Hotwire Hotel: Venice 21-25 March 2013 - Help ID 5* hotel

[ElPal]

Using your links as always to research (and will also use to later book if that's what we do).

Any ideas which hotel this might be:

5* hotel in Venice City Center - St Mark's Square - Grand Canal - Rialto Bridge area for $303 per night or $1393.91 for the total stay.

Amenities: Fitness Center, Restaurant(s), Business Center, Laundry Facilities (self-service), High-Speed Internet Access, Free breakfast.

Using these (minus the laundry) to narrow down 5* on the retail part I get the Hotel Centurion Palace (usually $343 per night or $1511.24 on the retail part).

In any event, these amenities don't appear to match the reported 5* wins on the HOTWIRE hotel list.

Thanks in advance

[ElPal]

Using your links to look again I doubt it would be the Hotel Centurion Palace given that the hot Rate Hotel says "Still Gathering Reviews" yet the Hotel Centurion Palace has 4.5 out of 5.0 Score from 244 reviews on Tripadvisor.

Any ideas?

[thereuare]

The TA reviews and the reviews shown by previous HOTWIRE guests are unrelated... as well, from one search to the next we have seen the same hotel show a percent recommended by previous guests and then revert to 'still gathering reviews' (or show a different percentage than the first search). This information shown by HOTWIRE is not a reliable way to identify hotels as it is too inconsistent.

Thanks for using the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board.

[ElPal]

The TA reviews and the reviews shown by previous HOTWIRE guests are unrelated... as well, from one search to the next we have seen the same hotel show a percent recommended by previous guests and then revert to 'still gathering reviews' (or show a different percentage than the first search). This information shown by HOTWIRE is not a reliable way to identify hotels as it is too inconsistent.

Thanks for using the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board.

Further to the above, is the number of TRIPADVISOR reviews ever a good indicator of hotel?

I was looking at the 4* hot deal HOTWIRE property (using your links) for the City Center - St Mark's Square - Grand Canal – Rialto Bridge, which features:

Restaurant(s)

Business Center

Laundry Facilities (self-service)

High-Speed Internet Access

Free Breakfast

Free Internet

4.5/5 TRIPADVISOR 500+

Going on what was returned by the search results narrowing down to 4.5/5 Tripadvisor rating and all of the above amenities, I was given 3 possibilities:

HOTEL PALAZZO STERN - 571 REVIEWS

STARHOTELS SPLENDID VENICE - 1152 REVIEWS

BEST WESTERN HOTEL BOLOGNA - 858 REVIEWS

The Best Western Hotel Bologna has Venice written underneath it but its description says it is in Mestre.

Going solely on the 500+ I thought the hotel would have been the Hotel Palazzo Stern which would have been an incredible deal - too good to be true I feared so I checked the BB HOTWIRE Hotel list.

On it, I note that previous BB users have reported getting the Best Western Premier Hotel Sant'Elena with this amenity set. Interestingly, it was a match for all but restaurant on the retail part of the site using the tick boxes. Reading the description it reveals that the hotel has a cafe - CTRL F did not find any mention of restaurant on its HOTWIRE page. It has 720 reviews.

Going just on the search results I thought this property was going to be the Hotel Palazzo Stern but with all the information in front of me I now fear that it would instead of Best Western Premier Hotel Sant'Elena.

Does anyone think there is even a slight chance that it would be the Hotel Palazzo Stern or am I dreaming?

(NOTE: The other hotwire hot deal I found (again with your links) matches the Hilton Molino Stucky and again that is listed as 500+ reviews in the hot deal listing yet has 1574 reviews!)

Is the number of Tripadvisor reviews shown by HOTWIRE also not a useful tool in narrowing down properties?

[ElPal]

Bumping this up - thanks.

[ElPal]

Bumping this up - thanks.

Hi there again, I'm still waiting on thoughts on the above but have another hotel to ID.

You will see that in my initial post I thought that the hotel shown by Hotwire was most likely the Centurion.

However, now (using your HOTWIRE link) I am seeing a different 5* property at US$329 (which yes is expensive but we may be prepared to take the leap and go for it if it is an outstanding property) for our dates with different amenities:

Fitness Center

Restaurant(s)

Business Center

Laundry Facilities (self-service)

High-Speed Internet Access

Golf Nearby

Tennis Nearby

Free Breakfast

As you are aware it is not possible to narrow down with "laundry", golf or tennis on HOTWIRE. However, nonetheless the only property that matched the fields I could search on hotwire was again the Hotel Palace Centurion.

However, doing a general google search for 5* Venice and golf and tennis I found other properties including the Hilton Molino Stucky (which curiously isn't even showing up on HOTWIRE for our dates) and the Hotel Danieli (which is our dream hotel for Venice).

Any help would be much appreciated. As always, I use your links (in fact I probably click on them several times a day at the moment!)

[AaronJB]

The Tripadvisor ratings can help to *narrow down* properties, but are not an entirely reliable indicator, as the tripadvisor ratings are not updated "live" - a listing can show a 4/5, but there is a chance that in the meantime the actual rating of the hotel may have changed.

I do not see the amount of tripadvisor reviews (I see the tripadvisor logo with the shaded circles next to it on the detail page) listed on HOTWIRE under any listing - I do see the amount of HOTWIRE reviews, but HOTWIRE reviews are not a reliable indicator of what hotel might be showing as there's nothing to check ratings against, as there is with Tripadvisor.

Are you still seeing the above two listings? I'm not seeing a 4* in City Center for these dates and am seeing a different 5* in City Center.

Thank you for using the site's HOTWIRE or PRICELINE links to start your purchases and searches.

[ElPal]

I have noticed differences between the HOTWIRE page shown to me if I click the BB HOTWIRE link and the HOTWIRE page shown to me if I (forgive me for this) don't click the link (I click on your link several times a day and it is on the rarer occasions that I do not (if it slips my mind)). It appears that this further information is shown when you access HOTWIRE without clicking the BB link. It is indeed the number of TRIPADVISOR not HOTWIRE reviews that are shown. Or I will see this information if when I click on the BB HOTWIRE link I am taken to HOTWIRE but told there are site issues and redirected to the HOTWIRE home page (this has been happening quite a lot over the last few days).

I am still seeing a 4* hotel in the City Centre as above with the following amenities:

Restaurant(s)

Business Center

Laundry Facilities (self-service)

High-Speed Internet Access

Free Breakfast

Free Internet

4.5/5 TRIPADVISOR 500+

Can you tell me which hotel this might be please.

Re the 5*, I am now seeing an alternate property to the two different 5* properties I have already asked about in this thread.

The amenities are:

Smoke Free Rooms

Restaurant(s)

Business Center

Laundry Facilities (self-service)

High-Speed Internet Access

In-room accessibility

Wheelchair accessible

I note this does not match the two 5* hotels on the HOTWIRE hotel list. Also, in case it reappears over the next few days, any idea which 5* property with the "tennis nearby" that I had posted about above this might be?

[ElPal]

In the meantime, I have booked a room at the Palazzo Priuli. It is cancellable so I will still be checking out HOTWIRE.

If someone could please answer my post re which hotels these might be it would be very much appreciated. Thanks so much for all of your help and for this incredibly useful website.