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Hotwire Hotel: Beware HOTWIRE TAXES and FEES !


Rhine-and-Roses
By Rhine-and-Roses,
in

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I wanted to stay in Frankfurt, Germany at the last minute last night, so I checked Hotwire for a hotel. I saw what I thought was the 5* Westin for (I think) $112, plus taxes and fees for over $100. I checked all the other hotels and they were all showing taxes and fees for about the same amount as the cost of the room. One room was $67 with fees of $86.

This morning I went through some hotels in Paris, Berlin, Vienna, and Barcelona and found the same thing. One Barcelona 5* is going for $440 with $459.94 taxes per night!

I emailed them and they told me "I understand you mentioned you did not book due to available hotel rates. I regret you did not find what you were looking for." No mention whatsoever of the ridiculous fees.

I called this morning and showed them a couple of my past bookings and the taxes and fees on those, compared to what is showing up now. They said they would send it to the appropriate person.

They lost a booking last night, but I did click through your link trying!

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Exactly the same for me ! I had some cold sweat when I've seen this...

Hotels in Copenhagen and Stockholm were 508€ and 486€ and now they are at 828€ and 927€ and I just can't pay that price (taxes=price of the room) !

The same for London, I've seen an hotel at 80€ for one night and it's now 110€.

I hope it's a bug and they will correct this, otherwise I'll have to book via Expedia or booking.com and it will be expensive :)

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I am experiencing the same thing! Last night and tonight, did a search for a hotel at London Heathrow. Found a great rate, for example.. $63. Was going to jump on it, but then reviewed the TOTAL cost. For taxes, it was $73!!! $10 more than the actual room rate, so total for the room would be $136! Could this be correct???!!!! I looked at regular hotel websites, and the taxes were nowhere near 100%+ the room rate. Please let us know what's going on11!

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They are still giving canned responses. I'm done with them. Sorry, some of you are going to have to write.

"Thank you for contacting Hotwire.

I understand that you do not agree with the taxes and fees that are advertised on the Hotwire site for certain hotels. I regret any inconvenience this has caused you.

Customer feedback is an important component in ensuring quality products and services at Hotwire. Our goal is to exceed your expectations and we regret we did not do so on this occasion. We hope to have the opportunity to better serve your needs in the near future.

If we can be of further assistance, please feel free to reply to this email or contact us directly at 1-866-HOTWIRE (468-9473). Thank you for choosing Hotwire.

Sincerely,

Jaycee C.

Hotwire Customer Care"

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More details :

Dear froggy,

Thank you for contacting Hotwire regarding a booking you are interested in making.

I understand you are concerned about the taxes and fees rate you found during your recent search to be higher than usual. I regret the frustration this causes.

I assure you Hotwire has not increased the taxes and fees. This is something we noticed yesterday and are working to correct. Reports have been submitted to correct this issue.

I see by the dates of your searches, you are looking for a hotel for several dates in the coming months. I recommend watching the site and book when you see the issue has been resolved.

Thank you for your patience as resolve this issue.

If we can be of further assistance, please feel free to reply to this email or contact us directly by phone.

We'll have to wait a little bit :)

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I'm seeing the same Hotwire fee and taxes problem. A rate of $69 for 4 nights would be $276. The taxes and fees added an additional $264! I emailed Hotwire. First got the canned "We've got your letter and will be answering you soonest."

Then this letter, which completely fluffs over my issue, just came in:

Dear Romelle,

Thank you for contacting us regarding your upcoming travel plans.

I understand that you have questions regarding the tax recovery charges and fees. I will be happy to provide you information on this matter.

The cost of your hotel booking charged by Hotwire is the total of: the indicated room rate multiplied by the number of days in your reservation, plus an additional amount for the tax-recovery charges and our service fees.

The tax-recovery charge is assessed to recover the amount we pay to the vendor in connection with your reservation, including sales and use, occupancy, room tax, excise tax, value added and other similar taxes etc., and the balance of the additional amount is a fee we charge in connection with the handling of your reservation. Our service fee varies based on the amount and location of your reservation.

If we can be of further assistance, please feel free to reply to this email or contact us directly at 1-866-HOTWIRE (468-9473). Thank you for choosing Hotwire.

Sincerely,

Richard M.

Hotwire Customer Care

I wrote back asking them to please relook at the issue.

Romelle

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Be VERY careful booking on Hotwire. Below is the newest email where they claim it is fixed. 36 minutes past the time it was sent to me, I checked Frankfurt and my $81 5* hotel had taxes and fees of $95+. I am not sure if they are still off, or if this is their new policy. Frankly, their" unparalleled level of service" is underwhelming. No more Hotwire for me for a good long while.

Dear Rhine,

Thank you for contacting us regarding your upcoming travel plans.

I see that you have received rates for hotels in Barcelona and Frankfurt, however, the taxes are higher than the hotel's room rate. I will be happy to provide some information to you regarding this.

Upon review, I see that this issue was reported to our technical group for review. It appears that the issue has been resolved because I have just completed three searches in Barcelona, Frankfurt and Paris and the taxes that are shown, appear to be correct.

At Hotwire, our customers are extremely important, and it's our goal to offer an unparalleled level of service to assist with their travel needs. If we can be of further assistance or help you with a booking, please feel free to reply to this email or contact us directly at 1-866-HOTWIRE (468-9473). Thank you for choosing Hotwire.

Sincerely,

Eleanor M.

Hotwire Customer Care Supervisor

www.hotwire.com

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I just checked - 5:35 AM 9/19/11.

The 4* was OK, but I got this for the 3*:

Location: Sultanahmet

Star rating: 3-star

Check-in date: Tue, Nov 1

Check-out date: Fri, Nov 4

Hotel

Rate per night: $58.00

Nights: 3

Rooms: 1

Tax recovery charges

& fees: $170.33 !!!!!

Subtotal: $344.33

Trip total: $344.33

And as a retired techie ... those random/intermittent bugs are the hardest to find and fix. Like random problems in a car's electrical system.

Romelle

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This is what I'm getting, almost 24 hours after the "repair". I picked the first hotel to show up after sorting for star rating. I am pretty affronted with Hotwire's replies to me. This year alone I have booked 15 nights through them- you would think they could be a bit more helpful.

Location: Mitte - Kreuzberg - Tiergarten Berlin

Star rating: 5-star

Check-in date: Fri, Oct 21

Check-out date: Sat, Oct 22

Rate per night: $122.00

Nights: 1

Tax recovery charges

& fees: $119.89

Subtotal: $241.89

Trip total: $241.89

Prices are in US Dollar (USD)

Location: Central Frankfurt (Innenstadt)

Star rating: 5-star

Check-in date: Fri, Oct 21

Check-out date: Sat, Oct 22

Rate per night: $81.00

Nights: 1

Tax recovery charges

& fees: $90.78

Subtotal: $171.78

Trip total: $171.78

Prices are in US Dollar (USD)

Hotel details

Location: Charles de Gaulle Intl Airport CDG Paris

Star rating: 4-star

Check-in date: Fri, Oct 21

Check-out date: Sat, Oct 22

Amenities: See all amenities

Rate per night: $93.00

Nights: 1

Tax recovery charges

& fees: $92.25

Subtotal: $185.25

Trip total: $185.25

Prices are in US Dollar (USD)

Location: L'Eixample - Passeig de Gr

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I do think Hotwire should hire people with enough brains to notice that taxes and fees shouldn't be roughly equal to the bid amount. I've gotten slightly differently worded, but still inane, canned responses from each of the times I've written to them.

The scary thing is that some people might not notice the huge total, and just push their purchase on through based on what they saw on the first page.

Romelle

PS - thereuare, I did forget to say "thank you" when responding to your research. I appreciate you taking a swing at it.

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Sorry, froggy! Maybe another day will change things, but I am starting to think like you- this is perhaps not an accident. A colleague tried booking Berlin today, $95 with $98 in fees and they told him that it was correct.

Have you tried Priceline? You can't guess hotels, but if you stay in the 4 and 5 star range, they are usually quite decent, and their fees have NOT gone up. Bon Courage!

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Not yet for Priceline, it's a Xmas trip for my whole family (Denmark and Sweden).

I told them I would take care of everything (I guessed the hotels I think) and now Hotwire is failing me...

I'm not sure they will be okay to bid with Priceline but we may not have the choice.

Thanx for your support !

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This has been really frustrating me. I've sent 4 different emails to Hotwire and each time get back a slightly reworded canned letter that entirely misses the point.

Since Hotwire is part of Expedia, I looked on the Expedia web site. Corporate Relations where investors ask about investment stuff. Sure enough, there was a "Contact" address there. I sent my issues to that address yesterday. Today I get back:

"Dear Romelle,

I am writing in response to your complaint filed with Expedia regarding your recent attempt to book a hotel reservation.

I understand you were encountering a discrepancy with the taxes and fees listed while searching for a hotel in the Beyazit - Grand Bazaar area. Sometimes the amount of taxes is about 15% of the hotel rate, and sometimes it is 100%. As such, you will not be using our Web site to book hotels if the rate for taxes and fees is this high.

I appreciate you taking the time to notify us of your concerns. It appears we are currently experiencing a bug with this hotel partner in the Beyazit - Grand Bazaar area. I can assure you we forwarded this information along to our hotel team for further review so this does not continue to occur in the future. We appreciate your patience while we work to resolve this issue. If you are flexible with your travel needs, I recommend searching in a nearby area or for a different star rating.

We appreciate your business and regret your Hotwire hotel experience was anything less than exceptional.

Best regards,

Amy L. Monfils

Customer Care Relations

Hotwire Corporate Office"

This is not quite on target as the problem isn't limited to one hotel company, but it is closer. I figure maybe my note had to go through some different hands, possibly a little higher in the both the Expedia and Hotwire feeding chains, before it worked it way back down to Hotwire.

The Expedia Contact form I found is: http://www.expediainc.com/contactus.cfm

I just checked, and the first Hotwire offering I pulled up in Istanbul still has the problem. A 5* with a rate of over $100 and taxes and fees also over $100.

Romelle

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Pretty funny. I just sent Hotwire another letter with another current example. A very polite response back, thanking me and noting " ... The error you brought to our attention was recently identified as an irregularity by other customers and our customer support staff. We are working toward solving the problem on the Web site and reaching out to affected customers, such as yourself. Please accept our apologies for any frustration this created along with 25 HotDollars, which have been applied to the Hotwire account registered to ....".

I hadn't expected anything but getting them to solve the problem before I run out of time for booking an upcoming trip.

I'm hoping some Hotwire front line people also get some training in just what is a reasonable amount of taxes and fees and what is clearly not. And to actually read complaint letters before pressing the button for canned response # 748734y5837.

I'll post back here when the city/zone/star level I've been watching seems to be corrected.

Romelle

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Trip Advisor is part of Expedia, but Expedia is getting ready to spin it off (or maybe already has).

I didn't check a lot of hotels, but the first one I checked had taxes and fees higher than the base rate for the hotel. More than doubled to total.

I'll bet some techies are pulling an all-nighter.

And I'd be curious to see a graph of Hotwire's European bookings by day and maybe country. I'll also bet the graph is sagging downward, and will keep sagging downward until they get the issue fixed.

Romelle

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