Hotwire Hotel: 4* Zurich Crowne Plaza

[hopeland]

Hello- Wondering what this hotel might be:

• 12/31/12-01/02/13
  
• $115
  
• Zurich (Zurich City West)
  

Amenities:

• Indoor pool(s)
  
• Smoke Free Rooms
  
• Fitness Center
  
• Pool(s)
  
• Restaurant(s)
  
• Business Center
  
• Laundry Facilities (self-service)
  
• High-Speed Internet Access
  
• Spa Services
  

First guess would be the Crowne Plaza Hotel, which has been reported before, but under much more limited list of amenities.

Other possibilities are Novotel Zurich City-West, RAMADA Hotel Zurich City, and 25hours Hotel Zurich West.

Novotel fits for sure, but hasn't been reported. Ramada: I'm not sure about the pool. 25hours: Hotwire retail lists it as a 3.5*. Though the amenity list seems to match.

Now here's my question: According to the Crowne Plaza hotel website, the fitness center/spa/pool is closed until late 2013. If this hotel turns out to be the Crowne Plaza hotel, what is the Hotwire policy on refunds if the current amenity list isn't really available?

[thereuare]

I'd say that there is a 'pretty good' chance that this is the Crowne Plaza.

HOTWIRE does put a disclaimer under the amenity list:

Please note that Hotwire cannot guarantee the level of services offered at a property and/or if services are operational at the time of visit. Services may be closed due to seasonality reasons and/or may be closed for renovation.

... but they are also a fairly reasonable company to deal with, imo. I would think that you would have a good argument for a refund given the Pool closure, but definitely a 'your mileage may differ' type of scenario. Given the closure is for an extended period of time, and not an instance where the pool as closed for the weekend that you happened to book, strengthens your case (as you'd have a weak case for a refund if the pool was closed only temporarily for a day or two that you happened to be visiting).

HOWEVER, this may be a moot point anyway, as this hotel (at least on my search) shows the 'Risk Free Booking' where you'll be able to cancel the hotel within 24 hours if you're not pleased with the results. You can only evoke the risk free booking once for any given stay, so if you receive the Crowne Plaza and you don't want that property, i'd sooner try to cancel based upon the lack of amenities being offered so that you can save the risk free option for your next purchase, but should you have any issue with canceling for the 'missing' amenities, you could fall back on the Risk Free booking option (assuming it's showing on your HOTWIRE search for this property)

Please use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases.

Let us know what you decide and how it goes or if we can be of further help.

[hopeland]

Oh wow, thanks. I have never seen this option before. Is it new? The Risk-Free Booking option does not appear in Safari for some reason. Ever since you released BiddingHelper.com.com, I have been using that to bid/search, but I had problems with it working in Firefox, so I slways had to use Safari in order to use BiddingHelper.com.

I just tried BiddingHelper.com with Firefox just now and it now seems to work. I don't remember the issue I had before though. The Risk Free Booking option shows up now!

I think I will just try it with the Risk Free Booking option. The other alternatives aren't very appealing for one reason or another. The 5* Zurich North and East has Risk Free Booking also, but I'm pretty sure that's the Renaissance, which isn't in a convenient location for me. The 4* Zurich North and East for $98 is appealing, but it's probably the Holiday Inn, also not a great location. If it were the Swissotel, then that's a different story, but it's likely not. So I will probably try a retail alternative.

[hopeland]

It was indeed the Crowne Plaza, and I will indeed invoke the Risk Free Booking option.

But now you can update the new zone info and the new amenity list:

Indoor pool(s)

Smoke Free Rooms

Fitness Center

Pool(s)

Restaurant(s)

Business Center

Laundry Facilities (self-service)

High-Speed Internet Access

Spa Services

Thanks for the assistance, and I did use BiddingHelper to make this booking.

P.S: And you can update the correct end date to 01/02/!3 :)

[thereuare]

'Sorry' it was the hotel you had thought... glad to see you confirmed it and have the Risk Free Booking to fall back on (which is was introduced about a month or so ago)

If you ever have any trouble with any of our site(s) or features feel free to send us a PM as we try our best to do extensive testing before releasing anything and fix bugs as soon as possible. As you appear to need a specific location for this trip you may also want to check out one of our sister sites MAPS and HOTELS.com which has a great filtering system that makes it very easy to see which hotels are closest to your desired location as well as how much more/less it would cost to go up/down in star rating or closer/further from your ideal spot. (which i'll add that if all goes well we will be adding a BIG NEW FEATURE to in the next week... just trying to clear up one bug in one specific browser, otherwise the new feature is working well and almost done with our testing)

Thank you for using the HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your purchase and sharing your win, helping us update the Hotwire Hotel List with the new amenity set for this property.

Have a great trip wherever you end up.