Hotwire

Easy to use online service. I've used the service previously without problems.

However, my last experience was a nightmare. Incomplete information, if not misleading. Was left without the service I've reserved at the last minute. Completely dissatisfied after a call to customer service.

I've been using Hotwire for 5 years to get great deals on hotels and car rentals for both business and pleasure. Only once have I been very disappointed, and that's with my most recent hotel reservation.

Hotwire is very upfront about telling you that you can not cancel or change your reservation once you've paid for it, but what they do not tell you is that Hotwire can change your reservation!

I was recently "re-located" from a downtown 4-star hotel to a suburban 5-star hotel because they said the downtown hotel was overbooked! Very frustrating because we really wanted to be downtown for an event we were attending and not have to worry about driving, directions, parking twice, etc.

Overall, I've had a very good experience getting really, really nice hotel rooms at amazing prices, but to have to switch locations is not a nice surprise.

I recently made hotel reservations on hotwire for four adults. Our room had one full size bed and one full size hide a bed. When I contacted customer service I received the following response.
"Thank you for contacting Hotwire regarding your hotel reservation.  I understand that you need additional information regarding room types in various hotels. I will be happy to provide you with information on this matter. Hotel industry standards states that a king sized bed will accommodate 3 adults, so yes it is possible you could receive to receive 1 bed and a pull out for a reservation with 4 guests.  If we can be of further assistance, please feel free to reply to this email or contact us directly at 1-866-HOTWIRE (468-9473). Thank you for choosing Hotwire"

currently trying to get off their email list.  Buyer Beware.  Hotwire. not such a great deal after all.

Be wary of the star rating system used by Hotwire.com. I purchased a hotel stay in Chicago. Hotwire rated the hotel at 3.5 stars. I paid close to $300 for a two night stay, only to discover it was the Allerton Hotel. The hotel was old, past its prime and the staff was surly. The worst part was that the room was the size of a closet. You could literally bump into yourself if you turned around. It could only accommodate one double bed (not even a queen) and the hotel would not provide a cot. This was probably a maids room or a servant's room and not a regular hotel room. The Allerton did offer to give me another room for a 25% upcharge.

When I complained to the customer service rep at Hotwire, I got nowhere. They would not admit any wrongdoing and held steadfast that the hotel was in fact worthy of its inflated rating. I used to be a fan of Hotwire, but no more. I will not use Hotwire again and I have pursuaded my extended family and friends to avoid them as well.

I will never use Hotwire again and I will discourage anyone considering using them from doing so. I purchased a hotel room and I even paid extra for the insurance. I suffered an unexpected major heart attack 3 months before my trip and was being treated at the Cleveland Clinic. My doctor wrote a letter stating that I didn't feel well enough to travel. (I had been planning on taking my young son) They didn't accept my letter and said that I would have to have the dates of travel included on the letter. I hated to bother my doctor again, but I did --- he was nice enough to write another letter with the dates included. I faxed them the letter and they wrote back that they would still not refund my money. At this point I will be disputing the charge on my credit card. To make matters even more infuriating, I found out that there is a huge festival the days that we cancelled and the hotel will most likely have no trouble renting our room for more than what Hotwire is keeping from us.

I purchased a hotel room from hotwire.com. Thought I'd get my best deal based on their claims. Quoting from their website: "We get substantially reduced prices on airfares, hotel rooms and car rentals. You choose your destination and date of travel - we'll show you the best deal available." I thought I could depend on it. I decided to go directly to the hotel's website and SHOCKED to find it was cheaper. Surfing their website for DOUBLE THE DIFFERENCE GUARANTEED, finally found it. I just happened to miss their 48 HOUR timeframe to submit.

I was very disappointed first to find a cheaper rate, and then was disappointed when I missed their 48 hour guarantee. In today's business you want the best for your dollar and I don't feel that Hotwire.com provided me with the best deal. I have used expedia in the past and have never found a cheaper deal, I don't have to second guess if I got a good deal based on my experience with them. Guess I will stick with a good thing in the future and forget about hotwire.com

Hotwire. I booked a hotel that was in "East Lansing, Michigan State University". According to the yellow shaded map, it would be in that area - it wasnt. It was an the far western edge of the "yellow shaded area", literally on the black line, and in Lansing, MI. I called, and they gave me a bunch of rigamaroll about how they cannot change it, and that it is in the "yellow shaded area" - when in reality, any reasonable person would disagree. They FLAT OUT LIED in the description of the hotel. 

Hotwire violated own ranking policy and rated a hotel a 3 star based on the hotel ranking of itself. Priceline, Yahoo, Expedia all ranked lower than a 3. Policy is to take an average, but when most rankings are 2s and the highest is 3, the average cannot be 3.
Customer service after 45 minutes told me that they had cancelled the reservation, but 3 days later the credit card had not been refunded.  A second call resulted in an admission that the reservation had been cancelled, but that they would have to refer it for research before refunding money from a cancellation.
I understand the no refund policy, which is fine as long as the quality of hotel is what is advertized.  This is a bait and switch scam. The chain itself is listed by Hotwire as an example of a typical 2 star property.  Although not all chain hotels earn the same rating, this is clearly not a 3 star in terms of facilities, safety and location which was only on the fringe of the advertized area.

Worthless price guarantee. Hotel billed me upon departure, even though I prepaid with hotwire. Hotel billed me a rate 49 dollars less than the hotwire rate.
Hotwire sent me an unintelligible form response and denied to pay a double refund even though I provided them a statement in writing from the hotel confirmed the nearly fifty dollar lower rate.

Watch out for trickery in Hotwire's rental car reservation process. They advertise one price in the beginning screen and then raise the price as you proceed to checkout. They do show a message,  "We're sorry the rate has changed from $19 to $22."

When it first happened, I figured I was just unlucky and got caught in a price incease. To test this theory, I cancelled out of everything  and went back in and tried again -- the same thing happened. The rate hadn't changed, they are just using sucker rates to get people in. I did it a third time with the same result.

I have used Hotwire before with excellent results. I was really disappointed to see them start using trickery in their business.

In the city of Reno, Nevada care should be taken. My hotel stays have been consistently overrated per their star rating and have found pricing that is less expensive by going directly through the hotel. Also, you can get a downtown hotel that is far from the downtown hotel zone.

Overall, Hotwire has been good for all my other transactions.

Horrible customer service. I'll never use these people again nor will I use their parent company, Expedia for that matter.  My wife and I booked a trip to London in June. In late July I was diagnosed with cancer and was not allowed, due to my MD orders to go on the trip, as I was going through chemotherapy. To make a long story short, we had to cancel the trip. We did get our money back from the hotel but are still going thorugh hell and back triyng to get something out of our flight. They said we had to use the same airlines, United and BMI to get our full credit. Amazing how they told us 2 months earlier it would be flight credit. Needless to say, all Hotwire cars about is getting your money then screwing you over when you need them most. Go through Travelocity. They are cheaper by a few dollars anyway. I can only hope no one will lose the thousand some odd dollars we may lose. My only hope is that Hotwire will fold and disappear so honest consumers won't be taken advantage of again.

First of all, Hotwire charges an higher fee than other sites so it was actually more expensive than Expedia or Hotels.com. With the other sites, you will at least know what you are getting.

Second, the quality of the hotels are misleading. Don't trust the hotel/ratings system. They do not follow their guidelines. You think you are paying for a 3-4 star hotel but in reality, what you get is a lower quality hotel than what they advertise.

I can forgive technical problems since they happen at every business but this is just a dishonest business model. Customer service has been no help!

This company is CORRUPT - Last March I purchased round trip airline tickets for my family to go from NC to Washington State. Due to internet / computer issues, the return date was entered incorrectly. They told us our options, pay change fees on the spot or re-book new correct tickets and then keep the incorrect ones as a $1300 credit to be used within the year. When the "credit tickets" were to be used, we'd have to pay a change fee per ticket, which we were OK with. When we called a couple weeks ago to use the tickets, oddly they were charging $1600 per ticket x 4. Keep in mind, the Hotwire website, and the United airline website listed all of the itineraries as $400. Also, like others have stated, i had to get a call back from their special "rip off reservation artist" DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY! They lost a good customer.

DO NOT BOOK ANYTHING THROUGH HOTWIRE!!  I made the mistake of booking two airline tickets through Hotwire.  About 2 weeks after confirming my reservations and charging my credit card (immediately upon booking), I received a call from Hotwire telling me that one leg of my confirmed booking had been cancelled.  After repeated calls to Hotwire (talking to a different person each time who explained the same thing over and over), I was given the option of either accepting an unreasonable flight change or getting a refund, I chose the refund.  Little did I know what I was in for.  According to Hotwire, the refund will take up to TWO MONTHS to be credited to my credit card.  They claim that the airline is responsible for the credit.  Yet, when I talked to the airline, they said that Hotwire has the ability to issue the refund immediately.  Needless to say, I haven't received my refund yet.  Hotwire's customer service is a joke and their policies are very UNCUSTOMER FRIENDLY.  Unless you want to lose your money, go elsewhere.