Even though Hotels, Expedia, and Hotwire are owned by the same company, they've each got their own set of star rating descriptions. And that's all star ratings are, subjective discriptions. Guess what, if Hotwire decided to list their description for 4-star hotels as: has a bed; then all their hotels would accurately be 4-stars. What are you going to sue them for, that they secretly don't believe their own star rating system? Guess who's the only one who can tell you what Hotwire really believes? Hotwire. And for a run down, here's the standard Hotwire hotel review process (when there isn't any special exception): 1. Starting star rating (from where ever, maybe it's what the hotel said they are) 2. Collect the star ratings for this hotel from about 6 major travel sites, average this. 3. Is the Hotwire rating within 1/2 star of the industry average? If not, change it to be. 4. Are there any special considerations for giving this hotel an extra 1/2 star bump up? If so, bump up. 5. Is the final amount higher than the highest star rating collected in step 2? If so, lower it to match. And guess what, nobody actually visits the hotel and nobody's opinion enters into it, unless maybe when coming up with the original original star rating for the hotel.
