Hotwire Hotel: 4* Houston (Downtown) Hyatt Regency

[nsrao98]

Hi,

I along with my wife and son intend to visit Houston from 5th Nov to 11th Nov. Right now I made booking only for 5th Nov to test the type of hotel and got Hyatt for about US$ 100. Before I make further commitment I would like to know:

1. Any experience of staying in the hotel through Hotwire?

2. There is no mention of number of guests on the invoice printed from my mail box. Is it the standard practice?

3. I was advised to contact the hotel for any additional charges such as convention, resort or parking. Parking is fine, what are these convention, resort charges and does this hotel charge this?

4. Some where I read that the room does not gaurentee number of beds. With my above booking am I assured of atleast one double or two beds?

5. Any valuable tips that you can give for my secon booking?

Thanks in advance for the valuable suggestions and tips.

Regards.

NS

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

Please list the amenities which were shown before your purchase and associated with this property... you can still view these by going to Hotwire and clicking on the MY ACCOUNT link near the top right of their home page.

What was the star rating and price before taxes and fees?

Please let us know the above so that we can properly add this property to our hotel list for the area... we'll then try to answer your questions above.

[nsrao98]

Following are the details:

Amenities: Restaurant, Pool(s), Fitness Centre, Business Centre.

Start rating: 4

Price before taxes: US$80/-

I wanted to further book for five more days but noticed that country of my billing address is not listed and requested Hotwire to sortout the issue. Alternately I can give my home country address in place of country of residence.

Thanks for the reply.

NS

[thereuare]

In regards to your questions:

How many people did you include on your Hotwire search? (the default is '2 adults'... did you change it to 3 adults or 2 adults/1child) If you search for three you will get a room that has enough sleeping accomodations for all three of you (although technically this can include a roll-a-way bed or a pull-out sofabed, but i doubt that would be the case here)

The additional fees are mostly in Resort areas where all guests pay this fee. In my opinion it's a 'scam' from the standpoint that any mandatory fees should be included in the room rate... otherwise it's really just a way to get a guest in the hotel at a low fee and then charge them the 'real' room rate by mandatory fees. These fees often include use of the pool, fitness, pool towel service, etc (things that should be included in the room rate anyway! :) but that's a whole other discussion). Convention fees, also known as tourism fees or hotel tax, are added in some areas as mandated by the local government. Hotels are easy targets for politicians to try to increase the government tax base... it brings in revenue and almost never affects the local people since they have little/no need to stay at the local hotels (and therefore doesn't irate any potential voters). This fee is often only 2% or so nothing very large.

Nobody on this site has yet written a review of this property (you can be the first in our HOTEL REVIEW section upon your return :) ) These reviews seem to be a mixed bag.

[nsrao98]

Thanks you for all the feedback and hope I will have a good stay at Houston. Shall post my experience on return.

Regards,

NS