Hotwire Hotel: 3* Orange County (Costa Mesa-Irvine) Doubletree Santa Ana OC-Airport

[seabreezer]

Used the better bidding HOTWIRE link, thank you again. Hope this info helps someone.

Doubletree Club Orange County Airport - Santa Ana

$51

2/19/11-2/20/11

Amenities:

Airport Shuttle

Fitness Center

Pool

Business Center

High-Speed Internet Access

90% of Hotwire customer reviews recommend out of 200+ total reviews

4.0 out of 5.0 Trip Advisor

Some notes:

I was given the opportunity to upgrade from this to a 3.5* (probably Crowne Plaza Irvine by the looks of the amenities/ratings). Also when I did an initial search and selected the 3.5* for $56, Hotwire offered to upgrade me to to a 4* at $56 (probably the Hyatt or Hilton). This is through a program called "Hotwire Express" for frequent users of Hotwire - it offers upgrades at the same rate.

I know it might seem crazy to go with the 3* when the 4* was offered to me for only a few bucks more, but I thought I'd try going with what seems like better review/ratings.

The 4* had something like 80% out of 500+ reviews at Hotwire / 3.5 out of 5.0 Trip Advisor. I guess it depends on what you're looking for, and my priority was a good room. The rooms seemed like they were rated better overall at the 3*. I think since last fall, this particular hotel went from free parking to charging $11 self-park/$14 valet, but the other choices would have charged parking fees anyway so oh well.

Out of curiosity after I booked, I checked and this property was still listing with all the same info except it went from 90% reviews to "We are still reviewing this property" When I signed out though it changed back to show the 90% recommendation again which was interesting.

[thereuare]

Congratulations on your success!

Glad to see you're pleased with the results and this appears to suit your needs for this trip well.

The 'percent recommended b HOTWIRE users' can often fluctuate from search to search (for the same property) by as much as ~15% and also sometimes revert to "we're still gathering reviews" which is why we don't use this as an indicator when trying to determine hotels.

Thank you for sharing your results and using the HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your purchase.

Enjoy your stay.

[seabreezer]

I understand the fluctuation with the Hotwire percentage. I guess I should say I was also using the Trip Advisor rating along with the reviews/photos on there to gauge for my needs.