Hotwire Hotel: 5* Le Meridien Chicago Mag Mile/Wacker Dr

[jlcyclone]

I can confirm that the 5* Mag Mile/Wacker Drive hotel that always pops up- amenities are Restaurant, Fitness Center, High Speed Internet, Business Center - is the Le Meridien Chicago. I booked a room for Sat. 8/30 at $145, but the hotel and Orbitz were offering the same night for $130 (that deal has since disappeared), so Hotwire is refunding me $30 per their price guarantee.

There are only a few legitimate 5* hotels in Chicago and I had been hoping for one of those - from what I've read of the Le Meridien, it's really a 4* or 4.5*. So keep this info in mind during any future bids in this area.

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding.

Thanks for sharing this info and congratulations on getting an even better price!

Question: When you say that the offer has disappeared, did you mean Hotwire showing this offering or the $130 rate via Orbitz and hotel's website?

I ask because one thing that prevents me from trying the "Double the Difference guarantee" for a large amount is that it seems like the whole process would take about 3 days (contact them, fill out a form, have them confirm the cheaper rate, get back in touch with me). My concern is if after 2 days the cheaper rate is no longer offered and by the time Hotwire checks to confirm the rate it may be gone.

In the examples i've seen Hotwire almost always pulls their offer from new searches once somebody has taken advantage of their guarantee. I don't think this is 'revenge' or anything like that, but rather that they do want to be the lowest price available, and if they can't be then they'd rather not offer the hotel (i think it's bad publicity to offer 'the lowest rates guaranteed' and not actually have the lowest rate, even if you compensate the customer accordingly)

[jlcyclone]

I was referring to the Orbitz/hotel website $130 rate disappearing - I just checked Hotwire and they're still offering the $145 price for that night. The Orbitz website is down right now, but as of last night, their rate was up to $149 or $159. I had the same worries as you about the rate going up before Hotwire had a chance to confirm it. Luckily, following Hotwire's recommendation on the form they sent me, I included a screen shot of the Orbitz page showing the $130 rate, the hotel, and the dates of stay (however, make you that you include the screen shot in the body of the e-mail and not as a separate attachment - they said they can't open attachments for security purposes).

In any event, the whole process only took a few hours. I e-mailed them, they replied within an hour or so with the form (which is really just a list of info they want me to e-mail them). After I e-mailed the info and the screenshot, they replied within another hour or two, saying that I was entitled to a credit of $30 and it would show up within 10 days (I'll obviously have to make sure that the credit does in fact show up). I'm not sure if including the screenshot sped up the research process or not, but it took much less time than I had anticipated.

[thereuare]

Thanks for the follow-up.

I have only heard positive results from people taking advantage of their guarantee (no matter what the dollar amount involved). I recently had an opportinity to try it on a 5* hotel which they list at ~$300/nite but could be had thru other means for ~$200, thus bringing my cost down to $100/nite. This would have been for 3 rooms so the savings would have been quite significant, and even though i have only heard good things about them honoring their guarantee, i felt the risk was too great.

Glad to hear your experience was good as well.

[gleff]

I've actually never booked through Hotwire...

jlcyclone refers to getting the $30 difference in price refuded.

thereuare refers to the guarantee being for DOUBLE the difference.

Was $60 in fact due back to jlcyclone in this case? And was only half that refunded?

[thereuare]

I booked a room for Sat. 8/30 at $145, but the hotel and Orbitz were offering the same night for $130

The difference was $15 = $145-$130

So Double the Difference is $30 = $15 x 2