Hotwire Hotel: Does price matter?

[david_fudd]

I'm curious: Does the price of a hotwire offer help determine which hotel it is? For example:

Over the course of the last 36 hours or so, I have always found one of the following offers, but never both of them at the same time:

August 1, 2010 - August 3, 2010

Soho - Financial District

$196

4 Stars

Recommended in 90% percent of reviews

Fitness center

Restaurants

Business center

High Speed Internet

OR (note same everything except price)

August 1, 2010 - August 3, 2010

Soho - Financial District

$179

4 Stars

Recommended in 90% percent of reviews

Fitness center

Restaurants

Business center

High Speed Internet

So what I'm wondering is: are these two different hotel offers that flip-flop once one gets sold, or does hotwire keep changing the price of the same hotel offer to keep the masses confused? Thanks!! (some day I too will be an expert user!!:))

dje

[thereuare]

HOTWIRE does fluctuate their prices from one search to the next, but as these amenities are common to the area, there is no way to know if that is what you're experiencing above OR if you're seeing two different hotels. HOTWIRE will only show one hotel per star rating in each zone, the hotel with the lowest price is the one shown. However, if two hotels have the same price (or very close to one another) they will alternate which hotel is shown.

As each appears to show the percent user recommended, if you look at each of the criteria HOTWIRE uses (quality, cleanliness, location, etc) for each of the two offerings, is this information the same as well? (this won't prove that they're the same, but it could prove if they're different :) )

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

[david_fudd]

Fascinating indeed! So why don't we post the customer review information along with our wins? It should be helpful to know that the hotel was recommended by (for example) 90% out of 100+ reviews, and that it received 4.5 4.5 4.0 4.5 4.5 on its report card. It's a lot of information (which changes over time) to gather, but possibly helpful nevertheless.

dje

[thereuare]

You can include them in your posts/wins, but we won't include them in the hotel lists as the data changes much to frequently to be used reliably... especially the percent recommended by HOTWIRE users, which can change by up to 20% from one search to the next for the same property (assuming what i saw was indeed the same property)

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