Hotwire Retail Prices

[fred17]

How accurate has the new "retail price" on the Hotwire page been found to be? I'm looking at a particular 3.5 star hotel in downtown Ft. Lauderdale on 1/7 with only two amenities: Pool and Restaurant. Hotwire has a rate of $177 and says the retail rate is $186. The likely match is the Riverside Hotel, but the hotel website rate is $255. I've found similar things for other hotels in other locations.

Do I believe Hotwire and think it must be a different hotel, or do I just disregard the retail rate?

[fred17]

Ahh...at least in this case, it appears that Hotwire's retail price is taken from Hotels.com, as Hotels.com has the Riverside hotel for the Hotwire retail price of $186. And that appears to hold for the few other properties I checked.

Even more interesting is that the Hotels.com total price (with taxes and fees) is a little more than $1 *less* than the Hotwire price (because the Hotwire fees are higher). So I can save $1 and be able to change the itinerary (albeit for a $25 fee) by going through Hotels.com instead.

I wonder how general a case this is...the few properties I checked for that date all seemed ultimately to end up priced almost the same between Hotwire and Hotels.com (assuming, of course, that I identified the hotwire hotels correctly). So is hotwire just a huge gimmick -- well, of course it's a gimmick, but is it a gimmick with no real value in the end?

[WillTravel]

Hotwire is really good for some areas and some hotels, and not so good for others. If your analysis is correct, it's not a god deal in this case. Note, though, that you can get "Double the Difference" as lots of people have done here successfully. Of course with a $1 spread, that doesn't amount to much.

[thereuare]

Most examples i've seen, especially in large cities (where the best value is found with the opaque suppliers), is that the savings are more like 50%. Since Hotels.com and Hotwire are owned by the same parent company, i doubt that Hotwire would begin to show prices if they weren't cheaper the majority of the time.

[skhuong]

Hotwire retail price has nothing to do with the retail price of the hotel. (it would be too easy to guess the hotel).

I found out the hard way the first time I booked on Hotwire. The site was offering me a 3* hotel in Oceanside, CA for 106$ with a retail of 330$ (68% saving).

Turned out to be a 3* highwayfront hotel (retail 139$) instead of the 3* Oceanfront hotel (330 retail). [email protected] said they just put in any 3* retail price in the area as an example (not the actual, not the average, just any 3*)

It is actually true because I booked 2 other reservations at the Sheraton Burlington, VT (56$, listed retail 104$, real retail 159$) and Sheraton Mission Valley SD (69$, listed retail 119$, real retail 185$). So I guess it evens out.

Just make sure you select the correct number of stars and don't even look at listed retail.

One more thing, Hotwire tends to rate their hotel higher than other sites so be careful.

[thereuare]

skhuong,

Welcome to BetterBidding!

We welcome your previous wins on the board... you can still see them by clicking the MY ACCOUNT link near the top right of their home page.

Thanks!

[lindabobhat]

I think I may be onto something as far as this topic is concerned. I've been searching for a local hotel this weekend. I've been seeing a 2.5 * property in the Northbrook, IL zone for $38 for 5/26 thru 5/28. When I clicked on the hotel to see what the total purchase price would be, it showed a "retail price" of $212 a night, making the $38 price an 84% discount. A few minutes ago I ran a search on Expedia for Northbrook for the exact same dates and what do I stumble across but the Best Western Palwaukee Inn for - you guessed it - $212 a night. Now, ordinarily I might think this was just a coincidence, but that $212 price is obscure (no one in their right mind would pay $212 a night for a 2.5* hotel in this area. ) It also occured to me that one of the amenities listed for the 2.5* hotel on Hotwire was "airport shuttle" and I was wracking my brain trying to figure out what property in that area would offer an airport shuttle to O'Hare (but now realizing that the likely airport is Palwaukee, a small airport used mostly for corporate and private planes, it all makes sense.)

[skhuong]

One thing I noticed is sometimes Hotwire lists the trip advisor viewer rating and the number of reviews. I think it is much more reliable to identify the source than the retail price.

I was sure I was going to get the Marina and suite (Oceanside, CA), because the the displayed retail was 330$ for 4 and 250$ for 2 (the same price I found on Expedia). Turned out it was completely different hotel. Again: DO NOT RELY ON RETAIL PRICE.

However I got 25$ from Hotwire.com after complaining, but they would never refund me.

[SavingMoney]

The retail price has nothing to do with anything.

I know of a case where a hotel deliberately gave Hotwire a very high price for their room, because they hated Hotwire. :)

2* $300 a night, or something stupid like that. (Yes, the Hotel admitted doing it on the news. And no, I would never stay at that Hotel after seeing it).

The low prices that you see on Hotwire are the ones where there are a lot of rooms that Hotwire has access to. They are usually the customer favorites / best values too.

[DeltaPurser]

Just in case anybody STILL doesn't believe the retail rate is bogus... I, erroneously, assumed I had narrowed down a recent Hotwire purchase in Munich to be the Arabella Sheraton in Westpark. The listed "retail rate" matched EXACTLY... to the penny!... this hotel, also when I tried different dates.

I was surprised to find out that the hotel on Hotwire was a Holiday Inn with a rate, when booked directly thru the hotel (they didn't show up on Expedia.com) was somewhere in the neighborhood of $100...

So... long story short: the retail rate is NOT to be relied on.

DeltaPurser :)

[powerplantop]

I was surprised to find out that the hotel on Hotwire was a Holiday Inn with a rate, when booked directly thru the hotel (they didn't show up on Expedia.com) was somewhere in the neighborhood of $100...

Don't expect Holiday Inn's to show up on Expedia.

http://www.hotel-online.com/News/PR2004_3r...HotelSites.html

[fig414]

I found this thread because I was just about to pull the trigger on Chicago 4* NMA with Amenities: Suite, Restaurant, Pool, Fitness, Business. This looks like a lock for Omni hotel. I have a room already booked for $239 next weekend for 3 nights. I see on Hotwire $147 so Continue and see retail price of $158 and I got to figure it can't be the Omni because the cheapest price for my 3 nights is now $309. I looked for a thread like this and now I have no clue. There doesn't seem to be any other 4* suite hotels in this area but this "retail price" thing messed me up.

Any comments?

Thanks, Fig

[DeltaPurser]

Hi there Fig,

Although my experience was the opposite of yours (the retail rate listed was HIGHER than the actual retail rate), what's to say that it can't be the other way around? If it's true that Hotwire just takes a hotel at random to list the retail rate, then it would be entirely possible that the listed retail rate could be LOWER than the actual rate... right?

If you are sure there are no other hotels with suites in your area, then the hotel you found on Hotwire could still be the Omni.

Just a thought...

DeltaPurser :)