be disappointed!

There's nothing wrong with their website as Statia implies. Maybe if she takes her coffee cup out of the CD-ROM drive tray the computer would work right. I've used it on many different PC's and Mac's and never had it lock up.

Here is my question for Hotwire and even Priceline: Do you get stuck on flights that leave at 6AM? That is what I think they do. I wish they would come out with a time preference.say between 10-2 or 4-6P things like that.

i used hotwire to book a hotel in philadelphia and was really happy with what i got for $50 - a hotel that usually costs at least $70.

Hotwire is owned by major airlines. It's definitely legit.

Hey CD-ROM Drive:

Why be so nasty? All I said is that "I" have had problems with their site. No, my coffee cup is not in my CD-ROM drive and I DO know what I'm doing on the web. Maybe I've hit Hotwire the few times when the site was down. I just know that when I log on directly from the emails they send me, I continually get error messages after a few pages and finally give up.

In case you didn't notice. I didn't say NOT to use Hotwire, I just said it hasn't worked well for me and added that maybe others have had better experiences that they could relate. And, on that note, I was correct.

Chill out.