Z3R0

When trying to edit my profile information, I get the following: [#1026] You are not permitted to modify all or some of your profile information. Is this a known issue and is there a workaround?

As there's no standard star rating system, I don't think this will be much help. Often times, a hotel star rating on Trip Advisor is going to be different from what it would be on Hotwire, Expedia, Hotels, Priceline, etc. Some sites agree on a star rating, and each have their own methods for obtaining them. Using one site's ratings to try to figure out what you'll get on another site isn't really accurate in my experience.

If you arrive at a hotel and think you're being discriminated against for booking through a third party, call the company you booked with. They usually have ways of dealing with these issues, and most of them take steps to prevent such treatment in the future.

Recently the HW Low Price Guarantee program was changed to offer for other reservations types, not just the hotels. They now offer for air and car as well, which is what a lot of people seem to want. However, in effect, the LPG is no longer Double the Difference; instead, it's just a refund of the difference once verified. Just a heads up.

If you book one of the non-discounted rates, the amenities and services listed for the Standard Rates are listed as a guide. These can't be gauranteed like the ones listed for the opaque rates, because it's the hotel who lists them and they tend to change them frequently.

A majority of rental agencies will have an actual counter in the terminal, to sign the paperwork, process the deposit, etc. But a lot of them can't store the cars in terminal, so they provide complimentary shuttle to a nearby agency/lot where the cars are held.

That's not really HW's fault. When you book through HW, you pay upfront for the reservation, billed a rate per night/room. So if you have a reservation for $50/night/room....for one night and one room, you pay $100 + taxes and fees, that's it. If a hotel ever bills you additional amounts that Aren't for incidentals such as phone calls or room service, etc, then you need to demand they be reversed. If the hotel refuses. contact HW(or your booking agency) and advise them. Usually they'll ask you to send in the receipt from the hotel and maybe a credit card statement showing payment, and will call the hotel and demand they reverse the erroneous amounts on your behalf, which the hotel will unless it's a valid charge.

As a note, when booking on HW the amenity is for Smoke Free Rooms. If you book with that amenity, there's not guarantee the Entire hotel will be non-smoking. It usually depends on what city/location you book.

The only thing I can think this might be due to, is that the hotel probably Did have affiliation with HW, but choose to discontinue it. So if the hotel wasn't able to honour your reservation, you wouldn't be expected to pay for it.

Typically, with any reservation, the closer you book to day of travel, the higher the rate. This being because availability is probably going to be limited. Usually if you book a month or so in advance you'll get a really good rate, because a lot of availability may be offered. But hotels may have people with non-opaque reservations that cancel or change, so will open more rooms up which will in turn effect the rate as well.

Hotwire has a Low Price Guaratee. If you find a lower rate within 48 hours of your booking, they'll refund you the difference. However, they have to be able to verify it's the same hotel. That being the case, if you found the rate on the HW site for one of the opaque models....they can't verify it as the same hotel. Contrary to popular belief, there can be multiple hotels in the same star rating category with the same info displayed o n the site; I've seen in numerous times when trying to rebook another night for the same property and getting something different, even though I matched amenities, etc.

You can also try Hotels.com. They're good for last minute deals and aren't opaque. I think they're even running a 50% off promotional for bookings made in June? Not 100% sure on that but think I saw a commercial for it recently.

A lot of people don't realize that there is NO standard star rating system in the US. Because of this, I know that Hotwire gets their star ratings two ways primarily. Firstly, they compare with other top travel companies, such as Orbitz, Travelocity, Expedia, etc and take the average of those star ratings. Secondly, they filter through a Lot of customer reviews that people submit after checking out of a property. If you've ever noticed it, after you check out, Hotwire immediately sends a follow up email asking how your stay was. Your feedback directly contributes to their next evaluation of a property, which is done at least once a month. Whether you had a good or bad experience, they won't know unless you tell them.

From what I can see, they still show the "Recommended by (*)% of customers" on the page where all the rates are given. I almost always see the customer rating breakdowns under the map after choosing the rate I want to look at. Guess it's not available for all of them though?

Hmm...well from past experiences I know you can only book 4 people per room, anything higher than that it makes you get another room. As far as beds go, it's about 50/50 from general opinion whether a full size bed will accommodate 2 people, but when looking at it compared to a queen size bed, there doesn't seem to be all -that- much difference. A queen is a little longer, and a little wider, but from what I've looked up only gives couple more inches of room between people. Of course, for someone as tall as I am, and especially for others traveling for business....no one wants to share a bed, so I can certainly understand that.

Pretty much the only thing I need is wireless internet in the room. It's nice to have a resturant/bar on premises as well, go down and grab a bite to eat or drink and catch a ball game. And believe it or not, staff that are friendly make a huge difference. I was chatting with one of the security guards during a trip while waiting for a colleague to show up. He showed me their camera system, which was pretty neat(had the 360 swivel cameras with high zoom). Well, it was evening and there weren't very many people in the pool area. Well he switches over to the pool camera where there's a guy sitting in between two girls hanging out, who eventually gets up and walks off, and the two girls start making out. We got a bit of a laugh out of that, and sorry if someone thinks it inappropriate(edit if necessary). But the fact he was willing to give me a digital walk through of their hotel via the neat camera system was pretty neat.

You said you recently booked, but then a couple of months later noticed reviews stating the hotel had bed bugs? I think providing your travel details would be of some help and lend towards providing some assistance. I always check bedbugregistry.com, but this is pretty much just a review site. People post whether or not there were bed bugs, what the hotel was like, etc. You have to realize though, reviews can be pretty biased. I was checking up on a hotel once and say a review someone wrote that started out saying he was upset because they didn't have HBO and so he couldn't watch True Blood. Then at the end, after ranting about the lack of HBO for a few lines, says the hotel has bed bugs. :/

If it has customer ratings available they should be located under the green map, that provides a breakdown such as service level, cleanliness, etc. Sometimes you'll see on the search page you get "This hotel is recommended by (*)% of customers". I've noticed sometimes it just says they're still collecting reviews, so that might be why you aren't able to see it as well.

Some advice, no matter who you book with, most hotels won't allow anyone to check in before the main guest. You can sometimes have someone added to your reservation to allow an early check in, but they will need a valid id and credit card.

It may not be showing up because no rooms are available. That, or it's possible the hotel doesn't accept reservations from Hotwire/Priceline anymore.

Not sure how credible this is. What's to stop the clerk from taking the tip, checking for upgrades, telling you none are available and not returning it? What, are you going to complain to the manager that your bribe attempt wasn't sucessful? Heh.

You'll notice that when booking on Hotwire, you're given the chance to add things like Rental Car Protection, Trip Protection, Hotel Protect, etc during the booking process. I think a lot of people make the false assumption that this is 'I changed my mind, cancel my reservation' insurance. It's important to read the brief description given for each policy, as they tell you valuable information. For instance, the Trip Protection policy will tell you that it covers for cancelation due to medical or other serious emergencies. It also mentions that the policy doesn't cover for non-medical, pre-existing medical, or non-emergency situations. In addition, all of these plans are provided by a partner company called Access America. You'll notice on the billing review page that it mentions the policy will be billed by Access America directly. You also receive a seperate confirmation email for this including your policy number and conditions. Now, this next bit is a pretty big deal. Car rental agencies have a tendancy to "bully" customers into accepting their insurance policy(which is for a much higher price), saying that they do not see any other policy booked with in their system. Whether or not this is true no one seems to know except maybe Hotwire and the rental Agency. It's important to print your confirmation email and take it with you, as this provides proof you have pre-existing coverage. If they hassle you about it, contact the company you booked with and explain the situation. This usually results in the agency Corporate office getting a call, which results in the local counter agents getting straightened out.

Ever made a reservation for a hotel or car but only have a debit card? If you travel a lot and are reading this, you probably have. Now, have you ever been denied service for having a debit card? This isn't as uncommon as you think, and there's actually a few ways this frustration can be avoided when booking on Hotwire. When you're booking a hotel, you have to keep in mind that 8/10 hotels do not accept debit cards. Why? Well because most debit cards don't have enough funds to cover incidentals and result in overdrafts. Most hotels only accept a major credit card as a deposit, because most credit cards have a decent line of credit. This is guaranteed payment should you run a phone or room service tab. So, you'll want to try to have at least one major credit card if you're a big traveler. Trust me, it will pay off in the long run. For car reservations, agencies such as Alamo, National and Enterprise do not accept debit cards as a deposit unless you have proof of a round trip ticket. Why? The answer is simple, if you're local to the area and trying to rent at the airport location for a lower rate, you're taking away availability for travelers just arriving off planes. If you're booking a reservation on Hotwire to pick up at an airport location using a debit card, and you are not flying in and out of the area, you're going to want to look for the Deposit Method box. Now, what I've noticed is that sometimes this pops up and won't allow you to continue until you select Credit Card or Debit/Check card and click continue. However, sometimes this pop up doesn't always "pop up", probably a new feature Hotwire is experimenting with. Where listing a deposit method is advisable though, you should always see the Deposit Method box in the top left corner on the page that displays all the booking results. When you select Debit/Check Card as a deposit method, you're also given the option to select Local or Traveler. This is important, because checking just Debit/Check Card may not do squat for you if you're a local renter. Selecting Local Renter will filter out agencies that deny service to people presenting debit cards, but not round trip tickets. As an additional note, rarely will an agency accept a cash deposit. The reason for this? It started getting to tempting to employees to pocket cash deposits and not record them. Now, imprints (holds) are held on cards until you return a car or check out, and everything is documented electronically. :) Any questions, feel free to ask.

This tends to get overlooked, people get in a hurry, don't read all the details, etc. Just as an FYI, the age requirement for hotels is provided before booking. The only ones I've ever seen are at least 18 or at least 21. If you accidently book and aren't able to check in, give your booking site a call and explain the situation. Chances are they'll work to reaccommodate you. For car rentals, on Hotwire you have to be at least 25+ to rent a car. While some agencies may allow people under 25 to rent, most of them charge a pretty hefty fee. This is why it's a requirement to check a box confirming you are 25+ before you book. If you check the box and aren't at least 25, you're probably going to be SoL.

I don't know a lot about Priceline, as I've not utilized its services before, but I've come to know a lot about Hotwire, how their model works, the rules and restrictions and a few other useful things. While I personally don't believe there's a way to "cheat the system" and determine what hotel an opaque model offers before booking, I am able to provide info on the booking process, complaints, star ratings, mapped neighborhoods, etc. There's a lot of information also available directly on the Hotwire site that would prevent a lot of headaches if people took a few minutes to read it. If anyone has any questions feel free to reply to this thread or PM me. Probably the most helpful advice I can offer is, "Read the fine print." If there are rules and restrictions, terms of use, terms and conditions, read them. Most sites these days are putting parts of these in bold to attract attention, but lets face it, we click buttons, check a box that says we agree to the rules without reading them. I do it all the time, but I can certainly tell you if I'm spending money on something, I'm looking For the fine print and not overlooking it.