Hotwire downgrades your hotel after purchase

[XT600]

Hotwire has obviously downgraded my hotel I bought 3 month ago - I noticed this after my stay only (evaluation form shows 3* instead of 3,5*) and sent email to their customer service.

first reply: didn't understand the problem

2nd reply: "Thank you again for contacting Hotwire. Hotwire did lower the star rating by 1/2 a star. I have added 15 HotDollars to your account that you can use toward your next air, car or hotel booking with Hotwire."

I don't want 15 credits I want 100%refund as priceline does in such cases - any ideas?

[dahammer]

I am not aware of PRICELINE's 100% "after the stay" refund.

Downgrades happen all the time, but the only way to get an adjustment would be to catch this prior to your stay, HOTWIRE would typically have offered to cancel your reservation without penalty You would need to go to your account and look at the star rating of your upcoming stay and see if the rating has changed. I would ask customer service or even the hotel for the date of the hotel downgrade and if it was before your stay, you might be in line for more hot dollars good for a future stay. Asking for a100% refund is a bit unreasonable, kind of like finishing dinner at a restaurant then complaining that the food was lousy and such small portions after cleaning your plate, then asking the waiter to remove it from your bill. Did you have any issues with your hotel stay?

I would ask for more hot dollars, and never threaten to "never use HOTWIRE again for the rest of my life" because there is no incentive to keep you as a customer.

[XT600]

OK seriously PL has done the 100% refund inofficially no emails, only phonecalls... it happend once to a stay in Frankfurt, Marriott was donwngraded from 5* to 4* but I noticed this only after the stay.

Maybe you folks in the US use PL/HW only couple of days before the trip but Europeans with 4-6 weeks yearly holiday often book PL/HW hotels months ahead (which isnot really smart but they want to be sure to have a hotel room) - if you do this, the chance to get a deal which is later downgraded is higher. Priceline/HW should honor this somehow as they also collect the money from you months before the stay (hotel gets paid only after check-out)