Per-market Hotwire Pricing Differences?

[matador]

Over the last week, I've been coordinating travel plans for a family reunion in San Diego. As is usual, I come here, check the forums for good deals and the hotel list and start searching with the HOTWIRE link. I found a sweet deal on a 4* in N. San Diego Rancho Bernardo (Rancho Bernardo Inn) for $115 for 7/28-31. Well, I pass on the instructions to my other family members who live in other states, and they cannot get the same deal. It comes back for them with a link to Hotels.com for $199.

I was worried that I had taken the last rooms at the HOTWIRE rate - so I head back to the site and try to book more rooms for the same night... and I get the same deal. Regardless of how I tried to get things setup for my family, they could not get the $115 price to appear. Some things I tried:

The only thing I could think would cause this is that maybe HOTWIRE is profiling visitors by IP address and region? I live in a very rural state in the middle of nowhere and my family all live in very large, urban metro areas. I don't mind the fact that I get better prices, but it made my family wonder what HOTWIRE is doing for them.

The downside of this... my family is going to call me now whenever they don't get a good deal at HOTWIRE and try to get me to book things for them. I really don't want to become their travel agent ;-)

Any other similar experiences?

[thereuare]

Please add the date(s) of your stay to your Priceline Washington DC thread and read your messages... then reply to this thread and we'll comment on the board.

Please use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases.

PS-

I was worried that I had taken the last rooms at the HOTWIRE rate...

... and please add your most recent purchase to the board :)

[matador]

OK guys - I replied to all of those threads, checked my messages and posted the new one in the CA board... now I'd love any insight you can provide.

[thereuare]

My guess is that your family members are searching for more than double occupancy...

I search for 2adults/0children and am offered the $115 opaque hotel... i change the search to 2adults/1child and am offered the $199 Hotels.com property.

Please use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases... and please ask your family members to do the same for their own purchases.

[matador]

Thanks for helping me t-shoot this. I'll let them know so that I don't get calls anymore ;-)

[thereuare]

Send them here and we'll reply to their posts :)

[Kade]

Simple. You search results are populated based on your preferences, needs, and whether or not the hotel has the accommodation.

The number of beds required, the number of people staying, the number of nights, the amenitys required... It all is taken into serious consideration when the system processes your search results.

I've had cases while talking to a customer where I was looking at a completely different set of results then the customer, when we had ( what I thought ) was the exact same perimeters. Turned out she had 1 too many occupants and the hotel couldn't provide for that number of people for 1 room :).

Some hotels only have 1 bed rooms , or maybe all their 2 bed rooms were occupied.

Its definitely not some type of sham, or anything close to shady. Theres always a reason behind situations like that, but its hard to pinpoint the exact cause.