fred17

Showed up as customer favorite with restaurant, high-speed internet, fitness, and business. So I was expecting the Ambassador East (customer favorite), but was thrilled to get the Westin.

I had followed that up and in addition posted a question about the difference between hotwire and Hotels.com price based on my experience. Don't know why the first follow-up didn't appear...

Eventually, the Riverside hotel came up on Hotwire at $177; it was $186 on Hotels.com (which was actually cheaper than with the Hotwire service fee), so I grabbed that.

Hotwire lists a 4* Hotel in Dowtown San Jose with these amenities: Boutique, Fitness Center, Business Center, Restaurant, High-Speed Internet Access. At $102 for 2/5-2/10, seems like a good deal.

Ahh...at least in this case, it appears that Hotwire's retail price is taken from Hotels.com, as Hotels.com has the Riverside hotel for the Hotwire retail price of $186. And that appears to hold for the few other properties I checked. Even more interesting is that the Hotels.com total price (with taxes and fees) is a little more than $1 *less* than the Hotwire price (because the Hotwire fees are higher). So I can save $1 and be able to change the itinerary (albeit for a $25 fee) by going through Hotels.com instead. I wonder how general a case this is...the few properties I checked for that date all seemed ultimately to end up priced almost the same between Hotwire and Hotels.com (assuming, of course, that I identified the hotwire hotels correctly). So is hotwire just a huge gimmick -- well, of course it's a gimmick, but is it a gimmick with no real value in the end?

How accurate has the new "retail price" on the Hotwire page been found to be? I'm looking at a particular 3.5 star hotel in downtown Ft. Lauderdale on 1/7 with only two amenities: Pool and Restaurant. Hotwire has a rate of $177 and says the retail rate is $186. The likely match is the Riverside Hotel, but the hotel website rate is $255. I've found similar things for other hotels in other locations. Do I believe Hotwire and think it must be a different hotel, or do I just disregard the retail rate?

Still searching daily for a match for 1/7... The 3* hotel dropped off availability for quite a while. Today, there's a slightly different 3* hotel available for $128 in the Beach zone with these amenities: On beach, restaurant, pool, fitness center, business center, laundry. The only thing in the list that exactly matches that is the Sheraton Yankee Clipper (which I'd take in minute). But the Hotwire page also lists retail price for the room at $139, and the Yankee Clipper is $270. So I gotta figure it's still the Holiday Inn and they've changed their amenity list.

Thanks. I'd realized that there were other Ft. Lauderdale hotels with kitchens; in my mind I was thinking I'd accept either downtown or beach, and so I confused myself when I looked for matches :-) I'm sorry to hear that the hotel in question is likely the Holiday Inn; given the reviews of that property, I'll stay away. In fact, that's why I won't bid Priceline in that area (often, I'd bid priceline 4* beach knowing I'm pretty much assured of getting the Hyatt, but we feel like staying a little nearer the beach). I tried EasyClickTravel through your link -- loved the page you have that shows the identity of the "off the record" hotels! So I tried the Sheraton Yankee Trader; which turned out to have only "on request" availability. Although they promised a reply in 48 hours last Friday, I've still not heard back, so I'm not optimistic about that working out. So for now, I'll keep my $159 cancellable backup at the Amerisuites (which is $249 on EasyClickTravel and $181 on hotwire; go figure) and hope something opens up in a few weeks. Thanks for the help

Looking for a 1 night in Ft. Lauderdale for 1/7/06 and found a 3* in the Beach area for $121. But I can't figure out what it is. Here are the listed amenities: Near Beach, Restaurant, Pool, Fitness Center, Kitchenette, Laundry Facilities (self-service) It is not a suite hotel, and the only Ft. Lauderdale hotels in the list with kitchenette are the Embassy Suites and Amerisuites.