Ever since I started paying attention to Priceline's "Express Deals" I have noticed that the bottom-dollar price of hotels advertised on Hotwire are higher than Priceline for the same rates/dates. The price difference is solely in the 'taxes and booking fees' tacked on when you are about to book your room. I frequently travel to NYC on weekends (Manhattan only), and you all can take for a look for yourselves on the many Manhattan hotels offered on both websites for the next few weekends (fri and sat night) where they are offered at the same exact price (or within a dollar or two), however when clicking through to the final booking stage, the hotwire final price is going to be $15-$20 more! Take for example next weekend - 7/18 checkin, 7/20 checkout, a 3.5* in the financial/wall st district for $130 on Priceline and $132 on Hotwire (most likely the Club Quarters / World Hotel @ WTC) results in a final tally of $322.72 from Priceline and $338.67 on Hotwire - a $16 difference. Why? Hotel taxes are the same throughout NYC and easy to calculate, and these are not resort fees. The difference is the discretionary "booking fee" lumped together with "taxes and fees". I'm a Hotwire "Express" customer (still not sure of the value just yet), so I called their 800 number to question this and was told I would get a response from a manager later. At this point I'm not really sure what use Hotwire has for me if I can get the same hotel class in the exact same area, at the same rate....for less money?
