Hotwire in Hot Water Over Hotel Ratings

[TravelGuy]

Hotwire.com sued over hotel ratings?

Proposed lawsuit contends online travel company overrated hotels to charge consumers premium rates.

Full text.

[byeloe]

Interesting article, but I don't think Hotwire has specific 4.5* or 5* rates.

I have seen many times when the lower star rating property is priced greater than the higher star rating property

[thereuare]

Essentially the guys is filing this lawsuit over $22/nite? (he paid $207, he thinks he should have paid $185. In my opinion, the bottom line is another example of somebody not taking responsibility for their own actions).

Many class action lawsuits are 'concocted' by attornies that have an interpretation of a small "wrong-doing" that affects countless people... they then find one person who was affected and have them file the suit, then attempt to get class action status in attempt to make it a multi-million dollar case.

Time will tell.

[oldfoagy]

Thank God We Have Lawyers In This Country...

[LoneStar]

Not enough details to know for sure what's going on, but it sounds like his 5 star hotel was re-rated 4.5 stars and hotwire wouldn't let him get out of it. If so, that's pretty crummy -- heck, even priceline's generally poor customer service seems to refund your money for that.

But this is no "class action" lawsuit. It should be a small claims matter for a discount off the price of the room.

BTW, I'm no fan of frivilous lawsuits, but I wouldn't mind seeing hotwire or priceline sued for the resort fee issue. Preferably by somebody charged $30/night per person for a "resort fee"! That's a fairly deceptive business policy to me, and these bidding services should be required to include it in the bid amount.

[thereuare]

....but it sounds like his 5 star hotel was re-rated 4.5 stars and hotwire wouldn't let him get out of it.

I agree that not enough information is known, but i doubt that this is the case, as Hotwire (as well as Priceline) have both given full refunds (or some sort other offer of compensation at the user's choice) if the hotel received is later downgraded.

I'm certainly no lawyer, but it may actually have class action status if a judge finds that others users were 'deceived' in the exact same manner... it would certainly apply to other users who won the hotel in question.

As far as Resort fees, i'm all for putting a stop to them, but i think that the problem lies with the hotel chains themselves, and not necessarily Priceline or Hotwire (let's nip the problem at the true source, which is the hotels). I would think that there would be some sort of case based upon advertising a rate where there are undisclosed and mandatory fees invovled... even on many of the hotel websites, mandatory resort fees are not mentioned at the time of booking.

My stance has always been: If a fee is mandatory.. it should have to be included in the rate.

[djohannw]

Actually Hotwire has refused to refund my money after a Las Vegas 2.5 star got downrated to 2* (got the Wellesley Inn and Suites that still is considered to be a 2 star) about two years ago. At that time I decided that I would just eat the loss (about $100) and never again use Hotwire again or even suggest that anyone would use it anymore. I even took the time to send them a letter to their corporate office to get this refund detailing my claim, not just sending them an eMail.

So no, Hotwire does not always refund your money in case of a downrate, and if that's the case that person has, I am fully on their side.

As to resort fees - I absolutely agree with thereuare's opinion. But I have found my (personal) way around these: I just flaly refuse to pay them at checkout. And so far I never have. It sometimes takes a manager, but usually the fuss I am able to create (calling the resort-fee fraudulent, obscene, deceptive etc.) is enough to get the fee waived.

Greetings - Dirk

[thereuare]

Thanks for the info about Hotwire not refunding you after a downgrade... i have heard others get refunds as a result of downgrades, and i'm actually surprised that they didn't, but it's good to know that this may be a "your milage may vary".

If this is the basis for this case than it's justifiable, albeit a bit extreme, and i think that a stop payment thru a credit card may be the easiest route (as Hotwire would clearly be admitting that they are not delivering the hotel class they promised).

In such a situation, how could they not offer a refund (assuming of course it's before the check-in date and you have not yet begun your stay).

[TheGreatGoat]

I sounds to me what this guy did is book a hotel on hotwire and the research it on Orbitz or Expedia or Travelocity and they rate it differnt. Now I am not a lawyer, but if the hotel that was booked has the ammenity's that were listed and matched the discription of a 5 star on there web site the suit has no merit. In the end star rating are subjective there is no standard, I could rate a Motel 6 a 5 star but the guy in the next room could rate it a 1 star! Also the 185 4.5 star could have been 600/per night 2 days later.

[KatiesMom]

If this suit is successful then Easy Click better seriously re-think some ratings on their opaque properties. In my opinion, they overrate also, at least some of the NYC ones.

To me, as a consumer, I like to see credibility. If a company wants my money, I want to be able to believe I am giving it my hard earned dollars in good faith.

We all know hotwire doesn't rate well. Don't know if this suit will make it though. Interesting.

[thereuare]

I often tell the story of my trip to London when my wife and I were given a shoebox for a room and one double bed for the two of us. We spoke to the front desk and they arranged to move us the following day. Upon returning the following evening there was a woman complaining about the size of her room ("That is a single, i reserved a double, etc, etc"). The front desk asked for the room number and upon looking at the floor plans informs the woman "that's our super deluxe special half and half presidential blah blah blah" at which point i turned to my wife and said "You can call it Buckingham Palace if you'd like, it still doesn't change the fact that it's a small room and not sufficient for two."

The bottom line is that there is no standard in the industry, so hotels (and booking services) can categorize hotels however they see fit. This is only recently a problem with the 'opaque' services coming to the market. Prior to that, users knew exactly what hotel they were getting so they couldn't claim deception. If the Motel 6 claimed themselves to be a 5 star hotel, that was fine as users knew they'd be getting a Motel 6, although the hotel called themselves a 5 star, and the user could read up on their own about it and decide if that was where they wanted to stay or not. This is not the case with a non-refundable opaque purchase.

In my opinion the star rating problem is really only an issue with the opaque services, since if you disagree on the star rating you're "stuck." If you have a problem with EasyClick (which you shouldn't since we've identified all the opaque NYC hotels anyway :) ), either don't use them or make sure all of your reservations are booked at least 72 hours in advance so you can cancel them if you're surprised or not happy with what you receive.

Anyone who reads thru some of the reviews at TripAdvisor can see that often two users, staying at the same hotel at the same time, can have entirely different views, experiences, and opinions. This is why star ratings are subjective, proving that "one man's trash is another man's treasure."

[bd134]

Does anyone remember the title of the article? Thanks.

BTW, I think it will be very interesting if someone pitched this idea to David E. Kelley for a Boston Legal episode.... :)