Book One Nite, see hotel, book remainder of trip

[cewiebe]

I'm always nervous about where I'll end up with both these services, so on a recent trip to New York City, we booked just the first night so we could check out the hotel. It turned out to be the Westin at Times Square that many others have written about. Once we got there and were happy with it (paid $137 plus $28 tax), we used the hotel's business center to make another bid for the rest of our stay. We could pick out the hotel easily from the listings, and even though we technically had to check out and back in, the managers made sure we could keep the same room.

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

This is good advice, and was successfully done as per THIS POST.

However, there is always the chance that the hotel won't be offered on the subsequent search (as Hotwire will only show you one hotel at each star rating). There is also the chance that a hotel in the area has the same amenities and star rating as the one you just booked, and you'll think you're getting the same hotel, but upon the name being revealed it may not be.

[SAPMAN]

Pros and Cons: Good idea to be able to bail out of a bad hotel, especially if you have a car and can move easily. If you are doing a long stay, probably better to get a 2 day stay at first to give you time to make decision.

But if you do not want the same hotel - the new one may worse. :)

If you do want the same one - you may get a different, worse one.

[sperra869]

However, there is always the chance that the hotel won't be offered on the subsequent search (as Hotwire will only show you one hotel at each star rating).

Can you help me understand this? For example, suppose there are two or more hotels with identical star ratings in the same zone and on Monday, I make a booking and get my assignment (Hotel A)- - then decide on Tuesday I want additional rooms at the same place but alas - - the listing wont appear - - only the listing for hotel B appears again and again and again and again.... even though after calling Hotel A directly to inquire about their capacity which is woefully low.... Hotel A's listing will not appear again until someone books with Hotel B? Is this Hotwire''s way of spreading the customer base?

[dahammer]

in your example, Hotel "A" may have availability, but all of the Hotwire rates might be sold out. Unfortunately, that is the risk of booking on PL and HW and not directly with the Hotel, the trade off is a savings of maybe 50% off rack rates.

[thereuare]

Before breaking the stay like that you check on Hotwire to make sure that the same exact hotel, star rating, and amenities are shown for the complete stay as are shown for subsets of the stay.

Is there some risk, "yes", but most would consider this to be extremely minimal and i do not know of it 'backfiring' on anyone yet (one done properly)

[liveinhotels]

Here is a backfire story for you. Earlier this month I wanted to book the Doubletree in Mission Valley. I pulled up hotels for Monday night, and what appeared to be the Doubletree appeared. I opened a new browser (to keep my first listing active) and pulled up hotels for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights. The exact same hotel appeared for all four nights. I went back to the first browser and booked. It was indeed the Doubletree. I went back to the second browser and booked the exact same entry for Tuesday night, but I got the Town and Country. The Town and Country has the same * rating and the same 4 amenity codes, but usually appears with 3 additional codes, so it was not a lie when they told me the amenities, there were just some missing. I was surprised and confused and decided to try Wednesday. I was back to the Doubletree. By then, I had decided that I must have made an error in my Tuesday booking so I booked for Thursday, again with the listing that appeared to be the Doubletree, but I was back at the Town and Country. Needless to say, I packed and unpacked a lot that week!

I did learn something very helpful from the experience. It appears that since Hotwire shows only one hotel in each * category, that hotel will show up until it is sold (even if I open a different browser and sign on with a different account name). As soon as someone buys it, a new hotel in that * rating will get priority for being sold. In my case, because the amenity code already showing up on my browser qualified for that new hotel, I got the new hotel. This explains my back and forth, back and forth, even though I had all four nights showing on my browsers before I started. This information is very helpful, because if an undesirable hotel is coming up in a * category, blocking the hotel that I do want in that category, I now know that all I have to do is wait until someone buys it. I sign on again an hour later and usually get the hotel I was waiting for.

Even with the risk of a different hotel showing up for the remainder of the stay, booking the first night separately, especially in a strange city for a long stay, is still a great idea.

[thereuare]

It appears that since Hotwire shows only one hotel in each * category, that hotel will show up until it is sold (even if I open a different browser and sign on with a different account name). As soon as someone buys it, a new hotel in that * rating will get priority for being sold.

I don't believe that this is the case....

Hotwire will show the hotel with the lowest loaded rate. If two hotels have rates that are close to each other (it's unknown what is considered 'close', but let's assume it's within $10 of each for this example) then the hotel presented is chosen randomly between the two.

So in your example above i suspect that the two hotels were close in price to each other, and the 'random selection' unfortunately didn't go in your favor.

[liveinhotels]

If it is true that the lowest priced hotel in the category is sold first, wouldn't that mean that it would be better to buy your hotels earlier, rather than closer to the date of stay, because the cheaper inventory would be sold first. I've read the other topics on this site regarding this, but am still wondering if prices go down closer to the date of stay. In one instance, I saw a hotel I wanted to book for a Monday go down in price $32 from Saturday to Sunday.

[thereuare]

The above is based upon the lowest rate loaded into the 'database'.

So for example:

HotelA's lowest rate $50

HotelB's lowest rate $70

--> Hotel A is shown on the search

The above could be 6 months before check-in date. One month before check-in HotelB sees that they're not as occupied as they suspected and will likley have vacancies, so they adjust their rate to $37:

HotelA's lowest rate $50

HotelB's lowest rate $37

--> Hotel B is now shown on the search

It sounds as if you're assuming that the hotels will always load their lowest rates early, but that's not necessarily the case. A hotel may be holding a block of rooms for a convention (wedding, catered affair, etc) until 3 weeks before check-in, and based upon those block of rooms being occupied, they have little or no vacancy, and if they do load a Hotwire rate then it is one that is higher than usual. Three weeks before the event they see that they only sold half of the rooms they were blocking, and now they have a high vacancy situation, and load some low rates into the system.

Rates are in a constant state of flux based upon the supply/demand relationship, and hotels can increase, decrease, add, or remove, rates at any time.

[sage]

We had a case in 2003 in Minneapolis where there were hotels with identical amenities in the same section of town (West). My associate and I, within 5 minutes time of one another, booked on Hotwire what we assumed were the same hotel on the same date. Wrongo. We ended up logistically-challenged at hotels 10 miles from each other. We now know to book multiple rooms in the same Hotwire transaction (then "treat" the non-paying person to dinners that week).

I contacted Hotwire and the rep said they "rotate" three hotels booked (we learned are Holiday, Doubletree, Sheraton) under a single amenities/star listing. One sign of this situation is where a given hotel offered by Hotwire "changes" its amenities, indicating that there is only one hotel available (more amenities) or multiple hotels in the pot (fewer amenities, since they may not all share the same larger amenities set).