May 26, 2006
Hotwire.com reliability, customer service, prices
Hotwire.com promises to help travelers "Find deals you won't see anywhere else" and claims to have "Bargains you can believe in." The traveler is supposed to trust hotwire, and book a nonrefundable hotel without knowing the hotel's name.
One traveler found a better price on expedia (owned by the same company as hotwire), called hotwire complaining about the broken promise to find the best deal. Hotwire wouldn't issue a refund (at least until the travel troubleshooter got involved).
I did a little research. One person who uses foul language complains that hotwire stuck with an early bird flight despite hotwire claiming that 80% of their tickets are between 9am and 7pm.
Another hotwire customer had some technical issues (hotwire had problems with their server) so his transaction didn't go through. After calling, he was told that the deal would be processed normally so he stopped shopping. Two days later he was told that there would be no deal. Flights were now much more expensive.
Another reviewer (this review was posted on a website with many positive reviews) complains that he paid 69.00/night plus taxes on 69.00/night plus hotwire's 6.95 fee only to learn that the hotel was only being paid 54.00/night. The reviewer calls this price gouging. To me the real issue would be if he could have gotten a better price somewhere else.
It's pretty clear that hotwire has made many customers happy, but like any huge company when they do mess up, there's not much the customer can do (other than rant online).
One thing I found was that if you plan to bid on priceline you should check hotwire first to make sure you don't overbid.
I'd welcome any positive or negative reviews or hotwire here in the comments section.
Posted by James Trotta at May 26, 2006 1:59 AM
My husband and I have been very pleased with both hotel choices and airlines reservations we have made through Hotwire. We have stayed in New York City, New Orleans, Miami Beach, Boston and Phoenix through Hotwire. The hotels were VERY nice. We usually called the hotel directly after making reservation to see if we could get a particular bed configuation. They could not guarantee it but they always came through in the end. We made plane reservations to meet cruise ships. Everything worked like clockwork. Have not had a bad experience.
Posted by: Mary Ross at May 26, 2006 5:36 AMHotwire is good for car rental b/c you can still select which car size you want and I'm not particular with a car rental company.
I would never fly on Hotwire again. It took a whole day to get to Chicago from Atlanta which cut into our vacation time coming and going. I'm a little skeptical with hotels also because I'm particular about what type of hotel I stay in.
One good thing about Hotwire is that they offer "Bill Me Later" which allows you to get the bill for your travel 3 months later.
Posted by: Candice at May 26, 2006 6:48 AMRecently there was an article in Smart Money magazine about websites placing cookies on your computer to track your buying habits. These cookies can also allow the seller to tailor different prices to different customers. Last night my wife was looking for a hotel on Hotwire and went on the website 4 times consecutively, each time deleting the cookie before she logged back in. Each time she received different pricing and options. Interesting!
Posted by: tom at May 27, 2006 12:24 AM